AN: The chapter in which critical successes are a thing.

...

The biggest problem with once more being back at the start, he thought to himself, was that the exp awards were going to be pretty pitiful. He could still raise some of his skills with the skill training, and he could get more exp by facing down the stronger challengers in the arena, but ultimately he had exhausted all of the low hanging fruit.

As he set out from his apartment he offered one of the ANBU that thought he was hiding on an opposing roof a wave, easily spotted via his new chakra sensor ability, and then bolted leaving the purple haired shinobi unable to keep up with his head start.

He arrived in the classroom ahead of the rest of the class despite his somewhat late start, though it wasn't surprising. His speed was at the point that even non-taijutsu focused Jounin were likely to be unable to keep up by and large. It worked into his plans, though, as he approached the desk and offered a slight bow to his two teachers.

"I was thinking that perhaps we should push the sparing to the end of the day. In most shinobi missions, knowledge, ranged weapons, and basic skills are all going to come before a taijutsu engagement."

Iruka seemed to consider this, as did Mizuki, and eventually Iruka offered him a nod as the rest of the class started to filter in. "That's a good suggestion Naruto. I think we'll do that."

Naruto smirked as he walked back to his seat. All according to plan.

...

All of the tests had been easy by this time around. The knowledge test hadn't been sprung on them yet, but his jutsu testing had gone flawlessly. Ranged weapons still saw Sasuke eking out a victory over him, though that didn't surprise him. He hadn't bothered to level up his standard shinobi ranged skills, having instead turned to archery, not that it was that much better just yet.

When they had formed up for the sparing session, he knew that things had played out as he'd predicted. Instead of matching them up, the Chuunin instructors informed them that they would be testing them directly, which Naruto knew meant Mizuki was planning on failing him out here. Time to put the traitor in his place.

All of his classmates did as well as they always did, Sasuke proving to be the best in his class, Choji showing "surprising" strength, Shikamaru just barely getting enough points to pass. It was starting to get a little redundant, he supposed, when only his own actions changed things.

It was disturbing how if you dropped a person into the same external factors with their internal factors reset how they did the exact same thing. Called free will into question, to be honest. Even Naruto himself, he figured. If you wiped his memory and skills, dropped him back on the true day one of this, would the loops have gone the same? Would he be standing here now?

Amusingly enough, the solace to that question was the fact that his life worked on random dice rolls. But were they really random? Would they come up the exact same way they had if everything was reset?

He was brought out of his musing as his name was called and he stepped into the arena, faced up against Mizuki.

"Well. You're basically at the top of the class, Naruto, so I feel congradulations are in order." He said softly as he shook the Genin's hand, his words too low for most of the class to hear. "I think, for you, I'm not going to hold back. You'll get bonus points if you manage to land a few hits, of course."

Naruto restrained himself from rolling his eyes, instead doing his best imitation as his original idiot self and giving the older shinobi a huge smile. "Awesome! You're going down sensei!"

They walked back to their starting spots and as soon as Iruka gave the signal to start, Mizuki was launching himself forwards, throwing a punch at Naruto's head that likely would have dropped him on the spot the first time.

This wasn't the first time. Naruto met the fist head on and heard a satisfying crack as he shattered some of the bones in Mizuki's fist. He bent his legs slightly before kicking off the ground, landing his knee in the Chuunin's face and sending him flying across the arena to land on his back.

Mizuki rolled with the blow, landing on his feet with rage flashing across his features. Iruka seemed to notice and quickly spoke. "That was some impressive Taijutsu, Naruto. You pa...Mizuki, what are you doing?!"

The other Chuunin ignored Iruka and closed the distance, stabbing forwards with a kunai he retrieved from his side. Naruto didn't bother trying to dodge, instead shifting his weight both putting him in position for a full haymaker with his right arm while taking the stab to his left. A moment after the kunai stabbed into his arm he twisted forwards and drilled his fist into Mizuki's face, as hard as he could. The chuunin dropped and didn't move after that.

...

It wasn't long after that he found himself sitting before the Hokage in his office. It was to be expected, this wasn't the bloody mist, after all. Murdering your proctor wasn't exactly standard fair. He resisted chuckling in front of the Hokage about that little bit of trivia he'd picked up by having a clone go study the Mist for him. It was wise to know your opponents.

"Do you care to explain yourself, Naruto?" The old man said from behind his desk, looking about as grave as Naruto had ever seen him.

"I beat him in a spar, he tried to kill me, so I took him down. I didn't mean to kill him." That was the truth. He'd just intended to knock the chuunin out, but his attack had done way more damage than it should have.

"I see. I am...disturbed about how easy you're taking this, Naruto. You will kill as a ninja, I was just hoping that you wouldn't lose your innocence so fast."

Naruto gave him a serious look. "Jiji, hesitation on a mission can get either you or a team member killed. We can't be resigned by things like "innocence" when it's a life or death situation. Mizuki was clearly a threat. What would happen if he'd done that to someone less prepared to deal with it?"

The Hokage sighed. "I suppose that's true. Still...never mind. Just the idle whims of an old man. Still. Where did you learn to fight like that? From Iruka's report, you've never demonstrated skill on that level."

Naruto shrugged. "I've always been terrible at chakra control, so I've trained heavily in Taijutsu. I recently discovered the tree walking excersise and that helped me get to a level where I could pass the academy, but most of the time I just overload my techniques..." He paused for a moment, before venturing. "Of course, the shadow clone technique is a lot easier for me because of that."

The Hokage's eyebrows raised at that. "And just where did you learn the shadow clone?"

Naruto studied him for a moment. "I stole the scroll from your library at one point and learned it. I'm a chakra sensor, so paying attention to the guards patrols and slipping in was easy."

The Hokage looked furious, but calmed himself down after a few seconds, a slight look of pride displaying briefly. "I see. Well, I'll let the ANBU know that they need to increase security if a genin managed to find his way to one of our restricted techniques. Are you hiding any other skills I should know about?"

Naruto shrugged. In for an ounce, in for a pound. "I learned to open the first celestial gate, I regenerate damage and chakra quickly, and..." He reached out and exerted some chakra, causing a kunai to float up from his belt into the air. "I apparently have a magnetism bloodline. Ah, and I'm a Jinchuriki for the Kyuubi, though I'm sure you already knew that. Explains my regeneration, chakra, and maybe my bloodline as well. That or my parents, anyways."

To the old mans credit, he managed to suppress his shock pretty well. Not completely, because Naruto knew how to read the old man, but well enough. "No...not your parents. This is going to take some consideration." He slid a bag of money across the desk. "I'm officially classifying you dealing with Mizuki as a C ranked mission and awarding you pay appropriately. Whe found some disturbing implications while cleaning out his apartment. Why don't you go get yourself some ramen?"

Naruto accepted the money with a thanks, and headed out the door. Well, apparently if he was honest with Jiji from the get go, he got to skip the whole interrogation and game over deal.

...

Naruto took it easy the next few days, just relaxing and soaking in some sun. He had a clone working on studying recent world events, and another continuing to refine his cooking skills.

At the moment, he was lounging in the back of the class room, listening as the teams got pared up. Things were proceeding as they had last time, and he was waiting for the inevitable team 7 formation.

"Team 7." Iruka started. "Uchiha Sauske, and Harano Sakura."

They glanced at each other and Iruka confused before they settled back to wait for their instructor. Naruto, for his part, was intruged. He knew he'd made some major changes this time around, but what was going on?

The rest of the teams were announced, with Naruto not finding himself on any of them. Finally Iruka called him down. "Naruto, some arangements have been made in light of your...recent developments. Please head down to training ground one."

Naruto nodded and took off, thoughts flashing through his head. What exactly was going on?

He arived in the clearing in record time, nothing holding him up, and when he arived he found Tenten, Gai, and a mini Gai waiting for him. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing double, but realized there was, in fact, a mini me version of guy standing there.

"Our new youthful team mate has arrived!" Gai said, waving Naruto over.

"Erm...what exactly is going on?"

"The Hokage was rather impressed with your budding mastery of Taijutsu, as well as your other skills. He felt as though your youthful spirit would be wasted studying with a novice Genin team, so there was a swap. My precious student Neji has been given to Team Seven as he receives most of his training from his clan, and it was decided that his development wouldn't suffer from it. I disagreed, but when I learned that he would be studying under my most youthful rival, I agreed to the trade."

Naruto soaked this in, debated for a few moments, and then glanced over to the chibi clone. "Hey bushy brows, let's spar."

"YOSH!"

...

As it turned out, the other Genin was the "Lee" Tenten had refered to the last time around. One Rock Lee, to be precise. At the moment, they were faced off against each other on opposing sides of the clearing. They'd agreed to only use Taijutsu, though Lee made it clear that it was just to get a feel for how he was at the moment for Sensei. He didn't want him to hold back in future matches, and Naruto agreed.

As it was, apparently Lee had damaged chakra coils and couldn't mold jutsu as all. So naturally he'd focused all of his efforts into Taijutsu. Naruto gave this some consideration, and after a few moments, decided he was probably terrifying. Not having to spend any points in any of the chakra related attributes and likely a beyond maxed Taijutsu...he had a sinking feeling he was about to get his ass kicked.

The battle began and Lee dashed forwards, opening the battle with a leaping spin kick. Naruto brought an arm up to block, managing to deflect it away from his face but still feeling the pain in his arm. He crouched and leaped to uppercut his airborne target, and just barely managed to catch him in the chin.

Lee shot his legs down and connected with Naruto's chest, sending the younger Genin flying to the ground where he landed on his back as the green spandexed chapion preformed a triple backflip and landed the finish.

He was just climbing to his feet as Lee once more charged forwards, and Naruto allowed the first gate to open, hoping to gain some kind of edge.

It helped close a little bit of the distance, and he managed a good parry to the forward jab, retaliating with one of his own which landed against Lee's chest, causing him to flinch ever so slightly and allowing Naruto time to pull back and launch a straight kick towards the same, hopefully bruised, rib.

Rock Lee sidestepped the attack and punched him in the side of the knee causing Naruto to his in pain as it forcefully spun him around. He managed to duck under the follow up blow by grabbing the ground with his hands, and retaliated with a donkey kick backwards.

Unfortunately, his hands lost their purchase and he fell to the ground, Lee's follow up kick knocking him unconcious.

...

"Gave Rock Lee a decent taijutsu only spar. +2000exp."

...

Judging by the sun in the sky as his eyes opened back up, he hadn't been out for more than a few minutes. He winced as he rubbed his head and sat up, but felt that most of his injuries had already healed. There was some consolation in that if his opponent wanted to fight him over and over again, with no intention of killing him, he'd eventually win seeing as a normal person didn't recover in time that could be measured in minutes.

Lee offered him a hand when he noticed he was awake, and Naruto took it allowing himself to be picked up off the ground.

Gai was regarding him with an apprising look, a hint of seriousness etched in as well. "I've never seen someone maintain a Gate while being unconscious. You may want to shut it down. Even the first gate can have lasting consequences."

Naruto shrugged and closed the gate, feeling his regeneration kick into overdrive as he did so. "I assume the body normally naturally shuts off the Gate when you fall unconscious so it doesn't damage itself?"

Gai nodded. "A youthful observation."

Naruto chuckled. "Well. I have a healing bloodline." He said easily. "My chakra and damage to my body rapidly regenerate. It's enough that I can heal even with the first gate open, though it is drastically reduced."

Gai took some time before responding. "That's...interesting. I'm aware of healing bloodlines, as well as...other things that can cause someone to have a form of regeneration." He gave him a knowing look. "Though I've never seen someone with one learn to open the Gates. I can see how that could be quite the advantage."

"That said, young Genin, the Gates are restricted for a reason. If you expect to learn from me, I'm going to lay down some ground rules for their use."

"I can agree to that. Hit me."

"Very well. We'll make it simple, in your case. You are only to utilize the Gates when either your life or a team mates life is in danger..." He held up a hand to head off Naruto's protests. "Or if your regeneration is capable of countering the damaging effects."

"Sounds good. Alright, that seems fair."

"Good, now let us begin training, so that our flames of youth may burn bright! Let's see 50 laps around Konoha to warm up, begin!"

This...was going to be insane.

...

"Game updated."

"Auto checkpoints installed."

"Auto checkpoint saved."

"Team Kakashi and Team Gai unlocked."

"If you're game is reset, you may choose to resume post academy with one of these two teams. If you start from the beginning, you can unlock others."

The message popped up while he was eating a delicious dinner of pan seared rabbit seasoned with local herbs one of his clones had gathered during the day. His cooking had reached level 50, unlocking the "Restorative meal" advantage, which increased the healing rate of anyone that ate one of his meals by 50% overnight. Didn't do much for him as if he wasn't dead he was usually healed up, but it would be handy for his team mates. The game rationalized it by utilizing the healing properties of certain herbs when cooked right, but he felt that was a bit of a stretch. He knew some herbs could be used for healing, but assuming he could do so with any random herbs he could find in any location was pretty silly. Still, he wasn't going to argue.

He turned in early, and had secured an avoid of the early morning training with Gai and Lee by claiming, truthfully, that he had to upgrade his supplies which meant an early visit to Tenten before his team meet proper.

...

"Morning Tenten." He greeted the young konoichi as he entered.

"Good morning Naruto. What can I do for you?" She looked up from where she was working behind the counter.

"Ah. I need...these." He collected his clothes from where he had picked them up earlier. "Also I need to exchange my used gear for some fresh stuff, and get outfitted with some basic shinobi stuff. Oh, and I'd like to declare my primary weapon to be a bow."

She gave him a look as he set everything down. "Any idea what kind of draw you're looking for?"

"Erm...probably somewhere around 500kg. Closer to a ton with my gate active."

To Tenten's credit, she didn't gawk. Probably because she'd seen him spar Lee the previous day and had some idea of his physical strength. Still, she let out a low whistle.

"Yeah, that's why shinobi primarily use thrown weapons, especially ones that do extensive strength training. You're looking for a custom order work, heavy on strengthen seals and real time feedback to adjust to whatever strength you apply. You're lucky it's your primary weapon, it'd be expensive otherwise. I think we might have one in back. If not, we'll have to get it ordered for you."

She finished up exchanging his goods, and he paid for the clothing. She then vanished into the back, coming out a few minutes later with a bow and quiver. "Yeah. We only had one. Not many shinobi go into archery."

"I assume the quiver has holding seals on it?" He said, hoping to earn some brownie points by demonstrating some knowledge.

"Yeah. Good eye." She handed the pair of items over. "Should be about..."

"200 arrows?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that's about right. How'd you know?"

"It's uh...the mass capacity for your standard storage seal?" An educated guess, at best.

"About double, actually." She responded with a laugh. "I've been practicing for awhile and I've got the hang of slightly more advanced seals. Good guess, though."

He returned the laugh, feeling the team bonding already going smoothly. "Don't suppose I could get you to show me a few things about seal work?"

She shrugged. "Sure, why not? I'm no Jiraya, but I could teach you the basics."

"Awesome. I'll treat you to dinner for the favor."

He didn't notice the slight blush come to hear cheeks as he gathered up his gear. "After we get done with our team meeting today?"

"Uh, yeah. That sounds good." She stammered slightly and he looked at her inquisitively before mentally shrugging it off.

"Awesome. I'll see you in a few hours. I'm going to go break this baby in."

"You've unlocked a seal trainer. Seals are very specialized, to the point where you need to have a trainer or a source of material to learn from.

Tenten: Can train you up to 25 points in seals."

As he exited, he noticed that he noticed several of the same chakra signitaures he'd been feeling since yesterday. He glanced around, and didn't see anyone, meaning that they were likely ANBU. Why was there an increased tail on him?

He shrugged it off and continued to the training grounds. As long as they didn't get in the way, he didn't really care who saw him.

...

AN: Some might think that Naruto's meeting with the Hokage went a little too easy, and you'd be right. With his improved lying and a decent, though not fantastic, roll, he was able to achieve a partial success on his lie. The Hokage has some suspicions, but is willing to allow Naruto to continue on for the moment, albeit with a larger force on ANBU keeping track of him, primarily to make sure nothings wrong with the seal. None of Naruto's stats have changed outside an EXP increase, so just refer to last chapter if you're looking for them.