Age Unknown. Upper Atmosphere of Unknown Planet

Miles above the sky of a blue planet, bits of dust, space rocks, and metal wreckage drifted in melancholy silence. A curious red liquid was splattered on some of the debris, while drops of the same substance floated around. The peace of the scene was disturbed by a sudden shockwave. Then another one shook the area, and another one, and another one. Two figures suddenly appeared in a show of speed. Two men, both with golden spiky hair, one with bangs and the other with a widow's peak. They were covered in blood, cuts, bruises, and sweat. A great big smile threatened to split one's face while the other had a content smirk on his.

"Thanks for this last bout, Geets. I wasn't sure how much more energy I had left in me."

A short bark of laughter. "Getting sappy on me, Kakarot?"

"Heh heh, you say that, but I can see the tears in your eyes, Vegeta. I…. I appreciate that, honestly."

"You are my best friend, you idiot. Of course I'd cry in this situation. Who the hell else am I going to train with? Eat with? Pass the time with?"

"You've got Whis, don't you?"

"That's different and you know it."

"Yeahhhh… I know. Things sure have changed, haven't they?"

"Mmh… The Saiyan race has…. I won't quite say died out, but I can barely tell who's a Saiyan and who's human from their ki alone anymore, Kakarot. I'm the prince of all but two Saiyans. Our children have had children, and they their own. So on and so forth and whatnot… I have to admit it's somewhat depressing."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the two men who had seen many an era pass them by as they stared out into the endless expanse of space. Unimaginable possibilities existed on their own planet, who knew what mysteries lay out there, waiting to be discovered. Suddenly, the proverbial lightbulb went off in Goku's head.

"Hey, Geets, what if I reincarnated? That'd be pretty cool right?"

"And attract all kinds of idiots to the planet again? After those bastards with the weird horns? Nooooo, thank you!"

And yet, the Vegeta-born, Earth-raised Saiyan had a good idea. It happened every once in a blue moon. Vegeta adopted a thinking pose, left elbow resting in his right palm, goatee twirling around his index. No, no, Goku's time had long since passed. That, and he had no real ambition towards cultivating the Saiyan race. Not to say that he didn't care about it, but it wasn't a priority for Kakarot like it was for Vegeta. Perhaps… yes, that could work. It would require some preparation, but it was an option. Being able to use Hakai didn't sit right with him. His temper was far too short, and he wasn't as good at sensing the true nature of one's heart as Kakarot was. He'd fill in that old sphinx cat's shoes with no problem. Hopefully.

Age 9012—Hi No Kuni, Outside Konoha's Walls

The Forest of Quiet Movement. A normally aptly named forest, filled with tall trees that solemnly stood guard outside the walls of Konoha. Things were different tonight, however. Crickets chirped quietly in the grass, birds fluttered their wings, and a man with a scar across his nose sat against a tree, clutching a fresh wound his flak jacket was unable to prevent was struggling to breathe properly. A man with a bandanna covering his white hair stood across from him, a sneer plastered across his face.

"Mizuki, you traitorous bastard… How could you do this?!"

The now named Mizuki scoffed, idly twirling his giant shuriken. "I could be asking you the same thing, Iruka. How could you protect that… that thing?! It killed your parents, and you wanna buy the damn fox monster lunch?! I've heard of pity, but that's more than I can stomach. But since you've decided to get in my way, I'll just send you off to meet your folks on the other side, sound good?"

But just as he torqued his body to send his oversized weapon rushing towards the chunin Academy instructor, an orange-clad knee planted itself firmly in his face, sending him flying away from the injured man.

"What the-?!" Flipping himself upright, the Konoha traitor looked around for his assailant, expecting a jonin to have been the one to catch him unaware like that. But no, all he could see was Naruto's face giving him the most baleful glare a 12-year-old could muster. His hand rested atop a giant scroll: The Forbidden Scroll of Seals.

"If you lay a hand on my sensei…. I'll kill you!" Naruto could feel his chakra roiling, bubbling beneath the surface, ready to put the new technique he had just learned into action. However, tonight, the night of the full moon, his chakra felt… different. Heavier. Wilder. He couldn't quite explain it, but the moon was calling to him almost, demanding that he give into it, gaze upon its cratered face. It always had this effect on him, something he told nobody, not even his best friend Sasuke Uchiha.

"Big words, you little demon punk. You think you, an Academy failure, can stand up to me? Fat chance."
Naruto just simply formed a hand seal and reached for his chakra. However, a nine-tailed entity with a veritable ocean of chakra had been observing the situation. His container's chakra was disturbed as were his emotions. Now would be a good time to cause a little bit of havoc.

Mizuki leaped into the air, once again attempting to toss his oversized shuriken at the young human sacrifice, intent on ending his life once and for all. Naruto cast his gaze upwards at the traitor, who ended up hanging right in front of the moon. Immediately, Naruto felt himself begin to shift, to change. His body began morphing, growing hairier and taller, bones growing larger and denser. A tail ripped through the bottom portion of his orange jumpsuit as his nails lengthened into claws. He began growing larger and larger, eyes turning a blood-red as he roared in pain and rage.

Mizuki threw two kunai with wires attached behind him and use them to alter his trajectory. He landed and stared at Naruto's rapidly changing body. He had grown to three times Mizuki's own height, his long furry ears already brushing against the leaves of the tall trees surrounding them. "W-what the….? I-is the demon fox showing me its true form? Have I pushed it that far…?"

As Mizuki closed his eyes and prayed to every God he knew of for mercy, a shape hurtled downwards from the sky like a bullet, planting its feet into Naruto's newly grown snout. A harsh, angry voice cut through the forest that had suddenly decided to live up to its name.

"No! No! Absolutely not! I will not deal with another giant animal! It is too damn early! I refuse!" An ANBU member wearing a monkey mask landed on top of Naruto's shrinking form, coming more and more into sight as Naruto shrank back to his normal size. Mizuki was out cold in a puddle of his own piss and Iruka was barely hanging onto consciousness himself. He was shaken out of his stupor when he realized the spiky-haired man was speaking again. "I leave you be for a couple years, and you get this out of shape, Dolphin? Bested by this punk?"

Iruka sputtered in confusion and mild outrage. "D…. dolphin?!"

Monkey sighed, bending down to pick up the unconscious Naruto and slung him over his shoulder. Three more ANBU appeared in the forest in a collective Shunshin. One picked up the traitor's body with disgust very apparent in his body language and the other two gingerly helped Iruka up to his feet.

"We should report back to Hokage-sama for now. We'll talk later." With that, the Forest of Quiet Movement was quiet once more.

Age 9012—Konoha, Hokage's Office

A wizened old man stood facing the window that allowed him to view the village he loved so dearly. It was quite late at night, so not many people were out and about, but it was still serene in a way. This man was the 3rd Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and he was tired. His successor, Namikaze Minato, was the one who was supposed to be dealing with things like this. He puffed on his pipe quietly in thought, trying to piece together the night's events, before giving up. It would all be revealed to him shortly as it was. The melancholy man sighed and turned to face the empty room as he felt six chakra signatures heading his way.

Sure enough, a battered Iruka, a groggy Naruto, and four ANBU appeared in his office with nary a sound.

"Ox, Bird. Dismissed. Dragon, fetch me a medic for Naruto, please."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." After performing the Konoha salute, left fist over the heart and elbow parallel to the ground, they were gone, as if they were never there. Iruka stumbled for a moment from the loss of support before steadying himself. The Hokage looked to the beaten Academy sensei with concern but put aside his feelings for the moment and his gaze hardened.

"Iruka-kun, report." The scarred man nodded, noting the gravity of the situation.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Based on what I was able to deduce from dialogue between myself, Naruto, and Mizuki, it appears that Naruto was somehow tricked into stealing the Forbidden Scroll for Mizuki. I currently do not have any intel regarding Mizuki's motives for wanting the Scroll at this time, but I'm sure Morino-san or Anko-san can sort him out." The more Iruka spoke, the more the Third seemed to be feeling his age. Dragon returned midway through the Academy instructor's report with a medic, who bowed before his superior. Hiruzen nodded to the medic then made a discreet hand gesture to Dragon. The Black Ops member saluted and disappeared with Mizuki's body. The medic began healing Naruto with the well-known Shōsen Jutsu, who slowly came to.

"Wha….? Where am I? Where's that bastard Mizuki?!" Naruto's tail flicked excitedly, before he realized where he was. "O-old Man Hokage….? What happened?"

The Hokage chuckled good-naturedly, a hand coming up to stroke his goatee. "Well now, I was hoping you could tell us that, Naruto-kun. Why did you steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals?"

Konoha's Number One Knucklehead scratched his head, appearing confused, but internally, a different war was taking place. Hiruzen watched as Naruto apparently came to a decision, as the boy squinted sharply, making a face reminiscent of a fox before speaking.

"Mizuki told me there was a secret remedial test I could take to become a ninja, since I failed the graduation test… again. He said I had to steal some fancy scroll, learn a jutsu from it, and I'd be able to become a real ninja. So, I did! The stealing part was easy, learning the Shadow Clone Technique was the hard part…." He folded his arms and scowled off to the side, muttering under his breath, "…even if I didn't get to use it…"

The Hokage nearly dropped his pipe in shock during Naruto's little tale. This boy, who wasn't even a full-fledged ninja, was not only capable of stealing the Forbidden Scroll, which was always under high security, but also learned one of its Kinjutsu to a practical extent in a matter of hours? For a so-called knucklehead, this seemed to be behavior more fitting of one with the title of "genius." Then again, given that the wizened shinobi had seen how Naruto acted when he was around people he trusted thanks to his crystal, not to mention his pedigree…

"Naruto-kun, could you kindly perform the Kage Bunshin for me? I know you've got the chakra for it."

"Heh, you know it, Old Man!" And without further ado, Naruto formed a cross seal with his index and middle fingers on both hands. With a cry of "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" and a large puff of smoke, five healthy carbon copy clones of Naruto appeared in the office. With a quick bow to the Hokage and a snappy salute to their creator, the clones popped out of existence with a puff of smoke. "Sorry 'bout that, Old Man. I tried to put in enough chakra for just one clone, but… well you saw what happened."

The pipe hit the floor this time. Truly monstrous. The implications of his potential were frightening, but Hiruzen put those thoughts to the side for now. He sighed and sat down, casually picking up his pipe then re-lighting it. With a slow exhale of smoke, the Hokage spoke once more, "Iruka-kun, report to the hospital and have someone look over those wounds." He turned to the medic. "Make sure he actually goes, would you?"

The medic chuckled before saluting and escorting the battered Academy instructor out of the Hokage's office. Hiruzen studied Naruto, who seemed to be feeling tense being alone with two powerful ninja. The Third Hokage made a decision that would affect the lives of many for years to come. He sat up straight and spoke with authority. "Uzumaki Naruto, step forward."

Uzumaki Naruto did so, looking worried, but resolute.

"I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, hereby declare you, Uzumaki Naruto, fit for active duty in my shinobi ranks. Do you accept this honor?"

Naruto, already knowing what was going on, immediately snapped into the Konoha salute. "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Then, you shall henceforth be given the rank of Genin, and will report to the Academy tomorrow at 0800 hours, am I understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Dismissed."

Naruto executed the deepest bow he ever would in his entire life before departing, pumping his fist all the way. He paused at the door and turned around to face the Hokage.

"Thanks, Jiji!" With a click, the door closed and Naruto was gone, leaving the Hokage and the ANBU with the monkey mask alone in the room.

Sarutobi allowed himself a brief chuckle at the child's antics before getting serious once more. He eyed the paperwork that had made its way to the top of the pile.

"Saru, step forward."

The ANBU did so.

"So you put in a request to become a Jonin sensei, is that correct?"

"Yes, Lord Third."

"And yet, here you are in your ANBU gear, despite having left last week in preparation for this years graduates."

"Habit, Lord Third, sir."

"Truly?"

A pause. Saru's peculiar brown belt seemed to twitch and tighten itself momentarily.

"I also wanted to show one of my new students what a proper ninja should look like… Lord Third, sir."

Hiruzen let out a chuckle once more. Grandfather, indeed. He decided to forgo decorum and stood up to walk over to the window once more.

"Go on and skedaddle on home, Inochi-san. You've got a genin team to pick up bright and early tomorrow morning, don't you?" Inochi grunted, saluted once more and disappeared in a shunshin. Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed out at the quiet sleeping village once more. This is what he had fought for: this serenity, this peace. Though things would soon be a bit more lively, it would be as it should be. Yes, Naruto would certainly make things interesting. Especially with Inochi teaching him. That clan always had produced interesting results, attitude notwithstanding. Prickly fellows, the Vegeta clan were.

A/N: So this is a rewrite of An Altered Saiyan. A massive overhaul is planned for the lore of this AU as you probably tell from the opening scene. I won't prattle on for too long here. Reviews are appreciated!