Naruto has always been a smart boy. Born as the eldest whiskered triplet on the day of the Kyuubi attack, it was strange when the the third Hokage decided to choose his two younger siblings as containers for the Yin and Yang chakra of the Kyuubi. It was odd that from that day on the were exulted as heroes, while he was ignored. It was unfair that his life seemingly ended the same night it started.

5 years later...

In the training grounds of the Namikaze clan home, three people are on the field sparing while one is watching closely from the sideline. Blonde haired Nazumi, a somewhat copy of her mother, trying to land a hit on her mother while Menma, an exact replica of his father, tried to sneak from behind and attack, only for his plan to be foiled, and him to be tripped.

"Kaa-san! Hold still! You're moving to fast!" Nazumi yelled in frustration as Kushina only giggled.

"You both still have many centuries before you can hit me! MWAHAHA!" Kushina cackled loudly, then got tackled by both Nazumi and Menma. They both high fived and celebrated with each other, only for 'Kushina' to explode into smoke. She then appeared right behind them and proceeded to tickle them.

"N-no f-fair! You s-said no c-chakra! T-that's cheating!" Menma managed to get out in between giggles. It was then the fourth person on the training ground decide to make himself known. "That's how it is in the shinobi world kids. No one expects you to play fair, and you have to look underneath the underneath if you truly want to advance in this world." Minato explained to his children, but you can practically see the question marks floating above their heads. He chuckled lightly and ruffled both their hairs.

Where was Naruto in all of this? Well, the red haired, blue eyed boy spent his time in the clan library expanding his mind since his parents decided to focus on his younger siblings "first" to control the Kyuubi's power.

We're sorry Naruto-kun, but with such malicious chakra inside them, it's best if they learn to control it early instead of later, his father had said.

Don't worry Naru-chan, we aren't trying to abandon you, or leave you by yourself, but Nazumi and Menma are different and need special training. We do plan on training you, but later on, his mother continued.

As stated before, Naruto was a smart child. One of the first advanced books he read was body language, and how to read people. As his parents were talking, he took note on how neither of them would look him in the eyes, but literally anywhere else. He also took note on how they both folded their lips before speaking. When people's lips disappear, they are holding back information and the next thing that comes out of their mouth is either a half-truth or a lie. And the final indicator would be the fact that they didn't give a definitive answer on when they would train him.

Even experienced shinobi like his parents could never look into their child's eyes and lie.

With all of those clues, the boy genius Naruto decided that he doesn't need them, and he would get strong all on his own, which is not good for his relationship with his parents. The first five years of a child's life are the most important. Those are the years where they truly learn the most, and where they see if their parents love them or not. The way parents show their love is not just by saying it, but by showing it also. First they take care of all physical needs like cooking for them, and bathing them, changing diapers etc. Then there's physical touches like hugs, kisses, and head pats. Afterwards its spending quality time, then giving gifts, and finally, words of affirmation, meaning letting your children know when they're doing good, and you're proud of them.

As Naruto continued through his development years, he started to receive less of that attention and became more self reliant.

-MS-

Naruto is now six, and he is currently walking deep into the Uzumaki clan library. His mother moved out of it when she married his father, but he was sure she didn't take everything with her. He was proven correct by finding the sheer amount of fuinjutsu, kenjustu, and taijutsu scrolls left behind, as well as several ninjutsu scrolls, and 'how to' scrolls for making your own ninjutsu.

Currently he was walking down a secret corridor he found completely by accident by pulling out a certain scroll. When he reached the end, he found a large scroll and a moss green journal.

'Who's Roronoa Zoro?' He thought to himself as he read the name on the cover.

All through the night, Naruto read through the memoir. Apparently Zoro was a pirate and held the title of Strongest Swordsman, while his captain went on to be the Pirate King. 'What kind of name is Monkey?'

By the end of the journal, Zoro went on to explain how he left instructions to his Santoryu style and his three blades to a loud mouthed redhead who impressed him with his kenjutsu.

When Naruto read this, he grew excited. Not only does he now have the means to be an Uzumaki level fuinjutsu master, but now he has the means to be the next Strongest Swordsman. Now he had to plan his training schedule.

When he asked some of the clan heads he knew for advice, their first instinct was to tell him to ask his parents, but they all saw the lack of attention they gave their eldest child. It was only after he made them swear on their family name to not get involved did they have no choice but to stay out of the situation. This especially bothered Hiashi Hyūga and Mikoto Uchiha.

Hiashi grew a fondness to the boy when he saved Hinata. It was Naruto who distracted the Kumo ambassador enough for Hiashi to come through and disable him. He would've killed him, but Naruto held him back, keeping him alive is way more beneficial for Konoha, were his words. He has earned the Hyūga clan's respect for saving one of their princesses, and he has earned Hinata's affection. Kumo received less missions, because their actions caused a lot of mistrust.

Mikoto on the other hand is Naruto's godmother. Seeing as Kushina wasn't giving him enough motherly love, she tried her best to give him as much as she could, but she could see that he has given up on that type of love. Seeing him decide to train himself broke her heart. 'So it's come to the point where you have to train yourself, Naru-chan?' She thought solemnly, knowing that he'd refuse anymore help than just advice from an experienced kunoichi. 'Poor Naru-chan.'

-MS-

The triplets are in the middle of their 8th birthday party. Nazumi and Menma are playing with most of the other clan heirs and heiresses and some civilian kids, while Naruto was having a quiet conversation with Hinata and Hiashi regarding his training. Hiashi was impressed, and Hinata was inspired to train harder.

"May we have everyone's attention please? Today we have two gifts to give our children. Jiraiya has given me permission to allow Nazumi and Menma to sign their names onto the Toad Summoning Contract." There was polite applause. "And their second gift, from both Kushina and I, is officially naming Nazumi as the Uzumaki heiress, and Menma as the Namikaze heir!" This time the applause was louder from the civilians, but scattered from the the clan heads. All the clan heads took several glances at Naruto, and became saddened when seeing his usual stoic features go completely emotionless. It was only Mikoto who saw all the pain in his eyes, and her heart shattered.

Naruto only showed up to these birthdays to be polite, even though he knew he wouldn't receive any gifts. That stopped after his fifth birthday. But when Naruto had his birthright stolen from him, it hurt him. Extremely.

He didn't make an appearance at his siblings ninth birthday, and all the clan heads knew why, and couldn't blame him.

-MS-

The triplets are now 10 years old and are attending their first day of the Shinobi Academy. Immediately, Naruto was unimpressed. Their curriculum focused mainly on their history, then target practice, and finally, taijutsu. It completely ignored the horrors of the Shinobi World. After a quick scan around the classroom, he saw all the clan heirs attending, 'What a coincidence,' and the rest were civilians. He shook his head when he saw that the majority of the civilians were not there for the right reasons. He could tell this, because of the boys throwing "casual" glances at his sister, while the girls were doing the same for his brother and the Uchiha secondary heir.

He shook his head again, while also patting himself in back for choosing to sit in the back of the class. This was disappointing to him. After all the training and studying he put himself through, he was a bit upset.

In the four years he decided to train himself, he not only mastered two of the three blades for the Santoryu sword art, but he has reached Uzumaki intermediate sealing level, which is a master level to all non-Uzumaki.

By the end of the first day, he was incredibly upset at what he's supposed to be "learning" in class.

After class, he watched "Konoha's Royal Family" walk away, and he walked the other direction to the Uzumaki clan home to continue his training, not noticing the ANBU operative following him.

-MS-

A year into the academy, and Naruto felt as if his brain cells were dying off torturously slow.

His mother is pregnant again, and he prayed to any deity listening to make sure they give this child the attention it needs when the time comes for it. He feared that they would ignore a child a second time.

He also felt that someone has been following him. It wasn't the Hyūga heiress, as she only does that on the days he doesn't visit the Hyūga clan compound, but this person was consistent. He didn't feel any negative intent towards him, so he left said person alone, but after a year, Naruto got curious, so he walked into an alleyway so they can talk in private.

"You can come out now, you've been following me for about a year, but you've yet to really do anything." He called out to the 'empty' alleyway.

"How perceptive of you Uzumaki-sama." The ANBU answered as they walked walked out of the shadows. "Yes it's true you've been followed for a year but it wasn't just me. I've had those under my command keep an eye on you."

"Why? Has my father finally figured out that he has another child?" Naruto asked, not really caring for the answer either way.

"No, unfortunately, Hokage-sama has not ordered me or any under my watch to follow you. Do you know how ANBU agents are chosen? I'll give you a hint, the Hokage doesn't do it, he can, but he usually leaves that decision up to me."

Naruto thought of that question in it's entirety and came up with his conclusion. "You scope out the academy classes for potential recruits and watch their development as the grow in the their Shinobi career. But seeing how advanced I am, you decided that maybe you can have another Kakashi, without the laziness."

The ANBU was silent for a minute, then answered, "Your deduction skills are impeccable. Yes, that's exactly what we do. You are a gifted child Uzumaki-sama, and I, Tatsu, the current ANBU Captain would like to recruit you. After several physical and mental test, we'll see whether you are at a genin, chunin, or jonin rank. You need to be at least at jonin if you want to join the ANBU."

Naruto pretended to consider his offer, already knowing that he's already elite jonin level. He can handle whatever they throw at him. Not revealing any emotions or waver in his tone, he replied, "I accept your offer."

-MS-

It's been four years since Naruto has been recruited into the ANBU. The triplets are now 15, and baby Natsuki is three (born with red hair and blue eyes). During his service as an ANBU operative, he made a name for himself by almost single handedly ending the civil war in Kiri by killing the Fourth Mizukage Yagara Karatachi, and earned the moniker 'Wolf of War' due to his code name being Ookami. He secured a trade agreement with the new Mizukage, Terumi Mei, and successfully dodged her advances. He also killed Sasori of Suna and returned his body to Lady Chiyo calming the rising tensions between Suna and Konoha for about three years until it started to steadily increase again. When he killed Kisame and returned his body and sword to Kiri, Naruto earned Konoha a military alliance with said nation, while once again dodging Mei's advances.

Because of all of his accomplishments, when it was time for Tatsu-taicho to retire, he chose Naruto to replace him. Now he has been ANBU Captain for a year now, and they've grown stronger under his command. Especially with his second in command, Itachi Uchiha helping with training.

He always had a stoic face, but Naruto could always tell the he was a bit sad. Thanks to Itachi, his mother Mikoto, and several ANBU operatives, all the Uchiha who wanted to continue with the coup d'tait were killed, including the husband of the clan head, Fugaku Uchiha. The anguish that Mikoto felt when she killed her husband was enough to unlock the Mangekyou Sharingan. She then traded her eyes with Itachi, and both unlocked the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, but kept it a clan secret, with Naruto being the only one outside the clan to know. The only downside to the cleansing of the clan being that Sasuke now hates his brother, since Itachi took the blame for killing Fugaku. Sasuke looked up to his father and wanted to emulate him, so when they tried to explain that his father was going to betray the village, and kill too many innocent people, Sasuke felt that his father was in the right, and shouldn't have been killed. So now Sasuke trains nonstop so he can kill Itachi, and be the only clan heir. While it makes Itachi happy to see his brother take training seriously, it saddens him that he refuses training from him, and wants to kill him.

-MS-

The night before the Genin Exams, Kushina was tearfully looking through several photo albums with Minato sitting next to her. "They're growing up too fast, dattebane!" Kushina wailed. Minato chuckled awkwardly while trying to get her to calm down. "Kushi-chan keep it down. Natsuki is finally asleep, and the twins have a big day ahead of them tomorrow. Let's get some rest ourselves, hm?"

She sniffed then nodded her consent and they both went to bed.

The next day after the exams, the whole went to Ichiraku's to celebrate. Both of their kids were top of their class. After nearly eating everything in the entire kitchen, they all waddled home.

While they were all doing their own thing, Natsuki and Menme training, and Kushina and Minato cuddling on the couch, Natsuki decided to look through the photo albums. When she found one of the older ones, she opened it and immediately found 'herself'.

"Momma! Papa! Look! Look! It's me!" She yelled enthusiastically. When she showed them the picture with the triplets, instantly their smiles dropped. 'W-wait. Wh-who's t-this?' Kushina thought frantically, until she remembered a boy with her hair and her mind shut down. The one thing that an Uzumaki cares for above all others is family. For Kushina, she abandoned her family, the eldest child with a defining feature that shows he's her child. Her mind couldn't take the thought.

Minato leapt off the couch, and ran straight to where he remembered Naruto's room was. Once he slammed the door open, he shed a tear. The room was bare, with just a small bed fit for a child. He wiped his eyes and found Natsuki.

"Papa?" He quickly carried Natsuki straight to the twins. "Kids, I need you watch Natsuki and look after your mother too. We just found out something that made her... shut down. I need to go to the office and fix the mess we started." Minato said quickly.

"Dad! Slow down! What's going on?!" Nazumi yelled.

Minato just looked down and said, "We forgot our eldest son." Then flashed away.

-MS-

When Minato flashed into his office, he immediately poured chakra into the seal that contacts the ANBU Captain, who appeared a second later. No shunshin, he just appeared, in his hooded black cloak and Ookami ANBU mask.

"Ookami. I understand as ANBU Captain, you have multiple missions to hand out, and complete yourself, but this is of upmost importance."

"Hai Hokage-sama." Ookami replied.

"I need you to find my eldest son. He has his mother's red hair, a-and my blue eyes. I don't know where he could be. It's been a d-decade."

Ookami just stared at the Hokage. Minato was starting to get uncomfortable until he saw him slowly start to remove his hood and mask, and reveal a face that looks exactly like his wife's, minus the blue eyes and whiskers.