It's all in the Cards

Some shinobi use kunai, others use their fists. For Naruto, his claim to fame will be something the shinobi world has never seen before. For Naruto, it's all in the cards!

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Prologue -

Naruto had never liked to study. He knew it, Iruka-sensei knew it, heck even the grocer down the street from his apartment knew it. Usually he liked to channel his inexhaustible energy into something more useful, like pranking.

But today, he had promised the Sandaime to at least try to pay attention in class. As in the old man had agreed to take him out to ramen if he could sit still for a day. Truly a tall order.

Naruto thought he was getting one over the Hokage. He would show up, pay attention for once, get his ramen, and go right back to his Bad Student Ways™ afterwards. Naruto nodded his head in satisfaction. It was a good trade, he would just have to make sure to eat much more ramen tonight.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage of Konoha, known as the God of Shinobi, watched Naruto's class with mild amusement. He was far from stupid, and he knew Naruto wasn't going to pay attention after today. Of course, he could bribe him every day until Naruto graduated (not that he would), but he was hoping that Naruto paid attention to this one lecture.

Iruka was planning to go over the basics of fuuinjutsu, also known as the sealing arts. This was what allowed Namikaze Minato to slaughter countless Iwa shinobi, gain his SS – class bingo book designation, and to stop and harness the power of one of the most powerful Bijuu to walk the Elemental Nations. Hiruzen was hoping that Naruto had inherited even a fraction of his father's talent.

"The three main components of your typical seal are the chakra storage array, chakra deployment array, and the chakra composition array. These arrays make up the majority of the seals you will see in the field, however there are exceptions to every rule." Iruka was really getting into the swing of this lecture. Heck even Naruto was listening!

Despite his self-proclaimed hatred of all things books, Naruto perked up in attention at the lecture. It was hard not to hang onto his every word when Iruka-sensei started to talk about explosive tags, and Naruto cracked a dangerous smile when it clicked in his mind. Fuuinjutsu was awesome.

A year later

Since then, Naruto had delved into his fuuinjutsu studies like a man possessed. The Hokage had even lent him some Uzumaki texts, said it was 'birthright', whatever that meant. Today though, Naruto was in a bit of a bind. He knew that apart from maybe his skill in sealing, he was far behind the 'elites' of his academy class.

These students, known as the 'elites' around shinobi social circles, consisted of mainly clan children. They had years of practise outside the academy preparing for the ninja life. Naruto, contrary to popular belief, wasn't blind to this. But fuuinjutsu seemed like his ticket in.

Using fuuinjutsu in combat was something that was touched upon by the Uzumaki sealing texts. Most of it was still beyond Naruto, but stuff he did understand required at least a team to use effectively.

Currently, he was lying on the floor in his apartment. The Genin exams were coming up in about half a year, and he still couldn't do the bunshin to save his life. He mulled over the problem while shuffling and flicking a deck of cards Iruka-sensei had gotten him a few months back. Back and forth the cards went, flipping around as if they had a mind of its own.

Naruto sighed in frustration. Not for the first time, he wished that the Uzumaki clan still lived. If they were alive, he had no doubt he would have been counted among the elites.

'Dammit, maybe I'll go hit the training dummies for a few hours´ Naruto sighed, and threw the cards aside. At this moment, Naruto's incredible luck shone through. One of the cards separated from the deck, flew across the room, and embedded itself onto the wall of his apartment.

Naruto stared his brow raising with interest. 'Never had that happen to me before,' He walked over to the card, idly wondering whether the throw reflected his (totally kickass) shuriken skills. 'Good thing that wasn't one of the shuriken, my landlord would kill me…..'

Naruto paused at that. Normally, shinobi just threw shuriken and kunai, but the card seemed to work just as well.

'Huh, a basic weight seal on the card,' Naruto mused, 'maybe some chakra to sharpen the edges of the card, add an explosive array- this could work!'

He quickly rushed over to his workstation, scribbling down notes and designs onto a notebook he had started to carry around after he started his fuuinjutsu studies. His idea was slowly taking shape, and in his mind, he was envisioning all the badass ways he could throw the explosive cards.

'Wait, it doesn't have to be just explosives, what about that gravity seal?' Naruto was starting to really get excited, 'maybe remove the constant release arrays, and replace it with a modified burst array…'

At this point Naruto started to giggle, there were so many ways to do this. He was going through his repertoire of known seals, and his uncommonly creative mind was already starting to come up with more ideas.

The ANBU assigned to watch the Konoha's resident jinchuuriki was actually starting to get worried for the kid. The seals he made had been impressive for a while, considering the kid started at 11, but never had he seen him work with such fervor. Or was it manic intensity?

After a particularly worrying cackle from Naruto, the ANBU decided he would bring this up to the Hokage next time. The last thing they needed was another insane ninja - Gai's screams of youth were bad enough.

A month later…

Naruto stood in one of Konoha's public training grounds after a long day of classes. Over the last month, he had successfully created and tested some throwing cards that he thought were pretty cool. Of course, even with all his excitement, in the back of his mind he knew that his idea was still untested in real combat. For all he knew, the cards might not be viable at all.

He pondered the problem, while throwing a card laced with chakra. The chakra in the card wasn't actually wind natured, but he knew from his studies that his element lent towards wind going by how easily he could sharpen his chakra.

The card flew, slicing through the air and embedding itself into a tree serving as a target. Naruto went to draw another card when he realized he had just thrown his last one. With practiced ease, he concentrated in the chakra in the cards, and pulled. As if guided by an invisible wind, the cards pulled themselves out of the tree and flew back towards Naruto. He caught some of them midair, letting the rest hover in front of him.

This was something he found he could do a week into his experimentation. As it turned out, he found that he could control the cards' flight, even exerting a weak form of telekinesis on it. Naruto thought that maybe the chakra still in the card acted similar to when a shinobi manipulated jutsu outside of their bodies, and like a jutsu allowed him some control over how the cards flew.

Gathering his chakra into the cards once more, Naruto drew them up to chest level, and released all of them at once. He followed this up with a slight push of his chakra, speeding up their flight. The cards continued into the tree they had been embedded in just a minute ago, and continued straight through. He watched with a sense of satisfaction as the tree toppled over, having been severed to a stump. He held up his holster and willed the cards back into it.

Naruto supposed that he would have to ask Iruka-sensei or maybe Mizuki-sensei for a quick spar to test his cards. He grimaced at the thought. The last time he asked for help he was laughed out of the room.

Packing up the rest of his gear, he bounded back to the village and set a quick pace to the academy. As he was trying to figure out how he would phrase it, it occurred to him that he didn't have a name for the style yet. 'The joker? It would fit with my personality' Naruto mused 'no, that's too cheesy, maybe not… how about - '

"Card throwing?" Iruka asked, a disbelief coloring his voice.

They were outside near the academy training posts. Naruto had been explaining his idea excitedly, and he was starting to become a little skeptical.

"Oi, you don't believe me?" Naruto shot back, a little annoyed, "here, watch," he flicked his wrist, a card appearing out of nowhere. Not a second passed until a faint shimmer of chakra seemed to pulse through it. With another flick of his wrist, the card flew through the air and embedded itself into a training dummy.

Iruka stared at the card for a moment, he was a little impressed. Apart from being (he had to admit) pretty cool, it took a bit of skill to flow chakra into weapons, and Iruka had no idea that Naruto was capable of it.

"Hey hey, watch this!" Naruto held out his hand and pulled on the chakra in the card. Iruka watched, surprised, as the card slid out of the dummy and flew back into Naruto's hand.

"This is only the basic one Iruka-sensei, I have an exploding card, a gravity card, and barrier card too!" the teacher cut him off here, "Wait, gravity card? You mean you managed to write that seal onto a card of THAT size?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto looked at him with slight confusion, "Sure the one in the book was a little big, but most of the array was for stability anyways"

Iruka was proud of his student. For many years, Naruto had seemed like a hopeless case; skipping school, sleeping in lectures, and playing pranks all day didn't make a good shinobi. It seemed, however, that he had finally gotten through to the errant blond.

So lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice that he was staring at Naruto with glazed eyes and a slight smile.

"Err sensei?" Naruto was starting to get a little creeped out, "So can you help me out with that spar?"

"Huh? What? Oh sure," Iruka was shaken out of his slight stupor, "you know Naruto, you aren't the first one to ask me to test their new style, a lot of people come up with things during their academy days"

"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly, "Are they any good?"

"No" he replied, "most of the time they're crap to be perfectly honest. Most twelve year olds can't come up with anything worthwhile, but this looks like it has potential."

Iruka wasn't surprised to see Naruto's beaming face after that. Naruto wasn't exactly vilified by the populace on a daily basis, but many people just didn't want anything to do with him. The general consensus for jinchuuriki across the elemental nations was that they were inherently dangerous. Most people wouldn't even give Naruto the time of day.

"Alright! Enough talk," Iruka readied himself, "Come at with everything you've got Naruto."

The blond not-yet-genin grinned at his teacher. "You sure about that sensei? My cards are pretty dangerous"

"Don't forget Naruto, I'm a chunin with years of experience in the field," He felt that he had to take Naruto down a few pegs before he got a swelled head, "I won't be beaten by just any academy student with a good idea"

Naruto didn't bother with a verbal reply, instead opting to quickly flick two chakra laced cards at his opponent. Iruka intercepted the two cards with shuriken, and dashed forwards to close the distance.

Naruto had released what seemed like at least a hundred cards into the air around him. With a hand gesture, he sent a quarter shooting towards his teacher.

Iruka replaced himself with a log. He appeared behind Naruto, and dashed towards him. But he was stopped when the cards still hovering around his target seemed to rapidly spin all around it.

"Really living up to your name huh 'Maelstrom'," Iruka teased while he backed off, "But that's not going to be enough!" He quickly threw a few blunted kunai at Naruto, opening a small hole in the circle. Spinning into the hole with all the grace of an experienced shinobi, he parried the cards left and right. Iruka appeared next to Naruto with a kunai to his neck.

"DAMMIT, that defense was supposed to be perfect!" Naruto said, the cards slowed as he let his mental hold go.

Iruka chuckled ruefully, "There's no such thing as a perfect defense Naruto," He released Naruto and patted him on the head, "now let us go over some of the good and bad parts of this style you're trying to create."

Naruto perked up at that. He quickly commanded all the cards flying around to fly back into his holster. He made his way back to where Iruka sat down, and pulled out a notebook.

"Well, the most important thing I think you should know is that you should keep on the move." Iruka said, "From what I can tell, the cards aren't the strongest thing to use for defense, and you should instead try to dodge."

"Hey! I didn't even show you my barrier cards yet though." Naruto pouted.

"Do you want to?" Iruka replied, "I know some pretty powerful jutsu, maybe you can test it against those?"

Naruto reached into his pouch, and threw three cards out in front of him in a vague equilateral triangle. An almost invisible orange tinted barrier shot upwards in a wedge shape, about twice as tall as Naruto himself.

"Naruto! Get out of the barrier," Iruka warned, "if this gets through, I don't want you to be in front of it."

He complied, "Alright, its ready sensei, give it your best shot!"

The chunin flashed through some hand seals, ending on the tiger seal, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"Iruka chanted, as a gigantic fireball rushed out of his mouth and shot forwards. The fireball impacted against the barrier, and left Naruto gaping at the sheer size of the explosion.

While the Great Fireball technique wasn't one of Konoha's more esoteric fire release techniques, Iruka had honed this skill to near perfection. He didn't even have to turn around to know Naruto was giving his best pleading look.

"No Naruto," he said, knowing what he wanted, "I'm not teaching you that. It's bad enough that you know how to use explosive tags, the last thing I need is for you to know how to breathe fire."

Naruto pouted, but perked up when he saw his barrier was still standing.

"That's pretty impressive Naruto," Iruka said, "How much chakra did you pump into that barrier?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "I just sort of pump chakra until the seal stops accepting" Naruto seemed embarrassed, "I know I'm probably using too much, but I can't really put any less into it," He mumbled.

Iruka pondered this for a moment, it wasn't surprising, considering Naruto's Uzumaki heritage combined with the gigantic chakra monster sealed inside of him, that he had terrible chakra control. Iruka was more surprised that he didn't see this problem before.

"Naruto," Iruka said suddenly, "could you release a little chakra for me?"

Naruto was confused, but complied anyways. He held his hands in a seal, and a visible sheen of chakra swirled around him.

"Alright, release as much as possible," Iruka stepped back a bit.

Naruto was frowned deeper in concentration. The chakra around him increased, and his presence shot upwards. After about a minute, the exploded outwards and created a vortex of blue, swirling light.

"NARUTO, THAT'S ENOUGH," Iruka yelled, trying to make himself heard over the loud thrum of the potent chakra. As his chakra started to peter out, Iruka was kicking himself. 'Of course he would have chakra control problems, his chakra is monstrously large!'

"Alright," Iruka started, after regaining his composure, "First thing we need to work on is your chakra control, you need to be able to quickly release small and constant amounts of chakra for most jutsu."

Naruto pouted, chakra control exercises were so boring! He knew that Iruka-sensei was right though, but none of the books he read actually had any exercises written in them. They just assumed that the readers knew them already, as the books were more geared towards adults.

"Now, the first exercise you should learn is the leaf sticking exercise," Iruka said, "but instead we're going to use something heavier, maybe a rock."

They spent the rest of the afternoon going through some exercises that Naruto could do by himself, and Iruka stressed the importance of them in for performing ninjutsu, which got his attention.

As Naruto left, Iruka smiled to himself, Naruto was really starting to show some potential. The cards were ingenious, and Naruto had the creativity and the sheer talent to take it to new heights.

As he was turning to leave himself, he jumped in surprise as he saw the Hokage standing right behind him with an eerie smile on his face.

"Iruka-kun," the Hokage said genially, with barely supressed annoyance, "what on earth possessed you to tell a jinchuuriki to release so much chakra in the middle of the village?"

"Err, well, you see Hokage-sama," the teacher started, "I found out that Naruto had some chakra control problems… and well..."

The Hokage seemed surprised at this. Picking up on the confusion on the Hokage's face, Iruka said, "Wait, you never knew? I thought he told you everything."

Hiruzen seemed to deflate at this. He pondered this for a moment, while puffing on his pipe. "I… I think he didn't want to disappoint me. Every time I asked him how he was doing in his classes, he always said he was doing fine."

Iruka seemed to understand. It never occurred to him that, with Naruto's constantly cheerful demeanor, he had confidence issues. He supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised, social isolation combined with the naysayers that disparaged him must have been hell on his self-confidence, and he didn't want to lose the few people who seemed to believe in him.

"Well, do tell if anything new comes up Iruka-kun," the Hokage said.

"Actually," Iruka perked up, "Naruto seems to have come up with an easy way to weaponize fuuinjutsu..."

The Hokage blinked slowly, and as the teacher explained what Naruto had come up with, a small smile crossed his face. It seemed that Naruto had finally started to live up to his potential.

5 months later…

"You pass!" Iruka beamed from his seat next to Mizuki, "Congratulations Naruto, but I have to ask, why did you have to fill the room with bunshins?"

20 Naruto's seemed to scratch the back of their illusionary hands simultaneously. "Ehehe, I like to overachieve?" Seeing Iruka's disbelieving face, he said, "alright fine, I can't make any less, I still can't tone down my chakra enough to make one or two of them…"

As Iruka was congratulating Naruto, Mizuki was seething. He would have to revise his plan. He was banking on Naruto's terrible chakra control to fail him a third time, so that he could prey on the resulting desperation.

"Come get your hitai-ate Naruto," Naruto rushed at Iruka, and grabbed the symbol of his success out of his hand. Whooping with joy, he rushed out of the room, proclaiming his new status as a genin to anyone that would listen.

As the rest of the students took their examination, Iruka was planning to go and take Naruto out for ramen that night. Naruto had really grown on the teacher after the day he had shown him his cards. He needed to talk to Naruto about the dangers of shinobi life, and how he needed to take things a little more seriously from now on.

Iruka frowned, Mizuki was acting strange today. He had always been supportive of Naruto, but he seemed almost…. disappointed when he passed. Iruka shrugged, he was probably imagining things.

Later that night…

Iruka sat, and leaned against the bloodstained tree with a resigned look on his face. Mizuki was a traitor. His long-time friend and confidant, traitor to the leaf. Iruka supposed that it had a nice ring to it, in a morbid sort of way.

"This is the end Iruka-kun," Mizuki said, with a vindictive smirk on his face, "It's too bad the Kyūbi brat you're so fond of isn't here to see this."

Iruka smiled. The last few months with Naruto had been fun. The blond jinchuuriki wore his heart on his sleeve, and had an almost unlimited amount of energy. It was almost as if Naruto was the little brother he never had. As the oversized shuriken raced towards him to end his life, he saw… a flash of orange?

Three cards shot out from above Iruka, and embedded themselves into the ground in a rough triangle. An orange, wedge shaped barrier sprung up from the ground and deflected the shuriken upwards.

A shocked silence permeated the air.

A fourth card shot out of the air behind Mizuki before he could react, aligning itself so that the back of the card was facing Mizuki's back, it attached to his green chunin vest. A moment later, chains shot out of the card, restraining and forcing Mizuki to the ground.

"Hi… so... what did I miss?" Naruto was standing on a tree branch above Iruka, watching Mizuki with some trepidation. Spying his ex-teacher, his eyes bugged out, "Iruka-sensei! You're hurt! We have to get you to the hospital!"

"WAIT NARUTO," Mizuki was still struggling against the bonds, his plan could still work, if he could just shake Naruto up a little, he could stall long enough to get out of these blasted chains, "Don't you want to know the truth?"

Naruto froze at this statement, and Mizuki knew he had caught his attention.

"Don't listen to him Naruto," Iruka was getting worried, "let's go get the ANBU and get out of here."

"Do you know why you're so hated?" Mizuki said, with venom in his voice, and despite Iruka's best efforts, Naruto remained still, "Did you ever wonder why you were born on the day that the Kyūbi attacked Konoha?"

"Truth is Naruto, you are the nine-tailed demon fox, YOU KILLED IRUKA'S PARENTS AND DESTROYED THE VILLAGE!"

Naruto stilled at this, and turned to Mizuki with a confused look on his face.

"That's old news," Naruto said, "I've known the truth about the Kyūbi for a while."

A second shocked silence permeated the air.

Seeing Iruka's confused expression, he explained.

"Well, you see, you can't really get anywhere in a fuuinjutsu book without authors bragging that they've found the next 'perfect' bijuu seal. It's almost like a rite of passage for seal masters, and it's kind of hard not to notice a gigantic seal on your stomach…" Naruto said, a little sheepish "Jiji knows that I know, and he gave me a talk about it a couple months back, told me not to tell anyone that I knew…. Oops?"

Iruka shook his head in relieved resignation, "Naruto, you and I are going to have a long talk about classified information, and how it should STAY classified."

The next morning…

The Hokage reclined on his chair and took a deep puff of his pipe, looking vaguely smug. A scroll sat on the desk in front of him, ink still fresh on the paper. With a deft flick of chakra, he sent a tiny gust of wind towards the scroll, drying the ink and sending the smoke from his pipe through the room. He rolled the scroll up, setting it aside.

"Send this to Jiraiya," the Hokage said to the seemingly empty room, "Make sure he reads it."

A blur shot from the ceiling, an Anbu guard bowed and took the scroll.

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

"Oh, and one more thing," The Hokage stopped the Anbu before they could leave, "tell him it's about his godson."