The Shinobi way

He was Irritated. There was so much noise, and on such an important day. His name was Uzumaki Naruto, soon-to-be shinobi of the hidden leaf village. He was also the village's number one undesirable. This was through no fault of his own, as the reason he was hated happened twelve years ago, on October 10th, the day he was born.

The mighty demon known as the "Kyuubi no Kitsune" attacked Konoha. This, naturally, wound up with more than a few deaths, and an obscene amount of property damage. It was stopped by one Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage. At the cost of his life, he sealed the demon into a newborn baby. The man's last words were a plea for the child to be treated as the hero he is for jailing the Kyuubi. For some strange reason, the village denied his request, treating the helpless child like they would a helpless demon. The Saindame Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, tried his best to protect the child, but failed miserably because he was unwilling to provoke confrontation.

Shoot, if he had merely put his foot down once, the whole problem would have been solved. Instead, the old man threw him to the wolves at the orphanage, where he was beaten daily, malnourished, and typically made miserable. He stayed there the first three years of his life, and then was thrown out onto the streets.

The next three years of his life were pure hell, but taught him a lot at least. When you're attacked every day, you learn to anticipate people's movements. When you're attacked shinobi, you get even better at it. When you have to steal to eat, and hide to survive from day to day, you typically learn to hide from those hunting you, which made his stealth (AN: not sure how to word this) better than even the ANBU specialists. When your life is in danger, and every mistake had terrible consequences, you learn how to sense people, whether they can hide or not, and you always catalogue where someone can be hiding.

That kind of sense never leaves you, because the moment you think you are in danger again, it resurfaces. He also gained a healthy sense of paranoia, and more common sense and street smarts than most ninja. He also developed what could be considered natural Sharingan, because if it had a point A, and a point B, he could dodge, provided he was fast enough. This would come in handy for his shinobi career, because it would greatly help his taijutsu. He learned to read, to understand warnings, learned to write so he could make notes as to where to avoid. He learned what to eat and what not to both in the wild. He learned the best ways to steal, when to steal, and what is easiest to steal. For example, apples: easy, oranges: hard. He still had no idea why that was, but people have always watched oranges more.

After the three years finally ended, the third Hokage found the boy while he was on one of his walks. At first site, the boy wasn't much. Wearing pure gray clothes that seemed to have so many patches it was ridiculous. Long hair, to his shoulder blades, and tanned skin, walking with a limp and bleeding from his leg, a shoulder, and a cut above his eyes.

The old man stood shocked for a few seconds, before he managed to stutter out "N…Naruto?" Icy blue eyes had snapped to his, startling several years out of the man upon seeing the boy's whisker marks. "What are you doing out of the orphanage?" Naruto cocked his head to the side, and then asked the obvious question. Well, two questions really. "Who are you? And what's an orphanage?" He had learned what he needed to survive, not pointless things like what sounded like a house, something he never happened. He did wonder though, was that the building that he was kicked out of? The Hokage was stunned for a few moments, than his face turned furious.

He shouted out for ANBU, and sent some to the orphanage, and told Naruto to go with the others. Naruto merely glared at them, and said "Why should I go with those who will kill me?" The third got even madder, and started to radiate killing intent (AN: from now on KI). By this point Naruto was able to stand up straight, and his wounds had stopped bleeding, mostly healed. The third finally introduced himself to Naruto, Hiruzen, as The Saindame Hokage. The old man asked Naruto to go with him, Naruto asked why. "So that I can get you to safety and a place to live." "Why do you care?" Naruto refuted.

"No child should have to live on the streets." "Yes, but you just met me. How the heck do you know my name? Much less that I should be in an orphanage? After all, you should be way too busy to know even some of the orphans by name." This put the old man in a quandary. After all, he could hardly tell the boy that he was the container for a demon of damn near unlimited might. And he definitely couldn't tell him that he was the son of the fourth. So, how best to get this boy to be a good little weapon for the village, loyal and always willing to protect it. Of course, the boy would have to be forgiving, and let go of his anger. 'Hmm, best go with the half truth approach, than when he trusts me I can lay it out for him. I don't want to make him a weapon, everyone deserves better than that. But he's a Jinchurikki, and that is their only fate. Plus, it means the village will be safe for many more years, so it's one for many, and the choice is always obvious.' "I can't tell you right now, because I don't truly know. I just found you after the Kyuubi attack, no one claimed you so I put you in the orphanage. I tried to keep an eye on you, but I have been too busy the last three years. Will you trust me enough to take you to an apartment?"

Naruto had looked at him, almost as if he was looking into the old man's soul. He nodded, but was still cautious. And so, the Saindame took the boy to his office, to arrange for an apartment. On the way there, and while they were inside, the third talked to the boy about being a shinobi, and how he should forgive them, because the villagers are just afraid, and when the boy asked what they were afraid of, the third answered "I don't know my boy." The boy refused to forgive the villagers, but was willing to look into being a shinobi. The Saindame went over all of the areas that a shinobi could specialize in. Tai, Gen, Nin, Iryo, Fuin, Ken, Bo, and Shuriken, all of them Categories. All of these were capable of being learned by shinobi, and Naruto was given a brief overview of all of them. The Saindame placed a certain emphasis on Ninjutsu, seeming to believe that he would enjoy them, or maybe he thought that Naruto would be good at them. It didn't really matter.

After a few hours and many messages, the Third brought Naruto into the worst district in Konoha, the Red Light district. Home of drug dealers, whores, pimps, murderers, rapists, and all around scumbags. Potentially the number one place that you do not want a child to grow up in. And the Hokage brought him to an abandoned building. Looking at it, its inhabitants would be lucky to have hot water, electricity, or anything of that nature.

The old man took Naruto to an apartment on the third floor, which was in only slightly better condition than all the others. "This was the best I could get you, I'm sorry." The boy had looked at him, like the Hokage was now his worst enemy. He sighed, and then said "at least make sure you don't tell anyone where I live, no matter who it is please. Considering that they will most likely try to kill me if they do find out." "I don't believe it's that bad Naruto-kun." Just a look was all it took to shut the man up. He nodded, and then left. He had begun to leave ANBU guards, but decided against it. After all, he needed the boy easy to manipulate, and right now he most definitely wasn't.

After the Saindame left, he took stock of what was there. A boatload of instant ramen (junk food, not something he particularly liked either) and enough money for maybe a month of life, as well as some…thing in the in the closets.

He couldn't really look at it directly, because it was a blinding, kill me now orange tracksuit. He was honestly wondering what the fuck was with the Hokage. 'He encourages me to be a shinobi, but he gets me this crap? Does he want a ninja or dead kid?' Naruto shook his head, and sat down to puzzle why the man was actually interested in him.

After about twenty minutes of trying to figure it out, he gave up, because he needed more information. However, what he really needed was some clothes, proper food, and above all, shinobi gear and training. And, considering how every shop in all of Konoha except one kicked him out, and they were all closed now, well, time for him to steal everything he needed. First stop was the shinobi gear shop that, when he went in not knowing what it was, the asshole in charge caused a mob to come after him. He knew what time most stores, including this one, so it would be no problem getting in.

Naruto walked through the front door after picking it. In a stroke of luck, the owner of this store was out on business in Tea Country, and he was a shinobi, so it was a very good thing. Looking around, he thought he had hit the jackpot.

First thing he did was get some new clothes. He was going for comfort and maneuverability, and saw damn near exactly what he wanted. Taking off his clothes, he changed into grey flowing pants, a black silk shirt, and a beautiful black Haori. The Haori covered his arms, and the sleeves ended halfway down his hands. It also went down to his knees, and had four outer pockets and six inner ones, all quite sizable. Grabbing several pairs of each, and in progressively greater sizes, he bagged his items. Next were the weapons. He grabbed several sets of kunai, shuriken, senbon, and several spools of ninja wire. Bagging those, he grabbed all of the exploding and smoke tags, along with smoke pellets. Pocketing those, only a few hundred of the tags and roughly five hundred pellets, tags fitting in one pocket and pellets in two others, he saw a ninjato hanging on the wall. 36 inches total, with a nine inch handle, it was plain, just a leather wrapped handle and an unremarkable dual edged blade, and standard strong tip, it was overall perfect for him. He took it and strapped it to the back of his waist, underneath the Haori. 'Now for books, so as I can learn everything that old man was talking about earlier.' And so he took the beginners books for everything, including things distinctly non-ninja that they had for disguises or something like that. Nin, Gen, Tai, Shuriken, Iryo, Fuin, Ken, and Bo, along with sewing, cooking, poisons, plants, unlocking chakra and chakra natures, and even masseuse. Bagging those and a few things called storage scrolls, and having a little trouble carrying it all, he left, happy with his thefts.

Well, almost leaving. Along with the holsters for each thing he got, he saw three strange holsters. Each one was green, with black seams, and it had a sign on it. "Wrist holsters, Kunai, Shuriken and Senbon. Channel some chakra into it and it will send a preset amount of weapons into the palm of your hand." Naruto decided to take all three, they seemed interesting. Making it to his new incredibly crappy apartment, he put everything away, and spent most of the night reading the "introduction and unlocking chakra.

As the year passed, he excelled in everything except Bojutsu, and was easily chunin level in everything. The only reason he was not faster than he was is because he could not wear weights. Oh, as soon as he graduated he would be able to; because that's one of the ways they schedule graduation. To make sure every student is capable of achieving their best.

Anyways, he had yet to change his outfit, except for sewing a life like image of the Kyuubi onto the back of his Haori. Hey, if that's what the villagers call you, why not accept it? He had the Senbon wrist holster on his right wrist, and the Shuriken one on his left. Several storage scrolls and a kunai holster on each leg completed the tools he needed. His ninjato was still on the back of his waist, handle facing his left side, despite the fact that he was ambidextrous. His natural version of the Sharingan had improved, to the point where he could keep up with people much faster than him, and so long as his body was fast enough, counter them. It had gotten easy to predict the other Genin, even most Chunin that he watched.

However though, it was Graduation day from the academy, and as stated before, Naruto was irritated by the loud noise. The class was perfectly fine until two fan girls stampeded in, screaming about how they were going to be the one to sit next to "their" Sasuke-kun. This being despite the fact that someone with half an eye can tell there is an open seat on either side of him. 'And these are supposed to be ninja. Pathetic.' The worst part was this problem would last for at least five minutes, and then Iruka would walk in and put a stop to it. Sure enough, five minutes later a "SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" rang through the room.

Everyone sat down, and Iruka and Mizuki spoke a few words then passed out the first part of the graduation exam, the written test. Naruto aced it in five minutes, flipped it over and meditated for the remaining hour and fifty five minutes. After that it was time for kunai and shuriken targeting. 10 targets for each one, one thousand points for a perfect run.

Which Naruto did not get. No one did. Naruto was holding back the entire time, except for the written exam. That was just too easy. The reason he was holding back was because he did not trust the Hokage with the knowledge of even most of his skills, as he knew the old man was watching. After that was taijutsu. This was a tournament of spars between classmates, taijutsu only.

The battles passed without interest, the only ones doing anything worth noting was Aburame Shino, Akamichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Uchiha Sasuke, and Inuzuka Kiba, in that order. Naruto only fought just enough to beat his opponent. The final match was Naruto vs. Sasuke, which Naruto forfeited. Sure, it caused everyone to insult him, but he did not feel like fighting. After that was the Ninjutsu test, the basic three, and Naruto accomplished that, became a Shinobi, and went home.

Where he trained his control to keep it at the medical Nin level he had spent years accomplishing. If it was not for the fact that he trained everything but Bojutsu, Naruto would probably be High Chunin at least, possibly low Jonin. But there was massive difference in each level of Shinobi, well, the stereotypical shinobi anyway. Instead he was mid-chunin, and he was quite happy about it, because there was no one as well rounded that he knew of.

An afternoon of training, and off to sleep he went, because he just knew that the next day was going to be a pain in the ass.