Welcome to the first chapter of 'To make a Hero'.

I did not create Naruto, nor am I making any money off of this story.

This is just something I find entertaining to do whilst drunk off my ass. Please enjoy to the best of your ability.

The small blonde gazed across the width of the forest clearing, eying the damaged trees and uprooted bushes. The faint whisker-like marks on his cheeks bent outward as he allowed himself to grin at the damage his attack had accidentally wrought. Part of him wanted to jump up and down exclaiming his victory to the world, informing everyone in shouting distance (which, given the strength of his lungs, was a fair number) of the awesomeness and potency of one Uzumaki Naruto; of how easily he had surpassed their disgustingly low expectations of him; of how they should be only so lucky as to have someone possessing his sheer level of awesomeness deign to become a Shinobi of Konohagakure.

The urge was fleeting though, and likely only appeared as some kind of conditioned response. He hadn't honestly cared what the village thought of him for some time – as long as their thoughts steered away from violence or an over interest in his activities at least – but these past few years playing the village idiot had gotten him accustomed to generally acting in a ridiculous manner. It was a habit he would need to break soon.

Besides, victory over an opponent as weak as Mizuki wasn't anything to be overly proud of.

"Naruto…"

The blonde jumped slightly when the low, obviously injured voice croaked out his name.

Shit. He thought to himself while quickly turning around and running to the wounded man's side. I completely forgot about Iruka-sensei.

Iruka Umino was an interesting person, and one of the few who Naruto thought might genuinely care for him. Or at least care for the person Iruka thought he was. Despite the rather grisly scar that ran horizontally across the middle of the man's face – and the slightly scary appearance it lent him – Naruto doubted there was a kinder hearted shinobi in all of Konoha. Point in fact: the increasing mother-bear like feelings the chuunin was expressing towards his false self were beginning to make Naruto feel ridiculously guilty about the mass-deception he'd been propagating.

Not enough for him to consider stopping it of course. Just enough that he spent the occasional sleepless night feeling like a right bastard.

"Naruto." The man said again, once the blonde was close enough. "I can't even begin to tell you how proud of you I am."

The smile on the chuunin instructor's face made another brief flash of guilt surge through Naruto's conscience. Aw man… He has tears in his eyes and everything. Naruto frowned slightly as he slowly got the man to his feet. I'm sorry Iruka-san, but the Naruto you care for doesn't really exist.

He brushed the guilt away quickly, and instead gave Iruka one of the big, cheesy grins that his public face was known for. "Don't worry about it Iruka-sensei!" he said, giving the man a quick thumbs up as well. "Once you get out of the hospital you and I can go down to Ichiraku's. Maybe after a few bowls of miso ramen you can find the words to tell me how awesome I am."

Iruka laughed a bit at that, before pausing and looking over at the blonde; his face now cast in a much more serious manner. "Naruto," He said, turning the boy to look at him directly. "close your eyes for a minute, okay?"

Naruto watched as Iruka's hands moved up to fiddle a bit with his forehead protector. Uh oh… He better not be thinking what I think he's thinking… Quick! Deflect! Deflect!

Naruto hurriedly grabbed one of the man's arms, stopping it mid-movement. "Let's get you to the hospital first, Iruka-sensei, you've already lost a lot of blood. Plus, Jiji is probably going to want this back as soon as possible." With the last sentence he held up the forbidden scroll, while also letting go of the chuunin's arm to sheepishly rub the back of his head.

Iruka was going to protest, but the mention of the Hokage brought him up short. I should probably run Naruto's promotion by Hokage-sama first anyway. He thought pensively. I hate to make Naruto wait, but it would be even worse if I told him he passed only to have my decision annulled by someone higher up the food-chain…

"Alright Naruto-kun, but we're going to see Hokage-sama first. I'm not as bad off as I look anyway." That and I don't want you to run into any of the violence-prone, and likely highly-unsympathetic ambu that have been sent after the scroll.

"If you say so, Iruka-sensei." Naruto replied, before following the now much-steadier Chuunin out of the village clearing.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The next couple hours went by in a bit of a blur. It turned out that the Hokage was already fully informed of the situation (the possibilities of how that could be making Naruto stare extra hard at every suspicious shadow in paranoia) and was in fact rather proud of Naruto for – as he put it – "protecting some of Konoha's most vital secrets". The blonde had only managed to make his escape when Iruka had asked to briefly speak privately with the Hokage. The Knowing look in both of their eyes sent shivers down the young boy's back.

Not that he imagined that they thought they were planning anything particularly malicious. Well, definitely not Iruka at least. As much as Naruto desperately wanted to hold on to the love, respect, and admiration he'd always felt towards the aged Hokage; he also had to balance that against the fact that the man was one of the oldest, most talented, and most respected members of a profession that prided itself on their skills in deception, and their ability to be utterly ruthless.

It had hurt to do so, but he'd decided years ago that he had to take every movement, action, and word made by the old man with a rather generous handful of salt.

Once they'd left the room, he wasted no time in telling the remaining Anbu that he was exhausted from the fight and needed to head home to get some sleep. Even then was only allowed to leave after the Shinobi secured his promise to return early the next morning.

At that, the shivers on his spine leveled up, transforming into massive tremors. The Hokage's guards knew exactly what the old man and Iruka were planning, and they were doing their best to help it along.

He quickened his pace once he'd exited the tower, beginning to hop from rooftop to rooftop, lost in his thoughts.

It has to be tonight. Going after the scroll was a worthwhile risk – if only because I had a fool-proof escape plan – but it didn't come without consequence. If there's one thing I need to avoid, its being officially named a Konoha Shinobi.

Of the many things the village was ignorant about concerning Uzumaki Naruto, the fact that he had no interest in entering into Konoha's most revered profession would probably surprise its citizens the most. Especially after all those 'I shall become Hokage!' speeches he'd shouted from on top the Hokage monument.

What might surprise them only slightly less was that his refusal wasn't just aimed at Konoha. While he'd readily admit that his life behind her walls wasn't exactly the best, he didn't really bear any ill will towards the village. All in all, considering what most of its citizens truly believed him to be, they hadn't really treated him all that badly. Mostly his treatment was regulated to a rather serious case of neglect and non-interest. So, no. It wasn't just Konoha.

He wasn't interested in being a Shinobi at all. And he hadn't been; not since he accidentally invented his first jutsu, and realized what a shinobi really was.

He was still surprised that no one ever realized how different his 'sexy no jutsu' was from the standard henge. It was just common sense that if he couldn't create a standard bunshin (and he couldn't. While he was far more advanced than his teachers believed, that was one thing he didn't have to fake to fail the exam), then the genjutsu-esc henge illusion should have been far beyond his abilities. It used half as much chakra after all.

And then there were the reactions of the various shinobi he'd used it on to think about.

Most shinobi, by the time they've reached chuunin level, have learned to instinctively look through minor illusions. The henge jutsu is really only useful against civilians and other genin. A more experienced shinobi will instinctively feel the chakra surrounding the person, and thus their minds will subconsciously dismiss the form in front of them as something false.

The reason why the more perverted members of Konoha's military force react so… interestingly to Naruto's jutsu, is because that subconscious reaction isn't present. Because there is no illusion.

Because it's real.

He didn't realize it in the beginning himself. It was only after he'd thrown an eraser at the head of a henged Sasuke during a lesson – and watched it pass through – that he began realizing that he had done something unusual.

At first he was ecstatic. He imagined the look his Jiji's face when he showed him what he'd done. He imagined graduating the academy early due to his awesome new technique. He imagined all the awesome missions he'd get to go on; after all, such a jutsu would make him the penultimate stealth specialist!

And then he did something he hadn't done for a good number of years. He thought a little deeper about those missions, and what they would consist of.

It had never been fair to say that Naruto was unintelligent, even when he was younger and the loud, obnoxious, and delinquent version of him was more reality than mask.

He had simply never had anyone interested in teaching him.

First, in the orphanage, where the teacher would ignore him if he asked a question – and send him out of the room if he asked too many. And then in the academy, where even the fairer teachers took the lack of knowledge he'd managed to gleam from his neglectful caretakers to be lack of intelligence; and thus cast him in the role of dead-last without any further thought.

This lack of education was compounded on by the fact that it hurt sometimes to think too much about stuff… Like why the caretakers at the orphanage wouldn't let him play with the other kids, or why shopkeepers would always seem to charge him more than other people; if he was allowed in the store at all.

The only reason he even gave it a second thought was probably because Iruka and the other teachers had just started to give them the 'Shinobi facts of life' speech. Slowly starting to work in the knowledge that – if they graduated – they would soon be soldiers of Konoha; and expected to do what was required of them.

A portion of the speech was focused on how what you specialized in as a Shinobi would determine how the Hokage utilized you. Taijutsu, Kenjutsu and Ninjutsu experts could expect to be sent on high combat missions – usually against rival Shinobi – or on protection missions defending their clients against bandits and such. Tracking and survival experts were sent on apprehension missions – including kidnapping and the execution of missing-nin. Genjutsu experts would be sent on information gathering missions, as well as assisting in any of the above missions; at least as long as their skills matched up.

And stealth experts…

Stealth experts were mostly sent on assassination missions.

It wasn't until that moment that he'd really thought about what he was trying so desperately to become. He, like most children born in Konoha, grew up on tales of heroic and valorous shinobi. On tales of bravery and self-sacrifice, missions to rescue princesses and overthrow evil tyrants. Heck, some of Naruto's favorites had been told to him by the third Hokage himself! Thus lending an even greater sense of realism, and an even more potent sense of loss when the shinobi hero would lay down his life for his village; as they so often did in those tales.

He'd spent most of his life wanting to be like the people in those stories. To be a hero that the people of the village would eventually come to love and appreciate. To do something great, and memorable. And, perhaps, to one day lay down his life to protect his loved ones, just like so many had done before.

It hadn't occurred to him until then that all the bad guys in those stories; the people they were told to hate, the princess's kidnappers, the tyrant's hired army… They were all shinobi too. One's whose village probably told the same stories in reverse.

And then he had to ask himself: "What's so heroic about being a mercenary? Is it really so valorous to rescue a princess, when, the next week, you're killing some random business man simply because his rival could pay you enough to do so?"

It was a depressing couple of weeks before he figured out the answer to that question, and couple more after that before he came to an epiphany.

Just because shinobi weren't heroes, didn't mean he couldn't become one.

A real hero. Not someone who only helped people because he was paid to do so. Not someone who was willing to do unconscionable things simply because 'his village needed him to', or the even more morally-perverted 'because they can pay enough'. Someone who did his best to help people, just because they needed help.

Really, it wasn't a very hard step to take. He was simply taking what he had already planned to do for the village as a shinobi – prior his rather disturbing realization – and applying it to the greater world. Honestly, it was even a bit easier for him to, both logically and emotionally, justify. He might not hate the citizens of Konoha, but he couldn't say that he really liked them that much either. It may be slightly selfish, but it he was going to risk his life to protect someone, he'd prefer that the person he was protecting didn't hate him.

And so that was when he began to train in secret, and when he began to quietly pay more attention at the academy – after all, the most potent fighters on the continent were still the shinobi, and knowing what they were taught would of great help to him when and if he was forced to face off against one.

It was also the only reason he'd agreed to Mizuki's crazy plan to steal the forbidden scroll.

He knew it was risky, but figured that, if worst came to worst, he could always just transform into a mouse and scamper off into the darkness. Plus, he also knew that he wouldn't make much of a hero with just the kawarimi jutsu and his transformation ability, and thus figured some super-secret Konoha techniques might help give him a boost.

And boy was he right. Especially with what he noticed the first time he successfully used the Kage Bunshin jutsu while holding onto the forbidden scroll.

Finding that the clone was holding an identical copy of the scroll had come as quite the surprise.

As he approached his apartment, he quickly crossed his fingers, hoping against hope that his spur of the moment plan had borne fruit. He took a deep breath in front of his door, before quickly grasping the handle and wrenching it open.

To utter chaos.

There must have been thirty-five to forty different clones of the blonde squeezing into each and every clear spot in the boy's tiny living room, each holding bundles of scrolls and hastily copying the contents of each onto separate rolls of paper. To make more room, Naruto's couch had been stood up on one end in the center of the chaos, and from its precipice another clone sat cross-legged while shouting orders at the others.

"Separate the jutsu by category! Fire with fire, wind with wind, etcetera! Don't get elaborate re-drawing the figures for each taijutsu scroll, just trace an outline! We don't need to know the color of the original model's eyes! And make sure to copy down ones we might actually learn first! I don't think any of us think that frog style is going to be particularly awesome, and we're running low on time!"

The original Naruto stood with his mouth gaping open, only barely remembering to close the door behind him, while what seemed to be the head clone kept issuing orders.

"I want all the chakra control scrolls put with the fuinjutsu ones! And DO be careful copying down the latter! I don't want us blowing ourselves up because we fucked up the Kanji!" The clone then scanned the room to make sure his orders were being followed, starting slightly when he noticed the gaping Naruto standing by the door.

"Shit! The boss is here already!" He then hopped off his seat, and made his way towards the original, shouting out a final "Work faster everybody, we're in the zero hour here!" as he landed.

The original Naruto looked around once more at the now frantically scribbling – with the exception of those working on the Fuinjutsu scrolls – clones before turning back to the head clone who'd now reached him.

"Did the Hokage's office really have this many scrolls!? I thought there were only, like, a few big honkin' ones in there!?"

The clone grinned a bit at him before responding. "Naw. All the ones from the old man's office are being copied down in our bedroom. Most of the ones in here are from Sasuke-temes place."

Naruto's eyes bulged. "What!? I never told you to ransack the Uchiha compound! And what do you mean 'most of the ones!? Who else did you guys rob!?"

The clone looked a bit sheepish as he scratched at his whiskered cheek. "Well," he said hesitantly. "It went so smooth at the Hokage tower that we all decided a couple more lower-risk targets wouldn't be out of the question. Besides, 'ransack' and 'rob' are kinda harsh words, don't you think? It's not like we actually took anything; all of the original scrolls in here will go up in smoke as soon as we do."

Naruto just stared at his clone for a minute before lowering his head into his hands. "Who else did you rob?" He finally asked. "And where did all this paper and ink come from anyway? I doubt I had more than a couple sheets stored away in here, and I know I didn't have any of the blank scrolls I saw them writing on…"

"We hit the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka places." The clone said, rubbing at the back of his head. "They were all next to each other, so it was kinda convenient. Just as easy as we thought it would be too. Simply transformed into bugs, made our way to their library, and waited for the room to empty out before touching the scrolls and each making another kage bunshin. We thought for a minute that we were in trouble at the Nara place, but the lazy bastard who saw a line of grasshoppers leaving the main house just said 'troublesome' and walked on by."

"And the scrolls?" Naruto asked, finally bringing his head up from his hands.

"We actually bought those." The clone said with a grin. "Got to the shops just before closing. Had to transform into some random civilians of course."

"But how? You don't have any mone-" Naruto stopped when the clone took out a slightly slimmer looking copy of his gama-chan pouch.

"I figure they pretty much screwed us over on prices when we were younger anyway, so this just makes us even." The clone's grin widened.

Naruto stared at his clone in shock for a moment, before returning his head to his hands, groaning. "Well…" he finally said. "I suppose we really need to leave tonight now… How much fake money did you spend out there anyway?"

The clone looked up in thought for a second, before shrugging. "No idea. Should be quite a bit though. After we hit the bookstores for blank scrolls and ink, we headed over to a couple of the shinobi shops that would never serve us before. Cleaned those bastards out of medical kits, survival gear, rations, things like that. Also got a bunch of extra kunai and shuriken, and enough storage scrolls to wrap all this shit up." He paused for a second, thinking again, before snapping his fingers. "Oh! We also made sure to get you some new outfits! Even if we didn't despise the orange monstrosity we're all currently bundled up in, it would stick out like a sore thumb once the old man starts sending out people to search for us. Even if we are planning on changing our shape."

The real Naruto nodded his head a bit at that, still rubbing his face and thinking about the shit-storm that would be raging tomorrow when a few choice shopkeepers checked their registers. "Well," he said, "I hope to have stopped the search from getting TOO ridiculous. I managed to get away from Iruka or the Hokage before either of them could tell me I had mysteriously passed the genin exam, or give me a forehead protector."

The clone snorted a bit at this. "You know full well that won't really do much to stop the village from sending out hunter-nin. Even if you hadn't shown that you held at least some level of competency tonight against Mizuki-teme, I rather doubt the old monkey ever had any plans to let the village's jinchuuriki run away."

Naruto paused for a second, before nodding again. "Hai… You're right."

It wasn't that long after he'd figured out his transformation ability that he learned what he was. Or, rather, that he learned what the vast majority of the village believed he was.

Learning what he really was had taken quite a bit more time. And a decent number of trips to some of the more secured filing rooms transformed into one of the villages elite jonin.

"Hai." Naruto said again, before shaking his head a bit. "And that said, we really need to get out of here as soon as possible. How much more time will the other clones need?"

The boss clone looked around a bit, before turning back to Naruto with a slightly guilty expression. "We may have bitten off a bit more than we can chew, to be honest." He said, rubbing his head. "And we're more or less out of space, so making more clones wouldn't really help at all. What do you want us to prioritize?"

"Ignore the Akimichi hidden techniques." Naruto said after a moment. "Even if we could learn them, it seems like they would require changing to a specialized and isolated combat style. Plus, I don't really feel like getting all fat just for a couple of cool taijutsu moves."

The clone sweat-dropped a bit at the final statement, but still shouted out the order, watching as a few clones stopped what they were doing and moved over to help someone else.

"Also don't bother with anything to do with the Uchiha's doujutsu or their fighting style. Seems like most of their unique techniques would rely mostly on those freaky eyes of theirs." He paused for a moment as the clone nodded and shouted out another order. "After that, focus mostly on scrolls telling us how to improve our chakra control, and learn our elemental affinities. Make sure to copy jutsu from the higher ranks down, we have so much chakra that those are probably going to be of more use. And finally choose a few taijutsu styles you think might suit us, and concentrate mostly on those. I don't really see the point in studying a dozen different styles that will probably only contradict each other."

The clone nodded once more and instructed his men, before turning back to Naruto. "And as for fuinjutsu? To be honest, it's probably the biggest time sink we have."

Naruto frowned a bit, subconsciously placing his hand on his stomach, over the seal. "Do the best you can." He said finally. "If it looks like we won't have enough time to finish before morning, then focus on the basics, and anything directly connected to our seal."

The clone nodded one last time, before turning back to the room to supervise and assist the other kage bunshin.

Naruto simply stood by the doorway, staring out at his mass of clones as they desperately tried to finish their work in time, and praying to Kami-sama that this last minute scheme of his would work out.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Professor, Sandaime Hokage of Konahagakure, smiled as he puffed absently on his pipe, and stared out over his village.

The events of tonight – despite the temporary theft of one of Konoha's most precious scrolls, and his rather humiliating reaction to an immature and silly jutsu – had left him in a better mood than he'd been in quite a while.

He had been worried about Naruto for some time. The poor boy had changed a bit over the last few years, his normal upbeat and confident reactions seeming a bit off, and his joyful smiles seeming more and more forced. The Hokage had noticed that the boy seemed a bit hesitant around even him. As if wondering why one of the most important men in the village would willingly spend time around someone who was so disliked by the rest of it.

He had worried that the boy's seemingly indomitable spirit was beginning to falter, and the guilt that such a thought caused him had stabbed at his already battered and torn soul.

But it seemed he had been mistaken. Watching as – even after the secret of the Kyuubi's fate had been revealed – Naruto fought to defend his village, to defend his sensei… It had warmed the Hokage's heart. Made him think that perhaps, even after all the mistakes he and the village had made concerning the boy, that his father's soul still burned bright inside him.

It was a comforting thought. Both for now, and for the future.

He had been slightly annoyed that the boy had left his office before he could speak to him – both about the damaging information Mizuki had let loose, and the happy decision both he and Iruka had come to – but could certainly understand the boy's exhaustion. After all, he had just defeated a chuunin opponent, and made one of the most prodigious uses of a B-rank kinjutsu he'd ever seen. All before even making genin.

He chuckled to himself slightly. I suppose little Naruto-kun deserves a good night's sleep after all that. I'll see him tomorrow anyway, and giving him some time to think things over, especially concerning the Kyuubi, might be better for him than dealing with it right away.

Sarutobi nodded to himself. The new genin had a week off before they would be assigned teams anyway. Waiting till morning to give Naruto the good news about his promotion wouldn't hurt anything.

. . . . .