Disclaimer: Naruto and all the anime characters in this story is not mine, credit goes to their respective creators.
Warning: Yaoi, Yuri, Bashing
Summary: What if Naruto was more active in training instead of waiting for someone to train him? What if Naruto stopped obsessing over Sasuke and focused on training? What if Naruto stopped relying on his mouth and relied more on action? What will happen in the shinobi world?
Chapter 1
A blond and blue-eyed boy looks in annoyance at his jounin-sensei who once again favors Sasuke, but not him.
He is fed up with all the injustices he has found in this village, but he knows that he is too weak to get out of the village, his experience fighting Zabuza and Haku last week has shown that.
The boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto, the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko who attacked the village many years ago until he is hated by the majority of Konoha's citizens.
'If I'm not mistaken, Haku can use ice, right? I don't know, but it seems that I have to find out' thought Naruto, then he groaned, he didn't like to read, but it seemed that the only way he became stronger was to read books because Kakashi was practically useless.
Naruto knew that he could not enter the library because the library guard would drive him away until he got the idea, which was to use Henge.
Naruto disguised himself as a chuunin and went to the library, correct to guess, he could enter the library that he had been unable to enter.
He immediately went to the Shinobi section and started reading about Chakra, the Nature of Chakra, and Changes in Chakra. He was so late in his reading that he didn't notice that the sun was beginning to set. He only realized when the librarian patted him on the shoulder and told him to get out.
'So... I think I should buy chakra paper now' Naruto thought, he got information that to find out the type of chakra a person needs, special paper made from a special Tree called Shinjuu Root is needed.
Still, with his henge, he went to enter a shop selling shinobi tools that used to forbid him from entering it. He bought a piece of chakra paper.
He got information from the book that burning paper means that the chakra is fire, if the paper is wet, it means that the chakra is water, if it is destroyed, it means that the chakra is earth, if it shrinks, it means that the chakra is lightning, and if it splits, it means that the chakra is wind.
After channeling chakra, Naruto found that the paper was split and wet, indicating that he had two elements, namely the wind element and the water element.
Naruto is quite happy with this because he knows that Haku's ice element is a combination of wind and water elements, he is also likely to use ice elements if he practices chakra control properly.
The next day, Naruto returned to the library, this time he read about chakra control, it turned out that one way to facilitate chakra control was with Kagebunshin because the bunshin would send the information he got to the original body, he almost screamed when he knew it.
'Why don't I know this' Naruto thought exasperatedly, if he knew so, he would use kagebunshin to speed up his training. He then shook his head, it was useless to regret it now.
Kakashi did give the team seven weeks of vacation to rest, even though he knew that Kakashi was training Sasuke secretly which made him hate his Jounin-sensei and his teammate even more.
Naruto went to the Ninjutsu section to read about wind jutsu and water jutsu, which he needed to add to his jutsu repertoire which he was very lacking in this regard.
Today, Naruto came out of the library a little late in the day and practiced in the unused training field.
There are several Fuuton and Suiton techniques that Naruto copied to the scroll he carried. More precisely, five Fuuton jutsu and five Suiton jutsu, namely Fuuton : Toppa (Breakthrough), Fuuton : Fujinheki (Wind Wall), Fuuton : Kamaitachi (Cutting Whirlwind), Fuuton : Kazekyu (Wind Ball), Fuuton : Reppushou (Wind Style: Wind gale), Suiton : Suijenheki (Water Wall), Suiton : Mizukagami no Jutsu (Water Mirror), Suiton : Mizu Shuriken (Water Shuriken), Suiton : Kirigakure (Hidden Mist), and Suiton : Mizuame (Rainwater).
Naruto immediately made a lot of kagebunshin to improve his chakra control before he started practicing elemental ninjutsu. He intends to complete this chakra control training quickly so that he can practice ninjutsu and become stronger so as not to be underestimated again.
What he didn't know was that Kyuubi who was sealed in his body stared approvingly, after all he was the strongest bijuu, and being sealed in a weak person was an insult to him, even Mito and Kushina who were Naruto's mother were much stronger than Naruto at his age, although Naruto didn't know that.
'It's also good that Uchiha is a stepping stone for Naruto,' thought Kyuubi who went back to sleep.
A week later
After a week, the team of seven was assembled by Kakashi in the training field seven. Of course, he will be late again for three hours, which irritates Sakura and Naruto.
"YOU'RE LATE," Naruto and Sakura shouted to Kakashi.
"Mamama... I brought you good news," Kakashi said.
"What's that? C-class mission again?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Better"
"B-class mission?"
"Even better"
"A-class mission?"
"Better"
"S-class mission? Yatta" Naruto shouted excitedly.
"Even better"
"There is anything better than the S-class mission?" asked Naruto puzzled.
"Here," Kakashi said, handing three paper forms to the team of seven.
"What is this?" asked Sakura curiously.
"This is a letter to take the chuunin exam that will be held next week" Kakashi said explaining to the surprise of all the members of the team of seven, even Sasuke who was specially trained by Kakashi did not know this.
"Really? Yatta' Naruto said excitedly. If he becomes a chuunin, it means that he no longer needs to team up with Sasuke and Sakura, meaning he will be free from people who treat him like trash.
"Yes, yes, yes... I have to report now and tell Hokage that the team of seven is willing, don't be too late next week," Kakashi said, who then disappeared with a shunshin.
'I have to learn that' thought Naruto jealously, moving that fast would definitely come in handy, oh ironic indeed, considering Naruto himself was the son of the Fourth Hokage who was the fastest shinobi ever.
Training
Team seven was once again ordered to rest to prepare for the chuunin exam that would be held in a week, even though Naruto knew that Kakashi was back to train Sasuke personally, Naruto himself was not interested in knowing what Sakura was doing, because he knew Sakura didn't care about him, his training and learning caused all these changes, although the changes were not too obvious because it was difficult to change human nature.
Naruto once found himself in the library. He intends to increase his jutsu repertoire, although it seems difficult to find wind jutsu, especially strong ones, considering that there are very few wind element practitioners. But, for water jutsu, quite a lot, because many people in Konoha are capable of using water jutsu.
Naruto also copied other techniques outside of elemental jutsu such as shunshin, kage shuriken, shuriken bunshin, and other techniques that he thought were important to have.
He returned to training on the rarely visited field, where he had trained before.
It's not just Naruto who is practicing, Sakura is also surprisingly practicing.
"What? Why?" asked Sakura, incredulous of her father's words.
"It's a pity... Believe me, some people die in the chuunin exam, you insist on participating, that's why you have to be strong enough to survive" said patriarch Haruno.
"Why should it be me? Naruto-baka should be the one training, he's the weakest in the team," Sakura said glaring looking at her father.
"It's not about the Uzumaki boy, but rather about you, what if that Uchiha boy and the Uzumaki boy fight with other shinobi, while you are not awake, you have nothing to do but the three basic academies" said Haruno Kizashi finally angry.
Sakura was furious, but she just kept silent.
"You have to follow my words, otherwise, I won't allow you to take the chuunin exam" Patriarch Haruno said leaving Sakura speechless for a while.
"Who will be my sensei?" asked Sakura. She was curious about the shinobi her parents paid to train her. She hopes that it is worth her time, her precious time to pursue Sasuke-kun will be lost because of this practice.
"The one who will become your sensei is Takagawa Ami, a civilian-born chuunin" said Haruno Kizashi, asking his wife to call Ami who had been waiting outside.
"My name is Takagawa Ami, greetings, Sakura-san" a woman with shoulder-length hair said to the only woman in the team of seven.
Sakura's training began.
"Do you know what your element is, Sakura-san?" asked Ami to which Sakura's piggy bank replied, she didn't know what the element was.
"Please flow your chakra to this chakra paper... If it burns, it means your element is fire, if it is wet it means water, if it shrivels it means lightning, if it splits it means wind, and if it is destroyed, it means your element is earth," said Ami, handing the chakra paper to Sakura, who immediately did it.
It turns out that Sakura's chakra paper was destroyed which shows that her element is earth.
"Earth, huh? Good job, there are many earth element users in Konoha, although of course most are in Iwa, but still, there are quite a lot of them... Moreover, my elements are earth and fire," Ami said.
"Look, Sakura-san, the earth is slow, but at the same time the earth is solid so the earth element is suitable for defense and manipulation of the terrain," Ami said.
Ami then shows Sakura one of the most famous earth element techniques, Doton: Doryuuheki aka Mud Wall.
"Do you understand now?" asked Ami, whom Sakura was considering.
Sakura begins training under Ami's guidance.
A week later
The team of seven finally arrived at the location of the chuunin exam. They arrive on the third floor, although they are blocked by previous genjutsu and several incidents. Naruto now wears a maroon-colored jacket that he bought using a henge, surprising everyone who knows him, including Hiruzen who is watching through the observation crystal.
An invigilator named Ibiki explains the exam system which surprises them all, especially Sakura and Sasuke who feel that they will fail because the stupid Naruto will not be able to answer all these questions well.
"START," Ibiki said.
After two full hours of tension, the supervisors have taken out fifteen teams at this time. Until, it was finally time for the tenth question which Ibiki used as a trap for them, but thanks to Naruto using his charisma, people could continue the chuunin exam without having to be fooled by the trick of the tenth question.
TRANK
The broken window glass shocked all the participants who took the chuunin exam, a purple-haired woman walked in.
"Nanda... You're getting flabby, Ibiki" said the beautiful woman. She is Mitarashi Anko, Tokubetsu Jounin from Konohagakure who is nicknamed the mistress of snakes.
"My name is Anko, I am the invigilator of the second stage of the chuunin exam... Follow me to the Death Forest" said Anko who had the chuunins who were watching escort the participants to the Death Forest.
In the Death Forest, Anko begins to explain the mechanism of the second stage of the exam where participants must seize the earth or sky scroll that is the opponent of the scroll they have and bring it to a tower in the middle of the forest in no later than five days.
"One more... You have to sign this," Anko said, handing over the approval papers to take the second stage of the exam.
"What paper is this?"
"This is the paper on which you agreed to take the second stage of the chunin exam, if you die, Konoha will not be responsible," Anko said in a horrible tone that gave the participants goosebumps.
"What about food?" asked Chouji.
"This is a forest, you can find your food..." Anko said indifferently, to be honest, she doesn't care about the participants dying or not, from Konoha or not, if they die, it means they are weak and unfit to be a Shinobi.
The second stage of the Chuunin exams began, and the participants began to enter the forest of death.
"Wouldn't it be better if we looked for opponents and took their scrolls?" asked Naruto confused which made Sasuke and Sakura sigh.
"Dobe... We should go to the tower first and grab the scroll from the exhausted team" said Sasuke which Naruto didn't accept.
"But that's cowardly" argued Naruto which made Sakura's forehead twitch, how could a class dobe call Sasuke-kun a coward, she didn't accept it.
"Naruto-baka... This is called intelligent, not stupid... Didn't you see Rock Lee's strength that he showed earlier?" Sakura said which made Naruto grumble even though he didn't answer Sakura's words which made his two colleagues sigh, finally the class dobe fell silent too.
Actually, this strategy came from Kakashi who wanted his three genin, even Naruto, who he didn't like, to pass, so that he could brag about himself as a great sensei in front of the other jounin-sensei. Kakashi told Sasuke beforehand that this chuunin exam was a team test so all team members had to pass and reach the tower, there was no better way than to ensure victory by cheating, after all, deception was the basic art of shinobi.
What they don't know is that this has changed the future from when they were initially attacked by Orochimaru in the middle of the forest, Sasuke was bitten and marked with a cursed seal which led to Sasuke leaving the village to train with Orochimaru.
Team seven was now near the tower after traveling for five hours, they were monitoring enemy movements from behind the bushes.
Team seven managed to defeat a team from Kusagakure easily, the Kusagakure team was not alert so they were defeated easily, team seven became the first team to complete the second stage of the exam, surprising Iruka who came out of the scroll.
"Welcome to the tower... You have reached this stage well... However, there are too many of you to take part in the final exam which will take place next month, that's why your number will be reduced in the preliminary round which will take place soon," said The Hokage surprised them all. He then handed over this session to the supervisor, namely Gekko Hayate, who was a jounin who was a ninkenjutsu aka shinobi who used a sword.
"Whoever wants to surrender, is allowed to surrender," said Hayate. Kabuto gave up this session because he thought his chakra was running out.
"Okay... The first match is Sabaku Temari against Higurashi Tenten," said Hayate who made the two participants named come down to the field.
"Start"
The match started. Tenten immediately attacked Temari with her weapons which she took out from the scroll, she used explosive tags to obscure Temari's vision, but, unfortunately, it would not be useful for Temari, who is a user of the wind element.
"Fuuton : Toppa (Wind Release : Breaktrough)"
All the dust caused by Tenten disappeared instantly which surprised the bun-haired girl.
"Dragon Dance"
Tenten immediately took out a long scroll which released a hail of weapons at Temari who just snorted.
"Fuuton : Kamaitachi (Wind Release : Cutting Whirlwind)"
All of Tenten's weapons immediately flew, even Tenten's scroll was also slashed, Temari's wind slashes didn't stop, and even Tenten was affected by the attack. Tenten's body was torn apart and fell right into the handle of Temari's giant fan.
"The winner is Sabaku no Temari"
The next match began which surprised everyone, namely Uchiha Sasuke against Hyuuga Neji. The two people grinned, they thought that this would be an easy victory.
When the match started, Sasuke drove towards Neji quickly imitating Lee's movements which made Lee furious, his Sharingan moved here and there tracking Neji's movements, and Neji tracked Sasuke's movements which were fast with his Byakugan.
'Found it' thought Neji, he immediately ran quickly towards Sasuke after finding Sasuke's weak point, but that was the moment Sasuke had been waiting for.
"Katon : Hosenka (Fire Release : Phoenix Flower)"
Neji, who was a short distance away, was immediately hit by Sasuke's fire attack. The man who was one year older screamed in pain when he felt his body suffer burns, but he didn't give up.
He immediately attacked Sasuke with his technique.
"Jyuuken Hakke : Rokujoyonsho"
Soft fists repeatedly hit Sasuke, and Neji finally fainted from the pain, as did Sasuke who fainted while flying when his tenketsu was forcibly closed by Neji.
"Draw Match," Genma said which shocked everyone in that place, especially Gai's team, as well as Kakashi and Sakura, they didn't expect that the person they were proud of and considered strong would be declared a draw.
The next match was Rock Lee against Uzumaki Naruto which made Kakashi drip sweat, there was no mistaking that Lee would win easily, especially since Naruto didn't have the skills of a Shinobi.
"Start"
Lee started running towards Naruto quickly, when Lee was about to hit Naruto's body, Naruto used shunshin and kicked Lee which surprised every one because of his speed, especially Hiruzen who knew that the speed that Naruto had just shown was equivalent to Shisui who was nicknamed Shunshin no Shisui.
"Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Water Release : Hidden in The Mist)"
Suddenly the arena was covered in fog, Kakashi and Sakura were shocked by what they saw.
'Where did Naruto get that jutsu?' thought Kakashi narrowing his eyes.
Lee, who saw this fog, tried to get rid of it by moving around very quickly, but the fog that disappeared was immediately replaced by another fog.
"Suiton: Gosuikondan (Water Release : Five Water Sharks)"
Suddenly five water sharks formed behind the fog and started attacking Lee who was overwhelmed because this was his first time fighting in the fog.
"AAAAA"
Lee shouted through the mist causing Gai to stiffen in the audience. He immediately went down to save Lee. The fog finally disappeared after Gai intervened directly, revealing Lee's body which was covered in wounds and Naruto who was surrounded by water sharks.
'You have improved, Naruto-kun' thought Hiruzen proudly.
"The winner is Uzumaki Naruto" announced Hayate. He then continued the match to the next match.
The next match is between Haruno Sakura and Nii Yugito from Kumogakure.
"Start"
"Doton : Iwa Shuriken (Earth Release : Earth Shuriken)"
Sakura immediately created shuriken made of dirt and attacked Yugito with them. Yugito, who is agile, is able to avoid Sakura's attacks.
"Katon : Gokakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release : Fire Ball)"
Yugiito immediately uses the fireball jutsu to attack Sakura.
"Doton : Doryuuheki (Earth Release : Mud Wall)"
Sakura immediately created a mud wall to prevent Yugito's attack from hitting her, but that was what Yugito was aiming for, the blonde girl attacked Sakura from her blind spot.
"Raiton : Ikazuchi no Kiba (Lightning Release : Lightning Fang)"
The lightning element fang hit Sakura which made the pink haired girl scream in pain. Not only that, Yugito also kicked Sakura's head until it hit the wall.
"Enough... The winner is Nii Yugito" said Hayate stopping Yugito's attack which made the blonde girl snort.
Kakashi was annoyed that two of his students failed, while the student he thought had failed managed to qualify for the final round, this was unexpected.
The match began until only 12 people remained, namely Uzumaki Naruto from Konohagakure, Nara Shikamaru from Konohagakure, Nii Yugito from Kumogakure, Kurotsuchi from Iwagakure, Aburame Shino from Konohagakure, Kinuta Dosu from Otogakure, Sabaku Temari from Sunagakure, Sabaku Kankuro from Sunagakure, Sabaku Gaara from Sunagakure, Fuu from Takigakure, Samui from Kumogakure, Inuzuka Kiba from Konohagakure.
They were then randomized. As a result, the structure of the match comes out like this:
1. Uzumaki Naruto vs Sabaku no Gaara
2. Inuzuka Kiba vs Nii Yugito
3. Aburame Shino vs Kurotsuchi
4. Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku Temari
5. Samui vs Sabaku Kankuro
6. Fuu vs Kinuta Dosu
"The final stage of the exam will be held in a month at the Konoha stadium, you are allowed to return now," said the Sandaime Hokage to which the participants nodded.
Under normal circumstances, Naruto would ask Kakashi to train him, but he no longer had hope in Kakashi, it was better to train self-taught than to be trained by Kakashi who never even trained him and only focused on Sasuke.
One Month of Training
Naruto trains in a training field that is rarely visited by other people.
"Tajuu Kagebunshin no Jutsu"
He then ordered his bunshins to prepare for a month of training. He had his clones use henge and spread throughout the world to add to his jutsu repertoire.
Meanwhile, he trained his chakra control, he wanted to be able to use Hyoton during the finals. He wants to prove that he also has his own advantages, not only Sasuke who can win by copying other people's jutsu with his Sharingan.
A group of Naruto's bunshins has spread, especially to Kirigakure which is the home of Suiton and Hyoton users, Sunagakure which is the home of Fuuton users, and Yuuki no Kuni which is the home of Hyoton users.
Hiruzen himself watched Naruto from his viewing crystal. He was surprised that Naruto didn't ask Kakashi to train him.
'Now that I think about it, why doesn't Naruto talk about his team' thought Hiruzen, he even saw Kakashi with Sasuke and Sakura occasionally, but not Naruto, he was afraid of his guess, even though his guess was most likely true.
'What are you doing, Kakashi? Minato will be very disappointed with your treatment of his son' thought Hiruzen. Maybe it was time for him to call Jiraiya back to train Naruto.
Not only jutsu training, he also trains physically, he has to admit that he is thin, eating ramen that doesn't have balanced nutrition and not exercising will cause malnutrition in everyone.
One of Naruto's bunshins found a summoning scroll which turned out to be a fox clan scroll which made Naruto's eyes shine, even though he didn't really like foxes because of what he had experienced, the summoned animal was still a partner who would be very helpful in the future.
Training continues
I don't like Kakashi too much, because I think Kakashi is a bad teacher because of the favoritism he shows, as well as his lazy attitude makes the team of seven not develop, different from Guy who can train Lee who does not come from a Shinobi family and has a broken chakra coil able to grow rapidly to be on par with Neji.