I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 1

It was just another normal day for Naruto. He was currently sitting on the swing outside the academy looking at all the parents coming to pick up their children. He was dressed in a black t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on the shoulders and black cargo pants. Over that he wore a black leather hooded coat.

Every time he would see a child greet their parent with a smile on their face he couldn't help but feel a slight pang of jealousy deep within him. He never knew what happened to his parents and the hokage wouldn't tell him. He knew the man knew, even if he insisted that he didn't. You don't live as long as him, as the most hated person in Konoha, without learning how to read people.

It's an essential skill when living on the streets, and one you pick up very quickly when the majority of the people in Konoha want you dead. The blonde remembers that even before he had refined this skill he still had a 6th sense for trouble. Before he was caught by the populace the first few times he had this feeling in the back of his head, he just didn't know what it was. But he soon learned it was some kind of danger sense, because every time he would feel it within a few minutes an irate mob of civilians would be after him.

He slowly learned how to read people as the years went by. While are first he couldn't read more than the simplest expressions of pure anger, over time he learned how to read people by the simplest facial twitches. Looking back, it probably saved his life over a dozen times.

Outside of knowing how to read people, he was quite the wizard with seals. After he found a discarded introduction to fuuinjutsu book in the dumpster one night he was totally engrossed. The possibilities that seals contain is limitless, basically only confined by the user's imagination. Outside of the simple storage seals, fuuinjutsu could be used for heating, cooling, silencing, bombs, and in extreme cases teleportation. When he had read through the introductory book he started breaking into the residences of shinobi who were out on missions to try and swipe any fuuinjutsu books they may have sitting around. The clans always had a couple good books on the subject.

Living on the streets forced him to resort to thievery, a lot of the food he ate was stolen from merchants that refused to sell to him. With this practice in thievery, he naturally got good with his stealth. Eventually he was stealthy enough that he could pull pranks without being caught by the patrols and he could shake the anbu guards, for what good they did, that were always following him.

"Hey Naruto." A voice sounded behind him.

Naruto resisted the urge to jump when he heard the voice and quickly berated himself for not noticing someone sneak up on him. Naruto turned around to see his silver haired sensei, Mizuki, looking down at him.

Mizuki was an average height chunin that wore a bandana style hitai-ate. He wore the standard chunin flak jacket and wore a long sleeve blue turtleneck shirt underneath. He had blue anbu pants and blue sandals, all in all, he looked like a generic ninja of Konoha.

"Oh. Hi Mizuki-sensei, what are you doing?" Naruto asked. Though he had an inkling about what he may want. He had seen the way Mizuki would look at him, even if he tried to hide it, and the fact that he was overly nice today set off alarm bells in his head.

"Well I just wanted to let you know that I feel that Iruka was being too harsh on you and I wanted to give you a second chance at graduating." Mizuki answered nonchalantly.

"What? Another test?" Naruto asked deciding he would hear him out. Not like hearing him out would do any harm

"Well I believe you're an exceptional ninja; however, the test was just not in your favor. Not all ninja can create bunshin, nor do all ninja need them. However, back to the test, all you have to do is take a scroll that I will have planted in the Hokage tower and then learn one of the jutsu's in the scroll. Then I will give you your hitai-ate and grant you genin status." Mizuki grinned

'What does he want the scroll for? Bah, no big deal. I'll just play dumb and blame him.' Naruto thought, "That's all? Should be easy enough. What does this scroll look like?"

"It's about half your size and bordered in green. I'll put it behind a locked door and have some shinobi guarding the door, don't hold back or you won't graduate. When you are done meet me in this clearing *points to a map he took out* at 2000 tonight and I will evaluate your progress." Mizuki said before he took off.

'So I have about five hours to set up that area before he gets there. Psh, he makes this too easy. Time to set up a playground.' Naruto thought before he took off to get to work.

-5 hours later Hokage office-

All the prospective jounin sensei's were in the office, even Kakashi who was chronically late, though he seemed to be glaring daggers at the hokage over his book.

Next to Kakashi, Kurenai was nervous, she just recently became a jounin and she was already called to possibly take a team, she didn't know if she had enough experience to actually lead a group of green genin. She herself was still a green jounin.

However, Kurenai's friend, Anko was jumping up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement. She had just recently been promoted from Tokubetsu jounin to full jounin last week and now she can get some brats to torture. Sure having to do a bunch of low ranked missions would be a bore but come on, she gets to make the next generation of brats better, and she would make sure she did better than her sensei.

"Ok everyone I have the list here for the graduates if any of you want to request someone feel free to speak now." The Hokage said as he laid the list down on his desk.

"I would like to take Uchiha Sasuke." Kakashi said, his head still seemingly buried in his book.

"I was planning on placing him on your team either way Kakashi, you'll be invaluable in teaching him about the sharingan when he manifests it. Do you have any other requests for your team?" Hiruzen asked

"No Hokage-sama, that will be all." Kakashi replied.

"Ok. Then I would like to put Haruno Sakura, and a new student by the name of Sai who has been apprenticed onto that team as well." The Hokage stated.

"Very well Hokage-sama." Kakashi stated, still reading his porn.

"I would like Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuuga Hinata." Anko piped up.

"A tracking team. Very well Anko-san" The Hokage wrote down the team on a piece of paper.

"Go easy on Hinata, she doesn't have much self-confidence." Kurenai whispered to her friend.

"Don't worry so much Nai-chan. When I am done with her she'll be more than confident." Anko grinned back at her best friend.

Asuma stepped forward "I wo-"

"I already put you down for the Ino-Shika-Cho group Asuma." Hiruzen interrupted without looking up from the team assignment sheet.

"Oh. Well, uh, thanks." Asuma said as he stepped back into the crowd.

(No names get no names)

"Ok if that will be-"

Just as the Hokage was about to dismiss the jounin, Kurenai looked relieved that she didn't get a team, a chunin barged into the office panting and with a nasty bruise forming on his face.

"Hokage-sama! Horrible news. Naruto has stolen the Forbidden scroll of sealing!" The chunin exclaimed.

"When did this happen?" Hiruzen roared as KI leaked off his person. He glared at the chunin responsible for guarding the most important scroll in all of Konoha, and apparently failed at his job.

"Uh, a-a-a-about 40 minutes ago, sir." The chunin stuttered out.

"And you are just telling me now because?" Hiruzen asked while slowly releasing more of his KI.

"I, uh, did not, uhm, regain consciousness until now, sir." The chunin said shying away from the aged hokage.

"What do you mean you didn't regain consciousness until now? How could you be bested by someone not even out of the academy?" A jounin asked.

"He knocked my out with a club, sir!" The chunin replied loudly.

"How did he knock you out! He's an academy student!" Another jounin yelled.

"He used a distraction to land the hit on me!" The chunin replied, feeling like all of Konoha was judging him for being bested by an academy student.

"And why were you distracted?" Hiruzen asked as he slowly calmed down.

The chunin mumbled something incoherent to the group.

"What was that?" The jounin asked.

"I said he used his Oiroke no Jutsu on me!" the chunin yelled.

All the males in the room couldn't help but sympathize with the poor man. They had all seen that particular jutsu and could all agree that it could distract any straight man without fail. The women in the room however, sans Anko who just wanted to get a piece of that fine female ass, seemed to be more than a little angry at this news.

"Now everyone let's all keep our heads on and see what is going on with our favorite blonde." Hiruzen said as he pulled out his trusty crystal ball.

-Designated clearing-

Naruto felt a chill go up his spine. 'Shit, I think I may have made a mistake somewhere along the way with this plan.' Naruto thought. He was exhausted having spent a good half hour learning the Kage Bunshin. When he first took the scroll he was going to look for some sealing techniques since that was what he enjoys and excels at, but when he opened it up and saw the Kage Bunshin he just knew he had to learn it, seeing as how he had failed the academy because of his lack of bunshin technique.

"There you are Naruto I have been looking all over for you." Mizuki said as he climbed out of a bush.

"Really? You couldn't find this place? You're the one who designated this clearing. It should have been relatively easy for you to find." Naruto deadpanned.

"Don't get snippy with me you little shit!" Mizuki yelled.

"Woah, mood swings. Are you PMSing right now?" Naruto asked.

"What did you say you little shit? Actually, never mind. Give me the scroll or I'm going to pry it from your cold dead hands." Mizuki ground out as he looked at the blonde.

"Oh? Well, before you take the scroll may I ask what you intend on doing with it?" Naruto asked as he stood up and put the scroll on his back.

Mizuki paused after hearing that noticing the lack of surprise in his tone. 'Did this little shit know that I was setting him up this entire time?' he thought. "Well since you won't be leaving here I guess it doesn't matter. Once I take that scroll, before or after killing you, I will be heading to Otogakure where Orochimaru-sama will surely bless me for bringing him the Forbidden Scroll." Mizuki said. "But, since I am feeling benevolent I will let you in a little secret, the reason you are hated by the village."

"Oh.. Do tell." Naruto responded.

"Well demon, thirteen years ago when the Kyuubi attacked our village and the Yondaime saved us, it was written down in the books as him killing the demon. But that is not the truth, you see you can't just kill something that powerful so he had to seal it in something, that something just happened to be a baby born that very same day. He sealed the Kyuubi into you! You are the reincarnation of the Kyuubi!" Mizuki yelled as he took a fuma shuriken off of his back.

"You know. I feel like I should be shocked by this revelation, but it actually makes a lot of sense." Naruto said as he stood up.

"Die demon!" Mizuki yelled as he threw the shuriken.

Naruto quickly dodged the shuriken before leaping into the forest. 'Come play in my forest of death Mizuki' Naruto thought as he raced through the forest.

"Come back here, fucker!" Mizuki yelled.

-Hokage's office-

"Hokage-sama shouldn't we do something!" Kurenai yelled as she made her way to the door.

"It's too late to do anything Kurenai. We would not be able to reach him in time." Hiruzen said, sadly gazing into his orb.

Those words stopped Kurenai. She had know idea where Naruto was, it would take much too long for her to reach him. Mizuki would have already killed him and escaped by the time she got there. She slowly turned back to the Hokage's desk and looked into the orb, joining the rest of the jounin in watching Naruto's fate.

-Forest-

"Come on Mizuki, if you want to kill me you will have to do better than that." Naruto yelled as he ducked behind a tree while dodging some kunai thrown at him.

"Stand still you piece of shit!" Mizuki roared as he dashed through the underbrush. When he emerged on the other side he saw Naruto looking at him with a small smirk on his face.

"Okay, I'll stand still." Naruto proclaimed as he stood there, smirk still in place.

"What are you smirking at bitch? This chase ends now." Mizuki said as he took the other fuma shuriken off his back.

"Good chase Mizuki, but you lose. You fell right into my trap." And with that Naruto pulled a string that he was holding. All of a sudden there was a wall of kunai coming at Mizuki.

Mizuki quickly jumped up and landed on a tree branch where he tripped another wire and a handful of shuriken came flying at him from above. He quickly rolled to the side in an attempt to avoid the shuriken, but some still got him in the leg.

"I'll get you for that, demon!" Mizuki exclaimed as he stood back up. Too focused on Naruto, he didn't even notice the fuma shuriken coming at him from behind. Before he even knew what happened his head was removed from his body. Blood gushed out from his severed neck and his body fell from the tree limb he was on down to the ground where it landed with a loud thud coupled with a few cracks.

"Thanks for playing. Though, I was expecting better from you. I had so many more traps for you." Naruto stared at the scene disinterested. 'Weird. They always said that your first kill would make you feel guilty or would make you start puking at the sight out of disgust and be mentally unstable for a while, and yet... I don't feel a thing.' Naruto mused. 'Eh, nothing I won't lose sleep over. Time to return this scroll.' Naruto then ran off to the hokage tower to return the scroll.

Before Naruto got very far he ran into a very irate Iruka.

"NARUTO! What the hell were you thinking! Stealing the Forbidden Scroll!" Iruka yelled as he dropped from the tree canopy.

"How the hell did you find me?" Naruto asked as he looked at his homeroom teacher.

"I went looking for you immediately after I learned you stole the scroll. I just happened to go the right way. Now, why did you steal the scroll?" Iruka asked again as he stepped up in front of Naruto.

"Well, Mizuki said that it was needed for my make up exam." Naruto answered as he stopped in front of the scarred chunin.

"What make up exam? There's no make up exam. Where is Mizuki?" Iruka asked, thoroughly confused with this chain of events. Why the hell would Mizuki make Naruto steal the Forbidden Scroll.

"Mizuki's body is right there, his head went flying elsewhere." Naruto said as he turned around and pointed towards the body of the deceased Mizuki.

"How did he die!" Iruka exclaimed.

"He chased me through a booby trapped forest. You know, you said that pranks were useless for a shinobi, and yet I'm pretty sure that half of those traps in there are exact copies of some of my pranks, just with kunai traps instead of paint traps." Naruto answered cooly.

"..." Iruka looked at the blonde in front of him, not sure whether he was being serious or not. "Did you just admit you're the one that has been pranking Konoha?" Iruka asked. The Konoha populace had been plagued by pranks for a few years now, but they were never able to catch the culprit.

"Now when did I say that? I just said that some of those traps are exact copies of my prank layouts. I've never actually used them on anyone. " Naruto replied.

Iruka just stared at Naruto, not believing him for a second. "So, you killed Mizuki?"

Naruto nodded. Iruka then got in front of Naruto and kneeled down.

"Listen if you have to talk about it I am right here and all ears." Iruka spoke softly. "Now what did Mizuki tell you to do for your make up exam?"

"He told me to learn a jutsu out of the scroll" Naruto said as he put his hands in a cross shape "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Smoke filled the area and when it cleared there were thirty more Naruto's looking at Iruka. All Iruka could do was gape at Naruto, he learned a B-rank ninjutsu in little over half an hour, not only that but he could make dozens of them and not be winded. Also he had to have done this jutsu before when he was learning it so that even further amazed him.

"Hey, sensei. Why am I getting the memories of these clones?" Naruto asked while scratching his chin.

"Huh? Oh! The Kage Bunshin gives memory feedback to the user. So anything they learn will be transferred to the original. They are great for infiltration and spying because of that feature." Iruka answered, resorting back to his lecture mode. "Though for you, with your large chakra reserves, they might be able to be used on a larger scale in order for you to learn at a much faster pace than your peers."

"Well ain't that useful, you wouldn't mind carrying this back to the hokage tower for me would you? I want to go get some sleep." Naruto asked while pointing to the scroll.

"Sure Naruto, but first I want you to have this." Iruka then started to undo his hitai-ate. "Mizuki said that if you learned a technique from the scroll you would become a genin and I don't want your hopes to be crushed so here." Iruka said while handing the hitai-ate to Naruto.

Naruto just blinked as he received the hitai-ate. He knew that he wouldn't have made genin from Mizuki's "mission," but he was incredibly curious as to what the silver haired ninja was up to so he just went along with the plan.

"Thank you sensei, I honestly didn't believe in this exam in the first place. I was just curious and bored. Sneaking into the ANBU headquarters gets boring after awhile…" Naruto said, though muttered the last part.

-Hokage office-

Everyone just stared at the crystal ball in awe. This academy student had just set up a multi layered trap and lured a chunin into it where said chunin fell into each step of the trap. Not only that but he learned a B-rank jutsu in no more than half an hour and was able to create dozens of kage bunshin without any problem. On top of that he made it look like a stroll in the park.

"I like that gaki!" Anko exclaimed after she got out of her daze. And with that proclamation everyone else seemed to snap out of theirs as well.

"Well it looks like we have one more genin that needs an instructor." Hiruzen said as he regained his composure. "Who currently does not have a team?"

All the jounin moved to the side of the room leaving Kurenai in the middle of the room.

"Heh, I guess that would be me, Hokage-sama." Kurenai said feeling small with all the attention on her.

"Well Kurenai, it looks like you will be getting young Naruto-kun as a student." Hiruzen said.

"Hokage-sama with all due respect, I don't think that I should be his sensei. He is a chakra powerhouse more suited to ninjutsu and probably has no talent in genjutsu, while I am a genjutsu specialist. I am very limited in what I can teach him." Kurenai argued. This pairing was almost doomed to fail. "Also it would just be a two-man cell with just him and I. The only two-man cells have been apprenticeships."

"Well then I guess you can look at this as an apprenticeship, I expect much from your apprentice Kurenai, and maybe you will learn a few things from Naruto-kun as well." Hiruzen chuckled. "Now the teams are final. Dismissed."

"Hai Hokage-sama." The jounin chorused before leaving the office.

-Naruto's mindscape-

Naruto woke up immediately after he fell asleep, and in a sewer of all places. He pushed himself up to stand in the ankle deep water and looks around. There were plenty of pipes around here. The sewer didn't remind him of any in Konoha after being down in the sewers multiple times. This was something else.

Naruto turned around and saw something glowing red at the end of the sewer. Feeling the need to sate his curiosity he started to head towards the light. As he approached, he started to feel the energy that was being given off by the light. It was malicious and vile and yet, he almost felt comforted by the energy. As if he knew that this seemingly unending energy was there to help him.

When he finally got to the room that housed the strange energy he was met with a large cage held together by a piece of paper with the kanji for 'seal' on it. It didn't take him long to figure out where he was, so he just waited for the big guy to make his entrance.

"Hello there, kit." A voice rumbled from behind the the bars. "I see you have finally decided to grace me with your presence."

"Yea, I guess I should apologize for making you wait so long, though I just learned tonight that you were sealed inside of me. I probably should have been able to put the pieces together, but I wasn't really looking into it that much." Naruto answered.

'Was that kit just respectful to me?' Kyuubi thought as he made his presence known to the young blonde. Behind the bars two large red slitted eyes appeared.

"Well kit, I guess I can forgive your incompetence this once." Kyuubi said.

"That is quite kind of you Kyuubi, though I do believe I should thank you." Naruto responded

"Yea, well don't ge- Wait. What did you say?" Kyuubi asked.

"I just feel that I should thank you for all the times you healed me, even if you weren't doing it consciously. There is no way a human can heal as fast as I do without the help of outside source. I can only seem to attribute that to you." Naruto explained.

'This kit is different from the rest.' Kyuubi thought. 'Maybe, he will be the one that he told us about.'

"Well kit, I guess you are welcome, but you had a faster than normal healing rate even before you factor being a jinchuuriki into the equation, I just make it even faster. Now back to the reason I dragged your ass here, I do not want a weak container. If you get your ass killed or beaten by some weak ningen, or Kami forbid another jinchuuriki, I will never hear the end of it from my siblings. Furthermore, I'm going to help you become a true trickster and make you into a great illusionist, one that any kitsune would be envious of." Kyuubi spoke with certainty.

"Uh, me? An Illusionist? My chakra control is nowhere near precise enough to be able to use genjutsu against anyone above the academy. Wouldn't I be better as a ninjutsu user with my enormous chakra reserves? I mean, I would have to master every chakra control exercise there is and then create some to get my chakra control to the level needed for genjutsu." Naruto said, thoroughly confused with Kyuubi's ideas.

"You're smart kit but you forgot one thing. Kitsune's are natural tricksters and me, being the great and powerful being that I am, am the greatest of all kitsune, even if I am a chakra constructed kitsune, and am therefore the greatest illusionist which was passed down to you as my jinchuuriki. So no need to fret, genjutsu will come to you as naturally as fuuinjutsu." Kyuubi explained.

"Well, that solves that. I have always wanted to learn how to do genjutsu. It would really go well with the pranks I was planning on pulling on all those stores that don't let me shop there or charge me out the ass. Merchant's probably have a damn jinchuuriki tax. It's fucking robbery." Naruto seethed at the treatment he received at the hands of the merchants, though at least now he knew why he was so hated.

"Why don't you just shapeshift to get into the stores without them knowing?" Kyuubi deadpanned.

"Shapeshift? Are you talking about Henge? They have sensors in the stores to make sure shinobi aren't using chakra. Putting the cashier under a genjutsu to lower the price wouldn't be above many shinobi." Naruto asked.

"Okay kit, your Henge isn't an actual Henge by shinobi standards. Because of me your Henge is an actual shapeshift. It is tangible and won't be dispelled if someone attempts to touch you. In fact they will actually feel what they are touching and so will you. It also won't set off those sensors that you ningens use because it doesn't use chakra to continue using the technique, it's a one time chakra expenditure when you use it." Kyuubi explained.

"Damn it, if only I had known about that earlier." Naruto sighed as he palmed his face. Though he couldn't really blame himself for not knowing about having a special henge, he literally just learned about it.

"Calm down kit you didn't know, and quite frankly I can't really blame you, it's hard to notice that kind of stuff... Enough talk. You have spent too much time in here. Go get some rest I will teach you during the week you have between now and your team assignments." Kyuubi said as he kicked Naruto out of his mindscape. 'Shit. Should have asked him to change this damn sewer.'