Whenever someone of their profession thought of the Uzumaki clan, they always envisioned a clan filled to the brim with red heads that had impeccable writing and a knack for outliving everyone that didn't share their bloodline.

While most of that was true, but as the old age adage goes, there's an exception to every rule. Uzumaki Naruto was the exception to the rule this time around. Born prematurely with blonde hair instead of the famous Uzumaki red, and with a quieter outlook on life than most of them, he was the quintessential black sheep of the clan.

Just because he looked and acted differently from most of the Uzumaki, did not mean that they treated him differently. There was an ongoing joke among most of the clans in the shinobi world that the Uzumaki were a bunch of hippies.

One would think that they would abhor such a title, given how the world they lived in valued strength and power which – were achieved through violence – terrible violence, over love, but the Uzumaki did not care. They didn't abhor their nickname, but rather adored it. Embraced it. Strove to prove that they could live up to it, despite being a clan of killers by profession.

Uzumaki Naruto, despite being different to them in appearance and attitude, was treated like any other Uzumaki.

His different appearance may have been instantaneous, visible from birth, but his attitude was something that expressed itself over time. His parents started noticing it when he was just at the tender age of four.

It was during a simple trip to buy groceries at a nearby market place, where Naruto's mother, Kushina, a red haired woman that exuded beauty similar to that of goddess, had taken Naruto to get acquainted with the world. They had just passed a small stand that sold toys, and she had the bright idea of getting Naruto a toy.

When she had asked him which one he wanted from the plethora of toys that were on display, he replied with a simple, "That one." pointing at a blue yo-yo that was next to a blunt plastic kunai and a wood figurine.

Him picking a yo-yo was normal, after all it was a childish toy; but it was what he did with it that completely caught his mother off-guard. While most children would immediately try to play with a yo-yo by doing different things with it, like biting it, throwing it into the air or even twisting it to see if there was something hidden within it, Naruto did not.

He, instead, looked at it while his mother paid the vendor the amount necessary to purchase the yo-yo, noticed that it had a string that had a loop at the end of it, and quickly stuck his finger in said loop. After that, he took the yo-yo and dropped it, watching in all the avid curiosity that a four-year old had, as the yo-yo stopped short of hitting the ground before it jumped back into the air, almost as if it was begging to return to his hand.

He complied with the inanimate object's silent request and caught it. It was at this time that Kushina turned around, expecting her son to have thrown the yo-yo onto the ground in an attempt to see how it worked. She was instead greeted by a sight she had not expected. Her little boy was calmly playing with the yo-yo as it should be played with, launching it at the ground, before pulling it back into his hand. She watched him do this for about a minute, unsure of how she should process what she was seeing.

She was by no means an expert at parenting, Naruto's first twelve months could attest to that; but even she knew that no four year old could play with a yo-yo properly.

She quickly came out of her stupor, and deciding to talk to Naruto's father about it. She quickly left the market, her son in tow, along with the yo-yo that had his undivided attention.

That night, Naruto's parents discussed the possibilities of what this meant for Naruto. His father, Minato, being a civilian, did not see things the way that Kushina did. To him, this was nothing special. His son was just gifted with the yo-yo. There were plenty of children, the world over, that were gifted at something from a young age, even murder.

Kushina, who was a shinobi by profession, had been trained to see past what normal people could, and to her this was a sign, a sign that her child was special.

The next case of Naruto's speciality making itself known was the very next day. His mother had come to his room to wake him up, but as soon as she entered his room she witnessed something that shocked her more than what she had seen the previous day.

Her son was sitting on his bed, cross-legged, and he was performing tricks she had never seen before, with the yo-yo she had bought him. He would throw it at the ceiling, before sticking out a finger from his left hand, using that finger to poke the string that held the yo-yo, which would result in the yo-yo's course being shifted to the left, before he would start spinning it anti-clockwise, in an almost hypnotising manner.

After that he stood up, on his bed, and started spinning it around his body almost as if he were dancing with it. He treated it like it was his dance partner, performing tricky dance moves that no one with just a single day's experience with a yo-yo should be able to perform.

Suffice to say that when his father found out about it, he reversed his previous statement. His wife had been right all along. His son was definitely special.

While the discovery of Naruto's speciality had come at a relatively young age for his parents, it took those outside of his home a slightly longer period of time to discover it. A few years to be exact.

While most clans sent their children out to war at just the tender age of six years, the Uzumaki did not. They instead chose to only start sending their children to school at that age. Their schooling programme lasted a few years, during which a child is taught how to be literate, how to think properly, and of course, seeing as how this was a world embroiled in warfare, they taught their children how to kill.

Because of this, Uzumaki children had the highest first mission survival rate out of all clans in the world. Their children entered war at the age of twelve, which was an age where they could properly act as shinobi.

However this came with an adverse effect of making their twelve year olds less experienced than those of the other clans. Children that were twelve in most clans were already considered veterans, due to how they had already fought in a lot of battles and had lived to tell their tales.

When Naruto entered the Academy, as the Uzumaki liked to call their school, he was six years old. He only stayed in it for two years.

During the first couple of weeks of his tenure in Uzu no Kuni's Academy, Naruto seemed like a completely normal child, one that they had already seen before a hundred times over. He just happened to have the noticeable trait of blonde hair and a very quiet attitude, one he would discover, he had garnered from his father.

As the weeks turned to months however, it became apparent that Naruto was anything but ordinary. At first, whenever he would finish a test ahead of all of his classmates or answer questions when asked, his instructors thought it was just pure coincidence.

"Maybe he studied before hand." that was the general consensus.

But, as time went by, it soon became apparent that it was far from being luck or coincidence that he knew what was being asked.

"What is the most sure fire way to achieve victory in battle?" that was a question that had been asked by one of his instructors. He had asked the entire class of twenty, intending to see how these six year old children would react. He had expected answers such as being the strongest or a good strategy. Children always gave those two answers.

"There is none." Naruto stated, while drawing something on a piece of paper, never really looking up at his teacher. If he had, he would have seen the shocked expression the man displayed.

What Naruto said had been absolutely on the money. There was no sure fire way to win a battle because every battle was different. Most kids knew this by the time they graduated, not immediately after entering the Academy.

The instructor walked up to Naruto, to see what he was doing, and upon seeing what it was that the boy was doing, he was left in a state of great shock. The instructor saw Naruto's drawing, which was a design of a yo-yo that could protruded sharp spikes while spinning.

This was to be the first weapon the boy designed.

After that day, the instructor spread the word amongst his colleges about Naruto's genius, and they all took notice of it soon after. Test were administered to the boy, and he passed them all without even trying.

While most Uzumaki were considered to be smarter than the average person, due to how they could master the most complex of the shinobi arts, Fūinjutsu, they were still considered to be the intellectual inferior of the Nara clan that resided within Hi no Kuni.

Naruto was an Uzumaki with a Nara's brain.

"What do you do for fun?" that was a question that had been asked by one of the children he went to school with.

"I study and practice." had been Naruto's answer.

Naturally word of his genius intellect spread across the entire island like wildfire, and pretty soon even kids his own age caught wind of it. They started hanging out with him more than they did before in hopes of having his genius rub off on them. Unfortunately for them, that was not how things worked. You either have it or you don't.

Also unfortunate, for Naruto, was that the other children only did this during school hours. After school he became a complete stranger to them. He quickly learned a valuable lesson through these kids. In their world, it was either use or be used.

Fast forwarding past a few more tests, which saw Naruto get bumped up to different classes in a matter of moths, he soon found himself taking an IQ test that resulted in him being diagnosed with a genius-level intellect greater than any eight year old Nara that had ever come into existence. It was also immediately after this test that it was made apparent that Naruto had learned all that he could from the Academy, bar killing, and he was completely bored.

"We would like to personally train him." that was a statement uttered by a man named Uzumaki Jin, the head of their clan. He had heard of Naruto's special intelligence, and as such he had become interested in him. He had come over to Naruto's parents personally, in order to ask for permission to train him.

Well, it wasn't really a matter that was up for debate, and Naruto's parents knew it. When your clan leader wanted something from you, you did it, regardless of how you felt about it. Not doing so would be seen as an act of insubordination. And everybody knew what that meant for you. Death.

Regardless though, Kushina was a proud woman that had built a reputation as a hot-blooded individual, and this made itself apparent almost immediately when she decided to throw caution to the wind and say, "Why? What do you intend to do with my son?"

There was no way in hell she would allow her boy to suddenly be thrust into the heat of battle without proper training, or before he hit the required age within their clan. She would not allow him to become an exception to the general consensus.

"Do not worry, Kushina." Ginrei said, stroking his white beard like the truly ancient person that he was. He had accompanied his son, Jin, to speak with Kushina, "Naruto will not leave the island before the age of twelve, just like everyone else."

"Then why do you want to personally train my son?" this time it was Minato that had asked, proving that he had a backbone despite not being a shinobi.

"Because we see in Naruto something that we haven't see in anyone else for a very long time." Ginrei said cryptically.

"And that is?" Minato asked once more, feeling his irritation rising. He didn't like how Ginrei was dancing around the issue of what they wanted with his son.

"Possibility." Ginrei said, beard stroking over for now, "In Naruto we see the possibility of taking our clan further than where we are. We do not want to make him a weapon, far from it. We want to make him an symbol of peace."

"Peace, Huh?" Minato said with a large frown on his face, "By turning him into a force of destruction and masquerading it as peace?"

"No -" whatever else that Jin was going to say died in his throat when Minato slammed his hand onto the wooden table that they sat in.

"Damn you! You shinobi don't know anything about peace! You go around murdering people, not giving a damn about the innocents that get caught in the way, and you go around preaching peace! My wife murders people for a living! And now you want to make my son a murderer too?!" Minato's voice had risen to new heights that seemed uncontrollable. His voice was shaking as he spoke to the clan leader and his predecessor.

His wife's soft, and also very warm, hand was all it took to calm him down. She simply placed it on top of his raging fist and his anger was immediately quelled.

She understood his pain, she really did. She didn't want her only child to become a murderer at a young age, but this was just the terrible, cruel reality of the world that they lived in.

"Just -" Minato began, stepping out of the chair he sat in, "Just make sure that he at least has one friend. Kami-sama knows he needs those."

With that, the trio of Uzumaki warriors watched Minato walk out of the kitchen with his head held low, knowing very well that there was nothing he could do about his son's situation. They were all sure that he wished that he was different. Not stupid, but significantly less intellectual than he was right now.

That way, they would never have had to deal with the bullshit that they were dealt with right now.

The Uzumaki leader and his father left not longer after, already making preparations to have Naruto move in with them. He would train with the head family during the week, but be able to visit his family during the weekend. It was a stipulation that Kushina had set, one that they had no problem maintaining.

To them, mainly Jin, Naruto was someone that was worth any ridiculous stipulation.

Chapter One: A genius is born

Soft blades of grass were unexpectedly fattened when a blonde haired boy walked over them. An eight year old Naruto was currently walking towards a large house. One which, for the last two centuries, has housed the main family of the Uzumaki clan. The house was majestic, looking like a very traditional castle, with an air of pure authority to it.

Just looking at it, one knew that they were stepping on important grounds. Grounds nearly as important as the temple located at the centre of the village.

Naruto walked on the extraordinarily large front lawn of the mansion, marveling at it with eyes the size of saucers, with his beige bag slung attached to his back. Upon stepping onto the patio of the massive mansion, Naruto felt his muscles suddenly locking in place, his nerves not really being able to transmit the message his brain was trying to convey to his limbs.

Move.

It was a simple command, one which his body just couldn't catch up to. It was as if someone had turned his body into that of a puppet. The more he commanded his body to move, the more it seemed to disobey him. In fact, it almost seemed as if it was giving him the middle finger and going the extra mile in disobedience by disposing of his chakra.

'Wait! The body doesn't just disobey you and start releasing chakra unless if there's been a jutsu cast on you!' Naruto thought. If one were to take a peek into his shiny blue orbs that he had inherited from his father, they would see that he was panicking. A lot.

'Calm down!' He silently told himself, 'Think! Focus on where the chakra is being syphoned off to, so that you can stop it.'

He slowed his breathing down, calming himself so that he could think. Upon doing so, he was able to immediately notice that his chakra was due south.

His eyes were the only thing that could move, and he had to concentrate really hard on looking down. Naruto noticed a sealing matrix that was large enough to encompass the entire patio. At least, according to his peripheral vision, because it went on beyond it on either side.

'How do I get rid of that?!' Only his eyes could move. And that wasn't good. From all of the knowledge he had obtained so far with regards to Fūinjutsu and how to dispose of it if you are ever trapped in one, you needed to at least have some mobility. He had none. That was not good!

"You know…" a gravely, masculine voice said from the sidelines, drawing Naruto's eyes to it, "every jutsu has a weakness."

Naruto looked at the man, and he saw an old man that had a white beard that reached just below his clavicle. He had white hair that was tied into a ponytail, and he was decked in a grey outfit under a dull red armour.

The man looked at Naruto, and the look that was directed at the blonde-haired boy indicated that the old man was expecting him to break the seal. Naruto's eyes shifted away from the old man and looked at the mansion's paper doors. Looking to do exactly what the old man was quietly suggesting, Naruto focused on his chakra.

He felt the torrent that ran in between his bones and veins that represented his chakra flow in one direction, south. Knowing that he had a tough task ahead of him, he started trying to change its flow.

It wasn't easy, but after a minute of pure concentration, Naruto slowly started to feel his chakra change direction, heading south east before it went east completely. After that, he shifted it west, before taking it up north, focusing the flow to his brain.

Then he stopped focusing on his chakra flowing in a controlled manner and started making it flow in all directions in a very undignified manner. It sauntered all over his chakra coils, making them burn up slightly, and drawing a sweat from him.

This exercise was exhausting him, as the more he did it, the faster the seal attached to his feet worked.

He felt his heart beat increase, drawing a hyperventilated breath of air out of his lungs.

'When will this -'

And then his legs moved forward…

'- End?!'

…and then he shot forward like a bullet – one travelling at a very slow speed of less than ten kilometres an hour – and he shot through the paper screen of the Uzumaki clan's main house.

"Hahahaha…" Naruto inwardly groaned while he slowly picked himself off the ground, pushing a thin sheet with wood attached to it off of him, which clattered on the ground when it struck the wooden floorboards of the house, before he slowly exited the hole he had just made.

Looking at the old man that was laughing at his expense, Naruto looked really annoyed.

"I'm glad that my misery is amusing to you." Naruto said bitterly.

"Hahahaha… oh, it was very amusing actually. And also quite insightful." the elderly Uzumaki said.

"Oh?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms in the process, "How so?"

"You have very good control of your chakra." the old man began, drawing a raised eyebrow out of Naruto, "What you were trapped in is a mass scale paralysis seal. It actually surrounds the entire house. And the only way to get out of one is with properly controlled chakra fluctuations that go against the seal. "

Awe. That was what Naruto experienced at that moment. It immediately made sense to him as to why it was there.

"I'm guessing that it's meant to keep intruders at bay?" Naruto let his thoughts be known.

"Yes, it is. Quite perceptive for someone your age." the old man said.

"My father always said that one should always hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." Naruto said in a sagely manner, completely unfitting of an eight year old.

"Ah, I see. Going by what you said, then that means that you know who I am."

"Hai. You're Ginrei-sama."

The old man, Ginrei, nodded his head at the boy, before he slowly started stroking his beard. He liked the boy. Honestly, he did. He had a good head on his shoulders. He seemed respectable, and judging by how he reacted throughout the whole ordeal involving the paralysis seal, a very calm individual.

"Do you want to know what I know about you?" Ginrei said to the boy.

"There's no point in saying no, even though a part of me wants to. So I will just say yes." Naruto answered rather cheekily, showing his immaturity.

'He can see through the way words are used. A good head for politics.'

"You name is Naruto. You like ramen, you hate vegetables. You also happen to be a very smart kid, graduating early from our academy. You reportedly have chakra reserves equal to those of a seasoned shinobi who's fifteen, while also having immaculate control over it." Ginrei said, pausing to swallow some spittle.

"Don't all Uzumaki have large pools of chakra?" Naruto asked. As far as he knew, he was nothing special when it came to chakra quantity.

"True, we do have large chakra pools. But the comparison was made with a fifteen year old Uzumaki in mind, not someone from another clan." Ginrei said, drawing a shocked look from the boy.

"How do you know this? I didn't know that it was possible to measure one's chakra quantity." Naruto said quickly, unfurling his arms and walking away from the hole he made.

The old man did not say much. He instead pointed down, causing the boy he was with to look where he was pointing.

"The paralysis seal that you were ensnared in is one of my own designs. It ensnares one in a powerful binding spell, before it slowly starts sucking out your chakra, that way by the time you figure out how to disable it, you won't have enough chakra to do so." Ginrei said, "You were caught in it for four minutes, ten seconds, which is just how long a twelve year old Uzumaki would last before he or she actually collapsed from chakra exhaustion."

Naruto nodded his head at the beard stroking man, indicating that he understood what he said.

"You appear to have barely felt the drain on your reserves. Let me ask you a question, Naruto…"

Once again, Naruto nodded his head at the man. This time though, it was a means of telling him to proceed.

"Do you know why our clan sends children out to battle only after they have reached the age of twelve?" Ginrei asked.

"No." Naruto shook his head, "I only know that you do it so that we, as the children of the clan, can have normal childhoods free of violence. But I'm guessing that is not the true reason why."

Ginrei stopped his beard stroking for a moment, mesmerised by the fact that the boy seemed intelligent enough to guess that the reason that they always dished out in their public service announcements, with regards to early graduation, was really just a farce. He didn't know how, but he could see through the thinly veiled lie the clan had constructed.

'Very perceptive indeed.'

"You're right. The real reason, which I'm not supposed to be telling you due to you being under age, but I will do so anyway because you seem like someone that won't go around spouting what I'm going to say to the general public, is that a shinobi's chakra grows exponentially when they hit puberty. So that means that you can get taught things, more advanced techniques, as you grow older. Which also means that that is when you have the biggest growth spurt as a shinobi. If you don't take advantage of it then, then it will definitely go to waste." Ginrei said, stroking his beard once more while looking at the hole Naruto made.

Naruto, meanwhile, had one simple, yet very confusing question rolling around in his head.

"What's puberty?"

Suffice to say that Ginrei wished he had not told Naruto one of the clan's secrets.

A - very awkward - few minutes later

Naruto, after being told what he would be going through in a few years time – minus the explicit details about coitus – now found himself in the Uzumaki clan's main house's lounge. He was told by Ginrei to wait there, and he did. Ginrei, despite exuding an air of authority, seemed like he was a fun loving person.

Naruto came to this conclusion after they had used the hole he had made in the screen as an entrance into the house. When Naruto had asked him why they hadn't used the normal entrance, he replied with a simple, "What's wrong with the door that you just made?"

So yes, judging by those words, the old man seemed like a bit of a rebel, which honestly wasn't what Naruto had expected when he got to know the elder Uzumaki a bit. According to what Naruto had read up on the man – yes, Ginrei was so important that he had written text talking about him – he was a child prodigy, so gifted in Fūinjutsu that he surpassed his father, the greatest at the time, at just the age of twenty, which was a record.

He was the one that had come up with the academy system, choosing to find a place where a lot of Uzumaki children could be taught at the same time, thus making sure that they were all more-or-less around the same skill level.

His mind was so sharp that he was dubbed Ginrei the wise.

With all of these things in mind, he had expected someone that was stoic, like most clan leaders were – at least that is what he had heard through the grapevine; clan leaders were notorious stoic. He didn't expect to find a man that seemed carefree, who seemingly had a sense of humour while also able to exude power and authority like it was child's play. Which, Naruto concluded, probably was for the man.

" …the lounge." Naruto heard Ginrei shout from somewhere within the house. He heard footsteps coming from the hallway that was to the right hand side of the lounge when you exited it, and he focused his attention onto the entrance that lead to and from the hall.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, heightening Naruto's sense of anticipation for whoever was running towards him. He was a kid that had only recently discovered what puberty was, he couldn't help feeling anxious, genius or not.

His anxiety came to an end when the person that had been running in the hall came to a screeching halt at the entry way. Purple stared at blue. Red buns were parallel with golden yellow spikes. Tanned skin contorted to match its pale counterpart.

And then there was a smile. A megawatt smile that showed of a set of pearly whites.

"You're Naruto, Right?" the girl said to him.

"Yeah…" Naruto said, drawing out his response as if he was not really being sure that was his name.

"Great!" the girl with the megawatt smile smile said, clapping her pale hands together in a cheerful manner, "I'm Mito."

Naruto was quiet for a few seconds, not really sure about how he should proceed.

Make sure to always be respectful to the main family.

His mother's words rang in his head, and immediately after that he said, "Oh, um, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mito-sama."

Naruto bowed his head when he said this, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Mito.

"Uh, why are you bowing at me?" Mito asked him, and when Naruto looked at her after bowing his head, he noticed that she was looking at him like he had grown a second head.

"I'm being respectful towards you, Mito-sama." Naruto said, a bit unsure of himself.

"Huh?" Mito tilted her head slightly, looking at the boy that seemed to be around her age, with pure confusion, "I thought friends weren't supposed to bow at each other."

"Friends?!" Naruto exclaimed in shock. He didn't have many – if any – friends.

"Yes. We're friends, aren't we?" Mito may have said it like a question, but Naruto somehow got the impression that it was anything but that.

Make sure to always be respectful to the main family.

His mother's words ringing in his head once more, he quickly said, "Y-yes. We're friends."

Naruto was quickly coming to the conclusion that he was very wrong about how he had thought the main family would be. He had guessed that they would actually be uptight individuals that demanded respect, but his interaction with Ginrei and Mito told him otherwise. They seemed like they were the total opposite of what he had expected to find.

It was at that moment that Ginrei walked up to Mito and pushed her inside the lounge lightly, eliciting a yelp from the girl, and then a snarl immediately afterwards. Behind Ginrei was a man that had hair that was as red as Mito's, while also sporting a large scar that went across his left cheek.

"You really need to learn how to be patient, child." Ginrei chided the girl, who simply folded her arms at his comment and then chose to stick her nose in the air while closing her eyes.

Naruto watched their interaction with an amused expression, before he felt something akin to a single ray of light trying to pierce his skull. When his eyes drifted towards the source of this invisible discomfort, he found the man that had been walking with Ginrei staring at him with a huge frown on his face.

Staring was actually putting this into a lighter perspective. No. The man was literally drilling into him with his eyes. This made Naruto very uncomfortable, very fast. The man had, in a few seconds, managed to take away the friendly atmosphere that had been exuded by Ginrei and Mito. He made Naruto want to look away, which he did.

The boy chose to focus his eyes on some of the paintings on the wall, noticing how each of them depicted a great warrior riding a horse into battle, or a man fighting a beast of some kind. Looking at these things did not make Naruto feel any relief from the drilling session. In fact, it only intensified it more, to the point where he started shuffling his feet a bit, and was thinking about turning and making a run for it through the hole he had made before.

"Jin, stop." Ginrei said, and then all of a sudden, whatever pressure Naruto had felt, was suddenly lifted off of him. He looked up at Ginrei and found that the old man was looking at the man, Jin, with a disapproving look.

"So you're Kushina's son." Jin said in a slow, yet very authoritative manner, drawing Naruto's attention to him.

Naruto didn't know what to say, or do for that matter. Jin was different from Mito or Ginrei. He exuded power. He had complete command of everything that happened within this room. He could end Naruto's life quicker than he could blink, and Naruto knew it.

Still, though, Naruto had some brain power left in him, which he used to answer the man, although it was a bit too timid for his liking, "H-hai."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Jin."

"I know who you are, Jin-sama," Naruto said, bowing his head at the man, "And it's an honour and a pleasure to meet you."

"Hmm." that was all the man said, before he turned around and left, his black robes fluttering around his feet.

Naruto knew who the man was. He was their clan's leader. Someone that had a fearsome reputation as a monster on the battlefield. Where his father, Ginrei, had excelled in Fūinjutsu, Jin had excelled in Taijutsu and Kenjutsu. He had a body that was both strong, yet also lithe enough that he was both quick on his feet, yet also strong when necessary.

Many said that he was blessed with the body of a god, and it seemed like they were right. Naruto honestly thought that the man could challenge the gods if he sought to. He looked absolutely menacing.

"Ahem." Ginrei's voice drew Naruto's mind away from his thoughts, "I hope my son's charm didn't scare you, Naruto."

"Yeah." Mito said in support of her grandfather, their earlier spat lay forgotten, "What Jii-chan said."

"Honestly," Naruto said, swallowing some saliva, "It does scare me, actually."

"Oh." both, the Uzumaki elder and his granddaughter, said in unison.

"It doesn't mean I won't get over it, though." Naruto said confidently, with a raised fist.

Both main family members smiled up at each other upon seeing Naruto's determination but for different reasons, and one particular reason at the same time.

The reason that they shared was that if Naruto wanted to, he could leave. However neither wanted him to do so, and this is where the different reasons came into play.

"Yay!" Mito said, running up to Naruto and grabbing his hand before pulling him away, "I finally got a friend."

Ginrei watched them run past him, his energetic red haired granddaughter pulling a slightly stupefied Naruto as they exited the lounge, with a soft expression at first, but when the left the room completely, his expression turned to stone.

It was hard for his granddaughter to make friends, considering that she was royalty among Uzumaki. Not even coaxing certain elders' grandchildren had been enough, because they all immediately fell into the same line of obedience and ass kissing as the rest of the clan, and Mito did not need, nor did she want, that. She just wanted to have a normal friendship.

He audibly sighed out loud before he said, "You have so many challenges awaiting you, child. Least of all from my son."

Ginrei proceeded to cross his hands behind his back and slowly exit the lounge. He would let the boy and Mito get familiar with each other for today. Tomorrow is when Naruto's true purpose for coming to his house would begin.

To be Continued

And that, folks, brings a close to the first chapter of my new story, Genius of the Uzumaki Clan. This idea has been on my head for a while now. I wanted to do a story about Naruto in the warring states, yet at the same time I wanted to do one where he was a genius.

And then I thought, "Hey, why not just combine both ideas." And that is what I have done.

I really hope that you enjoyed it, because I plan on sticking with this one for a while. To those that read my other stories, I haven't given up on them, I'm tossing around the idea of possible re-writes for some, such as Shichibukai no Naruto and Transmigration.

Anyway, let me know what you think about this story and if I should re-write my other stories (Shichibukai is probably gonna get re-written whether you like it or not).

I swear I will try to update on a regular basis with this story. I'm already beginning the second chapter as we speak, so yeah, dedicated to it while it lasts.

That's all for now.

I'm out.