Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
AN: Yes, my second story. My first is not finished and I'm not finished with it. This story will not be as long as my other one. The chapters will be pretty short (I've seen WAY shorter), but I'm gonna update more often to make up for that. Naruto's personality will be different, I would say OOC. He gonna be darker but not evil. Pairings: NaruIno or NaruHina or both, haven't decided yet, but they both will like him. I will probably flip a coin.
Thanks to MissyNaye for helping by being my Beta!
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Prologue: Because of Her
'Kyuubi, the thing that killed my husband, the thing that damaged the hospital I was in after giving birth to my son causing me to be paralyzed from my waist down, the thing which is held prisoner by my son. It has been almost 2 1/2 years since that thing attacked our village, rampaging, howling, and killing for reasons unknown to us' thought a woman.
"Mom! I finished it! Can I have another one now?" said a young boy who looked no older than 3. "Sure, go and get another from the cabinet," said the woman, Uzumaki Kushina. 'Only 2 ½ years old and he can already read any book he can get his hands on.' Being able to read at such a young age is a great thing, but the reasons for this are sad. The young boy, Uzumaki Naruto, doesn't have any friends he could play with and his mother is the only family he has left. She could not walk and was limited on how she could play with Naruto due to her crippled body.
If you are psychically limited in playing with your child, then what could you do? Kushina though it would be a good idea to teach him to read and write in the form of games. 'Those damn people, ignoring him like he doesn't exist. If he is brought to the park they take their children and leave. Arashi, if you were alive, I'd slap the shit out of you for this.'
There were only three people in the village who did not ignore the pair. Kakashi, being a student to her husband, was one of the few people to know they were married. He helped them out financially since she could not claim her husband's fortune. She normally would not accept such help, but her son came before her pride. Sandaime often had their food and supplies sent to them and he also visited them at least once a week.
The last person only came around once a year, but he would stay at least a day and would play with Naruto for hours. His name was Jiraiya and his yearly visit would be ending anytime now.
Just then, Jiraiya walked to Kushina and said, "hey, I made about forty scrolls for Naruto. They contained taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu instruction. You should give them to him in the order they are numbered. When he is halfway through them, you should enroll him into the academy."
"Thanks, maybe this will give him more to do. How long do you think it will take for him to learn half of the scrolls?" Kushina asked.
"Hmm, it depends on how much he studies. The first twenty are the true basics, designed to get a child ready for the academy. Most children in large families are given similar things once they can read and write. Since Naruto can do both, you should allow him to start even at his age," Jiraiya said.
"Thank you for doing this for Naruto. Knowing Naruto, he won't do anything but study. If you believe its a good idea, I'll enroll him in the academy when he completes twenty of the scrolls regardless of his age," Kushina said. Jiraiya nodded in agreement.
During Time Skip 1 ½ years:
Naruto is now four years old. The first ten scrolls he had were very simple ones. They explained what ninja were and some of the history of Konoha and the world. It took the boy about six months of constant studying to remember everything the scrolls had to teach him.
The next five scrolls were simple exercises and eating the right foods to gain a healthy body. It took eight months for him to be able run two miles and do fifty pushups. The last five scrolls introduced chakra, taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and weapons. Since Naruto was used to learning from scrolls, it only took the boy five months to complete them. He set a goal to complete one scroll per month so he could attend the academy this year.
During the Academy:
Most people think a four year old would be out of place in a ninja class. On his first day, he learned he would not be. It seemed a lot of parents wanted to their children to enter early. Though most of the children dropped out early in favor of coming back in a few years or failed the Genin test.
Naruto had extra help in the form of scrolls left behind Jiraiya and personal training by Kakashi who was on a six month vacation he received after leaving ANBU. Well they called it a vacation, but he still had to patrol the village ever other night.
Naruto's mother was worried about the teachers not treating Naruto fairly, but those worries were put to rest with one order from Sandaime Hokage during a teacher's staff meeting. He simply walked in the room and said, "Uzumaki Naruto will be treated as every other student here. Anyone who disobeys this will be executed immediately!" and walked out.
Because of this, every staff member treated Naruto as they would any other child. No wanted to die for being an asshole. Most ninja who taught in the academy did so they could earn money without leaving on missions. If you're the only parent leaving your child for weeks or dying is unacceptable.
Naruto even found himself making friends with a few of the younger students. Unfortunately Naruto was the only student under eleven years old to pass this year. So none of the kids he was friends with passed. Naruto was now a Genin at the age of 5 ½.
During Genin Years:
Naruto was assigned to a team consisting of him, Aburame Auron, and Inuzuka Hana. Both of them were older than him by several years. They both respected him because he manged to graduate despite his young age. Their Jounin sensei was a woman named Kagami. She never told them her last name, or much of anything about herself, but she taught them well.
They only did the required amount of missions and focused most of their time on training. She drilled chakra control into their brains, made them double their stamina, and triple their physical strength before the first year was over.
Things continued this way until she entered them into the Chuunin exam. Surprisingly Naruto was the only to pass from their team. Now at age seven, he was a Konoha Chuunin. When he was promoted he was also told his secret.
During Chuunin Years:
Naruto's training became even more intense. Kakashi teaching him jutsu as fast as he could learn them or as fast as the Copy Ninja could copy new ones, whatever came first. Kakashi also taught him Kage Bunshin no Jutsu because of Naruto's large chakra capacity and to increase his training knowledge.
After a year of being a Chuunin, Naruto threw himself into many missions. He was assigned to many missions with his original team who made the rank a half of a year after him. Also he has done various missions with different Chuunin and Jounin. Never doing any missions lower than "B-rank" since he couldn't let Kakashi to keep taking care of his family.
It was during this time that a tragedy struck. Because of complication during a surgery, Uzumaki Kushina lost her life. It devastated the young boy. The Hokage had to restrain Naruto because he was sure the boy was gonna pay the doctors a visit. It was a complicated surgery so only the doctor knew if foul play was involved or not. It was because of this Naruto was sent on a "C-Rank" mission to a small village that was being harassed by thugs.
After three more years on B and A ranked missions, Naruto was tested and promoted to Jounin at eleven years old. Working with so many different Chuunin and Jounin, the shinobi population accepted Naruto as a true equal. It would take more for the civilians to change their opinion.
Two Years After Promotion:
Naruto, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai were in the Jounin lounge where they always hung out during their free time. The reason why they were all here now was something that all capable Jounin must do at least once, lead a team of Genin.
"Naruto are you gonna give the team you receive this year a chance? You gave all the ones you had a extra hard test because you didn't want a team of people older than you. The graduates this year are your age." said Kurenai.
Naruto replied, "hmm, yeah sure. I might as well get this out of the way. I t will probably be weird being around people my own age though. I hope they don't act like idiots."
"There are a few kids who graduated who have a lot of potential. Like the Uchiha kid or the Aburame one," said Kakashi.
"Here you go with that again Aniki. It doesn't matter what family they come from. They all have the same potential," said Naruto. (AN: Aniki is a way of saying older brother)
"That may be true, but those two are already top of the class and they will have advantages as a shinobi," said the masked ninja.
"Advantages are made Aniki. I bet even the weakest ones in the class could become stronger than them with the right training. Only thing that truly matters is your determination and methods of training," replied the golden haired Jounin.
"I'll take that bet then Naruto. If the others agree, I'll take the strongest three in the class and you take the weakest three. How long before you think your team will outdo mine?" said Kakashi.
Naruto thought for a while. "I bet I could have my team better than yours by the end of the next Chuunin exam!"
Kurenai and Asuma couldn't help but to want to see what would happen, so they agreed to switch students. It's not like the students would ever know. Kakashi choose who he believed were the strongest with the most potential for his team and the ones who he believed were the worst with the least potential for Naruto's team. Naruto's team was a type you don't see often.
Team Kakashi: Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba
Team Naruto: Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata
The fact that he picked all girls earned him a MEAN glare from Kurenai.