Thank you DragonPony022 for your honesty, its greatly appreciated and dude your reviews should keep coming. I actually contemplated removing that arachnid summoning scene, but I said whatev's. Now that I'm seein' your review I'm still face palming. The clone was pumped with enough chakra for some months still regarding the fact he would be practising jutsu. Yagura underestimated the kid; Naruto didn't give him a chance to correct his mistake by allowing him to use jutsu. I have no excuse for making a woman as friggin' strong as Mei seem like a pussy, hope I don't seem sexist. He didn't fool Sandaime, he calls the man grand pa so the fact he meets him for help or something is not foolin'. If I were to say the difference between the contract Naruto has and the contract sound-Kidomaru Right?-has is that sound has spiders only; he has arachnids (spiders, scorpions, mite, ticks, etc.) lame, right?

His followers didn't just fall into his lap, at that time he was similar to how Orochimaru got Kimimaro but in Naruto's case he was in a merchant village, of course there are going to be plenty of street kids who cant keep up with the village, it may seem manipulative but whatever. Have you ever seen a street kid before? Yes? No? I thought so.

The part with his parents was not killer intent, well not purely. I have a friend who hates him parents so much he can form no coherent words to describe that hate, so he just uses his eyes. Minato and Kushina did not expect their own child to have so much raw, unadulterated and unfiltered hate. I'm not fooling. That's the truth. *Grins* my friend still hates his parents though, sadly but I think I'm making progress. I made the Naruto here similar to him.

Yo and did you forget, he suppressed the fear he had during the battle and felt it after. I do that when I want to write an exam, it works! Does that seem freaky to you?

UnsanMusho I did not want the rebels to seem like pussies. But I can still say that no matter how much blood shed you see or killing you do, there would always be something that would get you nervous and/or terrified as shown by when Naruto beat Gaara in the sound/sand invasion arc.

Oh yeah! This is not a Naruto x Konan no matter how much it seems so. So she crushes on him, Whatev's. yeah she's heck a strong, yeah her paper jutsu is uber awesome but she does not seem like one to take a beating by six paths of Pein-even though she held her own with madara/obito/tobi/whatever-and take an almighty push into the ground without a screw in her head loosening.

Your reviews are awesome, keep 'em coming.

Last time on: Greatness

…"c-cant you stay with me a little longer, we can just…talk," her voice quivered, she still wanted to listen his voice and look at his face for as long as possible. "That is if you want."

Obviously Naruto was oblivious to her thoughts or that her stoic face was reddening by the second, "ok, but are you catching a fever or something" he felt her forehead and she sighed wistfully.

"I'm-I'm fine Naruto-kun." She blubbered quickly and grabbed the hand on her forehead before she could faint. "Can-can you tell me a little about yourself."

That was how the night went. They discussed until the sunrise, they told each other their most intimate secrets (not the fact that she fancies him, of course) and their plans for the future. To her it felt oddly satisfying to confide in someone, Naruto knew this feeling because he had Shin yu with him longer than Konan had him.

…

If 'Naruto' was to grit his teeth anymore it would shatter, the temperature in the room dropped and the boys clones hair shadowed his eyes from sight. He answered with his voice perfectly neutral "there is no need to do that, kaa-sama, thank you for offering."

"Why are you being so stubborn? Cant you see that we are trying to bring our son back home!" the current Namikaze clan head shouted as he stood up abruptly. 'Naruto' did not even flinch, but kept his eyes hidden under his head, "and look at me when I speak to you, child!"

The boys clone slowly stood up and looked at his father who stepped back in shock at the amount of hate he saw. The pressure on him increased and his legs wobbled from underneath him but he stood strong, his mother was not so lucky; she fell on her knees gasping for air. Naruto took out his black sun glasses from his pocket and wore them, the pressure instantly disappeared and his parents breathed a sigh of relief.

'Naruto' kept his face stony and spoke, "I am not being stubborn Tou-sama, I do not need your training kaa-sama" the clone spat, "I am the best in the history of the academy, if you wish to find out how good I am go and ask the people who know me well enough if." With that the doppelganger bowed and left the room. His parents watched him go and could not bring themselves to stop him.

Now…

CHAPTER 7

"You don't have to do this, Konan" Naruto said straight faced to the taller woman as they were a few miles close to the Ame border. "You can make a life somewhere else."

The woman knelt down so that she would be eye level with the puppeteer, she took the boys hand and stroked it gently, and Naruto still not used to being touched by anyone besides shin yu flinched slightly. "Don't worry about me Naruto-kun, I'll be fine." And she kissed his cheek gently; the boy still flinched, and stood up. "Stay safe."

"I should be saying that to you."

Her stoic expression broke into a small smirk and she nodded before a small tornado of paper wrapped around her and formed wings. She gave a wave and the 'angel' of Ameagakure no Sato flew off into her village.

"Good riddance." A tiny voice muttered from behind him, he chuckled, turned around and ruffled her hair.

"Do you have a problem with Konan, Shin-chan?"

"Yes I have a problem with her!" she huffed as she crossed her arms "she keeps looking at you weirdly, like you're kami or something. It's creepy."

He just grinned at her and shook his head, "I'm sure it's nothing." He then looked in the general direction of Konoha and spoke "we move towards Konoha until we're about a mile close to it then we wait until night fall before we move in. Did you forget anything in the cave?" she shook her head negatively. "Climb on we have a long way ahead."

The 5 year old clambered onto his back and secured her arms around his neck and squeaked "I'm ready." And he sped off into the trees.

Hours of running on the trees later and he could be seen sitting at the top of the highest tree he could find which was more than 40 feet high off the ground observing the guard rotation of Konoha's gates. It seems that the guards he knocked out raised a few eyebrows; he would have to be more careful next time.

"Ne, Naruto-san?" shin whispered from her perch beside him, swinging her legs idly. He hummed in question "what am I going to do in Konoha?"

He was quiet for a minute before he answered, "I honestly don't know. Maybe you can enrol in the ninja academy when you turn 8 if you want."

"I want to be a ninja, I really, really do, but what if no one wants to be my friend?"

Naruto was not the right person to answer this question, his only experience with having friends were with shino, Hanabi and maybe Hinata. He had no idea what to tell her, he searched his memory for what he would have told Mito and found the perfect words, "if no one wants to be your friend think nothing of it, I would always be your friend." He nodded resolutely before he added "and if anyone makes fun of you make them poop their pants."

She quietly watched him talk and when he finished she giggled into her hands. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow, he was sure that what he said was in no way funny before he shrugged thinking it was one of those girl things. She poked his shoulder, "is that what you did?"

"I think so, but I'm sure that is what my sister does and she has her own fan club."

"Fan club? Don't you have?"

"…I hope not."

"I'm sure you have fan girls and fan boys." She whispered loudly.

He felt a shiver go down his spine, "I don't have fan boys."

"Oh shush, I bet you even have your own fan boy stalker."

"…we are not having this discussion."

She nudged his knee "why? Do you have something against gay people?"

"I don't."

"Do you even like anyone? Anyone at all? Even if it's a guy, I promise I won't judge."

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, "do you like anyone or are you gay, I promise I won't judge." She nudged him in the ribs, hard, he almost fell off his perch but he held on with his chakra.

"It depends on the kind of like you mean, Naruto-san." She then shifted uncomfortably and muttered with a heavy blush, "I like you."

"That's nice, shin-chan I like you too" our oblivious blonde responded as he patted her head. She growled and made to bite his hand but he removed it just in time to avoid her removing his finger. "What?" he asked but she just glared darkly at him before she turned away from him with a huff. 'Girls.'

They stayed in silence with the cursed 5 year old occasionally growling and giving him a punch to his shoulder every time he breathed too loudly. Finally it was time for them to move into Konoha and Naruto stood up and stretched along with the young girl. He turned around and she climbed onto his back, squeezing his neck a little too hard, "ready." Naruto nodded, or tried to, and sped off towards Konoha, running under the trees shadows and keeping watch for any sign of ANBU, he stopped under the a tree 30 feet from the gate and fixed on his half face mask and his glasses, double checking that his Henge was still in place and watched the one chunin gate keepers laugh at a joke while the other muttered something back to him angrily before he turned to an ANBU operative that had just jumped down from a nearby roof and waved, the operative nodded and stayed with them for his 2 hour shift and left. This was Naruto's chance; the next agent to come would in five minutes time. He shifted as close to the edge of the trees shadow, picked up a rock, calmed his breathing and ran out. The moon cast a shadow under him but surprisingly the guards did not notice. He reached the wall and slide close to the entrance, his heart defiantly beating drums in his ears, he threw the rock in the opposite direction so that the guards would follow the sound, they did, and he slinked through the gate and ran as fast as he could to Higuarashi's weapons shop, unaware of the eyes-or eye-that watched him.

This was one of the times Kakashi was glad he actually came to his post early. He was not amused. He stealthily followed after the small shadow that was running towards the market district, his sharingan eye still hidden behind his dog ANBU mask. When he noticed that the person was slowing down, he made his move. He jumped down in front of the shadow and silently took a stance. The person jerked backwards and he could have sworn he heard the person swallow.

"Who are you and why are you in Konoha?" he asked, his care free voice gone and in its place a commanding voice. The short person took a stance quietly, the war veteran could see a few holes in it but he just assumed that the person put them there on purpose. "Reveal yourself or there will be trouble." Still no answer. Kakashi cocked his head to the right slightly before he blurred out of sight and appeared behind the person, going for an incapacitating chop in the neck but the person rolled out of the way in time for the hand to just graze his neck and took a more defensive stance, Kakashi shrugged and charged again going for the right hook but when the person dodged he cleared his feet from under him, the person rolled away again and formed two hand seals. 'Fire clone technique.' And four more shadowy persons burst into life and one of the clones took a bundle from the originals back and hid away in an alley. The copy ninja cocked an eye brow at the unfamiliar jutsu but shrugged again. The person sent his clones after him and charged in as well.

If the copy ninja was to give this mysterious person credit it would be that he was fast, not faster than what he was used to but still faster than most jounin. The shadow's clone surrounded him and worked in sync with each other, raining down punches, kicks, knees and elbows but the more experienced (and prepared!) man dodged, parried and countered expertly and the clones didn't even dispel until he gave them killing blows to the head and dodging barely suppressed (he assumed that the person did not want his colleagues' to notice) explosions of fire. The went at it directly for half an hour and the child (he also assumed that the mysterious person was a child) was not even showing signs that he was struggling to keep up even after all the tags Kakashi had scored on him. The person finally got a kick to the gut to Kakashi and jumped back, he then tried shooting a green string from his fingers but the man, knowing better than to allow them to touch him, jumped out of the way and revealed his sharingan. The person noticed this and his strings fumbled a bit and he unsealed a wrapped up human like person.

'A puppet master huh?' he mused to himself 'I don't think Suna has any quarrel with us. I need to end this quickly before he has another trump card.' The puppet held a black scythe that hummed with the strange green chakra coating it and it ran towards him. Kakashi removed two of his kunai and caught the downward hack the mummy puppet gave him. The puppets speed was faster than the puppeteers, he was actually glad that he had uncovered his sharingan eye, he assumed, again, that this was the puppeteers taijutsu puppet so he made the puppet in such a way as to remove the normal inhibitions a human had in fighting, maybe in a few more years the puppeteer would become more proficient in using the puppet. The war veteran parried the slash and stabbed the puppets hand making the puppet drop its weapon but it still held on strong so Kakashi used his other kunai and slashed at its head but it bent unnaturally and used its momentum to kick him in the chin, the 'Kakashi' dispersed in a cloud of smoke and the real him grabbed the mummy's ankles and dragged it down to its chin, its scythe clattered to the ground. Kakashi then kicked its head away with a chakra powered foot and it flew at the mystery child who caught it easily. He was slightly winded but it was nothing he was not used to, he cracked his neck and dodged an enraged and sloppy kick to the chest and grabbed the leg, and he used the leg and slammed the person into the Higuarashi's weapon shops wall and held him there.

"That was very entertaining, now who are you?" he quickly held a kunai to the child's neck when his sharingan eye detected that the person wanted to use his strings "and no strings please or else."

The person slumped his shoulders and a nodded his head. "My mask and glasses." He whispered and the other masked man took them off and as if on cue the moon came out from behind the clouds and shone on them. He let them to the ground and the person's hair changed from black to blonde and his pupil-less green eyes changed to pupil'd green eyes. "Hello, Kakashi-san."

"Naruto?" the boy nodded and Kakashi let the boy fall to the ground and took a few steps back to allow the boy room to stand up and dust himself off "you're the person that knocked out Izumo and Kotetsu 5 months ago" another nod, Kakashi sighed and removed his ANBU mask. "The Naruto in the village is a clone, isn't it?" Nod "the clone was very convincing but why leave the village in the first place."

After a pause, Naruto answered, "I don't have to tell you that, I did nothing criminal."

"No you don't and no you didn't but you have to tell me why you left in the first place or I could just let Hokage-sama ask you himself." He noticed that the boy's eyes darkened "is that going to be a problem?"

"…I will not tell you why I left; you can tell Tou-sama if you want." He answered coolly.

Kakashi knelt down to the boys height and grabbed the boys shoulders, looking deep into the boys eyes, "Naruto, just tell me what you were doing outside Konoha, if it was worthwhile I can keep it a secret but if it goes against internal security I'll have to tell the Hokage." The boy's eyes stayed on his defiantly before the blonde sighed quietly.

"I-I was fulfilling an ambition, I promise it isn't against internal security, in fact it may even benefit Konoha." Kakashi motioned for him to continue "I found people that wanted to be my spies." The man held his laugh in but he still looked as sceptical as his mask allowed, "I'm being honest, it worked but I just need some more years before there can be any results." The man stared at the boy silently and cocked his head to the side "I-I also helped Kiri win their civil war." Kakashi let a small laugh out before he stopped himself when he saw the boy's serious face.

"Really? You helped them end their war?"

"Hai, Kakashi-san you can confirm when I become a jounin."

"Why when you become a jounin?"

"I agreed with their Kage to not release my real identity until I become jounin."

"…let's say I believe you, who taught you how to use puppets to fight?"

"I taught myself." Naruto stepped back from the man's grip and coughed into his hand "please do not tell anyone about what happened tonight." The jounin mulled it over in his mind before he nodded. Naruto bowed and waved over the clone he sent away with the bundle that came over, "take her to bed." The clone saluted and walked into the shop after he brought out a spare key. He turned to the now standing jounin and motioned to where he buried his puppet.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and mumbled an apology before he used 'earth release: hiding like a mole' to pull out the puppet and the boy sealed it back with its head. The man put on his ANBU mask and waved before he disappeared in a leaf shunshin. When he left Naruto sighed heavily and stumbled through the shops door, locking it behind him. He turned around and stopped mid step when he found the wide eyed daughter of the shop owner watching him, he waved at her and kept walking down to the work shop/forge and found his replacement clone sitting over a desk scribbling furiously on a sheet of paper. He ignored the clone for now and walked over to where his other puppet placed Shin yu to sleep. He sat down on the edge of the cot and smiled when he saw the girl open her eyes.

"Did you win?" she whispered. He shook his head negatively "did he hurt you?"

"A little but I'm ok." He patted her head and she smiled brightly then she yawned quietly, "sleepy?"

"Yeah." She nodded and closed her eyes, "good night."

"…good night."

Standing up he walked around the workshop and unsealed all his puppets and hung them on the walls except his python puppet, 'I have to find a way to reduce and increase its size, it should be my second trump Card.' but he put his mummy puppet on the table with its head beside the body. He then walked over to his clone and looked over his shoulder. "Why are you drawing a house blue print?"

The puppet did not flinch or waver but it kept on scribbling and cleaning the drawing, "I need to give you my report before you would understand why I'm drawing it."

"Go on…"

The clone stopped drawing and turned towards his 'boss', "you'll need to sit down for this, boss." Naruto pulled over a spare log of wood and sat down on it. "Well…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

3 months later

The Konoha academy had just dismissed and the students were scampering out of the class, chattering amongst themselves loudly, all except one student who carefully trudged to the front of the class to the teacher's desk.

"Iruka-sensei" Naruto said as he got to the class's sensei's desk. The teacher was just packing up the test they had just taken and had already told Mizuki that he could handle it so he could go home early. He looked down when he heard the voice and smiled at his start pupil. He was sure that he would recommend to him to take the academy's graduation early because it seemed that there was nothing he could teach the boy. He nodded at the boy to continue "I wanted to ask if I could take the graduation exams tomorrow."

The man was taken aback by the request; it seemed that the boy also had similar thoughts. "Do you think you're ready to become a ninja, Naruto-kun?"

"Hai, sensei."

"Why do you want to graduate early?"

"I already have knowledge of whatever the academy wants to teach and the two basic jutsu and my fire clone."

"Fire clone?"

"It's a cloning jutsu I made because I have too much chakra for the basic illusionary clone."

The teacher beamed down at his student, 'he has already started making jutsu.' "I even wanted to ask you if you wanted to graduate early, it seems you do. Report to room 13 for the exams." He said to the normally stoic boy, and as an afterthought "try your best Naruto and don't be intimidated by the other students, they may not be happy that you want to graduate early. Good luck." Naruto bowed to his teacher and left the class with a secret smirk on his face.

He walked out of the academy's main entrance and sighed tiredly, "I hope eavesdropping on my conversations doesn't become a recurring thing, Mito-chan."

He turned around and found the teary eyed Mito Uzumaki-Namikaze looking at him heartbroken. His gaze softened and he opened his arms, she took timid steps towards him and entered his offered hug. "What's wrong?"

She sniffed into his chest and muttered "why? Why do you want to graduate early? Why do you want to leave me alone?"

"I'm not leaving you alone, just like you heard before there is nothing the academy has left to teach me."

"There has to be something!" she shouted into his hoodie jacket, "what if someone makes fun of me again?"

"Then you kick his or her butt." He answered swiftly, "I can't always be here to defend you, Mito-chan, if I was you would never get stronger…and no, you can't graduate with me. Not yet anyway."

"Why not! I know stuff too!" she exclaimed as she punched his chest tiredly.

"I know you know stuff, but you don't know enough." He winced when she kicked his shin "your smart but you're not ready yet, promise me you won't graduate early."

"…promise. But-but you have to make it up to me somehow." She said and looked up at him red cheeked.

Naruto stepped back and grinned at her "I'm not going shopping with your friends again, Mito-chan."

"What! Why not?!"

He looked at her quietly for a few seconds before he pinched his nose "the money I wasted on that day could have lasted 4 months if I used it normally." She pouted, "When you decide on something useful for me to give you or do for you let me know. Now, let's get you home."

"Aren't you ever coming back home, nii-san?" she said as they walked towards the Kage mansion.

"Nope."

"Why?"

"I don't think I'll be able to endure living with my birth parents that don't even remember my birthday, Mito-chan, or the fact that I have long since unlocked my chakra and they still don't know, among other things."

Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she sighed dourly. Naruto patted her shoulder silently and they arrived at the mansion. "See you later, nii-san." She said and hugged him tightly; he hugged her back, waved at her and left to the Higuarashi work shop.

The next day, Naruto woke up before sunrise to see Shin yu curled up on his chest. He silently stood up and held in a laugh that she clung even more onto him, he called over his Kumo puppet and handed her to it and then he made a fire clone and had Kumo hand her over to the clone.

"When she wakes up take her to the park to play, get her to make a friend." The clone nodded and smiled down at the sleeping child clinging onto him for dear life. The real Naruto made another clone "you go and find a plot of land near the forest and find out if the land lord is willing to sell it to a minor, even though I will soon become a ninja, legally but without any strings attached. When I become a genin see I'll see when I can start with that building." The clone nodded and went off to the work bench where he kept the plans for the house and sat down, he still had about 3 more hours before Konoha truly woke up.

The blonde stretched and looked at his Kumo puppet that was still standing near him; he shrugged and sealed him up in his wrist, 'you never know when I'll need him.' His eyes then travelled to his mummy puppet and he made another clone, "fix him and examine his seals, his head should not have come off that easily and when you're done find out if there's a way I can reduce pythons size." He cracked his neck and walked over to his door and sighed, he snapped open the door and watched amused as Higuarashi's daughter stumbled through and stood up abruptly, scratching the back of her head guiltily. Naruto just cocked an eyebrow "Good morning Higuarashi-san, is there a reason you've been spying on me?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She responded and glared at him, she was shorter than him by an inch and she reminded him so much of his sister so it wasn't very intimidating.

"I have excellent hearing, I could basically hear you breathing from inside hear,"

She decided to come clean "alright yes I was spying on you. How did you get so much money?"

"…you took it upon yourself to find out if I was selling people or running a drug ring in secret?" she actually nodded, Naruto cracked a small smirk at this "I'm not so you can sleep well, I just have plenty of people that can give me money if I ask for it. Why didn't you just assume that it was my Tou-sama that gives me money." He said as he walked out the door and motioned for her to follow; she did so reluctantly because she was still in her pyjamas.

"It's obvious you don't like him much, if not you'd be staying with him in the Kage's mansion or something."

He patted her head and walked up to the front door before he stopped, "what's your name?"

"Ten-ten."

"Do you want to be a ninja, ten-ten-san?"

"…yes I do."

"Some advice: try breathing exercises and meditation." She nodded and he waved to her before he walked out the door.

Two hours of jogging and meditating later, we now find our blonde puppeteer sitting down in room 13. He was the first to arrive so he took out a book he had on him about human anatomy; The Human Body by Tsunade Senju. This wasn't the first time he had the read the book but he just felt like he would need the knowledge very soon. He was so deep in the book that he did not notice that the room had started filling up. The students that encountered the son of the Hokage sitting in the examination room did not know whether to be offended that someone younger than them wanted to take the exams with them or annoyed that he thought he could take the exams early, so naturally they took both options in fair and equal amounts and glared at him. One of the braver students walked up to him and cleared her throat loudly.

"You're in my seat."

"I didn't see a name on it." He answered without looking up.

"You're in the wrong class."

"No, I'm not."

"Just because you're Yondaime-sama's kid doesn't mean you can take the exams early."

"The Yondaime has nothing to do with me being here." He said as he turned a page nonchalantly, "and I'd prefer it if you leave me alone to read."

She made to grab the book but he slapped her hand away, "I bet you don't even understand what you're reading." She snorted.

"Whether I understand it or not doesn't concern you."

She slammed her hands down on his desk, "you think you're so cool, huh?"

"No, but I think you should go back to your seat, you're making a scene."

"I am not making a scene, kid."

"Then why are you still standing there. There are enough empty seats left."

She huffed and gave a last glare at him before she went back to her seat. The class erupted into whispers after witnessing the scene; this was nothing that they expected the child of a Kage to behave like. Meanwhile, Naruto kept his eyes glued on a page in his book.

He had the book since he read about human puppets from the bingo book. It still did not disgust him, it intrigued him greatly. What does one have to do to turn a person into his puppet? He had no intention of turning his comrades' dead bodies into his puppets, but instead to experiment on konoha's enemies.

He had long since decided that he would reveal to the whole of the elemental nations that he was a puppeteer in the chunin exams if he got the chance. He mentally noted to upgrade his Kumo puppet. The spies he had in the other nations and hidden villages were doing well except for the few he had in Kumo who found it hard to sneak into the village but were later allowed access when they travelled in under the guise of cloth fibre merchants who wished to settle, apparently Kumo wasn't a very popular place for cloth fibre merchants. (Just go with it). The easiest to get in were the ones in Iwa who allowed in anyone who showed willingness to join their forces, despite them having many strong ninja. (Again, just go with it).

His reading was cut off by someone taking a seat besides his, the boy coughed into his hand. Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eye before he looked back to his book. The boy had light blue hair that fell down his face and hid his eyes which were equally light blue if they were seen. He had on khaki's and a brown sleeveless shirt with black sandals. The boy tried to discretely look at what the blonde was reading but Naruto tilted the book so he could see the diagram of the human excretory organ, the boy fell back on his chair pale at the diagrams detail. He seemed to gain control of his breathing before he grinned at the younger boy.

"Yo!"

"Hello." Naruto responded without looking up.

"My name's Nobu Tsukabi." (Totally AU. I don't even know if that's a real name so from here on out just humour me)

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, nice to meet you"

"Same bro, same." The boy named Nobu smiled, "so…what are you reading?"

"The human anatomy by Tsunade Senju."

"cool." The blue haired boy said "do you want to become a medic nin?"

"No, I just feel like the knowledge would be useful."

"That's nice. My brother is a medic nin and he reads that kind of book."

"That's nice. Is he a combat medic nin or the type that prefer staying in the hospital?" Naruto looked at him and asked, just to be polite.

"He's more into working in the hospital, but he goes on missions when he's told to."

He nodded and went back to his book. He briefly wondered how the boy could fight with his hair blocking his eyes but he countered himself by asking how his corrosive chakra to manipulate his puppets without burning them. He worked on it and adapted. Seals also helped.

Finally, the door opened and the sensei in charge of administering the exam walked in and raised his hand for silence. He was a bulky man with brown hair and round rosy cheeks with swirls on them; he wore the standard chunin uniform. His eyes roved over the students until it came to a stop on Nobu who was still chattering quietly with Naruto who just nodded every once in a while, responded and all the while he kept reading. He remembered that Iruka told him telling him that he was very smart; he had to see it for himself.

The room was quiet and hey observed the sensei nervously, "good morning, genin aspirants, my name is Kencho Akimichi and I will be the one to administer the written portion of the exams. After this test, you will all wait until your names are called and you will go to the room 14 and perform your taijutsu test, and after that you go to room 15 for your weapons and ninjutsu test, when you finish you come back here and wait for your results to be pasted before you will be dismissed. Does anyone want me to repeat what I have just said?" nobody spoke. "good." He went seat after seat and shared the test scripts. He reached Naruto's desk and was surprised to see that he had dropped the book; he had been looking at him, he shrugged and gave his test paper. He stalked to the front of the class. "Do not cheat, there are other eyes watching this exam." To prove his point an ANBU agent, dog, appeared beside the man, waved to Naruto and disappeared. The bulky man looked at his watch and then he looked at the class. "Time starts now."

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In the Hokage's office, sitting around the Hokage's desk watching the exams through the Sandaime's glass ball was Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura. The last persons reasons for watching was not fully understood but they all just assumed that he wanted to watch what konoha's academy would produce. While in actuality he was watching Naruto and how he behaved to see if it was still possible to recruit him to his secret ROOT ANBU program, so far the boys quiet and secretive disposition convinced him that there was still a chance.

When the written portion finished, they watched the boys sparring match against a chunin sensei. Naruto had decided not to use his 'dizzy spell fist: first arm' so that his sensei could see him clearly. So they watched, surprised, as he ran circles around the chunin who struggled to block his blows. The blonde feinted a kick to the shoulder but kicked her behind the left knee. The woman rolled out of the way from an axe kick but when she stood up she couldn't block the punch to her stomach and kick to her other knee. Naruto surprised the audience by taking a more defensive strike and waiting for the chunin to stand up before he motioned for the woman to attack. The woman shrugged and ran at the boy with a palm strike, the boy countered and jabbed her side with two left hooks and turned around and gave the woman a right elbow which caught her shoulder. Naruto stepped back and waited for the teacher to catch her breath, he smiled when he saw the woman crack her neck and charge at him. The teacher sent a blow to the chest and the boy caught the blow and used the momentum to pull her over his head onto the ground. The teacher lost her breath from the fall and stayed down for a minute before she got back to her feet shakily. She walked to the table at the far corner of the room which had three more chunin sitting near it and wrote down Naruto's score and nodded to the door, telling him non-verbally that he could go.

The rest of the exams went about the same way. In the weapons test he chose senbon-instead of the more usually used kunai-and shuriken and scored a perfect ten in each of his targets. In his ninjutsu test, he used a seal to Henge into the Sandaime, replaced with a nearby chair when a blunted kunai was thrown at him with four seals and used an unfamiliar cloning jutsu that left his parents and the sensei's gaping. He was given a forehead protector and he walked out of the room calmly, entered into the first room and waited until he was dismissed. He nodded to a blue haired boy as he sat down and wished him luck when he stood up. The boy came back with his own forehead protector, he looked up from his book, nodded at him then he went back to it. An hour later the results were pasted on the walls, unsurprisingly (for us at least) Naruto took the Rookie of the Year title.

Minato was musing to himself on why Naruto didn't tell him or Kushina that he wanted to graduate early. "Minato-kun? Did you hear what I said?" Hiruzen asked the quiet man, "I said that Naruto should be apprenticed to Ibiki Morino of the T&I."

"Why would you suggest something like, Sandaime-sama?" Kushina asked.

"He is not a team sort of person and he told me himself that he wanted to go into torture and interrogation."

The Yondaime was quiet before he said "but he's just 8. He's too young to be in the T&I. He should be around other children near his age, and if to say I allow him to be apprenticed how would he become a chunin?"

"If I may make a suggestion, Hokage-sama." Danzo said, entering into the conversation for the first time "he should be placed in a team with capture and interrogation functions similar but not the same as the Ino-Shika-Cho team. His fighting style is good and he is quiet enough to sneak up on or spy on someone."

"That's a good idea, Danzo-san." Minato nodded, "I even have the perfect sensei for the team."

"Who?" Kushina asked, standing beside him. The answer the Hokage gave them made them all nod I agreement, all that remained was organizing the graduating students into teams.

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"Congratulations on getting Rookie of the Year, Naruto" Nobu said to the stoic boy beside him as they walked to the Aburame clan, more like Naruto walked to the Aburame clan while Nobu followed because he had 'nothing else to do.'

"Thank you, Nobu-san." He responded. He still felt uncomfortable that the older boy was still talking to him but he shrugged it off. The Aburame clan head had called him over when he finished his exams so that the clan and a few of his friends could congratulate him on passing, the clan was not well known for being social but they could be friendly if they wanted to be and since Naruto was a friend of the clan they could cut him some slack and smile at him, even in public. The same could be said about the Hyuuga who were usually stoic and snooty to those they perceived as beneath them. Naruto was proud about the fact that he could get the two clans who would rather remain expressionless to smile at him.

He felt a shiver go up his spine it reminded him of his first time in Train Town before he killed the dragon, he was being watched. He turned to a tree sharply and glared at it for a full minute before he shrugged and resumed his walk with Nobu chattering away about something 'how ninjutsu was cooler than taijutsu.'

Back in the tree a ROOT ANBU operative kept vigil watch over the boy and sped away back to the base to report back to Danzo on where Naruto would be until it was late into the night.

Authors note

I truly did not expect so many people to like my story. AWESOME! Keep 'em coming.

There would be a lot more OC's in this story so be prepared.

I plan on writing another two other Naruto story, I'll be updating them soon. Make sure you read them.

Naruto lost against Kakashi because I believe ANBU are genetically altered to never underestimate anyone, but they can go easy on people.

Read and Review.

B.j.