– The Rounin Ni –
#00—No Home Waiting
Naruto (age 5) is able to sneak out of Konoha at a young age. He finds his way to a port city and stows aboard a vessel. When he arrives in Mist Country, he attracts the attention of a retired Kumo-nin. The ninja decides to train Naruto in the ways of the ninja because he didn't want Naruto's potential to get wasted. When the old ninja is assassinated by a team of Hot Springs ninja (he killed their genin sensei), Naruto (age 7) escapes and is able to make his way north. Eventually, he arrives in Snow Country. Once there, he manages to talk some of the Yuki-nin into further training him. Sadly, when the tyrannical warlord, Doto, learns of his 'illegal' training, he sends out assassins. Their official reason was to kill the 'rebels' who are attempting to 'rekindle the fires of resistance'. Angry at Doto, Naruto vows to avenge his dead teachers when he's one day strong enough. However, he is still driven out of the country by the Yuki-Anbu.
Tired of the extreme cold, Naruto (age 8) travels south again. He decides to return to Konoha for a short time before moving on. When he arrives, it was two days after the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto hears of the massacre and that only one child had survived. Because he knows what it feels like to lose someone important to him (his sensei and friends), Naruto decides to pay the survivor a visit. He finds Sasuke in the Uchiha district, walking through the rain. Naruto approaches him and is able to get him to start talking. After relating his own experiences to Sasuke, Naruto decides that the best thing for Sasuke to do is to get out of Konoha for a short time so that he may recover sooner. When he explains his goal of being trained by every ninja nation in the world and becoming the strongest ever, Sasuke decides to accompany Naruto simply because he believes that he could benefit from that type of training. It was rather difficult, but he and Sasuke were able to sneak out of Konoha. Before anyone realized that Sasuke was missing, they were already making their way east to Water Country.
For the first few months, Naruto trained Sasuke in various taijutsu, ninjutsu, and chakra exercises that he'd been taught. Though they were roughly equal in taijutsu, Naruto far exceeded Sasuke in physical strength, chakra potential, and stamina but Sasuke had the edge in mental and physical flexibility, strategy, and agility. When they arrive in Water Country, they frequently find themselves under heavy suspicion by the villagers and ninja alike. It wasn't until they witnessed a Bloodline Riot and massacre that they realized just what was going on. Naruto and Sasuke were able to save a small family of bloodline users who quickly went into hiding. However their actions earned them immediate observation from the Kiri-nin. They find themselves being hunted by genin and Chuunin teams night and day. Finally, after six weeks in which they'd mastered water walking, they'd decided to leave Water Country for Nagi Island (age 10). Unfortunately, they weren't able to get away without a fight against a vicious genin team. During the fight, Sasuke's Sharingan activated and Naruto unleashed the Kyuubi for the first time. Though they managed to win the battle and escape, word of a mysterious pair of boys quickly spread through the ninja world.
As they journeyed through Valley Country, Sasuke and Naruto were able to purchase a pair of chakra paper to determine their respective alignments. With the aid of his Sharingan, Sasuke was quickly able to stock up on numerous Katon, Raiton, and Suiton jutsu. But because they didn't know any Fuuton, they decided to journey to Sunagakure to find Naruto a teacher. While they were there, they were able to watch as several ninja trained by pretending to be a pair of civilian children. However, their presence was closely watched by several ninja without their knowledge, including the Kazekage, Gaara, and Baki. Suspicious of these two children, the Kazekage sent Temari and Kankuro to meet and watch over them.
When Naruto meets Temari, accidentally insulting her and getting knocked out because of it, he falls head over heels in love with her (much to Kankuro and Sasuke's amusement). Naruto is thrilled to learn that Temari is also a Fuuton user and begs her to train him in the basics of Fuuton jutsu, which she reluctantly accepted simply to shut him up. Sasuke immediately suspects that they're being watched, but he figures that they're not in any real danger as long as they don't make any aggressive moves. When Kankuro introduces them to Baki and their father (pretending not to be the Kazekage), Naruto lets it slip that they're just traveling the world in hopes of learning everything to one day become the strongest in the world and that Sasuke's looking for revenge. However, when Gaara turns his attention upon Naruto and Sasuke because their great level of skill for their young age, they are ordered to leave Sunagakure before Gaara loses control. Naruto would've stayed, but Sasuke dragged him away; Naruto left yelling his eternal love to Temari and hopes of meeting her again one day in the future (creeping Temari out and amusing everyone else).
Next, they went to Rain Country for a little combat experience due to its state of civil war. Naruto and Sasuke (age 11) decided to fight on the side of the revolutionaries and were able to help bring them several minor victories before being captured. Hanzo the Salamander was vicious and unrelenting in his attempts to extract information from them about the revolutionaries' whereabouts, strengths, and resources. However, they didn't know any of that because they had only fought in a couple of random battles that just so happened to be taking place in their area. Hanzo had quickly decided to kill Naruto and breed Sasuke because he knew that the boy was an Uchiha. Learning of their intended fate, Naruto unleashed the Kyuubi again and fought back ferociously with Sasuke's help. They had managed to cause a big enough commotion that Pein and Akatsuki were able to march right into the capital almost unopposed. With Akatsuki's unexpected arrival, Sasuke and Naruto were able to escape Hanzo (who was killed in the following battle) and rush out of the country.
Their next stop was the new village of Otogakure (age 12). During their time there, they quickly attracted the attention of Orochimaru. Orochimaru was overjoyed to realize that his goal of acquiring the Sharingan had just become incredibly easier since the last remaining Uchiha he could go after had just walked right into his den. And he'd brought the lost Kyuubi Jinchuuriki with him to boot! After a small introduction between them, Orochimaru was quickly able to interest Sasuke in receiving his Hebi-Sennin training. To further entice the boy, Orochimaru decided to brand him with a curse seal after he determined that Sasuke could survive the implant process and later boosting it up to level two. For Naruto, he informed him of the source his 'special chakra' being the Kyuubi and then he created a special sealing chamber that would help Naruto gain further control of the Kyuubi to increase his power exponentially. He even taught Naruto how to create Kage Bunshins.
The two of them trained in Oto for several months, growing by leaps and bounds that amazed even Orochimaru due their friendly rivalry. Meanwhile, Orochimaru was busy planning his invasion of Konoha and manipulating Suna into helping. When Naruto and Sasuke heard rumors of an impending invasion of their old home, they decided to not have any participation in it. They knew they couldn't stop Orochimaru (yet) or alter his invasion plans. But they were able to get him to bring them to Suna for the 'alliance discussions', an opportunity that they used to meet up with their old friends and sensei. Naruto was positively overjoyed to see Temari again. When he learned that they would be participating in the Chuunin Exams, Sasuke and Naruto decided to at least attend to watch.
When the Final Exam started, they were seated up in the audience (Naruto loudly cheering for Temari). However, when the attack came, they quickly helped escort the Suna Trio out of Konoha and safely into the forests. Despite being followed by several Konoha-nin (Shikamaru, Sakura, Tenten), the five of them had gotten a safe distance away before Gaara lost control of the Ichibi. He started attacking Naruto and Sasuke in a desperate attempt to finish what he'd desired to start months ago. Working together, the two of them were able defeat Gaara/Shukaku with Naruto supplying the chakra needed to summon Manda and Sasuke being able to get close enough to wake Gaara up before the sand could catch him. After being able to get Gaara to change his mindset, Temari and Kankuro were able to help Naruto get them away before Shikamaru, Sakura, and Tenten could capture them. Rather than return to Oto, Naruto and Sasuke escorted the Suna Trio to the border and then returned to their wanderings of the lands.
During their wanderings, they stumbled upon a fight between the Sannin. They watched the fight from a distance, with Sasuke's Sharingan copying everything he could. It was during this battle that Sasuke figured out how to form a Rasengan. After a bit of self-training, Sasuke was successful in his recreation of the jutsu. When Naruto learned of his new jutsu, he'd begged Sasuke to teach him it (which he did just to shut him up). Eventually, Sasuke told Naruto about the 'incomplete' form of the Rasengan and they decided to try to create a finished version. After much trial and error, they made a breakthrough when Naruto started applying his Kage Bunshins to the creation process. They were able to create their own respective versions of Rasengan; Raiton: Rasengan and Fuuton: Rasengan. They even went a step farther and created a combined Raiton/Fuuton: Rasengan.
Feeling strong enough for his own vengeance, Naruto decided to finally return to Snow Country. Learning of a team of Konoha-nin that was heading to Snow Country to escort and protect a famous movie star, the Rounin Ni was able to sneak aboard before the ship left port. They weren't discovered until shortly before the battle on the iceberg. Much to their annoyance, the team was Neji (Chuunin), Tenten, and Lee. When they learned of Yukie being actually Koyuki-hime, they decided to continue their mission regardless. In Snow Country, Sasuke was finally able to put some of Naruto's earliest teachings into practice and he gained a new level of respect for them. Despite Naruto being captured and Sasuke stuck with Team 9 in trying to infiltrate the castle, they were still able to lure Doto out and fight him at the Rainbow Glacier. Team 9 was completely outclassed against Doto's improved Chakra Armor, but Naruto and Sasuke easily overpowered it when they used their Raiton/Fuuton: Rasengan on it and killed Doto as a result (the fight scene would later be included in the newest Sky Princess movie). Afterwards, Koyuki finally took her seat as the leader of Snow Country and Team 9 was celebrated as heroes along with the Rounin Ni. But rather than get stuck accepting awards and medals, Sasuke and Naruto left as soon as they received a small payment for assassinating Doto (they hadn't even finished healing before leaving).
Realizing that they were attracting too much attention to themselves, they decided to go into hiding for a short time so that they could train and increase their individual skills. They journey to Wave which was their chosen destination. After ridding the country of Gato (Tazuna was killed when the Konoha team discovered his deception and left him unguarded when they returned to Konoha, the bridge was never completed), they set about their specialized training. Sasuke was focusing on increasing his chakra potential, Sharingan powers, and mastering his CS2 abilities. Naruto tried a different approach of drawing in nature chakra on himself to increase his power even more without relying on Kyuubi.