Naruto:

The Making of a Legend

Chapter One:

A Hearty Introduction

"Because..."

A boy dressed in a glaring orange outfit of pants and a jacket walked seemingly aimlessly through the dark streets of Konohagakure. In just a few hours, the sun would begin to peek up over the Hokage Monument that looked down on the Hidden Village of the Leaf, but Uzumaki Naruto could honestly care less, at that moment. He had other things on his mind.

"Because I love you!"

The words rang out in his mind like the call of a siren, setting his hair on end and his skin tingling. For a transient moment, he saw the scene in his mind, as a girl with dark violet-blue hair and pale, moon-like eyes stared down a robed man with too many piercing, before being dashed violently across the ground by an unseen hand.

Naruto kicked a tin can down the street, wincing slightly as he relived that moment.

"It was my fault," he told himself with a grim expression on his face, thinking of the moon-eyed girl. He blamed himself, like he blamed himself for almost everything that happened around him.

Pein, the leader of the secretive criminal organization Akatsuki, was dead. Those he killed in his attack on Konoha, brought back to life.

But those who had been injured had not been healed, and the buildings which had fallen had not been raised. The village was crippled, and many of Naruto's friends were in a similar condition.

And he blamed himself. Sure, the village had named him a hero, but in his own sapphire eyes, he had failed hundreds of times, one for every blow he couldn't stop.

Plopping down in next to a pile of ruins that used to be a grocery store, the normally energetic ninja couldn't help but despair at what had happened to the village.

His village.

The bed was soft and luxurious, the sheets crisp and clean, but what was normally her sanctuary held no safety for one Hyuuga Hinata that night. She slipped out of her bed in the Hyuuga Mansion soundlessly, stepping around her room on bare feet. Dressing herself in a brief sleeping kimono, cut off at the thigh and without sleeves, she slid back a screen and stepped out onto the deck outside her room. The night wind tickled her bare skin, but the Hyuuga heir ignored its chill.

The first rays of the sun had begun to creep up from behind the heads of Konoha's past leaders, throwing their radiance across a cloudless sky, bright beams of gold lancing past the spikes of the Fourth Hokage's shaggy stone hair.

"Like his hair…" she reflected, growing warm just thinking about him. Sitting there on her balcony, high above the streets of Konoha, the young princess couldn't think of anyone or anything other than the blond-haired ninja, Konoha's number one surprise, Uzumaki Naruto. Forget the fact that the girl's slim waist was wrapped in bandages, a token of an injury she had taken for his sake! She would do it so many times again, if only she could have his arms around her, her fingers twined in his hair, her head against his chest as he whispered her name, sweet breath whistling past her ear.

Lost in her own thoughts, Hinata soon drifted into sleep with Naruto's name on her lips.

Naruto woke in his apartment, dressing quickly and leaving without breakfast.

There were only a few things that could make Naruto skip breakfast, chief among which were the threat of physical violence, better breakfast, or a meeting with the Hokage. The later usually included the first, and was the reason in this case, as the Genin stepped out the door of his apartment building, taking a left and heading directly for the Hokage's office at the top of the tall tower that consisted of Konohagakure's operations center.

"Oi! Baa-chan, you called?!" he shouted, stepping through the double doors and into the Hokage's office.

What starred back at him from the other side of the room was a little more than what Naruto had been expecting.

Sitting behind a long curved table was Konoha's council of elders, the politically wise of the village, with Tsunadae, the fifth and current Hokage, sitting in the center. All of the occupants of that table were staring directly at him, and all but one was looking rather skeptical. Skeptical of what, Naruto had no idea, but skeptical none the less.

"Lady Hokage," began one elderly man, whose entire face was covered with bandages save his right eye and mouth. "Is this boy the hero you spoke of?"

His tone was mocking, and Naruto's jaw clenched. One sentence into knowing him, this man had already earned a strong dislike from the whisker-marked ninja. Still, If Naruto had learned one hard lesson in the time since his days at the academy, it was that keeping your mouth shut was sometimes the only option, and he knew that running his mouth on this guy would not be a good idea, with all the big brass gathered in the room. Tsunadae might have been more accepting towards Naruto's mouth, but those snooty politicians definitely didn't look to be that type of person.

"That's enough, Danzo," Tsunadae said, silencing the bandaged man with a wave. Turning back to the blond boy in the doorway, she couldn't help but smile. She was about to make a very excitable boy very happy.

"Uzumaki Naruto, the council that sits before you have discussed a topic brought before us by a fellow shinobi, and has come to a decision concerning you."

Eyes wide, Naruto swallowed hard, finding a lump in his throat. "That can't be good," he decided.

"We have concluded that, based on your display of heroism and skill in the recent attack on the village, you have reached maturity beyond your current rank. On those grounds, we grant you the rank of Chunin."

Naruto's blue eyes went wide, his mouth forming a little 'o' of surprise. When he didn't respond, the village's leader continued.

"In addition to an increase in pay, you have been granted several rights, including the right to travel by way of the rooftops in an unrestricted fashion, to apply for the position of Jonin or induction into ANBU, and access to previously restricted jutsu. In addition…"

Then, Tsunadae was interrupted by a deafening shout of excitement.

"It's about time!" Naruto roared, pumping his fist in the air. "I've waited three long years, but the rookie nine's last Genin finally did it!"

"As I was saying…" The fifth Hokage continued, clearing her throat. "Your flak-vest has been delivered to your apartment, along with your new identification papers and a scroll containing the jutsu that are now available to you."

"New clothes, and new moves!?!" He questioned with a shout. "You're the greatest!"

The Hokage was smiling lightly, though in truth she was feeling slightly embarrassed by this behavior coming from the ninja that she had argued on behalf of for countless hours, claiming that he was without a doubt ten times more mature then he was three years earlier.

"Thanks, Tsunadae-baa-chan," he said, enveloping the woman in a quick bear hug before running past her.

"WAIT!!!" she shouted, suddenly aware of what the ninja was going to do.

Too late, as Naruto was already covering his face. With a crash, the blond-haired Chunin leapt through the huge bay windows of the Hokage's office, landing in a roll on a rooftop far, far below.

"YOU IDIOT!" the Hokage called after him. Everyone in the village had heard it, but Naruto only responded with a laugh, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Still, even in the midst of her rage, Tsunadae couldn't help but hear a familiar voice.

"Hey, is it just me, or did your chest get even bigger since last time?"

"Hello to you too, you fat, old, pervert."

The platinum-blond ninja couldn't help but smile at Jiraiya's comment. Some things never changed.

"He's growing fast. A bit too fast for my liking."

"I know."

Tsunadae smiled sadly, looking at the laughing ninja as he began to leap off into the distance, beyond the range of her eyes.

"He'd be so proud…"

Naruto cleared the next rooftop with ease, laughing all the way. Never before had he felt so confident, so empowered!

"I'm getting closer!" he shouted to nobody but himself. And he was the only one in the world at that moment. "I'm one step closer to my dream, the dream that I've been fighting for every day of my life!"

Leaping high into the air, he shouted to the world at the top of his lungs, "I will be Hokage!!!"