Jiraiya had not left Naruto's hospital room since he had brought him in the day before. There were two reasons why he had stayed and not gone out on a rage filled rampage against the villagers. The first was to watch over him and make sure his condition didn't worsen, fear had overtaken him that if he left the boy would die. The second reason was to protect Naruto from those who wished the young boy harm. The Sannin knew that Sarutobi had assigned ANBU to watch over the room and only allow a trusted doctor, himself, or Jiraiya into the room.

Currently, the Toad Sannin was starring out the lone window in the room as he dealt with the unmeasurable anger that coursed through his veins. Naruto had barely been in the village for a few hours and been somehow been recognized as the Kyuubi's jinchuriki. The poor boy didn't even do anything to anger the villagers, they simply noticed who he was and attacked him. Jiraiya knew it was too early to bring him back, the villagers still held that grudge against Kyuubi for taking their family members away from them.

Though Jiraiya's anger wasn't solely placed on the villagers, he held some anger towards his sensei as well. An ANBU, who was Minato's sole surviving student Kakashi Hatake, burst into the Hokage's Office, informing them of what was happening with Naruto, Jiraiya rushed to the blonde boy's side. He had to literally throw a villager off Naruto before he could take Naruto to the hospital. Once there, medical personal did what they could for the boy, which wasn't much by what Jiraiya saw them do. Sarutobi finally showed up a few hours later. The silence between the two was short-lived before the Third Hokage dropped the bomb on him.

"I have a mission for you Jiraiya."

Jiraiya kept his mouth shut throughout the entire briefing. A team of ANBU had gone missing after reporting a sighting of a mysterious masked man. No further reports followed. Sarutobi believed they had been killed and wanted his trusted spy master to investigate their disappearance. The Old Man said it would only take a couple of weeks, a month at most, and that Naruto could stay with him until Jiraiya returned. But the Sannin knew better. A mission like this would take, at the very least, six months. Honestly, there was no telling how long this mission would take because there hadn't been anything on a masked man coming from his contacts in his spy network. He would have to start from scratch.

Sarutobi said he had a choice to take the mission or not. What the Hokage really meant was that Jiraiya had the choice to either wait until Naruto woke up to leave or leave now and save the trouble of telling why Jiraiya had left him here up to Sarutobi and the Elders. The Sannin really couldn't see which choice was worse.

He thought about his decision thoroughly, knowing the longer he took here the more time this masked man would have to disappear into the world. This wouldn't be the first time Jiraiya would just suddenly leave without as so much as a goodbye, but Naruto was with the toads when he wasn't with him out in the world. Jiraiya didn't see this as the best choice but the quickest and easiest, not to mention cowardly.

Jiraiya took one long look at his godson, knowing this would be the last time he'd be seeing him for some time, before opening the window and jumping out, leaving the still unconscious boy.

Naruto awoke some time after his Jiraiya left. He was surprised to see that he was mostly healed from his injuries. He was a little sore, but it was nothing the young boy couldn't handle. Naruto waited patiently for his caretaker to come visit him, but the man never came. Not even the Third Hokage showed his face. Naruto waited for hours for two men that would never come.

There was a knock at the door and a man with silver hair that seemed to defy gravity with a fox mask that covered his face entered the room. Naruto instantly figured out that this guy was a member of the ANBU Black Ops.

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

Naruto did his best to keep his composure but the ANBU still could see the fear and distrust in the young boy's eyes, and the man didn't blame the child one bit. "Y-Yes?"

"Lord Hokage wants to see you. I'll take you to him."

Naruto followed the ANBU through the streets of the village to the Hokage Tower, ignoring the glares of the villagers that were stopped when the masked ANBU shot them a glare of his own. Once the two made it to the tower, the ANBU led Naruto up the stars and entered the office without even knocking. Sarutobi didn't even flinch when the two entered, just softly smiled.

"Thank you Kakashi, that'll be all for now."

The ANBU bowed before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto stared at the elderly man with caution, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. This was the first time he had ever met the Third Hokage, Jiraiya had told him a lot about this man so already felt a closeness to the man but meeting for the first time felt awkward.

"There is no need to be weary of me, Naruto. I'm here to help you."

"Help me with what? Where's Ero-Sennin?"

"Naruto, please try to understand when I tell you this, Jiraiya has left the village."

"He what?" Naruto quivered.

"Something came up and it couldn't wait to be taken care of. I apologize for Jiraiya because he couldn't wait for you wake up to say goodbye, the circumstances didn't allow him to linger around and waste time."

'Waste of time? Is that all I was to Ero-Sennin?' Naruto lowered his head as the words set themselves deep inside Naruto's mind, almost as if the words themselves completely altered the boy's way of thinking the second they were said. He was now stuck in this village alone. It was a new feeling, but it felt so familiar to him.

"I see…"

"I know you aren't a fan of this, Naruto. But Jiraiya has left you in my care until he returns. Also, I will be overseeing your training that you will be receiving along with the teachings of the academy."

That sparked Naruto's interest. "Academy?"

"Of course. You want to be a great ninja, don't you?"

Naruto's mind snapped back to his conversation with the beast within him. A newfound determination surprised the Third Hokage. "Yes. I want to show this village how wrong they are about me."

Sarutobi raised his eyebrow at the young boy's choice of words. "What do you mean, Naruto?"

"I promised someone I'd be the greatest ninja in the village, I don't intend to let him down."

Sarutobi thought about the boy's words. Who was this mysterious person that challenged Naruto to become a great ninja? Was it Jiraiya? Did he leave something for Naruto before leaving on his mission? Or was it promise to himself just to prove the villagers wrong? Something must've happened after Jiraiya saved Naruto from the mob and brought him to the hospital.

"So Ojiisan," Naruto started, causing the elderly man to smirk, "you mentioned that you'd be overseeing my training that I'll be doing outside of the academy. What kind of training did you have in mind?"

"In due time Naruto, we'll get to that soon enough." Sarutobi reached into his desk and pulled out two wrist bands and unique scroll that had a padlock seal etched onto the paper, sealing the scroll shut. "But here, this will be a good start for you."

Naruto looked over the wrist bands. "What are these?"

"Chakra weights. These are special training tools that help with making you stronger and faster."

Naruto nodded as he glanced at the Third once more. "How do I use them?"

"It's quite simple. All you have to do is pump chakra into them like you would when creating a bushin. The more chakra you put into the weights, the heavier they will be. If you put too much into the weights and it proves to be too much, just decrease the amount of chakra in them to the weight you want. So, essentially these chakra weights will also help with your chakra control."

After Sarutobi was done explaining, the blonde looked down at the weights in his hands. He placed them around his ankles and pumped some chakra into them. He instantly felt the weight. "Thank you Ojiisan, these will help me big time."

"Naruto, you do realize those weights are made for your wrists and not your legs?"

Naruto nodded. "I know that, I figured this would be a smarter thing to do for now. I want to work on my speed first, it'll help in the long run over strength."

Sarutobi's eyes widened slightly. 'Jiraiya wasn't kidding when said Naruto is just as good as Minato when he was a child. He analyzed the pros and cons of using the weights and thought of whole new use for them. Impressive.'

"So, what's the deal with that scroll?"

"This another special tool, though it still needs perfecting, this is a chakra scroll. It was made to carry various items for traveling, battle, or simply storage. All you need do to access this scroll is learn the jutsu that was the scroll was sealed with. Once I teach it to you, you'll have access to the scrolls that I placed in there that I thought would be good baseline for you to start learning."

"What kind of scrolls are in there?"

"A jutsu from every chakra nature and a scroll for the basics of chakra control. Once you are finished with the scrolls already in there, you can come back and take from my library of scrolls as you wish. Though I recommend finishing the you take before coming back to take more."

Naruto nodded and beamed with excitement. He was ready to get started with this training.

Sarutobi loved to see the enthusiasm in such a young boy. "It's good to see so excited Naruto, but I'm afraid you can't start just yet."

"What? Why not?"

"I enrolled you into the Ninja Academy and classes start tomorrow. I don't want you to be tired for you first day, seeing how you have a little bit of work ahead of you."

"What do you mean?"

"Unfortunately, Naruto, I can't watch over you constantly like Jiraiya did. So, you will be living on you own in an apartment I've chosen for you. Here is the key and the money for the down payment and first few months of rent, plus expenses like food. Once you graduate from the academy and start taking on missions, you'll have to pay for it on your own."

Naruto nodded once more, taking the envelope and key and placed them in his pocket.

"Now for the jutsu that will unseal that scroll. I'll show you how it's done."

Naruto was pleasantly surprised when he unlocked the door to his new home. It wasn't anything special to look at, but it was plenty for a six-year-old to live in by himself. The apartment was already furnished with bed, a small couch, a coffee and dining table set, a kitchen with a fridge and sink. Down the short hall was a small but simple full-sized bathroom. By normal apartment standards, this one was considered rundown and needed repairs. But Naruto didn't mind. He was used to moving around with Jiraiya for few months before returning to Mount Myōboku. Even then his room there was small and not very spacious.

He thought about the toads that he had grown to know while in-between trips with Jiraiya. They were always nice to him, never shunning him away. But they didn't really interact with him much. Naruto was mostly left alone while he stayed with them. The only toads that spent any time with him were the two toad elders, Lord Fukasaku and Lady Shima.

'Was I just a waste of time for them too? Just like for Ero-Sennin?'

Naruto couldn't believe his caretaker, the man that had been watching over him for as long as he could remember, would just leave without so much as a explanation. Or even a goodbye. That's what really hurt Naruto. The fact that Jiraiya left while he was unconscious, and during a time when Naruto needed Jiraiya the most.

"I guess I can't depend on anyone…only myself."

Naruto didn't see the point in sitting around and sulking about what had happened, that wasn't his style. He, instead, thought better to use his time to train. Naruto took out the scroll and placed on the table. He went through a series of hand signs and released the jutsu that was placed on the scroll. The Third was impressed by how quickly Naruto took to fuinjutsu, and Naruto was proud of that.

The contents of the scroll appeared in a small cloud of smoke on the coffee table in front of his couch. Each scroll was labeled; there were Katon(Fire), Suiton(Water), Doton(Earth), Fuuton(Wind), and Raiton(Lightning) scrolls, all were D-rank level jutsus and were considered basics for each element. The sixth scroll was labeled for chakra control, again just the fundamentals.

Naruto wanted to spread out the learning of these jutsus, but he was just too excited to do that. So, Naruto positioned his fingers into a cross hand sign.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" (Shadow Clone Technique) Instantly, five identical clones of the young boy popped into existence, each in their own plumes of smoke.

Already knowing what to do, the clones each grabbed a scroll and spread themselves around the apartment to study the scroll they had chosen while the original chose to study the chakra control scroll.

Naruto was so happy that Jiraiya taught him this jutsu, the pervert knew it would be perfect for Naruto because of his abnormally massive chakra reserves. He remembered the Sannin saying once that Naruto easily had, at least, four times the amount of chakra that the Third Hokage did, and he was considered to have the most in the entire village.

There was a major difference between the regular clone jutsu and the shadow clone jutsu. The regular bushin jutsu was more of a mirage to be used as a distraction in battle and to gather information on the enemy during a stealth mission. While the Kage Bushin was a solid copy of the creator that could actually fight in battle and gather information much easier. And when the clone would get dispelled the memories of what the clone experienced would transfer themselves to the creator. The one downside to the Kage Bushin was that only memories were transferred. So, if the clones were used for training, like Naruto was intending to use them for, no physical changes would be done to Naruto once he dispelled the clone. Naruto was going to have to do all the physical training himself, he really didn't mind though. He almost preferred it like that.

For the rest of the day, Naruto and his clones studied the scrolls until they fell asleep well into the night.

-Next day-

Naruto rested his head on his right arm as he quietly sighed in disinterest as his academy instructor, Iruka Umino, rambled on about a history lesson of the creation of Konoha. He already knew this tale from Jiraiya. Iruka had already been talking for a few hours now and Naruto was ready to pass out from boredom.

'This is going to be a long six years.' Naruto silently sighed to himself again.

There was a six-year minimum requirement to graduate from the academy, including passing the final graduation exam at the end of the six years. Though, Naruto didn't think it was all bad. He didn't notice when he first entered the classroom, mostly because the young spikey haired boy woke up and rushed in, but there was a certain pink haired girl that caught Naruto's attention when he quickly grew bored of Iruka's history lesson.

Naruto thought about his quick interaction with her the other day, which was quickly cut short by her mother, and it dawned on him that couldn't say thank you for the flower, or even goodbye. He hoped Sakura didn't think he was ungrateful for the flower, it was his most prized possession. It sat in a small cup water on his window ceil so that the flower could get enough sunlight. Naruto knew it wouldn't live long but he decided to enjoy it as much as he could.

Naruto was thrown from his daze when Iruka changed his tone and students began to rise from their seats. It was time for their one-hour lunch break.

"Finally!" Naruto sighed out loud as he followed his new classmates outside.

Once outside, Naruto watched his classmates be greeted by their parents and loved ones who had brought them lunch for their first day. Seeing this caused Naruto to miss that perverted Sannin but an anger rose as well. The only person to care for him simply left and there was nothing Naruto could do about it. He noticed a swing hidden by the shade of the tree it was hung on. He sat on the swing and watched the others eat their lunches, envious that he didn't have what they did.

(Time Skip: Six years)

Naruto's eyes fluttered open as the morning sunlight shined through his curtain. He groaned in annoyance because the twelve-year-old did not want to wake up, but his body would not allow him the luxury of falling back asleep thus he began to move. He followed through with his morning routine that led him to the training grounds. That is where his day really began.

Naruto would train for a few hours before going to his classes at the academy, that is if the blonde went at all. Otherwise Naruto would spend his whole day training. Ever since Naruto joined the academy, he considered himself a part-time student. Either because he already knew what Iruka would be teaching for that day, thanks to what he learned from Jiraiya before the Sannin suddenly left him or because of the scrolls Naruto would take from the Third Hokage's library of scrolls, or Naruto simply did not bother to go because he felt like he could teach himself better. On average, Naruto went to class one or twice a week. And that's only because those days were set aside for sparring.

Naruto even questioned himself why he would even participate in those sparring matches, he was easily much stronger than all his 'classmates' in all forms of combat. The only one that could come close to Naruto was Sasuke Uchiha. The Uchiha was considered the front runner for the 'Rookie of the Year' award because he was at the top of every list. The blacked haired boy had the best scores for shuriken and kunai throws, near perfect ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu scores. The only category that Sasuke wasn't placed first in was I.Q. That title went to Shikamaru Nara, followed up by Sakura Haruno. Sasuke was placed fourth behind Shino Aburame. If Naruto had attended class regularly then he'd be at the top of every list, minus I.Q because Shikamaru had scored over a 200 on that test. Naruto was smarter than your average kid but no where near what Shikamaru was at.

But Naruto had to attend class today. It was graduation day.

'Today's the day…' He inwardly sighed as he went through his morning stretches. 'This is gonna be a total waste of my time, but it is required.'

Naruto thought back to the other day when the Hokage called him into his office to give him the test requirements because Sarutobi knew Naruto did not attend the class that Iruka taught. 'Can you even call this an exam? A simple shuriken and kunai throw and a genjutsu on the instructor? How does that gauge a ninja's battle readiness? Or even if they can handle a fight against an enemy shinobi?'

Naruto, though he didn't want to, took this morning's training session easy. He felt like he should just in case he accidently hurt himself before the exam. Not like it would really matter, Naruto would just suffer through whatever injury he sustained or it would be quickly healed by the Kyuubi.

Despite the village hating Naruto for being the jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, being its host did have a few perks. His chakra levels were far beyond anyone else's in the village, a healing factor that Sandaime compared to that of the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and the ability to have heightened senses, like enhanced hearing and sense of smell. And for a being that is made up of entirely chakra and hate, the Kyuubi did have his 'soft' moments towards the young blonde. Yes, the Nine Tailed Fox could be a royal asshole, and he was most of the time, but the Kyuubi would help Naruto from time to time with his training. If Naruto would swallow his pride and ask for it.

Naruto sighed to himself again, it was time to go to the academy for the exam. He left the training grounds and headed down the main street of Konoha, keeping his gaze down so he didn't have to deal with the villager's hate ones.

'I wonder who I'll be teamed up with…I don't know anyone all that well, but it would be nice to be paired up with that Shikamaru kid. He might be unbearably lazy, but his decision making would be unparalleled in a fight. Maybe that Hyuuga girl, I think her name is Hinata. She'd be a good teammate with that Byakugan.'

When Naruto decided to pay attention to what was around him, he was standing in his classroom at the Ninja Academy. He was surprised to see that he was the first there, he even beat Iruka. He simply shrugged and took a seat in that far back corner. He took out one of kunai and began to twirl it with his fingers. His focus on his activity was broken when Iruka, the class instructor, had walked in and sat down at his desk.

"Nice for you to join us, Naruto."

Naruto didn't feel the need to respond to the chunin instructor's jab at the boy's attendance, he knew what he was capable of and it was far beyond what Iruka had taught the rest of the class. He went back to focusing on the twirling of his kunai between his fingers until his focus was broken once more when a certain pink haired girl walked into the room, following the heart throb of the class Sasuke Uchiha.

Naruto didn't understand why all the girls threw themselves at the Uchiha, it was annoying and, honestly, stalkerish. The blonde wasn't sure if he should feel bad for the Uchiha or envy him for the attention. Naruto seemed to have been focusing on Sakura longer than he thought he was because he didn't notice Sasuke was now standing in front of him.

"Can I help you, Sasuke?"

"Why are you here, Uzumaki? You haven't been to class in almost a month, not to mention the countless days you missed beforehand."

Naruto held a blank stare. "Graduating is solely based on the results of the final exam. Read the handbook. Why do you even care, miss me beating you in our sparring matches?"

Sasuke's smirk quickly disappeared and was replaced with a scowl. "You wanna go again, Uzumaki? It's been awhile since our last match and I've gotten stronger since then." All the 'Sasuke fangirl club', as Naruto called them, cheered in response to Sasuke's challenge.

Naruto rolled his eyes as he continued to focus on his kunai. "Don't flatter yourself Sasuke. Awaken your Sharingan and we'll see how you stand against me."

The spikey haired blonde expected Sasuke to lash out against him for even mentioning the Sharingan like that. He knew it was probably a testy subject because of what his older brother, Itachi, did. Sasuke and Itachi were the sole surviving members of the Uchiha clan because Itachi had gone insane and killed them all, living only Sasuke alive on a whim. Naruto had his own thoughts about the Uchiha Massacre but thought best to not dwell on those later.

Sasuke huffed and held a cocky smirk. "You are absolutely right, Naruto. When I do awaken my Sharingan, I'll be more than strong enough to take you on."

Naruto caught his own kunai and finally looked at Sasuke, he could see the confidence behind them. It made the blonde smirk himself. He had always wanted to see how well he'd fair against the Sharingan.

"Sasuke sit down." Iruka called out. The rest of class had been waiting for the two to finish before they could start, and it seemed Iruka was tired of waiting. "We're about to begin the final exam for graduation. As some of you may have noticed our 'part-time' student, Naruto Uzumaki, will be joining us- "

"How is that fair?! He never comes to class!"

Naruto glanced over and noticed a bright blonde-haired girl. He had trouble placing the name for a moment before it clicked. Ino Yamanaka. He had no special feelings for this girl and only remembered her name because she was close to Sakura, even though they seemed to utterly hate each other, and was part of that 'Sasuke fangirl club'. Naruto thought best to not say anything and let Iruka respond for him.

"Well Ino, when Naruto isn't in class he trains by himself with Lord Hokage's supervision. So, it would be unfair to not allow him to take the exam."

Another student decided to make his grievances known. "What do you mean 'with Lord Hokage's supervision'? You're saying Naruto's been trained by the Sandaime?!"

Naruto decided to answer this one before Iruka could divulge his training secrets. "What I do outside of class is none of your concern. Now, if you'll all shut up I'd like to get this pointless exam over with."

"Then why don't you go first, Naruto?" Iruka questioned. "Since you seem to think this exam will be easy."

Naruto had no problem with that, the quicker he passed this exam the better. He simply stood from his spot and followed the chunin instructor into the back room.

-Next day-

Naruto was back in the same spot he was in the day prior; the only difference was that Naruto had a Konoha headband tied around his head. As the blonde expected, the graduation exam was beyond easy. A kunai throw that only needed two out of three in the bullseye to pass, a D-rank genjutsu that had to be placed over the other instructor, and to create a simple bushin. Not even a kage bushin for that matter. How that proved that someone was capable of being a ninja was beyond Naruto's understanding.

Naruto seemed to be too lost in thought to notice that the class had been filled. Maybe he needed to stop zoning out so much.

"Team 7 will consist of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki."

There was a quick lash out of anger.

"How am I stuck on a team with that loser?!" Sasuke yelled out. "We're freaking super team!"

"That's not fair to everyone else!" Ino yelled out in like fashion.

Iruka was surprised, he was expecting Naruto to be the one to express his anger and disinterest for his team selection, but he stayed quiet. It seemed Naruto was content with the team he was placed with, or simply didn't care.

"Ino, Sasuke, take your seats please. Thank you. To answer your questions, the teams had to be balanced and the only fair way to do that is by test scores. Sasuke, you are at the top of the class. Sakura is around the middle. And Naruto is considered the dead last, despite having the only perfect on the graduation exam."

Sakura raised her hand before speaking. "If Naruto had the only perfect on the exam, how is he considered last in the class?"

"All of you have your homework and test scores from your time in the academy. Since Naruto never came to class, he doesn't have the scores like the rest of you do to support him."

Both seemed satisfied with that answer but that didn't mean they liked it.

Sasuke was still very mixed on how he felt about being paired up with Naruto.

'I hate this. How could I be put the same team as that loser? But, then again, I could use him to train. I wish I were lying but he is leagues ahead of me. Since he's on my team I'll be able to surpass him and kick his ass in spars all damn day.' A small smirk spread across Sasuke's face as he thought about this.

Sakura had no idea what to make of her team. She was absolutely thrilled about having her heart throb Sasuke on the same team as her, it was the other new teammate that puzzled her. She had seen him around the village by himself and every time she would always hear the same word being murmured.

Demon.

Sakura was never sure why but her parents would always tell her to stay away from that boy every time they would come across him. She never understood why, he didn't bother anyone or cause any trouble. But she didn't want to upset her parents, so Sakura never questioned what her parents told her what to do.

Naruto really didn't care one way or another about who his team members were. Sure, he wasn't completely thrilled about being put on the same team as Sasuke. He, honestly, should have expected it because he already knew he was at the bottom of the class, test wise that is, and the teams needed to be evened out so that everyone has a fair chance. But Sakura was placed on the same team, so Naruto thought it wasn't the worst team choice for him. It would be easier that way.

"We need to watch out for that team. We can't get on their bad side."

"Yeah I know. That blonde kid is nothing to mess with, and neither is Sasuke."

Naruto couldn't help but smirk when he overheard the private conversation between the two students in front of him. It was nice to hear praise for once.

Each of the members of Team 7 were so caught up in their own thoughts about their team selection for such a long time that by the time they came out of their own thoughts everyone else had left with their jōnin sensei. Sakura was the first to notice they were the only team left to be picked up by their sensei.

"Where is our sensei? Shouldn't he be here by now?" She questioned out loud.

Neither of her teammates showed no indication of responding.

Sakura sighed. "I hope Kakashi sensei isn't always this late."

Naruto's attention snapped to full when the pinkette spoke. That name sparked the memory of the day that Jiraiya had left him. The day that everything changed. This Kakashi was the ANBU that escorted him from the hospital to the Hokage's office. While he didn't pay any mind to it at the time, the man had a sense of familiarity to Naruto. Why, or even how, the blonde hadn't the slightest clue.

Suddenly the sliding door opened and stepped in as a bored looking man wearing the typical shinobi pants, with the blue long sleeve shinobi shirt and green vest. The man had his headband placed over his left eye and his spikey grey hair seemed to defy gravity. The most interesting part about the man was that a mask covered half his face. The man didn't look at his students because he was too involved with the book he was reading. Icha Icha Paradise.

Naruto groaned when he saw that book.

"You must Team Seven? Be on the roof in five minutes." With that, the man left.