Hey people. this was an old story I made around Christmas last year, but I didn't have the confidence to upload it at the time, so I forgot about it until now.

Unfortunately, I'm now working on a different fic that I'm much more interested in and proud of, so this isn't going to get updates from me. if anyone wants to adopt it, or whatever the technical term is, then pm me and I'll give the ideas I had written down, whether you want to follow them or not is up to you. Hope this proved enjoyable.


Naruto was sitting on the swing outside of the academy. His mind was in a state of complete disarray and sadness. The girl he had a crush on, Sakura Haruno, had just rejected his offer for lunch and insulted and berated him just for thinking that she would be willing to eat with him.

Flashback

"Hey Sakura, do you want to eat lunch together?" Naruto asked.

"Why would I want to eat lunch with you, Naruto?"

"I just wanted to hang out with you. So do you want to?"

"Like I would ever hang out with an idiot like you. You're just an annoying loudmouth who won't shut up about a stupid dream you'll never achieve. Besides, even if you weren't so stupid, Sasuke's way cooler than you, and you could never even compare to him at all."

Hearing the rant that was just spat out at him, Naruto just hung his head and started to walk away.

Flashback End

It was still lunchtime for the students, but Naruto had lost his appetite. He was feeling completely empty at the moment. The girl he had liked turned out to be just like the rest of the village. They all hated him. They all hurt him, and it now seemed that Sakura was no exception.

Naruto sat in silence for a few minutes, reflecting on what Sakura had said to him when he heard a voice.

"Um, a-are you okay?"

Naruto looked up to see a girl his age walking up to him. The girl was wearing a light purple vest like jacket, similar to his own orange one, over a white T-shirt with gray shorts. Wiping away a few tears he didn't realize had formed, he noticed her dark lavender hair accompanied by pale white eyes that didn't seem to contain pupils.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay. I just had a bit on my mind, is all." Naruto responded, finally speaking up.

"I-is it about what Sakura s-said to you?"

"Yeah, I guess. Um, your name's Hinata, right? I think I've met you a few times."

The girl's face grew a bit red at Naruto's question but answered, "Y-yes. You s-saved me from a few bullies a c-couple of months ago."

"Now that I think about it, we met last winter as well, right? There were some guys picking on you 'cause of your eyes, I think."

"Y-yes, that was me. Th-thank you for your help back then."

"Oh! Do you still have that scarf I gave you? I know it was pretty messy, so I wouldn't be surprised if you threw it out."

"N-no, I've kept it." Hinata answered, her face growing reder by the minute. "I-it was a really nice gift, s-so I've kept it in my room since you gave it to me."

"Wow, really? Thanks!"

Before Hinata could respond, a bell sounded signaling the end of lunch.

"Sounds like we have to get back to class now.'' Naruto said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"It would s-seems so." Hinata replied also a bit disheartened. As Naruto got up and started to walk back, Hinata steeled her resolve, hoping to get closer to the boy who had helped her so much.

"Um, N-Naruto, w-would you m-maybe like to sit t-together in class?" Hinata stuttered out her blush enveloping her entire face.

Naruto turned around a bit surprised by the question but quickly answered. "Yeah, that'd be great!"

Classroom

Iruka started to take roll as most students had returned to the room. As he went further down the list, he eventually read out, "Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka turned to the seat next to Sakura, which Naruto usually occupied but was annoyed when the seat was empty. His response then turned to confusion when he heard a voice reply saying, "Over here Iruka sensei."

When Iruka looked to where the voice came from, he was left confused, Naruto was sitting at the back of the classroom next to Hinata. He knew about Naruto's crush on Sakura but decided to think about it later, starting the lecture for the rest of the day.

As Iruka finally finished his lecture, class was dismissed for the day. As class ended, Naruto realized his hunger was catching up to him. He had completely forgotten about lunch because of Sakura and was now left starving. Before leaving, however, his mind thought of something else.

"Hey Hinata, I'm going to go grab a late lunch. Wanna come?"

Hinata turned to the blonde as her face immediately went red. Quickly answering for fear of passing out, she nodded before standing up to follow him.

As the two left the class, Iruka was once again confused. Naruto had rarely talked to Hinata and earlier that day he was sitting with Sakura the girl Iruka thought he had a crush on, but suddenly was sitting next to Hinata and asking her if she wanted to get something to eat with him.

Deciding to try and figure out what happened that caused the drastic change in behavior, Iruka started gathering his stuff before heading out to the one place he knew Naruto would go to eat.

As Naruto and Hinata entered Ichiraku Ramen, they were greeted by a middle-aged man wearing an apron named Teuchi.

"Good to see you, Naruto. Who's this? Is she your girlfriend?" Teuchi asked, a teasing tone in his voice.

Hinata instantly went red at the comment and started looking at the ground intently. Naruto gained a small red tint on his cheeks but managed to reply in his normal voice.

"No, she isn't. I wanted to talk more, and I was hungry, so I figured she might want to join me."

Teuchi laughed a bit at the response he got. "Anyway, what will you have?" He asked, handing Hinata a menu.

"I'll just take my usual miso pork order." Naruto said.

"I'll have the M-Miso chicken ramen, please." Hinata answered.

As the two sat down, Naruto asked Hinata about herself.

"If you don't mind Hinata, could you tell me about yourself? We don't really know all that much about each other, ya know?"

"W-well, I like sweets, gardening, and my little sister Hanabi. I enjoy training with the members of the branch family of my clan as long as no one gets too injured. I-I dislike people who hurt others without reason and those who treat others like they're beneath them. If possible, I want to unite the two branches of my clan."

"Wow, that's really cool. But why is there a branch family in your clan? I haven't heard of any other clans doing that."

"My c-clan is a unique case." Hinata replied, disheartened. "M-my clan calls itself traditional, but most would call it o-oppressive. The branch family is required to serve the m-main house, and if they step out of line, they are punished severely using the c-caged bird seal."

"Oh. Are you a part of the branch family?"

"N-no I'm part of the main house but most of the main house d-doesn't like me because I'm not very good at our taijutsu style."

"That's a stupid reason to not like someone." Naruto retorted. "By the way, what was that caged bird seal you were talking about? It doesn't sound very good."

"It isn't. It is used to keep the branch family in check by causing incredible pain to whoever has the seal when a main branch member activates it. The excuse that the elders use to keep it is that it keeps our byakugan safe by destroying our eyes on death or forced removal."

Naruto was left speechless at the explanation. He hated the idea of being controlled and oppressed just because of a seal.

"Hinata, you said you wanted to unite the two families, right?"

"Yes. I-it is my dream to allow my whole family to live in peace together." Hinata replied, more conviction in her voice than Naruto had heard from her.

"That's really awesome, ya know? I want to be Hokage one day, and along the way, I'll make sure to do everything I can to help you change the Hyuga clan." Naruto declared, causing Hinata to blush heavily.

"Th-thank you, N-Naruto." Hinata whispered.

A few moments later, the flaps of the ramen stands were disturbed, causing both Naruto and Hinata to turn around and see their teacher.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"The same reason you two seem to be here." Iruka replied, seeing Teuchi place two bowls of ramen in front of his students.

Naruto immediately whipped around and started devouring his ramen. Hinata too turned to start eating, and while she seemed to be eating slower, she was somehow keeping up with Naruto's monstrous pace.

"Ah, that was delicious." Naruto sighed.

"Indeed, it was quite good." Hinata said, agreeing with the blonde.

"Well, now that I've got some food in me, I'm gonna go train a bit, so I'll see you both tomorrow."

As soon as Naruto left, Hinata got up from her seat before addressing her sensei.

"I need to go too, Iruka-sensei. My father is free today, s-so I must be home soon for my own training." Hinata said, bowing before leaving the ramen stand.

Iruka watched Hinata leave and sighed to himself. He had hoped to talk to Naruto, but he ate way too fast for Iruka to interject. Deciding for now to just eat, he ordered his ramen.

As Naruto walked to the back hills, he was pondering what his new friend had been talking about. 'The caged bird seal. I think there were some books on 'sealing' at the library that time that Gramps Hokage took me. I wonder if those books say anything about it.' Deciding he had time for a detour Naruto ran to the library.

Upon his arrival, Naruto attempted to enter the library but was stopped by the receptionist.

"Get out of here, you brat, I thought I made it clear you're not welcome here the last time." The receptionist growled out hatred obvious in his voice.

"I don't care if you don't want me here. I'm a citizen of konoha and am allowed to be here whether you like it or not." Naruto said with a smirk.

The man attempted to walk up and grab Naruto, but before he could, Naruto dashed off using speed comparable to most chunin when casually running. Realizing he couldn't do anything at the moment, the receptionist just walked back to his desk, muttering about 'the demon child'.

When Naruto was sure he escaped the man, he started looking for the area he had been when the Hokage had last brought him. Quickly locating the correct section, Naruto soon found what he was looking for. He found a book titled 'All About fuinjutsu' hoping it might contain details of the caged bird seal he opened the book and started reading.

As he started to skim the book, his mind started giving in to its prankster side, thinking of ways he could use seals to prank both his class and village. Deciding he was sufficiently curious, Naruto grabbed a few more beginners' books on seals.

After filling out the paperwork to borrow the books, Naruto tried to leave only to be called out yet again by the receptionist, who was now accompanied by two other men.

Realizing he was likely outmatched, Naruto ignored them and quickly made for the exit. As soon as he was out the door, the blonde jumped to the rooftops of nearby buildings and started heading for his apartment.

As soon as he entered his home, Naruto sighed in relief, feeling safe within the walls of the apartment complex. Moving to his couch, Naruto sat down and continued reading the book he had started earlier.

To his own surprise, the book turned out to be fascinating. The more Naruto learned about fuinjutsu, the more determined he became to learn it.

'Well, this book said it's really hard to learn this stuff, so as much as I want to jump straight to those explosive seals, I would probably just get myself killed. Seems like the best place to start are these storage seals.'

A mischievous grin immediately overtook the blonde's face, thinking of all the pranks he could pull with them.

Realizing he needed supplies, Naruto found he had a dilemma. The easiest places to buy what he needed were civilian shops, but almost the entire civilian population hated him. The few who sold the boy anything drastically increased the prices, making Naruto rather poor.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. If the village wouldn't sell to him, then he just had to be a different person. Naruto quickly locked up his apartment and darted towards the Hokage tower.

When Naruto arrived at the Hokage's office, he knocked on the door excitedly.

On the other side of the door, a faint rustling and grumbling was heard before a small thunk that sounded like a cabinet closing. After getting permission to enter, Naruto opened the door to see the third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi behind his desk with three large piles of paper in front of him.

"Ah, Naruto, it's good to see you. I'm sorry it's been a while since I've been able to visit you. Unfortunately, this blasted paperwork limits my free time quite a bit." Hiruzen greeted.

"Hey, old man! You won't believe how awesome today has been! I made a new friend and I found some really cool books on fuinjutsu!"

One of the old Kage's eyebrows shot up. Of all the topics he suspected, Naruto might be interested in sealing, which was just about the last one.

"Fuinjutsu, eh? That's certainly a difficult art you've picked up. Would you mind telling me why?"

"Easy." Naruto exclaimed, a mischievous smirk on his face. "Think of all the pranks I could pull just using storage seals. Plus, the advanced stuff sounds so cool! Imagine being able to paralyze someone's limbs just by touching them! That's not even mentioning explosive tags!"

Hiruzen's face quickly turned to horror as visions about the villagers' complaints started to flood his mind.

"Okay, Naruto, but please don't take your pranks too far. I don't need complaints about unsolvable fuinjutsu from the civilian side of the council." Hiruzen said a bit of desperation in his voice.

"Aw, you ruin all my fun." Naruto said while fake pouting.

"Anyhow, you said you made a new friend, right?"

"Yeah, her name's Hinata, and she was really nice. She's super smart and she even ate lunch with me!"

"Oh, do you mean the Hyuga heiress?" Yes, if I remember correctly, she is rather different from the rest of her clan."

"Yeah, she said something like that too. Wait, that isn't why I'm here!" Naruto exclaimed, remembering the reason he came to the Hokage.

"Then why exactly did you come here, Naruto?" The Hokage asked.

"I wanted you to show me the hand seals for the transformation jutsu. I would ask Iruka-sensei, but he would just tell me to wait 'till we learn it in the academy."

"And why exactly do you want to learn the transformation?" Sarutobi inquired.

"Well, you know how a bunch of stores won't sell stuff to me?" Naruto asked with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"Yes. I'm truly sorry I couldn't help you with that. Sadly, the stores do have the authority to make their own rules as long as the rule itself isn't discriminatory, so they say they have the right to refuse service to anyone. Because this doesn't target a specific group, it's legal, and I can't do anything without infringing on their rights." Hiruzen explained.

"Huh. Well, anyway, if they don't think it's me, then they won't kick me out, right? That's why I want to learn the transformation jutsu."

Sighing, Sarutobi decided that Naruto could use a bit of help, especially in his home life.

"Alright, I'll tell you how to do this one, but you will have to learn it by yourself. If I helped you to learn jutsu, it would just be favoritism, and my council would likely throw a fit over it."

"Okay, then, how do I do it?"

"The hand seals are dog, boar, ram. After that, you want to mold your Chakra around you and think of the image you want displayed."

"Okay thanks Gramps I'm gonna go practice!" Naruto said before quickly leaving the tower to return home.

"I will never understand how that boy has so much energy even with what's inside him." The elderly kage sighed.

As soon as Naruto got back to his apartment, he started practicing the transformation jutsu. After a few attempts, he was able to transform, but it wasn't how he wanted it to turn out. After four more hours, Naruto decided he had made a decent enough transformation to fool civilians.

Using his new technique, a poof sounded out as a small smoke cloud enveloped the blonde. When it cleared, a young girl with blood red hair emerged. The girl had her hair in twin tails and wore a black T-shirt with a red swirl design on the back along with dark blue pants.

Quickly leaving his apartment, Naruto, under his new disguise, left to gather the supplies he needed to get started on his fuinjutsu training.

When Naruto arrived at a nearby store, he quickly moved over to the art section of the store to find the ink and brushes he would need. When he arrived at the aisle, he quickly grabbed a set of brushes, a bottle of ink, and multiple blank scrolls. Walking up to the counter, the disguised blonde put his items in front of the cashier and started to pull out the small amount of cash he had left.

As the cashier registered the items, the red-headed girl in front of him put a small stack of cash on the counter. After the man nodded to him, Naruto quickly grabbed his items and quickly dashed out of the store.

As soon as he was out of the store, the boy quickly moved to a nearby alley, and his transformation dispelled.

"Crap that was close. I thought it was going to pop any second there. I need to work on the stability of it more." Naruto thought out loud.

"Either way, though, I got the stuff, time to go practice." he said with a satisfied grin.

Excited to practice, the blonde raced home with a huge smile on his face. As soon as he entered his apartment, he promptly gathered his tools. Setting his items around him, Naruto turned to the page he had previously been reading.

'Let's see, write the kanji set on the paper.'

After writing out the character listed in the book, Naruto immediately found himself with another dilemma. His handwriting was rather poor, and the kanji he wrote only looked vaguely similar to how it looked in the book. Deciding to see what would happen, Naruto read the next step.

'Next place the object you want stored over the paper. I guess I can just use one of these brushes. I doubt I'll need all of them anyway. Okay, now push chakra into the edges of the kanji.'

Doing as instructed, Naruto was confused by what he was left with. Half of the brush he placed on the scroll was now sticking out of said paper as if it were a part of it. Attempting to pull it out, the blonde was surprised when the brush wouldn't budge at all. Looking to the book for an answer, he found something that might work.

'Release seal by channeling chakra into the middle of the kanji. Maybe that'll work?'

Attempting to release the seal, he channeled the chakra only to be hit in the forehead by the brush being launched out of the paper. Going back to the book to see what went wrong, Naruto was irritated at what he read next.

'Note: the kanji must be at least near identical to the one used in the example. Calligraphy exercises are at the back of this book, but more specific books are recommended.' The note read. "Are you fricking kidding me?! Why the hell would you put that at the bottom of the page?!" Naruto shouted indignantly.

"Guess I might as well start on these calligraphy exercises already. Man, this is sounding like a pain now. At least the end result should be really cool."

Spending the next few hours honing his writing, Naruto quickly fell asleep when he laid down at eleven. Waking up the next morning, Naruto made his usual breakfast ramen and glanced at the books on his table from the previous night.

'I guess I should take one of these to school. Most of those lectures are pointless, so I might as well be productive with the time. As much as I hate these writing exercises, they did help, and I need to do them if I want to get to the fun stuff like explosives.'

After eating, Naruto picked up one of the blank scrolls and the book he was using to practice his writing.

"Guess I should head out now." The blonde said to himself.