His eyes opened, thes e boy tried to see anything beyond what he saw. He strained his eyes to see if there was anything else to work with beyond the endless field of warm sand and the pillar of light at the center. The sand stretched for miles in each direction, yet the pillar of light remained at the center of his view no matter how much he tried to shift his vision elsewhere.

It was filled with colors between the blue-green range. Blue, teal, green, turquoise, light blue— name them. Yet at the center of the pillar – which was at the center of everything here – the colors merged to form a white beam that went into the star-filled sky.

Some lights stretched out from the pillar, or should he say, moved and merged into the pillar. The best way he could think of them was like branches. They were bluish, a lighter shade than the dark blue of the skies upon which they traveled, and they were a sharp contrast to the bright white stars.

He gazed at the sand, tinged dark blue, and felt the grain's warmth seeping into his being, filling him with immense satisfaction. He did not know whether that was good, only that he smiled whenever he thought of it.

While he stood there, smiling idiotically at the ground, he heard footsteps. He perked up, the motion making so much noise that the footsteps could not be heard. Once he calmed down, he

stared at the root of the pillar, where the footsteps seemed to be coming from.

At first, there was nothing to see apart from the light that was starting to hurt his eyes. He focused his vision – and it was surprisingly easy – and he swore he saw a dark spot in the light. Again, he squinted his eyes; true enough, there was a shady spot.

A shifting dark spot, like a person moving either towards him or away from him.

With that realization came energy, and he began to run. He almost stumbled on a mound of sand, but he corrected the mishap and picked up pace. The more he ran, the more he realized how far away from the light he was.

The thing was so enormous that looking at it made it seem like a hundred meters away. Running towards it, however, made him notice that the light was at least ten kilometers away.

He stumbled to a stop. Ten kilometers?

He sighed, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he fell back on his buttocks in shock. What had been a long distance away from him was suddenly so close that he could feel its warmth. He stood up and stretched out his hand until he felt he could reach a millimeter more and touch it.

"You should not be here, brat," a voice said behind him.

It was a deep voice that made him feel like he had been caught doing something he was not supposed to do. He immediately retracted his hand and placed it behind his back as he turned to face the speaker like he had been caught with the hand inside a cookie jar.

"Wha—"

"You shouldn't be here," the speaker repeated, still a dark figure to the boy's eyes despite the light.

The speaker extended a right hand; index finger stuck out. The finger landed on the boy's forehead, a sudden, powerfully overwhelming force registering to him before he blacked out.

Chapter 1: Naruto Uzumaki.
ANBU Headquarters.

The location of the most secure and one of the important structures in the entire Hidden Leaf Village – or any village for that matter – was in chaos. That was what the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi used to describe the situation he found in his subordinates' outpost.

The walls were painted with a bright pink color that could be seen even in the dark, and the floors had ball bearings that would have tripped anyone unaware of them. The bearings were just the beginning if one considered whatever slippery fluid had been smeared on the ground.

After managing to walk around the first disaster, Hiruzen could not resist the amused smile or the annoyed twitching of his eyebrows. The locker room had the same pink color on its walls and a slippery floor with ball bearings. The lockers were unlocked, revealing the pink clothes that replaced the standard ANBU uniform. There was also a receding stench of a fart in the air.

The small dining hall was an even greater disaster. Here the stench of a fart was prominent. Hiruzen turned his eyes to the ceiling, where thirteen groaning operatives were left suspended midair by the ninja wire whose glint his eyes could pick. More than thirteen plates were on the tables, more than twice the number of ANBU he could see present.

"Lord Third," a ninja groaned from the door.

The old man turned to the masked ninja. "What's going on here?"

"We were attacked."

"Where are the rest of the members?" Hiruzen asked, resisting the urge to light his pipe.

"Some are in the toilets," the operative said, collapsing against the door. "Others are chasing the perpetrator."

"What are they doing in the toilets?"

"Laxatives."

"Ah," the old man said. "I may regret asking this question, but who is the culprit?"

"You should know. It's..."

"Naruto Uzumaki!" A stumbling, masked man shouted in a high-pitched voice. "Get back here!"

Naruto ducked to evade a blunted kunai thrown his way. "You guys are too overrated!"

That got the ANBU guy to work harder to capture him. The man was fast; there was no question about that, but since he had to deal with slippery ground every five steps, he needed to gain more on Naruto.

Running in the manner taught in the Ninja Academy was awesome, Naruto realized. Leaning forward shifted his center of gravity ahead of him, using it to drag him along. Placing his arms against his sides meant reducing unnecessary arm movement, thus preserving energy.

An ANBU suddenly appeared in front of him. Naruto smirked and threw a sphere on the ground. It bounced twice before releasing a yellowish gas. In the smokescreen, Naruto jumped from the roof he was on and landed on the unusually vacant streets below. Even with the wind whistling in his ears, he could hear the man behind him screaming and coughing in outrage.

Naruto would have assumed that his blond hair and sky-blue eyes would have been enough to give away his position from the beginning of his 'attack.' He was wearing a bright pink outfit, for heavens' sake, and no one seemed to find him. Speaking of which, the blonde discarded his pink getup once he was certain there was no one in the vicinity. Replacing that was a much simpler outfit of black knee-length shorts, a white long-sleeved T-shirt and an orange hoodie with short sleeves. His feet had the care of blue sandals.

He chose to keep the mask on his face. He had more gas weapons that he could not afford to be caught in their hazardous effects. The alleyway Naruto was in led to a much busier street. He grinned and rushed towards the full streets, hearing the footsteps of approaching captors.

Before he could reach the other end, another ANBU ninja appeared, blocking the exit. He went into the pouch strapped to his waist and took out three pellets he dropped into the ground. Less than a second later, the whole pathway was filled with thick smoke that Naruto used to cover his escape. He directed a kunai upwards into the wooden planks holding the left building's roof. The ninja wire attached to the ring helped him rise, and he was again running on the rooftops.

Naruto immediately snickered as the ANBU black ops chased after him, not in their standard uniform but in bright pink ones that took out the element of subtlety required of them. They were stumbling over the roofing tiles, holding their aching stomachs in pain. It was just priceless.

A kunai landed right by his foot. The boy glanced at it, ready to laugh at the miss. He saw the paper tied to the circular end fluttering in the wind. The motion ceased, the paper began to produce smoke, and the squiggly lines faded. Before Naruto could move, chains burst out from the piece of paper and wound up around him faster than he could think.

His feet were tied up too tightly for him to be properly balanced to stand. Naruto fell to his side, smiling when four masked people and an extra unmasked old man landed on the rooftop.

The blond looked up, "Guess you got me, old man."

The office of the Hokage was a place Naruto had been to many times before. He could tell where everything was even while blindfolded. There was the Hokage's large table, the mark of their village inscribed on the front. It was always stacked with scrolls and papers awaiting the leader's signature. The walls had pictures of the previous Hokage, each Hokage's portrait clearer than the previous ones to show the different ages during which they served.

A large world map by the wall to the left, and white and red robes alongside the Hokage's hat on the right. Behind the Hokage's chair was a massive window overlooking the village.

Naruto sat on the ground, hands behind his back and legs tied by ninja wire. He could feel the quiet condemnation towards him given by those around, from the pink-clad ANBU to the two men standing by the Hokage's table. The two men were vastly different; the only thing they had in common was the admonishment in their eyes.

"So, Naruto," the Hokage started with a grave voice as if he were addressing a global threat. "Care to explain yourself?"

"What do you mean, old man?" Naruto asked. "There's nothing to explain. Unless you wanna know the secret of getting into the black ops' HQ undetected, which I don't think you do."

"You don't see the dangers of an Academy student discovering and infiltrating—"

"And pranking." Naruto interrupted, shrugging at the glares that fell on his person.

"—the most secure location in our village?"

"Most secure location in the village?" Naruto asked incredulously. "If a ninja in training could find it, I'm starting to question the secrecy you talk about, old man."

As the words left his mouth, the boy was tempted to stop talking by the angry looks on the men standing by the Hokage's desk. A blood vessel pulsed on Iruka-sensei's forehead, and Mizuki's hands were curled into a tight fist. The Hokage, to his credit, managed to keep his usual expression.

"Iruka," the old Hokage said in an even tone of voice as if he was not bothered by the displeasure of his ninja. "Can you hand me Naruto's file?"

Iruka-sensei was given something else to focus on other than his displeasure at Naruto's mischief. He took the file held tightly in his left hand and passed it to the Hokage.

Naruto followed it with wide, unblinking eyes. "I have a file? That's awesome!"

Hiruzen placed his pipe between his lips, but he left it unlit. "Naruto Uzumaki. Aged nine, tried an advanced learning program but failed the graduation exam. Thirty-three confirmed pranks, fifty-six suspected. He's still an Academy student with about three years left to graduate in the current program."

The student in question shifted on the floor. "It's twenty-one confirmed pranks and seventy-one suspected pranks. Hm, not bad for a kid, wouldn't you agree?"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Iruka-sensei finally snapped. "Those pranks are not doing any favors for your records!"

"Why should I care?" Naruto grumbled. "No one's getting hurt, right?"

"Try telling that to the ANBU you fed laxatives."

The boy rolled his eyes with a pout. "Let me rephrase that: no one innocent is getting hurt, right?"

"It doesn't matter!" The Academy teacher exclaimed. "If you keep this up, you might have to be dropped from the Ninja Academy and sent to a juvenile prison."

"Then why haven't you?"

Naruto thought he saw a sour look across the Hokage's face for a split second, even as he gazed at the document in his hands. He blinked, and it was gone, as was the one-second scowl on Mizuki's face.

Iruka-sensei took a deep breath. "It's because no one's getting hurt, and people are vouching for you."

"Yeah, right." Naruto rolled his eyes.

The teacher turned to his superior. "Lord Third, I think that it's appropriate that you determine Naruto's punishment. The ANBU assaulted are your direct subordinates, after all."

The robe-clad leader let out a puff of smoke, having lit his pipe somewhere during Iruka's talk. "No. I think it would be appropriate for his teacher to decide what Naruto's punishment shall be in addition to cleaning the HQ."

"What? I'm going to clean the what?"

The old man sighed, face hidden in the shadows cast by the brim of his hat. "You painted the ANBU's main station pink, Naruto. I believe it's your responsibility to return it to its former dignity."

"But I can't clean the whole thing," Naruto said. "It'll take ages to finish!"

Iruka-sensei advanced on him, a stern look on his face. It made a horizontal scar across his nose stand out. "Well then," the ninja arts teacher said, "I guess it's a good thing you are young, right? If you put your mind to it, you might finish before you leave the Academy."

Naruto pouted. "But sensei," he whined. "The ink is permanent! Permanent, I tell you. It will never wash off!"

"Not my concern," Iruka-sensei said. He helped the troublemaker to stand up and gently but firmly pushed him forward by the back of his neck. "From now on, you'll be heading to clean the HQ immediately after school hours under my supervision."

Naruto could have sworn he had a pleased sigh from the ANBU in the room. "I could easily run away, ya know."

The scarred Chuunin snorted. "As if I'd let you."

Right as they were about to walk out through the door, a low grumble was heard from both Naruto and Iruka's stomachs. Naruto grinned at the interruption and turned to a sheepish-looking Iruka. Iruka's eyes were on his stomach.

"Why don't we go get ramen sensei?" Naruto suggested all too innocently. "I bet they have something special for your tummy at Ichiraku's."

"Fine," Iruka agreed without much hesitation to avoid hearing the snickering from the ANBU in the office or feeling the amused look by the Hokage.

The two walked out the door, and Naruto sighed as soon as it was closed behind them.

"You know, sensei," he started. "You won't get any ramen if you are seen treating me like a fugitive."

"And you won't get any once Teuchi learns what you did," Iruka-sensei retorted.

Naruto laughed. "Are you kidding? He's gonna love hearing of my exploits! And even if – that's a very, very big if – he doesn't, Ayame'll still feed me. You, however..."

The older man did not reply, but Naruto could see him reconsidering going to Ichiraku's.

With a sigh, the boy said, "You aren't going to untie me, are you?" Iruka shrugged. "Well, you must feed me... and I plan to eat tons of ramen."

It was a really weak excuse to have him untied, but Iruka-sensei gave into it. Naruto was unbound when they exited the building, and the teacher and student walked leisurely toward the Ichiraku's food stall. Even with their pace, they arrived within a relatively short period.

The stall was as Naruto had expected. Since it was about an hour before lunchtime, it was unoccupied save for one customer who left as they arrived. The proprietor, Teuchi Ichiraku, smiled brightly when he saw the duo emerging from the flaps into his establishment.

"Naruto, Iruka! What a surprise to see you here at—" Teuchi glanced at a timepiece out of Naruto's line of sight. "—about an hour before lunch."

The blond chuckled uneasily, running his fingers through his messy hair as he sat on one of the seats. He was sure Teuchi would not approve of his artistic decoration of the ANBU Headquarters, and Ayame — who always came to his defense – was nowhere to be seen. It was in his(and his stomach's) best interest to keep the details of his work a secret.

Iruka, however, could not read minds, and he completely missed Naruto's intention of self-preservation. "Naruto and I are here for a meal before he starts to clean up the mess he created."

Now that his teacher had put it that way, Naruto started to feel the tiniest bit sorry for his admittedly awesome prank. He wished he had started by ordering a large bowl of pork ramen that would have served as a distraction.

Teuchi frowned. "What did the little rascal do this time?"

The scarred teacher leaned in as if he was sharing an important secret. "This might reflect terribly on our security apparatus, but the boy painted the walls of the ANBU Headquarters pink after giving the operatives laxatives. As if that wasn't enough, he replaced the standard ANBU gear with a bright pink eyesore."

And there went all the little – the very little – guilt he had started to feel. Hearing his teacher narrate what he had done made it seem like he had made a medical discovery, which was hard to do because Tsunade of the Sannin had pretty much finished all the discoveries. It was certainly better than just calling it a prank.

"That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table. He was not alone in that excitement, his voice barely managing to overlap Teuchi's.

"Naruto, my boy, what you did was simply a work of art!" The ramen shop owner said. "I wish I had been in on the plan. We would have made a tsunami in the sea that is history."

"Don't you mean all was good except the part that he got caught?" Ayame said, coming in through the back door.

Her father snorted. "Well, if I had been part of the plan, we would have never been arrested."

The more Naruto heard Teuchi and Ayame speak, the more he considered another prank. Teuchi had made him realize that his previous ones were more likely to annoy the authorities than get him what he needed from them.

His latest work has brought a couple of facts to light. He had a file that detailed everything he had done in the past. As much as whoever was in charge of disciplining Academy students wanted him brought before a juvenile court, they lacked any valid accusation against him. His pranks never caused physical harm— well, more damage than necessary, which was why nothing permanent had been done to him.

So, if he could cause one big disturbance and get away with it... he smirked. The idea was already in his head.

He had a clear picture of what he wanted to do, but the idea was enough. Planning too far ahead without any idea of the setbacks was not his way. He'd rather plan as he moved forward.

"As much as I'd like to indulge in your desecration fantasies, I'm starving here," Iruka said before the conversation could go any further. "Can I get two miso ramen?"

He would have liked to continue the conversation, but Naruto's stomach growled, reminding him of its emptiness. "Give me a large bowl of pork ramen with extra pork, and keep 'em coming."

"On it," Teuchi said as he got to work.

A few minutes later, the two dug into their meals after an almost identical "Itadakimasu!". They took their meal in silence, none of them having anything significant to talk about and by the end, Naruto had taken two bowls and Iruka had taken two too.

Iruka-sensei steered Naruto towards the location of the ANBU Headquarters after their meal. The cleaning supplies were already there, placed right at the doors. Unsurprisingly, there were no operatives on the premises.

"They must have divided their numbers into the smaller outposts around the village," Iruka explained in case it was not obvious.

Naruto stared at his masterpiece, already exhausted even before the work began. "Where do I begin?"

"Start by cleaning the walls," Iruka tried to offer a suggestion, but to Naruto, it came out as an order. "After that, you can clean the fallen paint with the floors."

Naruto lifted the bucket of foamy water with whatever he needed to start the cleanup. I'm lucky I didn't use permanent paint after all.

"Doesn't make work any easier," Iruka grumbled. "It will take you a whole week to clean this place at the earliest."

The hallway Naruto stood in was empty, but the brightly colored walls and Iruka-sensei's shadow made it feel as if it was occupied. The blonde ran his eyes from the slippery floor to the pink walls. He sighed. If this was what awaited him if he was caught in the aftermath of his upcoming masterpiece, it was better to plan on a lot of escape routes.

"What did you use on the floors anyway?" Iruka-sensei asked.

"That's my secret," the student replied and began to head inwards.

'This might take a while,' he thought. 'Best get started as soon as I can.'

It was just as Naruto had suspected and as Iruka-sensei had predicted.

Naruto had spent the rest of his day doing cleanup duty, and even then, he had managed to do the equivalent of a seventh of the actual work. He had seen exactly how big the building had been before starting his greatest work. It was a fairly normal building on the northeastern outskirts of the village with a façade of a weapons store while the actual base was buried underground.

Naruto shook his head to wipe away the thought of the place. The day was ending, the setting sun behind his back casting long shadows ahead of him. He had parted ways with his teacher a little while back. The teacher had to deal with some stuff in the Academy, and Naruto dragged his feet toward the one place that had what he needed.

A few more minutes of quiet walking had him sitting on a stool at Ichiraku's. His seat was at the very end of the table, half hidden by the shadows cast by the light in the stall. There was only one other empty chair, but one of the patrons currently in the place was saving it for his girlfriend.

Naruto waited patiently for his bowl of miso ramen to be delivered. It soon was, not that it mattered since he had it done in less than a minute. Ayame, thankfully, anticipated his ravenous appetite at that time of day and kept landing bowls after bowls of the delicacy. By the time he felt fully satisfied, Naruto was in a better mood than the one he had arrived in.

He left his cash by the stack of empty vessels and left after a word of gratitude to Ayame.

Instead of going home as he had been wishing earlier, the blonde allowed his feet to take him towards the outskirts of the village and into the forest surrounding the village. The only thing he could see was the green leaves of the trees, and all he could hear was the faint breeze that masked the sound of running water. He walked further into the forest until the trees reached a clearing.

It was nothing special, just an opening with green grass and ten tree logs embedded in the ground. The farthest end of the clearing curved and was partially hidden from him.

With a sigh, Naruto took off his orange hoodie and started with what had brought him to the clearing. A set of simple warm-up exercises to keep him in the perfect condition needed.

That done, he began running laps around the clearing. He was not running at top speed and neither at a leisurely jog; his pace was somewhere in between. He went along the edges of the clearing, including the curve and back.

Seventy-five laps later, Naruto collapsed against one of the logs to catch his breath. It did not take long for that to happen, and when it did, he stood up, ready to continue his training exercise.

He had to become stronger. He had to be better. Above all, Naruto Uzumaki wanted—nay, needed to be Hokage.

But before that, he had his project to finish.

The following day, Naruto Uzumaki arrived in class earlier than usual. The class was almost empty, and those who were in were the academic students who focused on their books virtually any hour of the day.

He stood at the door, trying to pick out any familiar face to no avail. He could see some faces he had seen in passing, but he could not recall conversing with any of them. Resigned to the fact, he climbed up the levels up to the highest one. The back seat was unoccupied, and he chose the one at the corner. It gave him a good view of the entire classroom, and sitting there meant that no one could look at him before he realized it.

It was about thirty minutes before the classes started. Naruto almost regretted coming in early. It gave him nothing to do except to think. He took out a book he had been carrying with him lately.

From the first page to the last, the book touched on almost everything a shinobi was supposed to expect an encounter within their line of work. A few things were left out in the book, but that was where his remarkable infiltration capabilities came in. He had snuck into the most secure archives in the village's library, and while in most cases he had had to beat a hasty retreat, Naruto had snuck a glance into the books.

The scarce knowledge he had obtained had been used to compile his book. No one had looked at his book long enough to see that he had what was supposed to be classified intelligence.

Naruto opened the page he fancied the most in the entire book. It had the knowledge printed in the book and the ones he had added to it by himself. On the top of the book were the words he loved seeing.

The Nine.

To be continued...

30/1/24: A major improvement in grammar and overall structuring.

RnR.

~Haraviel.