Next chapter up. Thanks for all the reviews, much appreciated.

Thank you TheMysteriousOtaku for your helpful/youthful review, corrections to this chapter has been made.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Last time on: Greatness

… "You don't need to ask for permission to make a request, Naruto-kun, just make the request."

'so that's what they want to do' the boy thought darkly, 'well four years of ignoring me would not wash over overnight'. "Hai, I would like for you two to fill in and sign the Guardian section of the registration form to the Academy". True, he could have asked Shibi to sign it for him but unluckily for him everyone-or most of everyone-knew he was the son of the Yondaime Hokage; he had to have their signatures before he could go to the academy.

…

"I have somewhere to go, later" Naruto muttered quickly, bowing and walked briskly out of the kitchen. Leaving his mother in the now empty kitchen crying into her hands. Mito silently walked into the kitchen, after witnessing the whole thing, and brought her mother into a hug, occasionally stroking her back.

"Don't you worry, kaa-chan, would be back to normal in no time" the young girl declared. That was the thing she needed. Just a burst of part-naive mentality, even if it were for the day, so that the tears would stop.

"Sochi-kun…"

Kushina felt horrible.

Now…

CHAPTER 3

The only reason Naruto had even considered attending the Academy was because he wanted to be a ninja. But now, looking at his classmates for the foreseeable future, he made a quick and slightly childish resolve: 'I'm graduating early'.

Now, the Academy was split into four years. That is most new students were brought in when they were 8 years old and left when they were 12. In the first year the ninja aspirants were taught the basic knowledge of most of the ninja arts (nin-, tai-, gen-, fuinjutsu), the second year was mostly focused on the history of Konoha and all its hokage's, the third year sees that the students were taught on what Konoha knew of the other main hidden villages while also still polishing on the students practical knowledge of the ninja arts and teaching them on the three basic ninjutsu they needed to know before they could graduate, the last year was just revision on all that was taught in the students school years.

From Naruto's self-analysis, he acknowledged the fact that he was horrible in genjutsu. Horrible like he couldn't even make or dispel an E-rank genjutsu to save his life, so he couldn't form a regular bunshin no jutsu but his henge was solid. He found out when he asked Shibi to test him on it. He knew Konoha's history and the entire elemental nations history (through passing merchants, he found out Iwa's from the library) and his taijutsu and fuinjutsu were the best in the class. He would humbly rank himself a high chunin with his puppetry (which surprisingly, his parents still hadn't found out about) and high jounin with his taijutsu. To become better than that, he would need to have experience from missions and spars/fights with stronger opponents.

The problems could be easily fixed.

Since he had gone through his father's library, he found out that there were elemental and non-elemental bunshin. He had tried forming a kage bunshin no jutsu but-most likely because of his overly dense chakra-the kage bunshin came out bloated and sickly green. After that failure, he bought some chakra paper and found out that he had a strong primary earth affinity and a weak secondary fire affinity. He tried his hand at donton bunshin but his clones were still green, so that failure left him with no other option: he would have to invent his own cloning technique.

He made 11 of his defective and ugly kage bunshin and had them stay without dispelling doing the fire affinity exercises, this lasted 2 weeks. He then channelled fire affinity chakra into his chakra strings and had it mould itself into a rough outline of himself and then made them add details to it, this took 20 minutes. He would need hand seals to make it come out faster and in more numbers. He chose the seals ram and tiger after he had his shadow clones test all 12 in chains of two until he got the desired result, just in case they back fired/exploded on him. Ram because it was used to summon his chakra faster and tiger because it helped summon his fire affinity chakra better. He didn't even need his strings for it anymore-after a week that is. All he needed to do was to use the hand seals and have the image of himself and the number of clones in his mind. The only downside was that after performing the fire clone, his green chakra would steam out of his ears a little; thankfully it was quiet, odourless and not even toxic. His limit was 76 clones and those clones were ridiculously sturdy.

For his lack of experience in genjutsu, he studied thoroughly on how to detect an illusion since he had no hope in casting any sort of illusion. When he detects it, he would use some of his strings to latch onto the ground and would expel his chakra, forcefully. He had to latch onto the ground so that he would not be blown away. The downside of this was that, since his chakra was so dense and since he was used to it coming out of his tenketsu as strings, it was extremely painful. Hopefully with time the pain would lessen. The upside though was that, if his chakra was to touch the caster of the illusion, then the person would loose control of his chakra until he extracted the chakra out of the victim's body or 12 hours later the chakra would leach out of the person's body. Sami Yamanaka learnt this the bad way, he was still apologising even though the man just smiled it off, "you did good, Naruto-kun." The radius, per say, was 15 feet away from his body.

Plus, he had to constantly practice his taijutsu and his puppetry so he would not get rusty.

He was ready to graduate… in 9 months time.

Naruto had to keep up his marks in the academy so that his teachers would recommend him to graduate early or he would recommend himself anyway. The boy ensured that he passed at least 97% of all his tests at the top of the class and his practical knowledge above everyone else.

This is where we find him.

The students of the academy were around the sparring mat outside the classes. Cheering for the fighters or booing or remaining indifferent. Students stepped onto the sparring mat one by one as the class's sensei, Iruka Umino, called their names. Most of the matches were uneventful, besides the match between the chubby Chouji Akimichi and the egotistical Sasuke Uchiha, where the Akimichi clan heir tried to bow out of the fight knowing that Sasuke was more skilled than him, but the 'last' loyal Uchiha made the grand mistake of calling the other boy fat.

Everyone on the sidelines took in a collective breathe, 'Oh boy'

A lesson was learnt that day. Well, more like Sasuke learnt a lesson that day. Do NOT call Chouji fat, dear God do Not call that boy fat!

The Akimichi beat Sasuke into the ground, stomped on any visible part of the poor boys body-which was everywhere-and had to be physically restrained by Iruka and Shikamaru Nara-Chouji's friend. Needless to say Sasuke broke some bones.

The last match for the day was: "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze vs. Ameryo!"

'I actually thought they'd have to end class early, well unlucky him' Naruto chuckled mentally. Silence swept through his classmates. Most held their breaths and watched the match intensely. Why? Because the boy was the smartest in the class, racking in marks higher than Sasuke. Add to the fact that in all his taijutsu spars nobody who watched him, not even Iruka, could remember just how he won. The ANBU even made it into a game to find out themselves which style the boy used, only a handful of Hyuuga found out and even they couldn't describe it well enough. (Thank goodness I'm telling the story eh?).

He stepped into the ring, expressionless and examined his grinning opponent.

Ameryo wore a simple light blue t-shirt with a white shuriken design on it, white shorts and blue sandals. The boy was pale skinned with naturally bleached blonde hair, but it looked more white than blonde. He was an orphan, if one goes by the fact that he had no last name. He also was very cocky.

"Prepare to lose, Namikaze!" Ameryo smiled, "because I will become the next Hokage!"

"Oh? And I should care, why?" Naruto deadpanned

"You are in my way" he answered immediately, still smiling, but his voice came out as a growl.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Good luck to you then, Ameryo-san" he bowed and took his stance for The Dizzy Spell Stinging Fist, "because you will most definitely need it", his face still infuriatingly expressionless while his opponent took the academy style taijutsu stance.

Iruka looked at both students, "both fighters ready?" they nodded, "alright… Hajime!"

No one moved. Both students watched each other silently. Then in a snap, Ameryo rushed over at Naruto with his fist drawn back, vainly expecting an easy win (most likely he was in la-la land in all of Naruto's spars). Naruto deftly swatted aside the thrown fist and palm struck weakly at his opponent's chest for space.

Naruto used the distance between them and waved his right hand-open palmed-in front of Ameryo's face so quickly it made after images, his left arm drawn to his side of his belly as if preparing to give Ameryo an upper cut. The after images diverged then converged together, making Ameryo think Naruto had a green spiral pupil eye in the palm of his hand that glowed and turned anti-clockwise, hypnotically.

Ameryo swayed on his feet, his eyes drooping slightly and his arms limp at his sides. He felt like he was spinning on the same spot and at the same time standing stock still. The audience was also in a daze, swaying even as they sat down. Naruto allowed himself a faint smirk when he saw that Ameryo was in the deep in the spell then he released the tension in his left arm struck the boy on his side and kicked the boys feet from under him making him fall limply onto the mat. 'Dizzy spell fist: first arm' he said in his mind.

Numerous students had accused him of using some sort of jutsu in the spar during the first few weeks of the academy. Those accusations were immediately put to rest when a second year student by the name of Neji Hyuuga picked on his sister, calling her "a weak girl riding on the coat-tails of her father, the Hokage." Naruto, after listening to his sister cry, challenged the poor fool to a spar. An excuse to legally beat him into the ground without it being frowned upon.

Neji, also very cocky, accepted the challenge. The poor fool.

Flash back

The two challengers stood a few feet away from each other on training ground 4, a place where it was both non restrictive and still have enough space for an audience. Half of the ninja population, which included the Hokage and his wife, all the jounin, most chunin and a few genin, came to watch what the hokage's eldest twin son could do against the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan.

"You should just give up, Namikaze-sama" Neji said, his head tilting towards the audience that came, "before you disgrace yourself before your parents"

Naruto did not even give him a reply but looked towards the unofficial proctor, the ANBU operative Tora, who raised his hands for silence.

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze vs. Neji Hyuuga. Are both fighters ready" they nodded, Tora brought his hand down in a chop between them "Hajime" and jumped back for space.

"I'll give you one more chance to forfeit, Namikaze" the Hyuuga prodigy sneered, disregarding the hokage's prescience, but at Naruto's defiant stance he nodded to himself, "so be it." He rushed in, Byakugan blazing, with two of his right index and middle fingers laced with chakra and made to strike Naruto's shoulders. Naruto, knowing better than blocking a Jyuuken strike, ducked under the blow while mentally contemplating whether it was possible to disorientate a person who could see almost 360 degrees around himself.

'No, I can't do that' he thought as he dodged blow over blow of chakra laced strikes, they were coming at him faster and faster due to Neji's frustration. 'Maybe I should test my speed against his'.

He then side stepped another blow and sent 7 quick punches to Neji's abdomen, then a snap kick to the back of his knees. The Hyuuga barely dodged the kick, but was unfortunate enough to catch the blows. They came so fast he didn't see or feel them until he dodged the kick which he luckily saw.

The byakugan user spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground and swayed slightly while clutching where Naruto tagged him. He looked at Naruto, who had not even dropped his defensive stance, his eyes hardened.

"How did you move so fast?" Naruto just raised an eyebrow and switched his stance to a more offensive one. Neji growled under his breathe and charged again.

The crowd watched with bated breathe as the Hyuuga prodigy rushed over to Naruto and sent strikes to more lethal areas, practically frothing at the mouth. Whilst Naruto showed surprising agility and dodged, side stepped and attacked back with at least 4 punches and a kick.

Dodge strike to the throat, 4 punches to the left arm and a kick to the right knee.

Dodge strike to the heart, 4 punches to the chest and a kick to the side.

Dodge strike to the kidneys, 4 punches to left leg and another kick to the side.

Everyone watched as Neji's strikes came slower and his breathing became more haggard, while Naruto was practically dancing around the boy, his arms and legs blurring around him. When Neji's attacks stopped, Naruto's didn't. He systematically broke down any resistance the other boy had and now alternated and sent him more kicks than punches and even the occasional knee and elbow, basically running the Hyuuga into the ground.

The Hyuuga lay on his back struggling to breathe while Naruto stood above him, allowing a glare on his formerly expressionless face, not even the slightest bit winded.

"Train harder. You need to do more stamina exercises. Try incorporating kicks to your strikes." Naruto murmured so only his downed opponent could hear, "better luck next time" he then turned to Tora and nodded.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."

A few days later when Neji finally recuperated, he was bombarded with questions by both ninja and students on how he lost the match. He just said, "He is really fast." So most just assumed that he sent blows so fast they would enter a sort of trance.

Flashback end

Naruto really liked the fighting style. It depended on speed most of all, no jutsu needed or-for masters-no need to channel his chakra into his arms to increase its speed. Perfect for his puppetry.

The blonde the raised his left hand and snapped his fingers, the sound echoed throughout the clearing loudly. Everyone took a collective deep breathe; some ANBU even fell off their perches. Thankfully, he was not proud enough to say that he could best them in a fair match because they were faster than him and they could recover faster than most jounin. The ANBU that fell of the tree were most likely new or were unfamiliar with watching him fight.

Naruto rolled his right shoulders and winced, 'I need to up my training'. The best (or worst. Depends on how you look at it) part of the style was that it was incomplete. Most of the scroll he was learning from had been eaten away by old age. It only detailed how to use one arm and both arms but not the legs or even the whole body. If that's even possible.

Iruka coughed into his hand, still dazed, "winner, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." Naruto bowed to the silent crowd and the other silent crowd and walked back to the tree he was sitting under, watching amused as the students gave him awed gazes. "…Today's classes are over. Enjoy your weekend" with that everyone separated into groups, some still sending him looks.

"Naruto-nii-san! Naruto-nii-san!" a voice from yelled from behind him, he sighed inwardly. "nii-san your fight was awesome, I mean you were all like whoosh and he was like ugh and then he passed out like wow!" all the while flailing her arms above her head dramatically. "Nii-san you're so cool!"

"No I'm not, your so cool" he chuckled and nudged her side, she blushed a brick red. "So Mito-chan how's your training?"

"Its ok, I guess" she replied while waving to the smiling merchants, "I still can't make my blocks stronger in the family taijutsu style" Mito whined.

"Try doing push-ups and squats"

"Of course" she scoffed, nodding to a couple of waving chunin. "I've already been doing that!"

"Then do double of that, reduce your ramen intake and drink enough milk" at her disbelieving look he said "believe me, it works"

"Ok nii-san, ill try…"

He patted the red head on the head and smiled slightly, "you'll get it in time Mito"

"Naruto-nii-san!" she yelled red faced to the amusement of those watching the interaction, "we're in public" she said as she smoothed her hair down.

Hearing this, his smile widened and he pulled her into a head lock and ruffled her head, ignoring her indignant yells for him to stop.

Off in the distance, Minato Namikaze watched the interaction quietly; happy that his son could still act like a child despite his seclusion.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At night, a shadow sped over the roof tops of Konoha heading towards the north gate. He stopped at the last building and peered over the side, looking at the two guards stationed there. He threw two non-poisoned senbon at their necks and watched satisfied as they crumbled towards the ground. He jumped down and walked leisurely towards the gate and was even more surprised that the security was even more lax than he thought because it was the time of peace. Even though he was not a sensor, he for sure knew there was no other living thing around to watch him go.

A stray moon beam from under the tree he was walked under caught his blonde hair, light green eyes and slight smirk. He stopped at the gate and looked at the downed guards, smirk gone and scowl in place. 'Pathetic.'

'Ram, tiger. Katon bunshin no jutsu.' Naruto intoned quietly and with a quick burst of fire a clone appeared. Naruto made sure to pump it with half of his chakra so that it would last for at least 6 months.

"You know what to do?" the real Naruto whispered,

"Hai boss!" the clone shouted, conveniently forgetting that his 'boss' was trying to be quiet and discrete.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "idiot keep your voice down." He then cleared his throat, "keep up appearances, find inspiration for other puppets and sketch it down, don't use the Dizzy spell fist fully; just use its speed aspect to end the spar quickly, lets hope our classmates forget how I fight, learn 3 donton C-ranks from Sarutobi-oji-sama to complement our katon, learn at least 1 jutsu for all the elements if you can. There is enough chakra in you for a few other clones, do not waste it. Above all else, do not act suspicious. I would expect a report when I come back. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, boss" the clone nodded, "ne boss, where are you going again?"

The real blonde stayed quiet in thought then he said, "From what I over heard Jiraiya-ero-teme rant to Tou-sama, Sasori has a larger spy network than him, they are even more loyal than his own." The clone nodded, agreeing with his 'boss' "even though I do not want to be a carbon copy of Sasori, a spy network does sound like a great asset and people loyal to me sounds even better. I can't start in Iwa for obvious reasons, Suna has regular correspondence with Konoha, and Kumo is also a bad decision since because of the Hyuuga incident their borders security has also been tighter expecting a surprise attack, so that leaves Kiri." The clone's eyes widened dramatically, as if it didn't already know this. "I know their in a civil war, but admittedly that place is challenging enough and the border can be easily breached, it's a good place to start. When I get what I want, I'll move about, getting other loyal spies and informants till my time is up. Then I'll come back here a week before you disperse. The academy is too boring for me to waste these last 9 months on doing nothing but training, I need a new challenge. Anything else?"

"I've got nothing boss" clone Naruto shook his head,

"Good. Now, get back into the village and act natural. See you later" he waved and ran further into the forest. The clone watched for a while, glad that it had good memory. When his 'boss' was out of sight he nodded to himself and ran back to Higuarashi's workshop-which was where he has been sleeping-so that he could get started on what he should be doing till his the real Naruto came back…

Even though it was strange that he was talking to himself, he needed a way to ensure that all he was doing was not a dream. That he was really going out into the wider world and making part of his dream come true. A stupid way of proving this, I know.

But the funny part of all this was that he was just 8. Years. Old.

Authors Note

Hope you guys like this, took me all day to write. Thanks for all the reviews, I'll still need more.

If anyone has any inspiration for new puppets or do you want me to guys want me to start making human puppets, PM me a description or the name of the ninja/person respectively.

Did you guys like the fight scenes? Did I under power Neji? Remember he was 9 years old at the time.

Oh yeah. After seeing how I painted Naruto in this story, it is very hard to see how Hinata would fit into this equation. This is very hard for me to say but I am very biased towards NaruHina, so if you don't like the pairing; disregard my comment in the first chapter and help me choose another pairing. No older people PLEASE! And definitely NO HAREM! Can't stand it.

Or even no pairing.

If you like this story enough… Review!

B.j.