Hello everyone,

I'm really enjoying where this story is going. In the beginning, you can expect some familiar missions. But I will mention that the timeline, and story will become fairly au. It will be obvious where the story is going, so I don't want to spoil anything other than that.

A reviewer mentioned that I should use 'Gai' instead of Guy, so if you see that change, that's why. If you see me using the English spelling for characters, let me know. I am trying to stay as close to accurate as possible.

Anyway, let's get onto the chapter.

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Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"How are you doing?"

I turned to the Elite Jounin who was responsible for my education on being a ninja of Konohagakure. Gai had been giving me looks all week, calculating and patient at the same time.

"Better than I thought. They don't haunt my dreams, but I do see them sometimes." I answered, deciding that being truthful was the best way to go.

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Gai commented. "I haven't noticed a decrease in performance. In fact, I could make an argument that you have worked even harder. You haven't acted out of character. But if you need to talk about it, or just want to, let me know. These things have a habit of haunting you if you don't face them."

I nodded to him. "Yes sir." I replied. "I think that may be why I do so well with it. I do not run from the feelings, I work through them logically. It seems to help at night. Distraction is also good."

Gai nodded. "Time heals all wounds, Naruto. But it is best to come to terms with it. Consider yourself cleared of psychological trauma, as far as Konoha is concerned. As soon as I deem Sakura ready, we'll take C-ranks again."

I smiled. C-ranks meant more money, more money meant more sealing supplies. "She seems to be adjusting." I commented.

"She killed one. You killed nine. I would say you are doing better with it." Gai chuckled as he said it.

I shrugged. "The world is better off without them. What is a normal 'probation'?" I asked, curious to how other genin tend to take their first kills. I also wanted to change the conversation.

"Most need a month or two." Gai answered confidently. "Lee was a month and a half."

That was a bit of a bummer. "At least three more weeks of D-ranks?" I whined. Sure, it was good money, and less danger but some part of me wanted adventure and more out of life. I wanted to go toe to toe with the world and see if I still stood at the end. Plus, you don't get on the level of Madara without jumping into the deep end.

"Learn to enjoy this downtime, Naruto. The breaks between these missions are when you'll improve the most with your training." Gai retorted.

"Raahh!"

I turned to see Sakura's fist connecting with Lee's stomach. Lee didn't even let her know it affected him, and soon they were a flurry of activity again.

If I had to compare this world with the world in my memories, I would have to mention how Sakura was becoming a monster in taijutsu. I knew that was her bread and butter in the anime, but I always assumed it was because of Tsunade. Apparently, she was just a natural.

I couldn't wait for her to develop the monster strength she would become known for.

"I've been meaning to ask you, how is your fuinjutsu going?" Gai asked as I turned back to him.

I sighed. "It's an amazing thing. You could honestly dedicate twenty different career paths to fuinjutsu." I told him. "But it is fucking hard to teach yourself to think that way that it requires."

Gai laughed again. "You're already more advanced than I ever got. Have you made your first seal yet?"

"Yes!" I told him with a smile. "I don't care that it destabilized and that I lost a banana, it showed me where I went wrong."

Gai frowned when I told him that. "Isn't that dangerous?" He asked.

"The storage space was so minimal, that it was fairly safe to do it in my apartment." I answered. "It's when you start to mess with explosive seals, that you get into truly dangerous waters. Still don't know how I'm going to practice that." I told him, looking up.

I was playing dumb obviously. One could even say I was manipulating a man that only had good intentions for me. They would be right.

I needed the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Mostly, I needed it to practice my fuinjutsu safely. But I really wanted it to try and hack this world so that I could speed up my advancement.

The Shadow Clone Jutsu was an amazingly complex, and simple, jutsu. It created a clone of the user, simple. Although if I had to guess, it also required manipulation of Yin and Yang chakra to create it ...complex as fuck.

I didn't care how complex it was though, I already had the basics down with the normal clone jutsu. That was basically all Yin chakra manipulation. I just had to give it a physical body and have it operate independently.

The biggest benefit to this jutsu is that all the memories of the clone get transferred to original when the clone is 'popped', or dispelled. The training aspects of this jutsu ...it's hard to even articulate. Imagine if you had twice the amount of time in a day to dedicate to learning a new skill. Three times the study, but in the same time frame?

The Naruto in the anime from my world would create hundreds of clones at one time. I was fairly certain I couldn't do that, because of how taxing it would be on my mind. But two clones a day? One to study fuinjutsu, one to work on chakra exercises. That would be a game changer.

I needed it.

The downside was that you could not train the body up in the same amount of time. But that wasn't a huge downside when you take into account how my body is literally being built by Gai, one of the physically strongest people in the world.

"Yes that is going to be a problem." Gai's poker face was just as good as you would assume a trained ninja's would be. I couldn't get a read on him, unless he wanted me to of course.

Before the conversation could continue. I saw Sakura collapse on the ground in front of us in exhaustion.

Lee stood there awkwardly for a few moments, afraid he hurt her.

"Naruto!"

"Yes, sensei?" I answered.

"Ready to take Lee on again?"

"You Naruto?"

I planted my right foot on the water underneath me, and my mind automatically sent a burst of chakra to make sure that my foot would find purchase on the unstable waters below.

About time he stopped hiding.

I turned to see one of the main characters in the series, and my classmate Uchiha Sasuke standing on the banks of the river I was training on. He had been watching me train for the last half-hour in a tree about four deep from the treeline of the training ground. I sensed him as soon as I arrived in the clearing, but didn't bother calling him out on it.

I spent most of my education in the same classroom as the boy, I knew what his chakra felt like. I actually assumed that Kakashi would have been watching also, but could not find his presence. I would learn to hide my chakra like that one day.

"You know who I am, Sasuke. We spent our childhood together." I retorted to the black haired boy as I met his eyes.

His eyes were black, not red, meaning either he didn't have the sharingan yet, or it wasn't active.

Sasuke didn't bother bantering with me. "Kakashi wants to see you. We meet everyday at training ground 3. 0600, don't be late."

Sasuke vanished with a burst of chakra. Instantly I became jealous of what he must be learning under Kakashi.

Shunshin?! Really!?

I knew better than to believe that Kakashi wouldn't be three hours late to when Sasuke told me to arrive. But I also knew better than to take that for granted, just in case he was actually on time. I was professional, even if Kakashi wasn't.

So when I was the only person to be there at six in the morning, I had already trained for an hour with my team and gotten the ok from Gai to meet with Kakashi. I was a little surprised that I was the only one on time though.

I sat down at a tree and pulled out the scroll I was on for fuinjutsu. I was actually getting fairly deep into theory about space expansion scrolls. But it was taking me longer and longer to apply it to my seals. The more I got into fuinjutsu, the more I realized that 'storage' was my bread and butter.

For some reason, I picked up the concepts faster in this area, then others like explosions or security. Already I had an insane idea involving natural chakra.

Jinchuriki all had seals that confined massive amounts of chakra into a body. Hell Naruto of the anime had one that leaked chakra into his system constantly.

Could you store natural chakra in a seal?

The biggest problem with this is that one has to actively mix their chakra with natural chakra to make it work. Meaning it takes chakra to use natural chakra. But what if you could design a seal that leeches off of your own chakra, and mixes it with natural chakra? You could fill up multiple seals of guaranteed sage-mode without worry.

Get into a battle with an S-rank baddie? Activate a seal, kick ass, and call it a day.

Obviously that would not be happening today, or even the near future. I would have to learn senjutsu for that to work, along with progressing at a very rapid rate with my fuinjutsu. Not to mention that I had to actually cultivate S-rank skills. I could have all the power in the world and would lose to a genin if I didn't have the skills to use it properly.

So that is why I was sitting alone, at Team 7's training ground, learning the basics about storage seals.

At least I was alone for a couple of minutes. Until the literal sun teleported into the training ground. My head whipped to the person immediately.

"Naruto, right?"

Neji Hyuga stood in front of me. He wore the normal Jounin outfit, navy blue ninja pants, navy blue form fitting long sleeve shirt, Konoha green flak jacket, and fingerless gloves. His headband was on his forehead.

This Neji was not the Neji of the anime, that much was obvious. This Neji had such bright chakra, that I could have sworn I could see it coming off of his form. That was of course, an exaggeration. My senses were just going crazy being around someone with more chakra than the Hokage.

"Could you please reign that in?" I asked, as politely as I could.

Neji tilted his head at the question, before it clicked. All of a sudden, the sun in my face was a dim lamp, smaller than my own chakra. "Sorry, you don't meet a lot of sensors." Neji said.

Now that I wasn't concentrating on his chakra, I could see him properly. Neji did not have his hair straight down, as traditional Hyuga did. It was up in a ponytail. I estimated that it didn't even fall past his shoulders when not in a ponytail. This was a completely different person.

Everything clicked in my mind.

Neji Hyuga was the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox, Kurama.

In the anime, Neji was an immense talent, easily being the most promising ninja after Sasuke and Naruto. But he was also broken by the death of his father and being in the Branch Family of the Hyuga.

Had becoming the jinchuriki caused the Hyuga clan to treat Neji differently? Had they treated him like the savior he really is?

All I knew is that the man before me was probably fourteen years old with the chakra of a Kage and the confident gait of a jounin. And the entire time he had the Byakugan activated.

I had so many questions.

Had he begun trying to tame the nine-tails chakra? How was his childhood? How powerful was he?

Is he the protagonist?

"To answer your question, I am Naruto." I confirmed, deciding that I had left his question unanswered for long enough. "And you must be Neji Hyuga." I said.

"Yes, that is right. I hear you have my old sensei?" Neji asked. Apparently we were going to play twenty questions till everyone else showed up.

"Gai-sensei?" I asked, curious.

"Ah, I see he hasn't mentioned me." Neji said, as his head hung a little low. "It is no wonder, I suppose."

"I'm going to ignore the urge to ask what happened between you two." I said, a little uncaring of whatever Neji was alluding to. "You are on Kakashi's team?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Yes. Tenten and I got moved from Gai's team with Sasuke. My uncle threw a fit, to answer your unasked question. He felt Gai was holding me back." Neji answered.

I wanted to tell him that I didn't ask.

"Well, it worked out for me. Gai has been great." I said, trying to lighten the mood. Why was Neji insisting on telling me about this drama?

And why was his uncle an idiot? Gai would thrash Kakashi if they went all out. He would die at the end of course, but he would thrash him. Neji's progress would most definitely not be hindered under Gai's tutelage.

"That is good to hear." Neji said.

Sasuke's familiar chakra approached, and I turned in the direction he would stop in his shunshin.

"Sasuke." I greeted as soon as he was near.

"Loser." He said in return. I won't lie, it miffed me a little.

"Spar?" I asked immediately as I heard the insult.

Both of them looked a little taken back by the question. It was so …casual and almost practiced. Of course that was because of my indoctrination from Gai and Lee. Sparring was a good thing for Team Ten. It was also a great way to punch someone you didn't like in the face and get away with it.

"Hm, I suppose I could use a warmup." Sasuke said with a cocky grin. This world's Sasuke was just as bad as the anime, I suppose.

"Good luck Sasuke." Neji said as he walked over to a tree and sat down with his eyes closed. I saw the veins on his temple and realized he was watching us very closely, even if it didn't look like it.

Dojutsu are fucking broken.

"Won't need it." Sasuke said as he walked a little ways away from me.

I stood up, and followed him while stretching along the way.

"Keep it friendly, you two." Neji said from his meditative position.

"Would you call it for us?" I asked.

At the same moment, I felt Sasuke's chakra shift in his body. I didn't have to look to know that he had activated the Sharingan. I looked anyway.

Of course he's already activated it. I have a feeling this world is nothing like it's supposed to be. I couldn't help but think.

"Begin."

I ducked, as I trusted my senses. Sasuke hadn't moved, but his chakra had. Truth be told, it wasn't that fast either.

I flushed my system, while lashing out in a textbook kick. The world shifted, revealing that I was in a genjutsu.

Damn sharingan.

Sasuke avoided my kick and then we were a flurry of movement then. Two punches, followed by a kick, were sent my way. I read the combo like a book and during the kick I twisted while lashing out with my foot again.

I connected with his upper thigh, and immediately went on the offensive. It was nothing flashy, just the first combo that Gai taught us. Apparently Sasuke had never seen it before, because he was unprepared.

His speed was a problem too, just as it was in the anime when he faced Lee. I was simply faster. Not by a wide margin, just enough to render his sharingan useless. Although I did it knowing that he would copy the move and I could never use it again against him.

I scored a hit on his ribs that made him wince and my foot connected with the forearm he rose to block it. Just like my fight with Lee, Sasuke folded like a mop.

"I think that's enough." Neji said from his position on the ground. His eyes were still closed, but he saw everything.

I was so busy paying attention to Sasuke that I only just noticed the two other chakra presences in the clearing. Kakashi's was the familiar feeling of refined ozone. The other was unknown. When I turned my head to look at the newcomers, it became apparent that it was Tenten.

"Impressive Naruto." Kakashi said with an eye smile. I'll never know how one can show such emotion with just an eyeball.

"Thanks, Kakashi." I said with a nod towards him. "Although I didn't know he had the Sharingan." I admitted.

"He shouldn't have used it, truth be told. Apparently showing off is more important than survival." Kakashi said with a nonchalant glare at his student.

"Fluke." Sasuke muttered as he got off of the ground and dusted himself off.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise." I said, referring to his Sharingan.

"It was a nice showing." Neji said as he approached the rest of us. "From both of them. Naruto was just ready for the genjutsu, and Gai has obviously been teaching him well."

Kakashi looked at Neji, who stood at almost the same height. "High praise Neji." Kakashi said with a look that asked a question I couldn't decipher. I decided to ignore it.

"Why don't you go get us a C-rank. It's time for Sasuke here to stretch his wings. I'll join you in a little bit." Kakashi said, casually dismissing his team.

"Hai." The three of them said in unison, before they disappeared in a shunshin.

There was a small silence, while Kakashi just stared at me. His eyes danced around my form, curious.

"How many times did you defeat Sasuke in the academy, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. He stiffened slightly, and I couldn't help but take notice.

"No more than twice." I answered. "And none in our last two years." I added to be a little more precise.

"Hmm. You really have made good progress then." Kakashi commented. "And now you are already on to elemental manipulation. One might brand you prodigious if you weren't careful."

I didn't let the emotion show on my face, but that disturbed me slightly. Why say that, Kakashi?

"I work hard, so that I don't die." I told him, as truthfully as possible. "And that I might carve a path out for myself in this cruel world."

There was literally no lie in those words. Although one could say my motivation should have been 'for the glory of Konoha' or something ridiculous.

"I see. Well I have been instructed by our dear Hokage to teach you a little more than elemental manipulation. That is why I sent my team away. I can't allow some of them access to the Shadow Clone Jutsu too early." Kakashi said.

His eyes locked on to me then, looking for something. He was suspicious of me.

Luckily, I was able to channel my incredulousness and surprise into my next question. "The what jutsu?" I asked a little too silly.

Kakashi stared at me, then. It was obvious to me that he was looking for me to slip up about something. I frowned at him, as I realized that a normal Genin would note his behavior. Did he want me to call him out on his shit?

"Am I being interrogated?" I asked, as a pissed off twelve year old might.

"Not yet." Kakashi said.

And just like that, a switch turned off in Kakashi's mind and his posture returned to normal.

"I take it, you have never heard of the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

Just like that, I tricked an Elite Jounin of Konoha, by acting my age.

A/N: Boom!

Decided to do a little more writing on this story and realized I was close to a normal length chapter for myself. So I figured I'd end it here and post it to see what you guys thought.

We got a little interaction between Gai and Naruto about the killings from the last chapter. We got a spar between Sasuke and Naruto to show where he stands amongst his peers. Obviously it's near the top, although it might not stay that way.

AND WE GOT NEJI.

Jinchuriki Neji at that. What a massive reveal, honestly. I was nonchalant about it, but it is so huge for this story, not gonna lie.

What did we think about it?

Let's talk about it in the reviews!