Naruto was written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto.

Illumination

Twelve-years-ago, a nine-tailed fox suddenly appeared. Its tails lashed out, smashing mountains and sending tidal waves crashing to the shores. The ninja of the Hidden Leaf, rose up to defend their village, from its monstrous rampage. "Hold the attack, and wait for the Fourth," a shinobi roared, he had already been in combat with the beast, and had a cut over his left eye to prove it, before he too resumed his attack on the brute!

"It's getting closer," another desperate sounding ninja stated, "don't let it near the village." He sounded for all the world, like a worried father and husband.

Meanwhile, the fox continued its mindless seeming rampage, its every step crushed the very ground it stood upon. Then appearing out of nowhere, was a giant toad, wearing a kimono jacket, carrying a tanto, and smoking a pipe. Atop the toad's head, stood a man, he had blonde-hair, with jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face, blue-eyes, and wore a serious expression on his calm face. His attire consisted of a standard Konoha uniform, with two bands on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket, blue forehead protector, and blue sandals. He also wore a short-sleeved long white haori over his normal attire, closed in the front by a thin, orange rope. The haori was decorated by red flame-like motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" (Yondaime Hokage) written vertically down the back. He faced the Kyūbi no Kitsune, in mortal combat, sacrificing his life to subdue the beast, and seal it in a human body. He was, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, aka, the Yellow Flash.

Uzumaki Compound: twelve-years later

The golden-haired, kept long, full and well-maintained, in a simple top-knot which still allowed it to reach his shoulders, the blue-eyed, twelve-year-old boy, took a deep, calming breath while his eyes were closed. He held the black tsurugi blade in his dominant left-hand, with familiarity and confidence, but not arrogance, he knew he was not the kenjutsu master his mother had been, not yet at least. Naruto Uzumaki opened his eyes, and looked across from him to the woman, waiting for him to strike. He was dressed in a navy-blue short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armour that is visible at his wrists and ankles, a haori, the same golden shade as his hair with two violet Uzumaki spirals on each side, and ninja sandals the same color as the haori.

The woman standing in front of him, was his aunt, his mother's half-sister, Uzumaki Yugao, a young woman, age 22, with straight, purple hair, reaching down to her waist, with warm brown eyes, and a shade of red lipstick. Normally, when on duty, or about to go on duty, like now, she wore a standard ANBU uniform, consisting of black and grey armour, metal arm guards and a katana, strapped to her back. She has the signature ANBU tattoo on her right shoulder. Her mask, hung low over her chest, it is a porcelain mask, resembling a cat, with three red stripes - one vertical stripe on the forehead and two horizontal stripes, one on each cheek. She was allowed to adopt him, when she became a Chunin, at the age of sixteen, before that he lived on the streets, after he turned four and the orphanage kicked him out.

For some reason, the village council tried to block her adoption of him, until she, with the aid of the Hokage, sent a petition to the Daimyo himself, along with medical records and an affidavit from Senju Tsunade, herself, attesting to the fact that they were blood related. Uzumaki Kushina, his mother, was Uzumaki Yugao's half-sister, that year was also the year when Senju Tsunade returned to the village and assumed the mantle of Fifth Hokage. During that time, Tsunade decided that it was time the council was reminded that Konoha's government, was not a democracy, but a military dictatorship. The council, even the elders, served at the Hokage's pleasure, several council members were removed from office, those that protested too vehemently had their heads removed. The Elders were all retired, Elders Homura and Kotaru went into retirement gracefully, Elder Shimura however, tried to protest with force, and was reminded of why Tsunade was a Sanin, there was a Village wide purge of all ROOT ninja. Those that could be redeemed were sent to sanitariums, others were given merciful deaths.

The Elders were replaced shortly thereafter by people, Tsunade could trust, her sensei and former Third Hokage, the new Head of the Uchiha clan and Chief of the Konoha Police Force, and for the first time a civilian, the owner of Ichiraku's Ramen Stand. The former Head of the Uchiha, Fugaku, had become a missing-nin, but nobody knew why.

Naruto's attention returned to the present, but his aunt, was not where she was before. In a blur of motion, she appeared right in front of her nephew, as she swung her own blade toward his neck. "You should stay focused in battle, Naruto-oi," she admonished with a smirk, "the enemy will not show you any mercy."

Naruto ducked low, below her swing, and pivoted counter-clockwise, bringing his foot behind the ankles of his aunt. Yugao gave a small hop as his feet passed hers, this presented Naruto's back to her, but before she could capitalize on his position, he rolled forward, before pivoting back to ward her off with the point of his sword. He blinked, because she was no longer there, when he suddenly felt the point of a kunai, against his throat. He looked up to find his aunt staring down at him with a grim expression, "what had you so distracted, Naruto," she asked, as he surrendered, "even when we started training together, I never got the drop on you this badly?" Yugao stood back, returning her katana to her scabbard.

Naruto sighed, "I was daydreaming about the past," he told her, "before that, I was wondering what I always wonder…"

"… about why the villagers hate you," she concluded for him.

"As you know, I've been studying Uzumaki fuinjutsu, and I found out something interesting, about the biju. Did you know, they cannot be killed," Naruto explained, "they can be discorporated for a time, but being made of pure chakra, they will eventually regenerate. The only way to make sure they can't hurt anybody, is to seal them inside a person, the nine's chakra is so potent however, that anybody but an infant would be corrupted by it's influence, because their chakra coils don't fully form, until the eighth day of life for a boy, twelve for a girl. I know, I was born on the day the Nine-tails attacked," Naruto began, as he reasoned, "I've also found out, I was the only child born that day." Yugao felt a trickle of sweat begin at the nape of her neck and make its way down her back, did he figure it out? Then, he lifted up his shirt, "then there's this," he stated as he channeled chakra from the region, below his belly-button, and like a phantom being revealed, a spiral, looking a lot like the Uzumaki spiral, surrounded by different runes, and calligraphy appeared. "This is the eight-trigrams sealing array," Naruto explained, though from the look on her face, as he studied her, she knew exactly what it was, "Aunt Yugao, boom, Boom, BOOM…

…BOOM

Uzumaki Yugao sat up abruptly, the explosions outside her window, had woken her up. Pushing back the covers, Jonin ANBU, call sign: Cat, stepped to the window over-looking the training ground of their clan compound. There she saw her beloved nephew, pounding his fists into the earth, in apparent frustration. Naruto is a ninjutsu prodigy with three nature affinities: Earth, Wind, and Lightning; and three kekkei genkai: magnet release (Wind and Earth), explosion release (Lightning and Earth), and plasma release (Lightning and Wind), but because of the strict requirements of the Ninja Academy, had failed his Genin Graduation Exam twice already. It was always the same jutsu too, the clone jutsu, the Hokage set the requirements for the Exam in stone, and just because someone has a special ability, does not give them preferential treatment. Tsunade made sure, her ninja remained humble and knew the basics before they moved on to better things.

Everything else with Naruto's education was pretty good, he was above average in Academics, only the Haruno girl surpassing him in grades, but she was a fan-girl for Uchiha, practically useless, as far as the violette-haired kunoichi was concerned. As far as ninja skills went, he was a force to be reckoned with for a Chunin, don't get me started on Academy grads, and other Genin, she thought proudly, though he never showed his full potential at school. He never wanted to call undo attention to himself, and risk abduction by Cloud, like his mother, and the Hyuga heiress almost were. Only the Hokage and the Elders knew of his kekkei genkai, though his three nature affinities were common knowledge.

He, of course, being an Uzumaki and her nephew, was a phenomenal swordsman, and a genius at sealing arts, already reaching the intermediate levels, he was particularly interested in Space-Time Sealing: like the Hiraishin, and Summoning Arts. He did not need kenjutsu or fuinjutsu, to pass the class, those were additional skills that made him unique.

If he went all out with his martial arts training, he could decimate those brats in his class, there are few Chunin that could equal his might, and only one Genin, Gai's little clone, though he allowed himself to be defeated repeatedly by his classmate, Sasuke. His kunai jutsu and shurikenjutsu would make even a few Jonin, proud, and add a weapon to his taijutsu, and there were very few Jonin who could defeat him, unless they used their experience against him. Though again, he only allowed, Itachi's little brother to best him.

Only in ninjutsu, did he allow himself to excel, except for the clone jutsu, he really was a genius at using his chakra, his chakra-control was the best she had ever seen for a Genin-level ninja. He can substitute himself with anything equal to his mass or smaller, within a hundred meters, faster than the eyes could blink. Yugao chuckled to herself, one of his favorite tactics is to switch places with the thrower, whenever someone throws a weapon at him. Naruto can even use other objects in his substitution, he once used it to substitute Sarutobi's grandson, who had climbed atop a tall building and became trapped, into a pile of dead leaves, with only a twig as the substitute, he calls it, Surrogate Substitution. If that was not enough, he invented an interesting innovation on the Transformation technique, he calls them True Transformations, and he can change himself at the genetic (animals and plants) or molecular (inanimate objects) level into anything, and it's a solid change, not an illusion. He can actually fly when he becomes a bird, and even has a menstrual cycle when he becomes female, though after some tests conducted by Tsunade and Shizune, he is infertile in any form but his natural one.

The only problem he has in his ninja arts, and this is where having such massive chakra reserves, High Sanin levels and growing every day, can be a double-edged blade. The chakra control needed to create illusions, is all but impossible, and required a lifetime to perfect. Everything from S-ranked genjutsu to the Academy clone technique, were out of reach for people like Naruto, and thanks to the Kyūbi's power being drained into Naruto, several times per second, such control would remain out of his reach, and nobody could tell him why. The law passed by the Sandaime, was still in effect, and an S-ranked secret.

Yugao walked away from the window, went into her closet and got ready for the day. After getting dressed she went down to eat, she saw another set of dishes drying in the rack, telling her Naruto had already had his breakfast. It was a few minutes later, as she finished, when she heard, "Awesome, woo-hoo," coming from the backyard, not a minute later, Naruto came slamming through the door, with a mile-wide grin on his face, followed on his heels by another Naruto, followed by two more! Their kitchen was suddenly full of Narutos, and the last one through, turned and closed the door. There seemed to be something different about his eyes, they were no longer the violet color of his mother. They seemed to glow an eerie white, the pupil was elongated into a diamond shape, Naruto immediately began to speak, Yugao could tell he was excited, "I did it, Aunt Yugao, I did it!"

Even though she knew what he meant, she still asked, "what did you do, Naruto-kun?"

If she thought his smile, could not get any brighter, she was wrong, "I finally succeeded in making a clone, and their not just any kind of clone, their solid, and," he looked over at the other clones and nodded, which was returned. Then, in a flash of light, an owl perched on a counter, a plasma blade formed in another hand, and some silverware was orbiting a Naruto's head, "they can perform on their own. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, chores, meaning D-ranked missions, or even run errands. Even better than that," he said as he moved over to the one with the orbiting spoons, "watch this." Naruto gave the clone a moderate punch to the face, which only turned the clone's head, nothing happened, there was not even a trickle of blood running down his cheek, there was only a small crack, with a kaleidoscope of light shining through. An instant later, and a small flash of light, the crack was gone. "They're perfect for taijutsu practice, don't dispel unless the task they were created for is completed."

Yugao's awed expression, turned to a pleased one, as she jumped up and gathered the one talking into a hug. As she did so, the other three dispelled in a flash of light. The back door opened again, "hey, Aunt Yugao, why are you hugging a clone," the expression on her face was priceless, "I sent them in to test another capability, memory transference. They are a perfect scouting tool and will help with training."

Yugao was thoughtful, "they almost sound like the shadow-clone jutsu, invented by the Second Hokage," she mused out loud. Naruto's eyes widened, but she explained, "it's a kinjutsu in the sealing scroll, there was no way you could've learned it, unless the Hokage wanted to play favorites, and you know she doesn't do that."

Naruto nodded, "That's true."

"This one is better than that one, because, if there's a drawback to that Bunshin, it's the fragility of it, with this Bunshin, you don't have that failing. What do you call these Bunshin," she asked?

"I'm calling them, Senkō Bunshin no jutsu, or Flash Clones," Naruto answered?

"Do you think you could teach me, this jutsu," she asked hopefully?

"After everything you've done for me, I would be happy to teach you," Naruto said to her, causing Yugao to smile, "but I don't think you can learn it, Aunt Yugao."

"Why not," she asked, slightly hurt, "you don't think I have the chakra reserves?"

"It's not a matter of chakra," she looked confused, so he elaborated, "in order to create my Flash clones, I combined all three of my nature affinities into one jutsu, when I did that, something changed inside me, I don't know what it was, but I may have discovered something."

"What," Yugao asked, immediately more concerned for her nephew, who was as much a son to her, as any she may birth in the future, than herself, "what did you find?"

Naruto's face was radiant as he spoke, "I found, Luminance, Aunt Yugao, which is why I've named it, Kidōton, also called, Light Release."