NARUTO

Drifting

The Growth of Technique

"Jutsu… jutsu… what kind of jutsu?" Naruto murmured to himself at his desk as he bit at the tip of the spoon he was holding. He gritted his teeth together in frustration when his mind drew up the same list of problems over and over again, "Man… how can picking a jutsu to learn be so hard? Did oji-san and everybody else have the same problem, or is it just me?"

For the better part of the month since his fight in the woods with the three kunoichi, Naruto had been doing everything in his power to come up with a sort of fail-safe project he could develop in time for his graduation to Genin. As it turned out, the group of three Chunin he ended up engaging had been involved in a scuffle a few days earlier in which their team leader had been killed getting Intel on Konohagakure's defenses and patrol routes, and had written it all down on the piece of paper which he'd found wrapped around a kunai in a bird's nest. The team leader had hidden it there for her squad to find before her life was inevitably forfeited while they were hiding from the search parties sent after them, but Naruto managed to get to it first and foiled them with the same tactics he used to mess with the shinobi of his village.

He was pretty sure a Genin of similar skill or even Sasuke would have been able to nail those three. The kunoichi weren't that great a force. This made Naruto believe that the quality of shinobi in the world must have really gone down a peg in the past few years; particularly after all of the gallant tales he'd heard about in his history lessons. That or he was just too slippery an opponent to deal with.

Anyway, after receiving a pat on the back from the Third for saving his village from certain invasion and a lecture from Iruka, Naruto was determined now more than ever to get this agreement he'd worked out with his homeroom teacher on a roll. Should his attempts to produce at least one clone with the Bunshin no Jutsu yield no results, he needed to have another technique in the wet works to show to his sensei that he was indeed ready to become a shinobi.

Sure, the research and listings were easy. The problem now was deciding what kind of jutsu was best suited for him.

With all of his time at the beginning and ends of each day spent either training or brainstorming, this meant he had very little free period for anything else. After a particularly exhausting Saturday, Naruto had decided to break away from his exercises and assignments to work on one of his other personal projects to clear his head. He was currently trying to perfect the formula for his new firework pellet; an explosive with a colorful kick to it that didn't just leave damage but also emitted blinding flashes and sparklers that did even more damage.

Once it was completed Naruto knew it was going to be sweet once he tried it out on something… or someone.

With his goggles pulled down over his eyes, the jinchuriki pulled the spoon out of his mouth and went back to work.

"Ah, I'll figure out the name of the jutsu later. All I want is for it to be a big one," the jinchuriki said excitedly, using his utensil to measure the amount of powders he had. With the canister for the self-propelled explosive laid out on the table of his living room, it almost looked like he was running some sort of shady drug experiment since he had all these science gimmicks lying all over the place. It was almost comical how focused he was on the thing.

It was good to know that he had a substantial amount of experience in this area and knew exactly what he needed to do; otherwise he'd be more concerned for his own safety than he was. It was a big ass bomb after all.

Naruto continued his rampant of audible thoughts while mixing the deadly cocktail between the vials.

"I want something flashy. Not like a blazing fireball jutsu like that idiot Sasuke's, bleh," Naruto shook his head while tapping the contents of the tube he was holding up in front of him. "It's too much burning and not enough bang. I want a jutsu that can blow people away! Something that can make people's hair stand on end! But what?"

His ideal jutsu had to have charisma and needed to be eye-catching, as well as simple enough for him to use… sort of like an explosive tag.

Shrugging his shoulders thoughtfully, Naruto reached out and randomly grabbed a flask of flash powder nearby. Without measuring it, he gently poured the contents into the vial in his other hand. It was about time for the final mix…

…

…

Plop…

Sizzle…

BOOM!

The entire apartment complex was rocked by a massive explosion. Every single window of Naruto's block was blown out in a horrible flash of blinding light, scattering glass and debris all across the neighborhood. Nearby villagers out and about turned towards the building in shock, many giving out startled yelps at the sight of the discharge. Seconds later, once all the fire and embers had passed, black smoke began pouring out of every opening in the building.

"What was that?" a shop keeper asked while poking his head out of his stand at the side of the road.

His most recent customer, an old woman sporting a hunch and a shawl, also looked towards the building in surprise.

"Oh my, is it new years already?" she murmured curiously.

It made sense as firework sparks were now starting to shoot out the shattered panes and were bursting into colorful flowers above the streets. It was a glorious sight to behold indeed.

Inside the disaster zone though, it was a completely different story.

With fixtures blown out of place, walls and furniture shredded, and every surface area within sight of the center charred a smoking coal black, the once clean experiment had transformed into a real, God-awful mess. And of course sitting in the very heart of the smoldering lounge room, a very surprised looking Naruto sat staring at his now disintegrated workspace.

His entire front burnt black with his back remaining completely untouched, leaving a hilarious outline of him in the soot on the wall behind him, the blonde blinked several times to bring himself back into consciousness. His owlish expression could clearly be seen through his cracked goggles.

The startled Naruto coughed out a plume of smoke.

"Something tells me that that was the wrong ingredient…"

XXX

Two months later…

Early morning…

And Naruto was still in the midst of a mid-life crisis. His quest to find, learn and master the perfect jutsu other than that retched Bunshin no Jutsu that just continued to fail him was becoming a real Fellowship experience. Normally by this time he would have found tasks like this tiresome, seeing as that he was more of the free-spirited kind of guy that preferred learning this material by hand. In order to put things into practice though, you still needed a significant amount of knowledge and experience backing you up. Hence, he'd started properly attending his classes, which made his teachers happy but made him downright miserable.

There was all that crap Iruka talked about like chakra, control, chakra elements, bloodline nonsense, and stuff that had Naruto drawing blanks on even after reading about it for hours. The amount of stuff taught at school even at his current year level was mind numbing.

All the basics of shinobi techniques were taught at a really young age, with theory basically coming out as dedicated by the seasons, or so it went. Naruto pretty much tossed all that traditional stuff out the window and tried to focus on the bigger picture. All he wanted to do was learn the material he needed to become an amazing shinobi in the future. That was all he had to worry about. It was a thought that stuck with him even in sleep and as he woke up bright and early for another day of training.

Letting out a yawn as he stretched to the morning sun peaking in through the window, Naruto drowsily grabbed his clock, reset it, and then staggered over to his bathroom for his morning grooming. He quickly found himself groaning through a mouthful of suds, at the same time scratching his head over his ongoing problem.

Forget the social issues and failings in the written examinations; he just wanted to learn a jutsu! It wasn't like one was going to come conveniently flying in through the window and land in his lap…

"How did everyone figure out how to make their own jutsu anyway?" Naruto frowned, thinking about the number of techniques that already existed in the village. "They use chakra to make them, right? To spit fire, create clones, switch places and all that stuff. Ninja control chakra with hand seals, so… if I made some random hand seals and stopped… I could come up with some sort of jutsu for myself… right?" It sounded simple enough, and in his mind it actually made a lot of sense.

"How hard could it be?"

Who cares what formula he came up with? What mattered right now was the end result!

Deciding to test his theory out he formed the basic hand seal in front of his chest, keeping his toothbrush in his mouth as he concentrated on working his energy. Like with every exercise he'd done in the past he focused on getting a feel for his chakra and chakra flow. This he could accomplish without even thinking about it, which allowed him to steadily slide into the next step.

"Okay, so if I just focus, I… hey, what the hell is that?" Naruto blinked before squinting at the mirror intently.

Thinking he was seeing things he wiped his hand over the glass, just to make sure it wasn't water condensing on the screen and messing up his reflection. When he was certain it wasn't steam that was the problem, his eyes widened and he looked down at his stomach.

"Huh… never noticed that before."

Since when did he have an awesome tattoo on his stomach? Wait, scratch that. Looking at it again, it was more like some sort of seal array, similar to the ones Iruka had shown in classes a couple of weeks ago where he was able to conjure stuff out of scrolls. Though they weren't learning how to use summoning seals just yet there had been plenty of beginner's lessons and demonstrations, so Naruto had become at least a little bit familiar with the strange scribbles.

The answer was right there in front of him, or so he thought…

"A summoning seal…?"

All he knew was that it was some sort of fuinjutsu, keeping something he didn't know locked up or stored away inside of him. Yeah. That had to be it. What else could it be? If he genuinely had something sealed away inside of him like a sword or something, then it was definitely possible to unlock and bring out whatever it was, just like how Iruka did.

The jinchuriki spared a smirk after running his fingers over the intricate, spider web design across his belly. As complicated as it was to read, he couldn't help but wonder what it was actually for. Was it something special? Was it something awesome?

Oh, now this was just too tempting a mystery to let go on unanswered.

"Let's see what this weird thing is all about," Naruto exclaimed before slapping his hands together to form a hand seal. "Alright… so how did Iruka-sensei do that again?" Bird, ram and tiger? There had been… how many hand seals? Damn… he couldn't remember. It was all a blur.

Deciding to go with the simplest routine he could scrounge, Naruto flipped through several signs without fault before ending with a tiger seal. Holding his right hand out to his side, he cocked each finger back and took aim at his own gut. With a wide grin in place, he brought his hand around and slapped it against his naked stomach, directly over the center of the complex array.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

The result was instantaneous: a blinding flash of light, a gust of wind, followed shortly by the air bursting like a bubble directly in front of him, only a thousand times more powerful.

An earth-shattering explosion rocked Naruto's apartment shortly thereafter. Though it wasn't as big, flashy or smoky as the last cataclysm that ended with him cleaning up every last speck of dust, it definitely had the boy reeling. This reaction was so violent in fact that Naruto was thrown clean across his small bathroom and sent spinning through the air before crashing into the wall of his hallway a second later.

Lying in a crumpled, upside-down heap in the corridor, the boy groaned out in agony as he glared back towards his bathroom, where he could see pretty much the results of everything that had happened in that instant. His mirror had shattered, his porcelain sink was blown out of its fixed spot and spraying water everywhere, and all of the items he had inside of the cabinet above had spilled everywhere.

Naruto blinked through a blurry vision, "What… the… hell?"

"God damn it! What the fuck is happening up there, brat?!"

"Huh?"

Did he just hear a voice?

Quickly rolling back into an upright position, Naruto sat himself on the hard wood of his floor and looked around his apartment. Looking left and right, he saw no person, shadow or any traces of another being's presence standing in his corridor. Nothing. No one. The place was devoid of all life with the exception of him.

Empty.

So who or what the heck was that? It definitely didn't sound like anyone he'd ever heard before and it certainly wasn't an animal. So what phantom entity sent that curse his way?

Scratching his head, Naruto breathed out a sigh after a few more fruitless glances and just stood up.

"Hm… must have been my imagination." Placing his hands on his hips, he then glared distastefully at the crater he had unintentionally blown into his bathroom. "Ah crap… the landlady is going to kill me… again…"

OOO

Meanwhile…

Deep inside Naruto's metaphysical being in the chamber reserved only for the imprisoned, something incredibly terrible had taken place.

Or…to be frank, something rather hilarious had occurred.

Having been enjoying a nice, peaceful nap after a descent night's sleep on his jailer's behalf, the Nine-Tailed Fox was suddenly awoken from his slumber by what he could only describe, by every definition of the word, as a vortex. Since natural disasters were an abysmal concept to him, seeing as that he was chiefly responsible for creating most them and not having any done to it in kind, you can imagine it came as an apocalyptic shock to the Kyuubi when he suddenly found himself picked up by an ungodly powerful gust of wind and tossed around inside of its chamber, which had also began undulating violently.

Several seconds of hell later, the fox found itself sprawled up against the side of its prison, upside-down with its ass hanging in the air.

Tails splayed everywhere and a tick-mark on its head, the Kyuubi allowed a low growl to escape its lips as he reconvened with Naruto's point-of-view.

As it turned out, the blonde jackass of an academy student had gone and done something stupid… for the thousandth time in a row. What exactly he had done though was beyond the Kyuubi, but the one thing he was definitely certain about was that he was now royally pissed off.

"God damn it… I fucking HATE fuinjutsu!" the Kyuubi roared out, swearing an ungodly wrath upon the person who came up with the idea of sealing the tailed-beasts inside of people for a village's personal gain.

Damn him and damn the physics of the art!

OOO

Hokage Building…

It had been a really relaxing morning for Hiruzen Sarutobi so far. First a pleasant walk through the garden of his property, followed by breakfast in the village at one of the local diners, and then a walk about the neighborhood itself. Being the outgoing Kage that he was the old man felt he had to soak up as much of the village and its people as he could in the time that he had available to him.

He wasn't getting any younger after all. No one was.

After a relaxing stroll, he then retreated to the top of the Administrative Building of the academy, or better known as the building where the Hokage's office was situated. Up on the roof, the elder stood and looked over the whole of the village as the morning sun lifted high into the sky. He breathed deeply as his body became washed with a gentle breeze and sunlight, and was just getting into the zen of the moment when all of a sudden an electric shock ran through him.

It wasn't a literal feeling but more of a mental jolt which had his eyes snap toward one of the suburban areas of Konohagakure. Hiruzen calmly glared out towards the buildings he could see in the distance and scrutinized the region in question.

"That was an incredibly abnormal spike in chakra. What was that?"

"Hokage-sama!"

Hearing his title called the old man turned around to see Aoba Yamashiro appear behind him. The man with spiky hair and sunglasses appeared to the Kage kneeling in greeting to his village leader. As respectful as his gesture was, his expression conveyed distress.

"What's wrong?"

"The Sensor Division picked up a massive influx of chakra inside of the village," Aoba stated, looking up towards the Third to see his expression remain unchanged. "It was a gargantuan increase and it's currently still registering above peak. Whatever it is, it's almost comparable to that of the Kyuubi's chakra signature."

"Where is the signal coming from? Have they triangulated its position?" Hiruzen asked, already having a clue as to what the answer was.

"Yes sir," Aoba nodded affirmatively, still in the midst of panic. "Lower residential district, East Side."

"I see…" Hiruzen looked ahead in the direction of the disturbance once more. He knew that area well, as he visited it quite often. The last time he went there was when he was delivering the boy's living expenses for the month, which wasn't that long ago. Perhaps it was time for another check-up. The elder nodded his head in understanding. "Tell all stations to stand down. I'll see to this matter personally."

"Sir?"

"This is a local problem, Aoba. There's no need for the forces to get involved," Hiruzen replied, before suddenly vanishing in a swirl of leaves. His parting words echoed on the wind as he made haste in case there really was something to worry about. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

The Hokage's sudden departure left the messenger kneeling on the rooftop looking a little bit flabbergasted.

OOO

A little while later and a couple miles out from the Hokage Monument, after switching off the water main at his apartment to stop the spillover and explaining to the landlady his situation, which earned him a slap over the head from a fan and another warning, Naruto soon found himself shuffling back up to his flat. Dressed in his usual attire, three-quarter green cargo shorts and orange jumper with blue short sleeves and arrow marks on each, the blonde scrubbed the top of his head while mumbling all sorts of complaints under his breath. This somber mood continued as he pushed open the door to his apartment and slipped off his sandals.

"Man… that hurt like hell," he groaned, feeling the bump that had risen from his sudden and violent exit from the bathroom earlier. "Next time I'll get my facts straight before I start slapping my hands over stuff. I don't want to end up summoning some malevolent demon that wants to destroy the entire village by accident. Man… that would be embarrassing."

Yeah, pretty sure it would be more than just embarrassing.

After kicking the door closed and marching into his kitchen, the boy decided that he would warm himself up a nice, hot instant ramen cup to try and rid himself of his head pains and have a comfortable sit-down to mull away his thoughts. This was the exact plan of action he had formed for the beginning of the day the moment he re-entered his kitchen, until he got the shock of a lifetime when he spotted the Third Hokage just standing on the other side of his kitchen table and staring towards him expectantly.

The boy yelped in alarm and leapt back, only to realize seconds later who it was he was looking back at.

"Hokage-jiji?" Naruto gulped, placing a hand over his heart. "Geez, you scared the shit out of me."

"I tend to do that to people from time to time, though it's honestly not my intention," Hiruzen replied with an amused voice while keeping his gaze fixed on the child. "Would you like to have a seat? You look ragged…"

"Oh sure, I'll just… HEY, WAIT A SEC!" Naruto suddenly shouted before pointing accusingly at the elder. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO SAY THAT! THIS IS BREAKING AND ENTERING, GRAMPS!"

The Third Hokage chuckled, "Oh is it? My apologies."

"You don't mean that," the blonde sulked, watching the Hokage pull his signature pipe into view and pop it between his lips. The youngster followed him with his eyes as he maneuvered around the table. "So what brings you all the way to my apartment? It can't be allowance day already. Was it something I did?"

"No."

"Seriously. Because if it's got something to do with every single piece of furniture in the academy being stuck to the ceiling, I would like to put forward a plea of innocence," the boy stated firmly and quickly.

"Really?"

"I didn't do it."

"Well isn't that getting straight to the point," Hiruzen murmured observantly as he lit his pipe and turned to face the youngster completely. Allowing his small smile to remain, he looked the jinchuriki over and noticed how stiff his posture was. "Don't worry, boy. I'm not here to bring you in. I'm just here to check to see how you're doing."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Naruto looked around his kitchen for a moment to see if anything was out of place. If there was any chance of a bug or an ANBU hiding in the vents, he would know. This was his home after all. He needed to be vigilant. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in the old man's voice, nor was there any shift in his expression. Poker faced as usual. Breathing out a plume of smoke, the elder gestured around the room. "Has anything unusual happened to you this morning? Did you… notice anything suspicious or odd in the last hour or just a few minutes ago?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head, taking a moment to ponder. "Not really. Although… I did try performing a summoning jutsu on myself, which backfired quite badly."

"A summoning jutsu?" Hiruzen inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, on this," Naruto lifted his jacket and tapped at the Eight Trigrams pattern that was still visible. The Hokage nearly choked on his own pipe when he sucked in air, but he quickly covered up his uncharacteristic response while the blonde's gaze was averted downwards. "It's really weird. I never noticed I had this thing on my stomach before… maybe because I always had my shirt on whenever I tried using jutsu. What do you think, Hokage-jiji?"

When he looked up, he found the Third hovering right in front of him and leaning towards his exposed belly. If his suddenly being here in his apartment didn't scare the shit out of Naruto that time, then this surely did.

"Ah… don't do that!" the jinchuriki shouted.

Hiruzen murmured an apology before biting down on his pipe and scrutinizing the seal. It was fortunate the blonde kept his shirt up while making his analysis otherwise his thought processing in this regard would have been cut short. The elder scratched his chin as he took a closer look at the markings. "It doesn't appear corrupted, damaged or warped in any way… however…" He brought his hand up and ran his fingers over what he assumed to be the anomaly. "The boy's own chakra fluctuated as a result of his curious endeavor. Most interesting. The seal may have been tampered with yet the balance and strength of the barrier remains the same as before. The gate is still shut tight."

"I guess I can take that as a good thing…"

Unable to contain it any longer, the snickering Naruto started laughing hysterically, "Hey! Ha-ha! That tickles! Stop that! W-What are you doing, oji-san?"

"Oh. Sorry, Naruto. Just thinking," Hiruzen exclaimed, standing up to full height once more. Playing his investigation off with a warm smile, he then looked down at the blonde seriously for a second as the boy lowered his jumper and dusted himself down. "He hasn't released the Nine-Tails nor has the fox made any attempts to break free. Though it shouldn't be physically possible, there is no doubt that the powerful chakra signature that the sensor division picked up came off of young Naruto. Due to the unpredictable nature of Uzushiogakure sealing techniques, my guess is that by hitting the seal the boy must have unlocked some of his chakra that may have been accidentally sealed away when the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him."

Like untying a knot in a length of string.

But did Naruto realize it himself that he was the one that had managed to generate enough chakra to scare the living daylights out of the surveillance team?

Considering that nothing disastrous had occurred since the boy's little inquiry, not to mention Naruto wasn't doing anything that would be considered a threat, the Third concluded that maybe it was best to just leave things as they were and allow the boy to work things out for himself. He already had massive stamina and an abnormally high chakra signature, so he probably wouldn't notice.

Stroking his chin, the Third nodded assuredly to himself before turning to leave. "I'm glad to see you're doing alright, Naruto, but try not to play around with that seal on your stomach anymore. It's not something to get worked up about, nor is it wise to mess around with. Understand?" Yeah, a general excuse that was left wide open for questioning. Hopefully the youngster wouldn't invest too much time into it.

"S-Sure. But… why do I have this funky tattoo on my stomach in the first place, gramps?" Naruto asked, rubbing the area in question while watching the elder slowly head toward his corridor. "Is it important?"

"Very, which is why I want you to keep it hidden from the other villagers and to not tamper with it," Hiruzen warned, stopping in his tracks and looking over at the youngster. "Trust me. Do NOT play around with stuff you don't know anything about. It could be harmful to both yourself and the people around you. Consider this an order from your Hokage." Seeing the downcast look come across the boy's face, the elder breathed out and gave him a small smile. "I promise to explain the seal across your stomach to you in more detail when you're older. Do you think you can wait a couple more years?"

Hearing the opportunity after the small bit of discouragement, Naruto nodded his head vigorously.

"Good. Now try not to get into anymore trouble, okay? Otherwise you'll have to answer to me the next time I wake up and find our most precious monument sullied with your handwriting," Hiruzen exclaimed, glancing back ahead of him to be on his way. However, when it seemed like he was about to leave, the old man hesitated and looked back at the jinchuriki with a puzzled expression. "Did you really glue all of the furniture in the academy to the ceiling?"

Remembering his underlying admittance from earlier, the blonde stiffened like a board before grinning sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his head when he saw the elder's eyebrow rise into his hairline, "Uhh… it was supposed to be a surprise for this coming Monday. I was bored…"

"Uh-huh." Figuring he would have to deal with another complaint in the week to come, the Third gave a tired groan before finally deciding to take his leave. "I swear you're going to make me completely bold by the end of this year, Naruto-kun. Ugh…." The opening and closing of the door in the hallway signaled his departure, allowing the resident of the flat to slump across his dining room table in relief.

That was an intense session he really didn't want to have again anytime soon.

What the hell was happening to him this morning?

OOO

Slapping his goggles over his forehead, Naruto headed off for a little walk around the neighborhood to clear his thoughts. He didn't just want to try and take his mind off of the matter of his ruined apartment but also to stroll off the swelling he still had from being slammed into a wall.

That seal across his belly was no joke. Who the hell put it there anyway… and for what?

These were the initial thoughts plaguing him as he trotted down the steps of his apartment and on his way out of the suburb. He kicked his form into autopilot and allowed his nose to steer him through the busy streets, all the while mulling over the problem he had been trying to deal with since before the whole thing with the exploding stomach occurred.

"So I can't do anything with the seal. That's a bummer," Naruto sighed in disappointment, hands behind his head and eyes directed towards the sky above. "I can use all the other stuff Iruka-sensei taught in class like Kawarimi and Henge. I can fight, I can climb, I can run, I can survive… but I can't do the Bunshin no Jutsu and I hate tests!" Oh yeah, he sucked at them badly.

His biggest failings. These two in particular were the areas that had been weighing him down the entire time in the academy and were currently the most irritating thorns in his sides. They were also the main reasons why he was still called a slacker and a failure despite his other successes, because he kept crapping out on the theory.

While given a chance to actually pass through use of another jutsu, Naruto was still wrapped up in figuring out which one to learn. An offensive technique that packed a punch and was not only catchy, but also spoke to him… he didn't even know where to start.

"A type of chakra armor? No," Naruto thought while shaking his head. "Not my style. Hmm. How about… a water controlling technique? Ahh… too many hand seals. They take too long and they're really hard to remember. Maybe… an exploding clone technique! Yes! Yes I… wait… no I… can't even create one clone yet. I guess anything involving clones would be a dead end. Shit." The blonde snapped his fingers repeatedly, believing a couple of times that he had it, but really he didn't. "A disappearing trick, an earth moving jutsu, something maybe I can use as a sword or a spear, or maybe the ability to conjure lightning?!"

That actually sounded awesome. Stopping in the middle of the road Naruto tried pulling off a 'Thunder God' pose, arm stretched out and everything. He grinned stupidly as he envisioned himself standing at the top of a mountain before an altar, bathed in lightning with thousands of people bowing at his feet with offerings of ramen.

"Yes! I can see it now! Uzumaki Naruto: God of Lightning!" the blonde shouted at the top of his lungs, drawing a huge amount of attention from the villagers out on the streets.

The boy's exclamations meant silence was swiftly brought to the neighborhood and the tumbleweed prop was immediately called into shot, rolling across the dirt track before disappearing down an alleyway on the other side of the path. A faint cough was Naruto's only applause as he stood with his hand still extended and a maniacal grin on his face.

"Mummy, what's that boy doing?" a young girl asked while point at the petrified academy student.

"Don't look at him sweetie, just keep walking," the mother exclaimed while hurrying the two of them along.

Sweat drop forming, Naruto deftly fell out of statue form and folded his arms. He glared at his feet in frustration while everybody else tried going back to their business, wanting to put the scene of the weird blonde kid striking poses in the middle of the main highway as far out of their minds as possible.

"No… that wouldn't work," the jinchuriki groaned, eyes squinting as he tilted his head. "I don't look good in full blue and it all depends on the weather. Where the hell would I get enough electricity for a jutsu like that, anyway? Aaahh, damn it!" He kicked at a stone and stomped on dejectedly, at the same time flipping through random hand seals. "Bird, Tiger, Ram, Hare, Hare, Dragon, Monkey, Ox, Bird… why the hell is this so hard?"

In his quest to find the perfect technique the jinchuriki had tried to perform several jutsu he'd read from the academy library's scrolls, but none of them seemed to fit him. It wasn't like he couldn't perform them, he could, but they just didn't speak to him as a signature, nor were they that impressive. If he wanted to use a particular jutsu it was obvious for his type of person and character that he would have to practice that technique a lot in order to master it, just like Iruka said.

It wasn't like someone was going to conveniently rock up and teach him the perfect jutsu for him. The world didn't work like that. He wasn't a genius like Sasuke or an inherited type from any clan like Kiba, Choji or Shikamaru, or at least one that he knew of. So what the hell was he supposed to do?

Form a random hand seal, hold his hand out and hope for the best that something cool would happen? That's how jutsu were formed right? With the extensive number of hand seals and different combinations out there in the world, weren't there like thousands of potential techniques yet to be discovered?

That's what he thought anyway.

"Yeah! Like I'm going to suddenly perform a jutsu on the spot," Naruto exclaimed sarcastically, forming a Tiger seal and slapping his hand against an empty wagon sitting on the road. "Oh look, I can blow up stuff with the touch of my hand! How convenient is that?"

The second he removed his hand however, there was a loud whooshing sound followed shortly by a violent gust of wind that tore into the road at the blonde's feet. Naruto's head snapped towards the wagon in alarm where he saw dust and debris begin twisting violently around the point he had made contact with the cart. It was almost like a vortex had sprung up right where he had placed his palm against the carriage.

The villagers too became aware of the disturbance through the wind whipping across the street and looked towards the anomaly with a start.

A split second later, as soon as all eyes were engaged with the scene the gust of wind blasting off of the side of the wagon suddenly lifted the stationary object right off the ground. The massive cart took off with a sonic boom ringing out all around, rocketing into the air like it had jet engines attached to it and disappearing over the tall buildings to God knows where. Its sudden flight left a startled Naruto and a street full of dumbstruck civilians in its wake.

All eyes then turned toward the jinchuriki.

Looking down at his hands, Naruto shook his head. "What… was that?" Did he just use a jutsu? If so, then what the hell kind of jutsu was it?

A grin formed on the jinchuriki's face and he balled his fingers into fists.

"That was awesome!"

XXX

Meanwhile…

Up in the academy in the classroom run by Iruka Umino, the scarred homeroom teacher himself was sitting at his desk looking intently over the files of each of his students. He was currently in the process of updating the current levels and skills of his students on paper, as well as their profiles and results. Based on their culminated written examinations and practical tests, they'd all been doing quite well as a group.

But there was one student in particular that stood out from the rest of the crowd, one that he knew quite well.

Naruto Uzumaki's file was splayed out in front of him with the jinchuriki's face paper-clipped in the top right corner. The boy really did take a good picture when he was serious about one, his wide grin bringing an amused smile to Iruka's face as he scanned his history. Even though the Chunin had been on the receiving end of a lot of his pranks as well as being the mop-and-bucket man of many more, the blonde had something about his person that made him unique and appealing compared to everybody else. He was like a shining ray of sunlight.

Still, this didn't diminish the fact that his tests on paper were poor. This was a well known fact since the youngster was always either absent or didn't stick to the requirements of his assessments. Sure he got them done, but his record was all over the place, ranging from bad to bloody excellent.

He was like radio waves, constantly undulating. The Uzumaki couldn't sit still and he didn't exactly follow instructions as well as the others; very free-spirited. But despite how poorly he did in certain occasions, Iruka couldn't help but give his records a second go over just to make sure whether the assessments had been fair on him. His most recent taijutsu match and win over the three enemy kunoichi had been a real eye opener to him.

Since most of his record was written down right here in front of him it made reassessment more convenient and after reviewing most of it in the time that he had, the man with the pony-tail arrived at a rather startling realization.

He was just about to delve further into this through pen when he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey there, Iruka. I was wondering where you were," came the obvious voice of conscious, also known as his good friend Mizuki. The white haired man strolled into the class with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face, a greeting he received in kind from Iruka. "Catching up on some work?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Iruka chuckled, going back to the documents in front of him. "There's a lot here. I need to make sure I have it all filed correctly."

"I see," Mizuki exclaimed, waddling over and taking a glance at the papers. He was surprised to see a lot of documents related to Naruto Uzumaki on the desk. "Oh, if it isn't the practical joker. Are you going to book him again?"

"Not until Monday, no," Iruka chuckled, sliding one of the other sheets aside for a blank one. "Actually, since we're on the topic of our favorite prankster, what do you really think about young Naruto, Mizuki?"

"Me?" the man replied with a bat of his eyes. He never expected to be asked for his opinion on one of the village's biggest banes on society to date. Seriously. There hadn't been this much chaos in Konohagakure since its inception and back then those problems had stemmed from clan disagreements. However, with the question out on the floor he had no choice but to respond. "Well… I think he's very open-minded and crafty for a child his age. He's terribly naïve and has a very simple view on life… extremely childish and immature, yet has a certain knack for causing people a lot of unwanted grief. It wouldn't be the first time…"

He mumbled the last part rather spitefully.

Iruka didn't pick up on that. Instead, he simply moved on with the topic at hand. "He doesn't fair well on paper and he doesn't really stick around long enough for stuff to be thoroughly explained to him. It's in his nature to wander about looking for new and interesting material. That being said, he's definitely the kind of kid that plays to his strengths…"

"Do tell," Mizuki exclaimed curiously.

"I've been looking back at his history: troublemaking, vandalism, endless pranks, constant failings in by-the-book examinations, absences from class, and a penchant for causing disaster wherever he sets foot. He's like a walking storm system; wild and untamable with a single purpose fixed inside of his head," Iruka said with a smile, "To become Hokage. It's ludicrous, isn't it?"

"What exactly are you getting at?"

"Beneath all of this bad rep and low scoring, have you ever noticed in all the times where Naruto actually does succeed, all of the things he's done right?" Iruka asked, looking up at his comrade to see him shrug. "His pranks are pulled off flawlessly and not a single person has been able to catch him; quality stealth at its finest. The inimitable traps he's able to set and spring upon unsuspecting victims; a genius level of creativity and understanding of physics and shinobi tactics. The materials he's able to utilize, whether as throwing weapons, extensions of his hand, or devices to use in his endeavors; resourcefulness and superb aim. He knows his environment well enough to get away, is quick on his toes, and he's more than just slippery when it comes to pursuits. Even I sometimes have trouble trying to track him down."

Mizuki blinked, scratching his chin as he looked out the window, "Now that you mention it, he certainly does possess a high degree of skills outside of the academy system that can make him inadvertently dangerous. There's a lot of potential behind his abilities." This he meant, since he clearly remembered the time when Naruto had managed to hit all the Chunin in the academy at once without them knowing.

For example: the boy had managed to cram apples filled with worms without breaking the seams and given them to Iruka and Mizuki respectively. He replaced every single soda can in the cafeteria and vending machines with cans filled with dog urine (as they later found out to their dismay), which he'd collected from the Inuzuka kennels over a period of two months. Hell, there was also the one time the jinchuriki had unscrewed and undone every nail from every single piece of furniture, fixture and wall in the academy. They didn't know how he did it, but he did it, and the entire establishment had to be rebuilt from the ground up after a particularly strong breeze came by and knocked it all down.

This sneakiness and skill to strike at others indirectly showed outstanding shinobi quality. In any one of those instances Naruto could have poisoned every single man and woman in the building, drugged them, or set bombs off to bring down the entire area and sent them all to kingdom come. Now that Mizuki thought about it, the boy was an incredibly terrifying force to be reckoned with.

He made a note to check his office thoroughly next time before getting comfortable.

Eyeing the man's face had Iruka smirk. "See…"

"If he's so good, then why doesn't he put these skills of his to better use, like to his schooling?" Mizuki wondered, giving the man a suspicious glance.

The Chunin shrugged back, "Because he finds the system 'unbearable'. I can't change his nature. His resolve is even more steely and potent than his chakra and stamina. The best thing I can do is point him in the right direction and hope that the village survives to see the next day."

"You make him sound like some kind of monster," Mizuki chuckled, though inwardly admitting that that was probably true. Every adult in the village knew what he was and what he was carrying. It was hard for them not to put that thought out of their minds.

"He's not a monster. He's just a boy with insurmountable potential for growth, and has an odd way of dealing with problems," Iruka replied, leaning back in his chair and glancing up at his friend to see him smirk. "That's another thing, have you ever seen Naruto training?"

"Not really. He's usually alone most of the time, isn't he? Like Sasuke."

"It's been bothering me for a while. Do you remember the taijutsu sessions from last week?" Iruka asked. He saw his friend nod back, both of them scrutinizing that particular memory at the same time. "Every single student this academy's ever produced has either studied and practiced the basic forms of combat from the school's scrolls, or practiced their clan's or parents' taijutsu styles. Naruto's fighting style though… I just… can't seem to identify it or place it."

"Now that you mention it his fighting style is sort of weird and uncouth," Mizuki murmured, scratching his cheek. "All that moving about with no guard, jumping, flipping and bending… he's very acrobatic."

"He's very unorthodox and wild. On top of his flexibility and agility, he has an uncanny sense of timing too," Iruka murmured, rubbing his chin. "When he first started at the academy he was an incredibly direct fighter, always wanting to get into a hitting match with his opponents. He didn't have much talent for the area and was always beaten up by the other students because of it. But after a few months I saw his fighting style change from crude, to academic, to being incredibly diverse. It didn't click with me until a year later when I saw his style had changed completely. It seems so unrefined now, but he's damn good with it."

"That's really creepy," Mizuki stated, his mind coming about to another important fact. He looked down at the boy's profile picture in slight alarm. "Actually, now that I think back to his other spars, he doesn't seem to be taking hits from anyone anymore. He's always dancing around his opponents or jumping over them."

On top of them too. The boy possessed an innate ability to distribute his weight instantaneously and contort his joints to the point normal people would have been in pain. His flicker jabs and swaybacks were a good example of this. He could take shots at his opponents while he was in close with them and not receive any hits in kind because he was so agile.

Analyzing his fighting style from a distance, Iruka and Mizuki also arrived to another important conclusion.

"His reflexes are like lightning," Mizuki murmured.

"That quick, huh?" Iruka smiled, nodding towards the file of the blonde haired student grinning back at him. "Even better than Sasuke's. I didn't even notice." Naruto really was further ahead than the Chunin originally thought. Looking underneath the underneath, just like how shinobi were supposed to look at challenges and obstacles, they both saw a side to the jinchuriki that they never knew he had before.

However…

"He doesn't like the theory and he can't perform the Bunshin no Jutsu at all," Iruka stated, folding his arms with a puzzled quirk in his expression. "He's good at Kawarimi and his Henge transformations are flawless, despite his fooling around, and even though he's good off paper those other two aspects continue to disagree with him."

"I heard from the other teachers that you still wish to pass him, even if he was to fail in those two core areas," Mizuki said, leaning against the man's desk with his hand on his hip. "Is that wise; to allow that boy to become a Genin?"

"If he keeps up the record I've just reviewed," Iruka began, slapping the paper while also smiling up at his companion, "And improves over the next couple of years on top of it, then I will definitely allow him to graduate. Not to mention I was able to come to an agreement with him in regards to his faults. If he is still unable to get the Bunshin no Jutsu right in the time before his final year at this academy, he has another option."

"Which is…?"

"That if he was to master a technique other than the Bunshin no Jutsu before the final year deadline of his group then he may move on with a high grade in his record," Iruka exclaimed, padding the separate sheets of paper together and putting them all back into the boy's file. Having rewritten his overall evaluation for this semester on the blonde haired troublemaker, the Chunin felt content with his work. "It's a fair deal… one that he happily agreed to. If he's able to earn that one final chunk that will round out his entire skill set, then I promise here and now: I'll give him my own headband as a reward for his efforts." He flicked his forehead protector, sealing the deal with a 'cling'.

Mizuki chuckled, "So you're putting all your bets on him? Sounds like a safe gamble. The little runt had better come up with one hell of a jutsu before his time is up." He then looked around at the classroom…

Where the boy's potential was laid bare to them for all to see.

All of the desks and chairs, which had previously been fixed to the floor, had all been glued to the ceiling. Looking up at the rafters where all the furniture sat, Mizuki also noted that the filing cabinets and potted plants were also stuck up there. He also saw the space where Iruka's desk and chair had previously been glued.

The white-haired Chunin frowned, "Are… you positively sure about passing him."

Iruka nodded, "Absolutely… but I'll make sure he works for it, that I can promise you."

And what better start was there then slapping detention over the jinchuriki's head the moment he stepped into class on Monday.

XXX

The next day…

"Oh, this is so awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, slapping his right hand against a tree and watching the jet stream created from the action rip the whole thing right out of the ground and send it hurling over the forest, where it crashed Kami knows how far away. The sound of startled birds scattering filled the air with a sense of haste. The blonde laughed out excitedly upon watching the great fall while running circles, before eventually collapsing on the grass and throwing his hands into the air in triumph.

He methodically looked up at each palm, flexing his fingers to see if each of them were alright. So far he felt no muscle cramps, abnormalities in his movements, changes to his diet, diminishment in his spirit, or anything wrong with his head. In fact, he felt even better than ever. Just what the heck happened to him?

Not only that, how was he able to come up with this strange jutsu in the first place with a simple hand seal? It was unreal.

After practicing it for a majority of the afternoon as well as the entire night beforehand, which meant he got absolutely no sleep whatsoever testing his jutsu out on random, disused objects of various sizes, Naruto was able to grasp the basic concepts of the strange new technique. By gathering chakra through the usual manner and touching any surface area he deemed suitable, he was able to create an ejection point for air. The ejection point imprinted on the surface emitted a jet stream like vortex of wind with enough power behind it to uproot boulders the size of sheds from the ground and propel them at the same speed as objects even smaller and lighter than them.

That was a fuck-ton of power for a single chakra handprint to have.

This was something Naruto was able to deduce all on his own after testing it out in the woods outside of the suburbs. He was able to chuck an entire boulder the size of a roadside stall at the speed of a kunai like it weighed nothing. Wherever the thing landed he sure as hell hoped there were no animals lying in its path.

But damn it, that wasn't even the best part. Fact was he could make multiple ejection points at the same time. All he needed to do was tap his hand against a surface or a series of surfaces one-by-one or with both hands, allowing him to create simultaneous ejection points. Objects were then hurled a distance of about five-hundred meters, and this reach was covered with barely any effort exerted on Naruto's part at all. Though he didn't have full control over it and was just shooting the shit for the fun of it, it was still awesome on so many levels.

Just what the hell kind of chaotic technique did he create?

"And what should I call it?" the blonde thought, staring at his hands as he rotated them under the light of the mid-day sun. "I don't think anyone has heard or used this kind of technique before. I just slap a bit of my chakra against an object and watch it fly off like a rocket using wind. This is something else."

He sat bolt upright and stared down at his palms with complete focus.

It was a Wind Release technique. This was new. Of all the jutsu he could have come up with in his time brainstorming over what kind he could master, his body responded by giving him a Wind Release type. Though it didn't explode, create pretty sparks or flood places, it was definitely mind blowing. At least it stuck to his preferences as to what he wanted.

The technique wasn't a normal wind type either, considering how powerful it was. Furthermore, it could function as both a close-range and long-range jutsu, as it was applied at close range but could also hurl objects of various sizes a considerable distance. The potential behind it was staggering.

This had Naruto thinking over the name he could give this thing.

"It attaches a jet of wind and sends things flying off at breakneck speed. Though I'm sure there's more I can do with it, I need some more time to practice," Naruto thought with a smile, snapping his fingers several times while pointing at his open right hand. "Wind Release… no… too long. Short and simple. Short and simple. Umm… wind, vortex, tornado, jet… uhh… wind… hand… air… hand… air… hand… jet!"

Tapping the side of his head several times with his finger, Naruto then clicked at something before pointing at his right hand victoriously.

"Jet Hand! That's it! That's what I'll call it! Jet Hand!" A touch of brilliance he should say.

With the name given, Naruto then leapt to his feet, ran at a dead tree and slammed his hand against it, a split second before a gale of wind exploded off of its side and ripped the damn thing right out of the ground. It was then sent hurling through the forest and tearing through trees like there was no tomorrow. Hearing it crash in the distance moments later, still stuck with his hand extended in the 'launching' position, the jinchuriki grinned.

"Oh yeah. I've finally got my very own jutsu!"

Yup. He definitely couldn't wait for graduation…

XXX

Monday morning…

"Get back here!" Naruto shouted while leaping off of a nearby roof and trying to make a grab for the bird he was chasing. The swallow ducked right underneath his grasp, making the boy miss and coaxing a growl out of him. "Damn it, Swift-chan! How the hell do you do that! STOP!"

After getting up that morning and readying himself for school, the blonde was all set for a full day of work and training. However, on his way to the academy that morning he was unexpectedly blind sighted by his training companion Swift, the Fire-Breasted Swallow. Immediately recognizing the bird swooping at the back of his head as a challenge of sorts, the blonde quickly changed objectives and gave chase to the cheeky airborne attacker, and took to the rooftops.

What followed was another epic pursuit across the neighborhood, which was filled with screaming, cursing, chirping, and a lot of dangerous maneuvers. Villagers were startled when they saw an orange blur just dash in and out of sight at ground level, as well as see the same person sail through the air above their heads after lapping the suburbs. Though sort of like a repeat of a similar chase of last week, it was certainly a different experience for those directly involved.

Ducking a clothesline, Naruto crisscrossed an alleyway before leaping straight up at the retreating swallow. He made a swipe, missed, and spun towards a nearby rooftop, where he landed in a crouched position and arms stretched out to balance his fall. The jinchuriki grinned and glared up towards the bird, performing loops not too far from him.

"Show off!" Naruto shouted, dashing after it and making a dive. The bird darted out of reach, but had its tail-feathers grazed when the blonde's hand changed directions in mid-flight. Though it was a near miss, it was still a miss, which the Uzumaki was determined to correct. Landing on his hands against a bar, he pushed off of it and flung himself towards the bird again, kicking at it to make it change course, which it did. "The first move's a feint, Swift-chan!"

He made another grab for the bird, but she caught wind of his maneuver and flipped out of reach. The jinchuriki tumbled across a lower roof of a storehouse on landing. Crouching once again, he pursued the critter for the hundredth time, building up speed and jabbing for her again. Naruto's grin widened.

"I got you!"

However, he misinterpreted a dark spot ahead on the solid roof for a groove in the surface of the building, and inadvertently had his toes caught in the step. Just as his fingers were curling around the bird, Naruto was suddenly thrown off balance while running at full speed. The jinchuriki let out a startled yelp before he was slammed head first into the tiled floor. The plates shattered on impact as he bounced down the slope before literally cart-wheeling across the road…

What ended up breaking his fall was the tarp inside of a horse-drawn wagon parked just across from the storehouse. The boy careened into the carriage two stories below and disappeared in amongst the crates and barrels stacked inside of it, right behind the backs of the driver and his client who were in the process of finishing up their deal.

Hearing a loud clatter behind them, the driver; a middle-aged man dressed in brown overalls, white shirt and apron, had his hair covered in a bandana and a bushy mustache hiding his mouth, looked over his shoulder in surprise. Glancing around the street momentarily, he didn't see any signs of a collapse or anything out of the ordinary, and thus dismissed the disturbance as a mere trick of the wind and quickly looked back at the man selling him the goods.

Counting out the last of the ryo the transporter handed the remaining funds over to the larger gentleman in the workman's gear, who had obviously been one of the crew responsible for loading up the material. After double checking, the store owner smiled and pocketed the cash.

"I sure hope business for your area picks up soon. I've been seeing you less and less around the village these days, friend," the man exclaimed, nodding to the driver who scratched his head exhaustedly, "Trouble at home?"

"You could say that. Boy," the courier breathed out while shaking his head. "That man Gato is a tyrant. I swear. He's bullying everyone in the town and sucking every last dime out of those who can still afford to pay. The people who can't meet his obscene taxes are either beaten or chased out of the village. It's awful."

"Damn. Why doesn't the village leader or the authorities do something about him?" the workman asked curiously, earning a dismissive wave from the wagon driver.

"They're all gone. It's basically survival of the fittest now… or in this case survival of the richest," the traveler replied. "Times are tough, but those who remain have to push on. It's the only way we'll be able to continue living in this world. Everything's changing, even industry."

"Well, I still hope things work out for you guys," the other man replied with a smile, shaking hands with his regular. "If you need any help just drop by and ask. We're a shinobi village after all, so it's perfectly alright if you want to hire out some assistance if things get desperate."

"Ah I appreciate it… but…" the driver backed away with a nervous smile, "I can't really afford much at the moment. I've got a lot bills to pay and stuff, but I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." With a tip of his hat to the tradesman, the traveler hopped back up onto his carriage and brought the reigns around. Snapping them sharply the horse began to move as directed by its master, who waved back toward his client as he left the district for his next stop off.

While he was pulling out of the village following a quick check-in with the shinobi at the front gates, the driver failed to notice a small swallow land on the canvas roof of his wagon. Chirping frantically, the bird with the red kunai mark on its back hopped along the carriage's frame a couple of times before flying around and into the back of the cart.

There, nestled between some barrels and draped over a stack of flour bags, Naruto lay in an unconscious, crumpled heap with a swirl pattern in each eye. The ten-year-old had his mouth hung open in a stupid grin and was babbling all sorts of nonsense.

"Oooh… stars… rainbows… ramen…"

The swallow perched on the barrels next to him shook her head in dismay…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: And so begins another adventure for Naruto.

I wanted to deviate a little bit from the canon storyline by, instead of him learning the Shadow Clone jutsu, gave Naruto a different jutsu to learn that people know absolutely nothing about. While stuff like shooting fireballs, creating huge waves and moving earth would have been cool, I gave the jinchuriki something else to fool around with.

How he came up with this new jutsu I was inspired from the episode when Jiraiya was a Genin and learned how to summon toads for the first time. He tried performing a summoning jutsu without a contract (something I figured Naruto would have done as well and indirectly copied with the Eight Trigrams on his stomach) and ended up in Mount Myobokuzan. Naruto created his jutsu purely by accident, perfect for his character, but will learn more from it as the story progresses.

Basically by trying to do a 'summoning jutsu' on his stomach, he inadvertently undid a 'knot' in his chakra network, allowing him to come up with this new technique.

And I know a lot of you still feel a bit funny about the previous fight with the three kunoichi. Well, after watching the series I saw that a lot of shinobi in the past around the same age as Naruto or younger have managed to pull off exceptional feats of their own. Kakashi became a Genin at age 5 and a Chunin at age 6, Itachi became Genin at 7 and Chunin at 10, Minato managed to rescue Kushina from three Kumo ninja at a young age, and there are many other shinobi of the older generations who have performed incredible acts of brilliance, talent or strength on their own.

Genius or not, basically all the series has shown us time and time again that age and rank doesn't mean squat. You can be a Chunin and only be as strong as a Genin, or you can be a Genin, in which case you are attacking guys as powerful as Pein. Thing is, anyone who is anyone can win in a fight, and I think I did illustrate to you all clearly in the previous chapter that Naruto is incredibly crafty and unpredictable.