After many hours of contemplation, I realized that my favorite thing about Naruto is his journey from Academy student loser to leaf village super elite and the people he works with to get there. Believe it or not, I like it best when someone from the main cast is saved by a Jōnin or something and we can reanticipate Naruto's limits.

Also, quite frankly, I think that the ease in which Naruto characters gain power doesn't match up to the strength of the Jōnin or master ninja.

This is an Alterate Universe that gives everybody past 20 a major power up. I would not only encourage but be honored if my depiction would be used in other fics (ones where your alternate universe Naruto is ridiculously Broken maybe) please comment on it if you've taken any inspiration from me.

In more recent chapters, I've also taken to explaining the properties of chakra and I'm slowly venturing into more of a plot AU.

With hardly any preparation Mizuki's giant shuriken was practically humming with wind-chakra, blades ending several deadly inches past the actual shuriken spikes. This was the result of many months of training on Mizuki's part. Not everyone could envelope such a huge Shuriken blade in Wind-Chakra. Not even every wind user could. It was a skill Mizuki held great pride in, spreading wind chakra through Shiruken like this.

"Die!" Mizuki yelled as he threw his chakra-coated shuriken at Naruto. The blond haired boy could only stare as the horrifically deadly projectile whizzing towards him. For a second, his life flashed before his eyes and he couldn't help but ask in his head, 'Am I really a fox demon? I must be if Mizuki is spending so much of his time trying to kill me... Maybe I should die: Its not like anyone cares about me."

Yet despite Naruto's depressing thoughts, Iruka didn't just sit ideally when Misuki through the Giant Shuriken. He had reacted fast and before Naruto even knew what happened, he found himself on the ground with Iruka on his hands and knees above him. They were both covered by a hastily made, low quality mud wall which Iruka had erected in a split second panic to block the Shuriken. As Naruto observed said obstacle in his stupor, he realized that it had only sort-of deflected Mizuki's weapon; several of the Shuriken's wind-blade spikes had gotten through and were piercing shallow cuts into Iruka's back.

Iruka was bleeding.

"W-Why…?" Naruto stammered, as he saw his mean and hateful teacher protecting him and bleeding for him.

"Because you and I are the same." Iruka said, blood dripping from his mouth. "After my parents died, nobody paid attention to me or gave me any support. I wasn't a good student in school. I was the class clown… because I wanted people to notice me.

"I didn't get noticed through excellence, so I kept doing stupid things. It was so hard… Isn't that right, Naruto? You felt so lonely… right? And you suffered inside, right?" At this point, Iruka was crying. "I'm so sorry Naruto… If I had been more responsible, maybe you wouldn't have suffered so much…"

Up on the treetops Mizuki was snickering. "Don't make me laugh!" he yelled down at the Chūnin and his student. "Iruka has always hated you, ever since you killed his parents! He's just saying all that to get the scroll of sealing back!"

Naruto turned towards Mizuki and grit his teeth as tears rolled down his cheeks. He didn't know who to believe. Mizuki used to be so nice to him, and somehow, deep inside, Naruto knew that the blue haired mentor hadn't been lying about the Nine Tailed Fox. On the other hand, Iruka had just taken a Giant Shuriken to the back for Naruto's sake and something about Iruka's feelings felt more genuine then Mizuki's: Iruka genuinely didn't want to harm him. Almost everyone wanted to harm Naruto, if Iruka suddenly didn't Naruto's world suddenly looked a lot more confusing to him...

Unable to decide who to give the scroll to, Naruto just ran. Naruto happened to have a particular talent at this: he possessed an escape speed rarely seen in a Academy Graduate, honed by constantly running from Genin after doing his pranks. Thus, Naruto ran full tilt into the tree line, Iruka yelling after him, "Run Narutooo...!"

Before Mizuki could draw his second giant shuriken and go after the fleeing academy student, Iruka as back on his feet and jumping in the way, intercepting his colleague with a kunai knife as they quickly engaged in a high speed taijutsu fight worthy of their title as Chūnin. To untrained eyes, Mizuki and Iruka were little more than blurs, clashing kunai at least twice per second via highly trained ninja speed. Iruka might've held and advantage if his back wasn't already injured and bleeding, but as time when on in their taijutsu fight, Mizuki slowly gained the upper hand.

Iruka lasted a good thirty seconds, an eternity in such a intense fight between ninja but Mizuki managed to pull out a lead and set Iruka on the ropes, forced to defend before eventually needing to substitute away from a particularly well-placed swing.

Mizuki, instead of following, went after Naruto's already faint trail, judging the scroll of sealing to be the highest priority. Even if he was discovered to be the culprit, Mizuki needed the scroll of sealing to properly join the sound village. Orochimaru wasn't known for his generosity; without the scroll as an offering, Orochimaru would reject Mizuki without a doubt.

Iruka saw Misuki go after Naruto from within the trees but he wasn't just about to let Naruto to die either...

Iruka went after Naruto as well.

Iruka had always been a good tracker and through liberal use of the Shunshin Technique, the Chūnin instructor managed to find Naruto several seconds before Mizuki. Estimating Naruto's path, Iruka set up several barrier tags on surrounding trees in a square formation and quickly spread some thin ninja wire throughout an adjacent clearing which Naruto would shortly be running through. It wouldn't be the best ambush plan but it would work. After using the Transformation Technique (Henge) to disguise himself as the blond, Iruka did a replacement jutsu with the real Naruto just as they entered Iruka's trap field and just before Mizuki came around into sight. Iruka noticed that Mizuki was also using a Transformation, making the traitor look like Iruka himself.

"Naruto," The Transformed Mizuki yelled as they ran into Iruka's prearranged trap, "Everything that Mizuki said was a lie! Give me that scroll quick! Mizuki is after the scroll!"

For a brief second, Iruka acknowledged the ridiculousness of the current situation. Here he was, playing the part of Naruto, yet being chased by himself, throughout the forest. With Chūnin level speed, the henged Iruka turned on a dime and delivered a surprise punch right into the henged Mizuki's gut. Iruka's Henge Transformation had been hiding a kunai which the Chūnin plunged into Mizuki's stomach, stabbing with such force that he drove the Traitor right between Iruka's prearranged barrier tags. Both feel to the forest floor, just as Iruka intended.

"It can't be…" the traitorous Chūnin started as his Transformation slowly came undone. "Why is it, Naruto? How… did you know I wasn't Iruka?" The now revealed Mizuki said to the world.

The henged Iruka was leaning up against a tree, happy that his mission was essentially complete. He was almost out of chakra. All he had to do now was activate the barrier. He released his henge showing his bleeding body to the world. "Because I'm Iruka." He said as he did the necessary handseal to activate The Four Purple Candle Barrier Tag Formation Technique. With a hum, a barrier appeared around Mizuki, trapping him within a box of mystical purple flames.

"I see…" Mizuki said as he slowly stood up, barrier appearing around him. But something was wrong… Mizuki was smiling. In a second, Iruka pushed off from his resting place, just in time to avoid several Wind-chakra laced shuriken.

Mizuki came out of the trees and into the clearing. Casually dispelling the Mud Clone trapped inside Iruka's barrier. Iruka was truly baffled. 'A Mud Clone… When had Mizuki found the time to Replace with a Mud Clone?'

"So…" Mizuki said, standing over the now hopeless Iruka, "What's in it for you to protect the one who killed your family?"

"As if I'd let a stupid idiot like you get that scroll!" Iruka exclaimed in response. He still had a little chakra and Mizuki was very smugly standing on Iruka's ninja-wire trap. He might not be able to hold Mizuki off for more than a few seconds, but…

Unknown to the two of them, Naruto was currently hiding behind one of the surrounding trees, listening in on their conversation. It was hard to mask the scent of fear which dripped off of him, but the blond Academy student was trying. Though, Naruto wasn't scared for himself… somewhere deep in Naruto's psyche, Naruto knew that he wouldn't be truly killed with anything short of Kage level power. No, Naruto, the Fox kid was pretty damn numb to any type of personal pain.

Naruto was actually terrified of Mizuki killing the first person to have ever even started acknowledging him.

It wasn't a selfish terror which Naruto held towards Iruka's death; It wasn't like he would've traded Iruka's Life for acknowledgement from other people. For Naruto, that might've been worse; the concept of taking recognition off of the pain of others...

Sure, Naruto would prank the villagers till they were blue in the face, but that wasn't really harming them... It wasn't really hurting them to be pranked... In the end, many of the villagers secretly enjoyed it... Naruto knew. Even, if the villagers didn't know about it themselves, Naruto knew their enjoyment to his pranks. Naruto could sense even the smallest of emotions, and no matter how ignorant he came off to be, Naruto always knew what sort of thoughts everyone around him was thinking, even if he didn't want to know, he knew.

And surprisingly, despite what these people thought, Naruto was also the type of person who cared.

Mizuki was about to kill Iruka: Naruto knew this. Similarly definite, Naruto didn't want Iruka to die. Naruto definitely wanted to risk his life and save his teacher, helping out the person who thought such affectionate thoughts about him, but there was a bit of a problem... Naruto was scared about how Iruka would view him if he actually DID succeed at beating Mizuki. As of now, Iruka didn't view him as the problem or (as he had learned just a few minutes ago) as the "Fox".

Naruto wasn't perfect at sensing the more complex emotions but the blond Genin held a worrying suspicion that Iruka only doubted his identity as the fox, because Iruka viewed him as an "Innocent". If Naruto saved Iruka now, would his teacher no longer think of him as the meek student that Naruto had made himself out to be? Iruka had given him the instruction to run. Meek Naruto would have been gone a while ago, away in a far off corner of the village or better yet, in the Hokage's office blabbing about Mizuki. If Iruka found out that Naruto had actually stayed… would Iruka take away what little acknowledgment he had of Naruto? Naruto was almost in tears at the whole ordeal.

"You're the idiot" Mizuki rebuked, cutting Naruto from his thoughts. "Naruto is the same as me."

"Same?"

"Anyone can do whatever they want once they have the scroll. There is no way that that monster… That Fox Spirit, won't take advantage of the power of that scroll!"

"You're right," Iruka admitted sadly.

Naruto froze as he felt what little acknowledgment he'd received float out the window. 'I guess was Mizuki said was true all along!' he thought helplessly, time seeming to slow in his panic. 'Iruka never really cared for me at all…' the voice of his subconscious seemed to grow deeper and eviler as the speech went on. 'Admit it! The only thing this village will ever acknowledge you as is a Demon Fox! Thrive from their fear instead of their happiness. Gain acknowledgment as the only thing you can be! Release your anger NOW!'

Dark red super-potent chakra dripped into Naruto's system as hatred slowly started to overtake the small boy… and then suddenly stopped.

"… If he was the Demon Fox Spirit." Iruka finished, twitching as he got to his knees. "But Naruto is different! I know he is an exceptional student. He works very hard; he's single-minded and clumsy at the same time. No one accepts him, but he knows the meaning of human suffering. He's not the Demon Fox Spirit. He's Naruto Uzumaki of the Village Hidden in the Leaves!"

Naruto was in helpless tears at the statement. Iruka had not only trusted, but fully acknowledged Naruto as human! Gone was the hatred. Gone was the KILL KILL KILL. Naruto quickly made up its mind for better or worse: No matter what, even at the risk of his life, he would never allow himself to be seen as the Nine Tailed Fox. This thought made itself known in Naruto's soul, piercing deep into the center of Naruto's psyche. For no reason other than the principle of it, Naruto would forsake both the unlimited power and the practical immortality given to him by his father, The Fourth Hokage's Seal. From now on he'd just be a regular boy, like Iruka thought of him.

'Well, maybe a little more than regular for now,' Naruto's subconscious thought as Mizuki took out his second giant shuriken.

"You are so gullible. Iruka!" Mizuki said, giant shuriken in hand. "I was going to take you down later, but I have changed my mind."

Die!" Mizuki yelled adding globs of wind-chakra to his now spinning shuriken. No half-assed Mud Wall would block this, but just to be sure, Mizuki surged forward, intent on just stabbing Iruka with the shuriken instead of throwing it. This move made Mizuki almost pathetically unaware of his sides…

And just like that, Naruto dived with his full, still fox empowered strength, into the side of Mizuki's head causing the Chūnin to fly rather hilariously to the ground. Naruto had made up his mind: he was going to protect Iruka because Iruka had acknowledged him.

To Mizuki's credit, despite the awkward fall, the traitorous Chūnin didn't drop or stab himself with his Chakra Coated shuriken. Misuki somehow managed to land on his feet. In fact, as Iruka thought back at it in the future, Mizuki probably allowed Naruto to hit him just to boost Naruto's confidence and stop Naruto from running away mid fight. At the time, Mizuki was toying with Naruto.

"You surprised me there, freak" Mizuki admitted, faking pain.

"If you ever lay a hand on Iruka Sensei, I'll kill you!" Naruto responded simply and angrily. Iruka looked up at Naruto in awe and reverence. Was this really the timid prankster kid which he had taught for all those years?

"Shut up! I can take care of a kid like you with a single blow!" Mizuki said almost giggling at how easy it was to rile Naruto up.

"Why don't you try then? I'll strike you back a thousand-fold!" Naruto said making a weird hand sign. One hand intercepted the other to form a sort of plus shape, giving a surprisingly overt hint at what Naruto's technique entailed. Naruto couldn't see it at the time but the seal which he had hastily (yet successfully) applied to his arm about an hour ago, started glowing with Chakra after activating the hand seal. Already, Naruto's life energy was being shaped inside his arm, ready to create copies of the little blond kid, once released.

Mizuki, who could sense none of this, felt almost disappointed. Naruto wasn't gonna charge right as him cloaked in Tailed Beast Chakra and was instead going to try a Jutsu, likely from the forbidden scroll. Of course, Mizuki wasn't worried. With so little time to train it, a powerful move like the ones in the scroll would either fail to activate, be ridiculously under-powered, or kill the user on the spot. Honestly, Mizuki had higher hopes for his battle with the demon. Some part of fancied himself a bit of a demon hunter and slaying one was just the sort of story he would've loved to tell some civilian chick at a bar.

'Oh well' Mizuki thought sadly, 'It'll still be nice to see a look of hopelessness on the demon's face.'

"Let's see you try! Show me what you can do, Demon Fox!" Mizuki yelled out loud and prepared to jump out of the way in case the Jutsu did activate by some twist of fate.

I suppose we shouldn't overlook just how lucky Naruto is. The only real issue with The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu was the unreasonable chakra cost. About half of the techniques in the scroll of sealing required ridiculous chakra control and about another other half required a living sacrifice: you, if no alternative was found. The Multi Shadow Clone required nether. Not only that, but with so much practice trying (and failing) to create a basic clone Jutsu, Naruto's chakra was practically attuned to clone-making. Add in Naruto's new forbidden Shadow Clone training seal, which only the scroll of sealing possessed, and Naruto Uzumaki was actually capable of preforming the technique. In fact, at that moment, while pumped up on Kyūbi chakra, The Multi Shadow Clone was the absolute perfect Jutsu for Naruto.

'Naruto! You've…' Iruka thought from behind a wall of clearly solid clones, 'The Shadow Clone is a Chūnin level Jutsu… But even a Jōnin would be pressed to make this many clones. Naruto, how did you… Nevermind… now is clearly the best moment'

Meanwhile, Mizuki was grinning like a madman. This wasn't going to be a disappointment. By Mizuki's estimate there were over one hundred and twenty Narutos in the crowd. An individual Naruto's strength was only slightly better than a trained civilian, yet to face so many, and with only half his Chakra; it was going just short of a challenge for Mizuki to deal with all of them. 'The perfect way to test out my strength' Mizuki thought.

'First, I need to get out of this circle' Mizuki thought, 'by throwing my wind-laced shuriken that way…' he froze realizing something, excitement replaced by panic.

He couldn't move.

Looking down, Mizuki gasped in horror at the ninja wire he'd been standing on. Iruka was using The Chakra Wire Trap Technique; the teacher was channeling chakra through the ninja wire on the ground and paralyzing Mizuki from the waist down. It was done very professionally too. Ninja-wire wasn't the greatest Chakra conductor yet Mizuki honestly couldn't move even one of his legs an inch.

Now that he couldn't move, how did he stop the one hundred and twenty something Narutos jumping at him from beating him to a pulp?

…

To Mizuki's credit, he still got more than half of them. Not only was he a natural with shuriken (most of which he'd already thrown), but he had almost untraceable speed (that he couldn't really use) flawless Taijutsu (made for one-on-one fights) and a REALLY mean Fireball (only had enough chakra for two of these sadly).

Despite the processes, fifteen minutes later a decidingly singed looking Naruto was standing above a bloody, twitching Mizuki. Naruto rubbed his head, muttering a cheesy apology line and Iruka almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the sight. In a way, Naruto had beaten a Chūnin level ninja even though he hadn't passed the graduation exam. To do so, Naruto had used a Chūnin level technique with Jōnin level skill; a technique similar to the one that caused him to fail his exam.

Iruka wasn't heartless. Naruto got the headband.

Besides, if Naruto was that bad, his Jōnin wouldn't pass him anyway...

For why Naruto subconsciously knows about the fox? Well, everything is buffed power wise but the story hardly changes in plot, (besides events surrounding team seven and co.) The Kyuubi was stronger but so was the Fourth Hokage. Since the Fourth Hokage was also stronger, he had made a better seal. Why is Naruto so confident? Because some part of him, deep inside, knows he has power.

And the Shadow Clone training seal? It's one of the changes I've made to the verse in this Fic. After all, it seems kind of unfair how simply the Shadow Clone technique can be activated considering how complicated cloning yourself would realistically be. The training seal is just an excuse; a way for Naruto to Shape his Chakra without using some 40 handseals, individually molding each part of his chakra into an exact, solid clone of himself.

As for why such a seal is forbidden? It's application is dangerous for the user and it messes up your chakra control for other things. Not that that matter in Naruto's case... _

Anyway, on to Chapter two!