The Blazing Leaf

A/N: I do not own the Naruto Universe nor any characters from it. I may create on OC every here and there but for the most part everything belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. This is merely fanfiction with my own ideas of how I may have liked the story to play out.

I personally do not like it when the protagonists to stories are pretty much bumbling idiots. It seems far to out of character for the seriousness of the world that they are portrayed in. An example would be Harry Potter. By golly that boy was written as a dense as a rock.

In this story, Naruto is rescued from an angry mob on his sixth birthday, by the Hokage, and a few ANBU. This leaves an impression on him, since he is so young. This story will start off with several chapters going through Naruto's childhood. If anyone has suggestions on maybe a specific weapon Naruto may end up training with, as well as Pairings, I will start a poll if the story gets enough positive attention.

I will try to keep chapters above a thousand words each and will attempt to publish a new one every Sunday if I am capable. I work a lot though, so if I don't publish in a while please don't flame, just message me and I will try and get back on the Naruto Train. Several of my other works have failed to get some headway, at all fault to myself, but I intent to try very hard with the story I currently have sitting in my head.

Reviews are welcome, and questions encourage, as they tend to help the creative juices flowing along to my brain housing group.

If anyone would be willing to Beta for me, please, please let me know.

-BREAK-

Chapter 1: That change in life

The Leaf Village, Somewhere in the Fire Country.

Naruto Uzumaki did not have what most would call "an easy life". Being an orphan put a damper on one's daily mood like that. Having no memories of your family just made it worse, Naruto had been an orphan for as long as he could remember. Being six years old meant that you tried to find the happiness in everything, but unfortunately for Naruto, he could hardly be happy about anything.

Just a week ago, on October 10, what he was told was his birthday, he was kicked out of the orphanage by the matron. Incidentally enough, on the night he was kicked out, he had been chased around parts of the village by a mob screaming for his head. The only reason that he was not caught and injured was due to the interference of an old man in white and red robes, and a couple of shinobi in animal masks.

This brings us to the here and now. Naruto was currently sitting in a large armchair much too big for somebody like himself. The old man who had looked murderous last week had allowed him to sleep on the couch in the same office he was sitting now and would talk to him as he completed his work. One of the masked shinobis, in a unit known as ANBU as he was told, was standing directly behind and to the right of the wrinkled old man.

"Now, young Naruto-kun, I am sorry that you did not have a pleasant birthday this year. The villager's behavior was unacceptable. Inu, the ANBU behind me has spent the last week searching for a place for you to live. I am glad to say, he found you an apartment that the shinobi corps will pay for if you agree to join the academy and train to be one of my shinobi in the future." Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, said while smiling at the young red-headed Uzumaki in front of him.

Naruto, the now six-year-old (and one week, thank you) little blue eyed red-head had a small smile on his whiskered face while he thought on what the leader of his village told him. He knew he couldn't keep living in the Hokage's office, he would just get in the way eventually and be a burden. He looked to the ANBU behind his Hokage, the shinobi looked serious, if you didn't count the very gravity defying silver hair that was standing up behind the mask. 'I bet nobody in the village would ever mess with me again if I got to be behind a mask like that man is every day. Also, shinobi training will give me the tools to be able to escape the villagers if they mob up again and show me how to fight back. At least the matron at the orphanage taught me how to read and write before she kicked me out.' the boy thought to himself.

"Excuse me, Hokage-jiji. But if I become a shinobi will I be able to wear a mask like Inu-san here does?" he asked, getting a surprised look from the old man and a head tilt from the ANBU.

"Well Naruto-kun, if you become one of my very best, then yes, you can wear a mask just like Inu-kun here. My ANBU are the special operations unit for the village and excluding the Elite Jonin of the village and the Clan Heads, are some of the very best we have. You would have to train very hard to make it through ANBU selection once you are older. First though, you must be able to obtain the lowest rank in the Village, which is Genin. They are the young shinobi you may have seen running amongst the village completing every day to day task you can think of, yes?"

At the asked question, Naruto just gave a couple nods of his head, so Hiruzen continued.

"You would have to put in a rather large amount of work to make it into ANBU Naruto-kun, but I am sure that if you commit to it, then after a couple years of being a Genin you could make it to Chunin, the next rank, and sign-uip for Black Ops." Hiruzen said with an encouraging smile to the boy.

Naruto sat there, a look of contemplation on his face. 'What else do I have to do with myself now? I can't return to the orphanage, not after getting kicked out. Being a shinobi may well be my only choice in life, but that's ok. I want to one day be like Inu-san, and be able to hide behind a mask. I guess I should agree to being enrolled into the academy.'

"Ok Hokage-jiji, I want to train to be a ninja just like Inu-san! When can I start at the academy!?" Naruto excitedly says with the exuberance only a child could possess.

This brought a smile to old Sarutobi's face. 'The boy may be alone now, but at least he has a goal. Oh, how I have failed you my dear Minato-kun. I should have done better by your boy. I don't know what you were thinking, believing the village would accept a container such as him as a hero, not without him proving himself as a defender first.' Hiruzen mused while looking out of the window of his office to see the Hokage monument, and the fourth head, a stone copy of his successor, and predecessor.

"I am glad to hear that Naruto-kun, the next cycle for the academy does not start for another several months from now on January 31st. As it is only October 17th, you have a little bit of time before you need to report to the academy. I will ensure to have you enrolled, and I can give you the academy scrolls now so that you can take the time to read ahead and prepare yourself if you would like?"

"Yes! That would be great! But um, Hokage-jiji, what if I wanted to start training? You know, like all the physical stuff as well as the academics?" Naruto responded scratching the back oh his head, looking sheepish.

This really got the masked ANBU's attention. 'This might be my chance to get some time with my little brother.' Thought Kakashi. 'Should I request it Minato-sensei? This might be my best chance to help your son.' After contemplating it for barely a few more seconds, Kakashi nodded his head, in reassurance of himself.

"If I may Hokage-sama?" he asked for permission to speak. After receiving the affirmative from his leader, he continued. "I believe that since I am currently on day-shift for guard rotation, I can train the boy in the basics so that he can begin, I will even allow him to use training ground seven, as I won't be even entertaining taking a Genin team until another couple of years when my tour in ANBU is over."

This got Naruto excited, and he proceeded to rush from the chair he was in and slammed into Kakashi and hugged his legs. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you Inu-sensei! Thank you! I promise, you won't regret this, I will work super hard on whatever you teach me."

"Well hold on Naruto." Said Kakashi as he ruffled the boys Blood Red locks of hair. "Hokage-sama must first approve it."

This prompted both Naruto and Kakashi to turn to face the Hokage. Naruto, being a six-year-old, then unleashed the most devastating jutsu known to older shinobi when walking amongst their own village. The Puppy eye no jutsu, The Sandaime didn't stand a chance.

"I do not see a reason why not Inu-kun, however, you will not be allowed to break your cover while training Naruto-kun. Once your tour is over, you may reveal your identity to him at that time if you so wish however." He told Kakashi with a wry smile. "You may use training ground seven, and here is the scroll containing the basic academy training equipment that Naruto will need, here is one with a few sets of standard Leaf shinobi training uniforms in his size, and this scroll contains all of his taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, chakra control, math, history, writing, and traps and tactics texts that he will need to study." Said Sarutobi as he pulled three scrolls from a draw in his desk. "Whether or not you show him anything more advanced than what is in the scrolls I leave to your discretion. Now, Inu-kun, why don't you take Naruto-kun to his new apartment down the street, and then you can get him started on his training for the rest of the day?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Kakashi responded with a bow to his leader. "Come Naruto-kun, your apartment isn't far from here, in fact, it is right down the street from the ANBU barracks so that we can lookout for you a bit easier from now on." He said towards the young red-head and took his hand, leading him out the door of the office. 'Thank you Sarutobi-sama, I'll train him well.'

With that, the new duo left the Hokage's office and made their way down the street. With the aged Kage, numerous thoughts were going through his mind.

'I do hope this was the right decision Minato-kun. If anyone can better your child's life, I guess it would be your only surviving student. This could very well be the best thing for the both of them. Make Naruto strong Kakashi. He is going to need to be when he is older, I will tell him about his burden directly after he graduates the academy, he should be mature enough after some shinobi training.'

And with that, a new story of the Leaf Village has begun.