I want to give a shout out to Elredar Skylance and his story Naruto the Angel of Death for inspiring me to write this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, no matter how much I want. It belongs to Kishimoto, who for some reason is making Madara stronger every week, not weaker. I swear, that man does not know how to kill that demon/man.

Chapter 1: The Change

"Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Yata!" yelled Naruto as he jumped up in happiness. He looked over to Sasuke who was staring off into space. "Wait, Iruka-sensei, why do I get stuck with this person?"

"Naruto, out of all the genin graduates, you had the lowest score," reprimanded Iruka. "However, unfortunately, all of your sensei is not in Konoha at the time. The senseis have been called by to duty by the daimyo in order to escort him to an important diplomatic conference. They will be back within two month."

"Two months?" asked one of the genin graduates.

"Yes," said Iruka, "Two months. You will, however, be called in within one month's time, and I also suggest using some of the extra time to train. That is all. Good luck." As Iruka left the room, Naruto turned to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, do you want-"

"NO I DON'T WANT TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING WASTE OF SPACE. YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO BECOME A NINJA! YOU'VE ASKED SO MANY TIMES, I'VE LOST TRACK. WHY DON'T YOU JUST STOP ASKING ME? I WILL NEVER GO OUT WITH YOU, NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS!" yelled Sakura. Sakura paused and took a deep breath. After that yelling, Sakura felt better than she had in years. Finally, she was able to get what she had been feeling about the dead last off her shoulders.

Naruto stared in shock at Sakura. Everything that he had ever done had always been to better himself as a ninja. Was he really as bad as Sakura claimed him to be? Was he really that useless as a ninja? Naruto collapsed to his hands and knees and he could feel his breaths become shorter and shorter. As he kneeled on the floor, Naruto started to realize the gravity of his situation. There was no chance for love for him. He was the vessel of the beast who had ripped so many loved ones from the people of Konoha. How could anyone possibly ever care about him, let alone date him? Naruto had never felt so low. He had hit rock bottom. Naruto had enough of everyone staring at him and decided to leave the room, jumping out a window and down towards the school playground. He continued running until he found a tree in an isolated area. There, he finally let darkness overtake him.

"…I mean Naruto is so stupid," complained a voice. Naruto groggily came to his sense and continued to listen to the voice who was complaining about him. "I have turned him down at least 100 times, yet he still doesn't get that I don't want to date him. How stupid is that?"

"Uh Sakura," said Ino, "The same could be said about you. You have asked Sasuke out at least twice as many times as Naruto has asked you out, yet you still don't give up."

"That's true. Sometimes, though, I wish he'd just shut up. He's so god damn loud, it makes me want to rip my ears off so I won't have to listen to him," said Sakura.

"That is true," said Ino slowly. "I really hope Naruto doesn't hear what I'm about to say."

"Why?"

"While it is true from what my father says, it would crush him. In actuality, he's not that good of a ninja. He's a horrible example of what it means to be a ninja. I mean he wears an orange jumpsuit. You don't wear orange if you are going to be a ninja. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and any enemy would be able to see him from a mile away. Then there are his pranks. While some of them are hilarious, it means that he isn't taking his ninja training seriously." Meanwhile, in the tree, Naruto could feel his heart aching. Not because what was said was not true, but because they were completely true. He really hadn't been taking his training seriously. Naruto sighed as he looked at himself. It was true that he didn't have anything other than his orange jumpsuit which screamed, 'KILL ME!' Naruto looked down in sadness. Sure, he had gotten attention, but it was all negative attention. All the attention that he had ever received was from pranks, which in the end had causes his grades to slowly slip. But despite his cheerful attitude that he showed while in class, his attitude was anything but that. In truth, he was hurting on the inside. On the inside, he felt like there was a kunai being driven through his heart every time someone looked at him with disdain. But Naruto felt that it was time to move past that. He believed that it was time to buckle down and become a real ninja!

|Hokage's office|

Sarutobi yawned as he looked over the paperwork in front of him. The paperwork in question, detailed a request for making a bathhouse for the civilian council member's and their families exclusively.

"Denied," grumbled Sarutobi. "Honestly, do they really expect me to give preferential treatment to them because they are council members? Damn idiots." Sarutobi went back to doing paperwork for about 15 more minutes before he heard a knock on his door. "Come in." The door opened to reveal Naruto with a tear-streaked face. "Naruto, what's wrong?"

"Jiji, can I talk to you?" asked Naruto in a soft voice.

"Of course, you can talk to me about anything. What is wrong?"

"…am I any good as a ninja? Am I where I should be for a graduating genin?"

"So that is what is bothering you," said Sarutobi. "Come here, Naruto." Naruto walked over to Sarutobi, who embraced Naruto in a bear hug. "Naruto, no matter what you anyone says, you will always be strong. You were able to endure the torment that this village gave you. Not many people can do that. That being said, you could always be stronger. Now, I can help you a little bit. Come with me." Sarutobi lead Naruto to a door with red kanji for the word 'Fire'. Sarutobi placed his hand on the kanji and channeled his chakra. The kanji glowed white, and a hiss could be heard, signaling the unlocking of the door. Sarutobi pulled the door open. Sarutobi grabbed four scrolls from the room, and exited, heading back out to where Naruto waited impatiently, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"What are these?" asked Naruto when Sarutobi placed the fours scrolls on the table in front of Naruto.

"Naruto, these four scrolls are different fighting styles to help you get started. However, I will only allow you to take two. I can't be giving you preferential treatment over the rest of my ninja."

"Jiji, if I can solve your paperwork problem, will you allow me to take a third scroll?" asked Naruto.

"Solve the bane of a kage? Please tell me the answer. I'll give you anything," pleaded Sarutobi as he got on his knees in front of Naruto in a bowing position. "PLEASE SENSEI! I'll even give you your own S-rank mission if you want!"

"Okay, okay," said Naruto, "But only because you asked so nicely. The key to paperwork is…shadow clones. They can do work on their own, can't they? Just have the clones do the paperwork."

"Alright, take any three of those scrolls," said Sarutobi as he started hitting his head on the desk. "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! So you know the secret of the clone technique, huh?"

"The secret of shadow clones? What secret? What are you talking about?" asked Naruto. "I just assumed that because they were capable of individual thought that they could do the work and because they were copies of you they would make the same decisions as you would."

"No, no, Naruto, there is a secret behind the shadow clone technique. Anything that the clone does, the original will also learn. The only thing that a clone cannot do is anything related to the physical body. You can have it practice taijutsu, and you will know how to do whatever the clone had practiced, but you will have to train your body."

"Oh, so can I still have any three of the scrolls?" said Naruto.

"Of course you can," replied Sarutobi, "take your pick."

"Thank you, jiji!" yelled Naruto as he looked at the four scrolls that lay before him. Naruto saw that three of the scrolls detailed a Taijutsu fighting style. The final scroll detailed a kenjutsu fighting style. The sword style was called Hiten Mitsurugi. The other three fighting styles were Xinyi Lihue, Muay Thai/Boran, and the Rokushiki. "I'll take these three," said Naruto, holding up the styles, Xinyi Lihue, Rokushiki, and Hiten Mitsurugi.

"That is fine," said Sarutobi, smiling at his surrogate grandson. Now go train yourself in thise three styles. When you come in for your pre-team meeting, I want you to be proficient in at least one of those styles. Also, get yourself out of that horrendous orange outfit. No one will take you seriously in that."

"Got it, jij. I'll make you proud of me," declared Naruto. Naruto ran out of the Hokage's office with the three scrolls back to his apartment. Once he got to his apartment, Naruto set the scrolls on his bedside table, and then walked over to his closet. Upon opening it, Naruto was semi-horrified. There was nothing but orange in the closet. Sure, it was his favorite color, but after his rude awakening, Naruto really didn't think that this much orange was necessary. Well, he had some t-shirts, but none of them were made with durability in mind. Naruto quickly left the apartment to go find a decent shinobi equipment store.

"GET OUT!" yelled the shopkeeper after Naruto entered the first store. The same thing happened again a few blocks down. Finally, Naruto walked to the final store: Wolf Claw Weapons. Deciding that the best way to get his supplies would be to use a transformation in order to hide his true identity, Naruto transformed into a young boy, about 15 years of age, dressed in a regular t-shirt and shorts. On his forehead, Naruto also wore his hitai-ate.

After taking a deep breath, Naruto entered through the doors. After entering, Naruto could immediately tell that this weapon shop was much more serious than the other weapon shops that he had visited. As he looked around, Naruto could feel the gaze of the shopkeeper on him. When he finally found some weapons that he might buy, the shopkeeper walked over to Naruto.

"Release!" cried the shopkeeper. Suddenly Naruto's disguise disappeared, and his true form was revealed. Naruto stared at the shopkeeper before letting his head fall.

"I'll be going now, them." Naruto began his slow walk towards the door. Meanwhile the shopkeeper just stared at the boy walking towards the door to leave his store.

"Boy, where are you going? I'm not going to kick you out. You are welcome in this store. You won't get any crap here because of your tenant. You are always welcome here without any prejudice." Naruto stopped and turned to look at the shopkeeper. "My name is Kazuto Yagami. You will always be welcome in this shop. So can I help you with anything?" Naruto stared for a few minutes at the shopkeeper. The man stood at about 5'6" and was relatively young. He looked to be about 19 years old. He was wearing what looked to be a blacksmith apron. His arms were very thick and bore multiple scars, no doubt from mistakes while forging. His face was cleanly shaven but there was a small goatee as well. His eyes were a deep electric blue that reminded Naruto of a thunderstorm. The action that the man took surprised him. He did not expect anyone in the village to not discriminate against, especially after learning what he had within himself.

"Uh" stammered Naruto before he got his thoughts back together. "I need some more professional looking clothing."

"Yes, I can see that," commented Kazuto as he looked over the orange jumpsuit Naruto was wearing. "Let's go take a look and see what I have." Kazuto led Naruto through the store to where they had some of the most durable shinobi clothing. "So, what do you think? See anything you like?" asked Kazuto. Naruto nodded and went to pick out his new clothing. Naruto grabbed a white long sleeve shirt and a pair of black pants that had with a large amount of pockets.

"I'll take another six of these in this size," said Naruto. Kazuto nodded and grabbed a few more sets of similar clothing off the shelves. "Do you have the clothing with weight seals?

"And some kunai and shruiken." Kazuto nodded making a note of it on his notepad.

"Will that be all?" asked Kazuto.

"Uh, would it be possible to get a bokken, some decent kunai and shruiken, and some fingerless gloves?" asked Naruto.

"Of course!" cried Kazuto as he led Naruto to a different section. "Now I'm going to need some measurement, so please hold out your hands." Naruto held out his hands out and Kazuto took out a measurement tape. After un-reeling the measurement tape, Kazuto held the tape against Naruto's arms to take the measurement. "Okay, so you a bokken of fairly good length, but not extremely long," murmured Kazuto. He let the tape measure reek back in before he walked over to the selection of bokken. "Here try this one," said Kazuto as he tossed a bokken at Naruto. Naruto deftly caught the bokken in the air and sumg it sown to his side. After inspecting the wooden sword for any scars or blemishes, Naruto looked up with a smile.

"I'll take it!" he proclaimed. "But…how much is it going to cost me? I don't have that much money to spend."

"Well, let's go take at how much this stuff will cost. If you can't pay for it all right now, well I'll see if I can figure something out for you. Come on," said Kazuto as he led Naruto to the front of the store. Once there, he rung up all the items and the total came out to be 200,000 yen. Upon learning this, Naruto hung his head.

"I'm sorry sir," said Naruto, "I won't be able to pay that. I don't have the money to do so. I guess I'll have to just take the weapons. I only have 10,000 yen."

"What are you talking about? Only take the weapons? Nonsense. I'll cut you a deal so that you'll be able to afford everything. I'll take half the amount of money you have right now, and whenever you are free, you can work back the money by helping me in the forge."

"You would do that for me?" asked Naruto, "Even though it will probably take a long time for me to pay you back?"

"I'm sure," said Kazuto. "Now, I'll take 5000 yen, and then you will go change out of that nasty orange jumpsuit and into these new clothes. Then you will begin your training with that bokken. Now get out of here. But do come back here when you are ready for your katana. We shall make one together." Naruto grinned widely and paid the amount before grabbing the bags, and whatever he couldn't carry himself, he had his shadow clones carry them. Naruto hurried over to his apartment and began stripping himself of the hideous piece of clothing that was his jumpsuit. Naruto pulled on the white long sleeve shirt. The white shirt fit snugly on Naruto, but was still loose enough that Naruto still had his full range of motions unrestricted. Naruto then pulled on the black pants, and finally, the fingerless gloves. To finish his new look off, Naruto tied a sash around his waist, a dark orange sash. Naruto walked over to the closet and grabbed his ninja pouch before dumping all the supplied in it out onto his bed. Naruto then had one of his shadow clones fill it with kunai and shruiken. Meanwhile, Naruto had put his bokken into the sash, and had grabbed two of the fighting styles: Hiten Mitsurugi and Xinyi Lihue.

"Hm," murmured Naruto, "Since I'm going to be starting my life as a ninja anew, I'm probably going to make some changes; like eating other foods that is not ramen. I guess I could try going to the grocery store. Maybe they won't notice with this look I have…" Without thinking anymore on the subject, Naruto placed his bokken, scrolls, and weapons pouch on the bed and started walking to the grocery store nearby. However, before he left, Naruto had two clones read the scroll for the Xinyi Lihue, and after that, the clones would go to a training ground and begin practice in the use of the fighting style. When he reached the grocery store, Naruto tentatively walked through the entrance. When he didn't get kicked out, he continued walking through the store, but the entire time he was in the store, Naruto was on edge, constantly glancing around, waiting until someone noticed who he actually was. But to his surprise, no one commented at all. In fact, some people even said hello to him. After grabbing some meat, vegetables, milk, and other such supplies, Naruto headed to the checkout point.

"That will be 1000 yen, sir," said the shopkeeper as he smiled at Naruto. Naruto nodded and counted out the money from his wallet, while thinking to himself that he might need to make a break for it.

"Here you go," said Naruto, dropping the exact amount of change into the shopkeeper's hand. "Have a nice day."

"You too!" cried the shopkeeper before Naruto walked out with bags in hand, and then he made a mad dash for his apartment while grinning with glee. He had somehow made it through the grocery store without being kicked out: a first.

Naruto whistled as he put away the groceries in a surprisingly still working refrigerator. As he walked around his apartment, Naruto wondered why he didn't get kicked out of the grocery store. Naruto also realized he was in great need of some money. As he activated the weight seals on his clothing so that they would weigh about 20 pounds, Naruto tried to think of some ways that he could get some extra money. Maybe after he had paid Kazuto back, he could continue to work at the forge and get some extra money. But that was only after he paid back Kazuto. He needed extra money as soon as possible. Maybe it was possible that he would be able to do some D-rank missions to get some extra cash. Naruto threw a few experimental punches in the air and began walking to the training grounds that his clones were at after he grabbed his weapons pouch and his bokken.

A/N

So this is my first story in a long time. I hope you guys like it, and if there are any questions, you can go to the facebook account that I set up for fanfiction. You can find the link on my homepage.

Another thing, this isn't very important, but the title that i have right now is just a working title, and may be changed, so yeah.