Chapter 2: Meeting the Princesses

It was the winter after I had just turned five that I finally met her. Hinata Hyūga. "Oh my God she's just so adorable! By my honor as a former weeb I vow to love and protect my favorite Naruto 'waifu' from this moment on!" - Ahem, sorry about that. Anyways, I was walking around the village on a snowy evening and stumbled upon a crying Hinata just crouched in front of a streetlight, hugging herself as she wept. It was then that I remembered that Hinata's mom died shortly after Hanabi was born. So, me being the gentleman *Cough* Weeb *Cough* that I am, decided to approach my fair maiden and listen to her woes.

"Um, hello. Are you alright?" I said as I walked up to her and crouched down to be at eye level with her. She looked up at me, somewhat startled by my appearance, before she just started to tear up again. I got up and held out my hand before saying "Come Lady Hyūga, let's go somewhere a little warmer so that you don't catch a cold." I then gave her my red scarf so that she could be a little warmer before I took her hand and walked over to where the hot springs were, since it was always warm there.

After we had arrived at the springs, I sat down next to her and said "You can talk to me, ya' know? Sometimes doing so makes us feel better." She remains quiet for some time, and then says "M-My name is H-Hinata." I look at her and smile, "That's a really pretty name, ya' know? My name's Naruto" She then looks at me for a moment before she giggles, "Y-You mean like the r-ramen topping?" I swear her cuteness is lethal. I, unbeknownst to me, blush at her giggle and at her question. "Uh... no, it means, 'maelstrom'. Although I did think it was because of the ramen topping at first." I grin at her, and she responds with a short giggle and a small smile. "I... my mom..." She starts and sniffles, the word 'mom' sounding more like a whimper. "She... she died today." I forgot how awkward it feels for me to comfort people. So, I did what I thought would be best and just hugged her. Not a strangle-hold, but a reassuring embrace to let her know that she can let it all out. And so, she does.

I don't know how much time passed, but she cried her beautiful, kind, and gentle little heart out on my chest as I embraced her, caressing her short navy-blue hair. Then after she finished, she said "I-I'm sorry...I bet you think I'm weak too..." She starts to sniffle again. Oh Hiashi, you really do suck at parenting my guy. "What? No way Hinata! It's ok to cry if you're sad. Showing emotions isn't weakness at all!" I tell her firmly but kindly. "I get where you're coming from. My parents died a long time ago, and I sometimes still cry when I try to remember what they were like." Which is true, I'm a very emotional dude. "So, take it from me, having and showing emotions isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign that you're human, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!" I finish passionately. I then look at her once more and see her eyes shining with what I can only surmise to be joy and admiration, before I continue. "If you ever need someone to talk to, or you simply just want to hang out, come to this address, or come find me at either the library or Hokage Tower in the mornings. I'm always at a training ground during afternoons and evenings." I hand her a little piece of paper with my address that I had made specifically for when I met Hinata. She takes it and smiles "T-Thank you Naruto-kun."

After that, I grab her hand and start taking her to her compound.

It's fuckin' huge. That's the best way to describe it honestly. Traditional Japanese architecture with beautiful gardens and stone walls surrounding it. I was mesmerized by it. Then we arrived at her front door, and I let go of her hand. "I guess this is where I leave you for today Hinata-chan. I hope we see each other again soon." I give her a kiss on her forehead and step back. She seems to be blushing rather fervently, but is able to respond, "T-Thank you for e-everything Naruto-kun. I... I hope to see you again soon as well." She smiles at me and bows slightly before she turns around and heads inside. I stand there for a moment with a small smile thinking of how to best help Hinata with her confidence issues when we next meet, before turning around and running back to my apartment.

Sometime after meeting Hinata, I came upon my second least favorite person in the show... Uchiha Sasuke. I don't know what I dislike most, the fact that he was still treated as a shinobi of the village after defecting, Sasuke just being a certified unstable nutcase for most of the series, or the fact that Kishi had Naruto just obsessing over the guy like a fangirl, when their relationship was neutral at best. At no point in the series does their relationship flesh out to the point where they can actually call themselves friends. Reluctant rivals, sure, but friends? And more to the point, best friends? Absolutely not. I call bullshit and rushed writing - probably the editor's fault. But I digress.

I was walking through the village one afternoon after having some ramen at Ichiraku's when I saw Sasuke walking around town with Mikoto. I honestly don't know how to feel about her. She was my mom's best friend, but she's made no effort to try and connect with me, now or in the original with Naruto. So, I'm split between not giving two shits or...well actually that's about it, I guess. I don't really lose anything by not having her around, nor do I gain anything.

So, I decided to just let it be and kept walking to the training ground to continue my meditation and chakra control exercises. I'm up to ten leaves for about 90 minutes total, all while actively walking on water. Fairly substantial progress considering I've been at this for about a year and a half give or take. I'm nowhere near good enough to start learning the 'Chakra Scalpels' which I plan to someday integrate into my taijutsu just like Kabuto, but satisfactory progress, nonetheless.

A few months later, it's my sixth birthday and I decided to take a trip to the Hokage Tower because I had something I wanted to ask the Old Man about.

I walked right up to the Old Man's office and knocked on the door. After being told to come in, I closed the door behind me and sat in the comfy chair the old man had in front of his desk and said "Hey Jiji, how's the battlefield today?". He smiled and lit his pipe. "Naruto, my boy. What brings you to my office this late in the day?" I noticed that he failed to answer my question, as has become the custom. "I was wondering if you would happen to know anybody that could help me in taijutsu practice." At this he raised a brow, asking for further clarification. "You see, I noticed that while I may know how to throw a punch or a kick, I don't know how to effectively defend against said attacks because quite simply, I need a sparring partner to get that experience." He took a puff off his pipe and nodded with an affirmative grunt. "I can see where you are coming from. But tell me, is that all you really wanted to ask?" He says with a knowing smile. I suppress the urge to look away and give him a sheepish smile. "Well...uh... you see..." I stammer for a few moments trying to find a way to say what I want before I just decide to go balls deep. "I met this really pretty girl that comes from a very demanding clan and has confidence issues. And I was hoping I could help her with her training. But I realized that as much as I've trained and gotten a good grasp on the basics, I've never sparred with anyone, or had any actual formal training with someone else to know what to do to help her." I blurt out in two breaths because I damn near turned blue with the first one.

At this he smiles and gives me an appreciative look. "So, you wish to help the girl?" he asks, and I nod. "Why do you believe sparring will help her confidence?" At this I was taken aback. I hadn't really thought this through all that well. "Wait... I'm starting to notice a pattern here..."

"Well..." I begin. "Giving her an appropriate outlet to air out her worries and grievances while also motivating her whenever she makes mistakes or doesn't do well would help anyone increase their self-confidence. Being encouraged instead of ignored or belittled would help anyone out." At this he raises an eyebrow. "And how do you know that this is what she is experiencing? Has she told you about this?" Ah, busted. May as well come clean. "Um...well...uh... no. Not really...It's just that uh. I just wanted to check up on her, ya' know? And I maybe, sorta, kinda sneaked into her compound to see her and I saw her training with her father." I look to the side, embarrassed that I had to come clean about my totally not stalking - stalking of Hinata-chan.

He smiles for a moment before he replies. "Well, I don't have anyone that can train you in particular. But if you were to say... stumble upon an old man doing his morning stretches at the top of the Hokage monument at the break of dawn... then I see no reason that you shouldn't be able to get a few tips and pointers here and there." He says with a nonchalant tone while adding some tobacco to his pipe. I give him a big grin and say "Thanks Jiji." "You're very welcome, Naruto. Now, is that all you had for me?" He asks. "Umm, I did want to ask if I could maybe get some training scrolls. There isn't much else left for me to study at the library anymore haha" I laugh nervously. At this he looks at me incredulous. "Naruto, you mean to tell me that you have read every single shinobi related material available to civilians within the villages library within the span of three years?" He says and I can just feel the incredulity rolling off him in waves. I chuckle nervously before I start, "Uh, no. I've read all of that, plus all of the history related material. I even started reading up on medical textbooks because I had read anything else of interest. Including the basics of survival, hunting, carpentry, sewing, cooking, outdoor survival, and economics. The only thing I'm really holding up on is politics, but I don't want anything to do with that for some time yet." I finish and notice him looking at me like a had a third head, because apparently, I missed the look for the second while I spoke.

"Naruto... I find that rather hard to believe. Do you have any way of proving this is true?" Ah, and here we are. The first test of my character and preparedness to be a shinobi. I laugh and say, "Yup. I've got my library cards right here." I grab them from my small backpack that I always carry around with me, and hand them over to the Old Man. "I also have all of the notebooks and scrolls filled with notes back at my apartment in a super large sealing scroll that Jiraiya left for me. I can show it to you if you want, ya' know? Actually, it's been a while since you last visited. Let's have a tea ceremony!" I exclaimed at the end. "I learned a good one from spying on this pretty girl with purple hair and an exhibitionist fetish." I finish and saw the Old Man try and fail to hold in a laugh at me description of Anko Mitarashi. I swear, whenever I finally do start getting wet dreams, that woman is gonna be the first to visit them.

"He nods and says, very well Naruto." He coughs to try and keep his chuckles hidden. He fails. "What time would you like to start this tea ceremony?" He asks, testing knowledge of the craft. "Hmm. Well, the one I like most is effective in the mornings after some rigorous exercise. So... tomorrow?" I reply and get a silent and appreciative nod. "About your earlier request though..." He pauses for a moment. "Once I see those notes you mentioned, I may be inclined to allow certain scrolls to come your way." "Thanks, Old Man" I say getting up to my feet. "I'll see you tomorrow then." I say as I head out the door.

"Morning stretches my ass! That was fucking intense!" The Hokage may be old, but he is in no way a slouch when he is training. By the sage I felt like I was in the final battle with Madara Uchiha and Kaguya Otsustuki. Thank the Sage for this early wake up call, because I gotta be honest, I thought I was pretty hot shit when it came to taijutsu. Sure, I'd never sparred, but I have the imagination of a crackhead on Cocaine and LSD at the same time when I train. Just goes to show how useless shadow boxing becomes when you have to face higher level opponents. Thankfully I wasn't too beat up. But my everything was sore and I knew that I would be feeling that the next morning.

After finishing my round of internal bitching and whining, - with a suspiciously dark chuckle rumbling in the back of my mind - I went straight to my apartment and took a cold shower before getting dressed and preparing everything for the ceremony. I also took out the large storage scroll I had asked Jiraiya to make for me so that I could keep all of my belongings safe should anything happen to my apartment by any chance. After making sure that everything was set in place, I decided it was a good idea to practice my 'Mind's Eye of the Kagura' ability. Another difference from the original, is that I have actual Uzumaki abilities. Whereas the original Naruto had absolutely none of them. I swear, the original Naruto got shafted in so many ways it's not even funny.

I remember it happened sometime after I had managed to successfully enter Kurama's seal for the first time. I was meditating when all of a sudden, I feel like I can see a whole bunch of different chakra signatures all around me. All with different intensities, colors, and characteristics. I was so excited that I dropped my meditation and started to run around in my room cheering. After that I started to practice using this ability more and more until it became instinctual to do so. I don't have to concentrate to activate it, but I do need to concentrate if I want to check anything beyond a one-hundred-meter radius from me with any amount of discernable detail.

I searched around for any chakra signatures of note within the village and found Kakashi, Guy, Anko, Yugao, the Old Man, Itachi, and Danzo all milling about the village. I zeroed in on the Old Man and Anko, since they seemed to be travelling together towards my apartment and noticed that Anko felt nervous and somewhat excited. The Old Man felt a large sense of relief - probably because of his distance from the ever so dreaded Paper Dragon - and pride? I wonder why that is.

After a few moments I deactivate my ability and start heading to the door. Once I feel them about to knock I open the door and welcome them in. "Hey Old Man, thanks for coming over!" I greet enthusiastically, while Anko just gives me an incredulous look. "Of course my boy. I wouldn't miss it. Let me introduce you..." He says turning towards Anko and motioning towards her with his hand. "Naruto Uzumaki, this is Anko Mitarashi. Anko, this young man here is quite the tea connoisseur, and has a love for tea ceremonies, much like yourself. I brought you here to rate his skills and to hopefully get you two acquainted." I nod with a smile while she just gives me a skeptical look. She does, however, respond with, "Sure thing Lord Third. But isn't he a little young? Who taught him?" To that he responds simply, "Ah, my dear. You would be surprised. Now, let us head in, shall we?" I hold open the door for them and guide them to the living room where I have everything set up. After everyone is seated in their appropriate spots, I begin the ceremony without further delay.

Three hours later, Anko is looking at me like I gave her the best birthday present ever. "Wait... I just realized that the only character whose birthday I know is Naruto's." I resist the urge to smack my forehead and ask her, "So, uh... how did I do?" She stops gushing and looks at me seriously. "Who taught you this ceremony?" "Shit, I knew this would backfire!" I yelled in my head. Again, there was a suspiciously dark chuckle emanating from the back of my mind; which I dutifully ignored. I give the Old Man a look that he ignores in favor of inspecting his pipe for any damages. "Damn you Old Man!" I curse, which is followed by more dark chuckles.

"Well... uh... you taught me..." I finish lamely with an intelligible mumble. "What was that?" She asks, not being able to understand what she just heard. "I... uh... I said that you taught me..." I look to the side with my cheeks burning ferociously. Because you see, the thing about Anko's tea ceremonies is that more often than not, she does them fully nude. And while I in my six year old body can only appreciate her image so much, it's still embarrassing for her to find out that she's had someone peeping on her at her house. I'm totally not doing it because I'm hoping for a harem that includes her in some form. No, I just want to preserve the image for posterity, ya' know? I'm totally not a pervert. I am just a healthy young boy with an abnormal admiration towards the female figure. Nope. Not a pervert. At. All.

For a solid five minutes she just looks at me, eerily quiet. She then gets up from her position at the tea table and comes closer to me and sits right next to me. She remains quiet for another five minutes before finally, "How long?" At this I was rather confused, but I surmised that she was asking about how long: a) I had been peeping on her; or b) it took me to learn the ceremony. I went with my gut and went with option b. "Uh... about two weeks give or take. I needed to buy most of the pieces and learn how to move fluidly for each of the parts." She hums for a moment and nods. "I wouldn't mind teaching you some other ceremonies then. Just be sure to nock first." She says while giving me sweet smile that quickly turned predatory. "And one more thing..." She comes close enough to tickle my ears with her breath and starts caressing my inner thigh. "You're lucky you're still a brat. Or I would have had to punish you for being such a little pervert." She says whispering in my ear. "Maybe in a few years I can give you a private show... if you want one" She whispers finally before biting my earlobe and giving me a kiss on the cheek, then a small brush of her lips with mine while she caressed my cheek. Finally, she gave me a small warm smile and got up. "Thank you for inviting me, Lord Third; and thank you for the ceremony, Naruto. I'll be seeing you soon." She says and leaves, her hips swaying slightly, and closing the door to my apartment after her.

... Silence...

"What was your other answer?" he asks me. "Tch, figures he'd know my thought process by now." I thought bitterly. I stay silent for a few minutes just to make sure that Anko's chakra signature is well beyond my immediate range. "...Two months." I stated simply. He grunts, "Smart move." with a nod. "Indeed." I respond.

We remain in silence for about another thirty minutes, enjoying the view from my apartment before he says, "You had something to show me?"

"Ah, yes. Here you go." I say, reaching behind me and handing the old man my scroll. "I've got everything I've learned written down, and I also wrote down my conclusions to any open-ended statements or questions expressed for most of the subjects. Some conclusions are also more of a straight-forward explanation or description of things I felt were too wordy or difficult to read from the texts. I also made sure to have everything organized by subject matter and in alphabetical order, along with ordering it in difficulty ranking where applicable." I explained to which he just nodded thoughtfully and started going through my notes on shinobi subjects, before heading to my world and shinobi history notes.

About three hours later he stops and looks at me. "Naruto, my boy, this is astounding!" He exclaims excitedly with heavy amounts of pride coming off of him in waves. "These notes are meticulously organized and structured. I also have to compliment you on your calligraphy. It's near impeccable. I see you've taken what you learned from your mother's journals to heart." He says with a warm smile and with a ruffle of my hair, which I always have cut short in a military style fade with no more than an inch and a half in length. I smile a bit and ask, "Does this mean I can start learning my clan's techniques?" with my 'Puppy Dog Eyes Jutsu' in full effect. He smiles before he states, "Before we agree to that I want to measure your chakra reserves and the amount of control you have, since many of those techniques require very large amounts of chakra and the more control you have the more likely you are to use only the required amount of chakra, so that you do not exhaust yourself prematurely." A reasonable request, I'm not one to deny solid logic like that.

"Alright... But I'm telling you that I have a ton more chakra than I used to, so don't be surprised." He chuckles and he pulls out the chakra measuring device from a storage seal on his robes. "Very well then, do you remember how this works?" He asks. "Yup!" I reply and use the machine. After a few beeps and bops, it reads CP: 450. He looks at me with his mouth agape. "Naruto, just what kind of training are you doing?" he asks. "What do you mean Old man? I've been doing the same training you gave me when we last measured my chakra. I've added more reps and sets of different exercises for my physical body, and I've been meditating and reading a bunch. I also do this thing where I concentrate on my chakra flow and compress it into a sort of sphere and spin it really fast in the direction my chakra naturally flows in. Cool huh?" I say it like that's the most normal thing I could say.

He seems to wonder for a moment before asking, "Naruto, who taught you that last bit?" "Hm?" I respond with a visible question mark on the top of my head. "The spiny thing?" He nods. "It was in one of the books I was able to find in the library. It looked pretty old so I thought that it might have some really good insight, ya' know?" I continue with a half-truth. "I see..." He responds thoughtfully. "Where is this book?" He asks. "It's in the library last I checked. But that was about a year ago give or take." "Hm." He responds and says, "Very well, your chakra capacity is astounding for your age, so if your control is anywhere half as good as I think it is given your training then I shall hand over some scrolls, along with your clans techniques." "Really?!" I jump and exclaim excitedly. "How do we measure my control?" I ask, eager to get some new study material. "Normally..." he begins, "I would have you try a chakra control exercise, however that might take longer than we would want. Instead, we can use this device to do it for us. It measures your smallest output and compares it to your total reserves. After that it defines your control based on how small a burst of chakra you can create compared to how large or small your reserves are and gives you a ranking ranging from 'E' - it being the lowest - to 'S' - it being the highest." I nod at his explanation.

"Alright then, let's see here." I stick out my tongue and bite it with my lips as I go through the steps. The machine then beeps and displays:

CP = 450, KR = Low B Rank

CP : Chakra Point

KR : Chakra Control Level

I look at the machine with pride at having such good chakra control with such massive reserves for my age. The Old Man, however, was looking at the screen incredulously. "Naruto, what kind of chakra control exercises are you doing currently?" he asks, still staring at the machine as if waiting for an error message. "hehe... I uh... well... um. I can stick 30 leaves to my body for about 125 minutes while simultaneously walking on water in one of the rivers by the training grounds." I finish my explanation and he looks at me as if trying to justify my apparently absurd progress. "I see..."He pauses for some time, mulling over what to do I assume. "Do you know of the 'Kunai Balancing Exercise'?" He asks. I respond, "Yes, but I don't know of a safe way to do it in case the kunai gets blown away. I'd like very much to not get stabbed during training if at all possible. So, I haven't tried it yet."

He hums in thought for a moment and says, "I will get you some blunted kunai so that you can continue your training that way. I will also be giving you most of your mother's scrolls for you to train with." He then elaborates. "I expected you to reasonably have Mid to Low D Rank chakra control. But you have once again surpassed my expectations with Low B Rank chakra control." He looks at me before continuing, "Therefore, I have deemed you ready to start reading through and trying to learn your mother's techniques. You have shown that you are capable of thinking like a shinobi, by training and accomplishing so much while in plain view with no one the wiser, and not advertising your progress."

"I will be bringing the scrolls tomorrow in the morning if you wish to accompany me for some stretches." He says with a mile-long grin, after a brief moment of silence. I look up at him and accept his challenge. "Bring it on, Old Man!" I do a proud pose and point at him with a fire in my eyes. It's at this point that I hear it for the first time in this life, and I won't ever forget the Old Man's reaction for as long as my soul remains. "Youth!" for a moment, I'm captivated by the fiery passion ingrained in those words, next thing I know, the Old Man is shaking me and yelling something. It takes me a moment but I'm able to understand him, "Naruto, don't listen to it! Stay with me, boy! Stay with me!" I nod and it's then that I see the horrified look in his face melt into one of relief. Now, normally I would ask what that was in a cutesy manner, but in all honesty even I'm not that heartless.

I then decide to wait for the Old Man's heart rate to go down before asking, "Hey Old Man, I read that you were called the 'Professor' because of your incredible knowledge of the shinobi arts, and because you were able to master all five basic nature releases, along with all non-clan techniques in the village." He nods, seemingly surprised that I knew this. "Did you also ever create any techniques of your own? Would you teach them to me someday?" Queue 'Puppy Dog Eyes Jutsu' at full blast. Here's hoping I can get the 'Shadow Clone Jutsu' somehow.

He nods and with a fond smile, as if remembering days long past. "Ah yes, indeed I did. I was inspired by one of my Sensei's techniques and created my own. As for teaching them to you, well, I don't see why not. But I think we should wait up until after you've joined the academy." I pouted at that last part, which made him laugh. But I didn't push the issue further. I was going to get what I wanted anyways, so I shouldn't be in too much of a hurry.