Pairing:
Naruto & Temari// OC & Anko

Strong Naruto in that he actually receives training.

Basis:

Ronnel, a wandering ninja arrives in Konoha six years after the Kyuubi's attack. He meets Naruto as the boy is kicked out of the Ninja Academy classroom in an attempt to sabotage his learning. Taking pity, the older shinobi takes Naruto to a nearby field, and instructs him in what the Academy should be teaching him at that time. Sarutobi is watching through his viewing orb, and decides to try to convince the wanderer to take Naruto on as an apprentice. Ronnel agrees, and takes the young boy with him on his travels, teaching him to become a shinobi worthy of being called "Hokage".

Prologue:

It started out as another normal day for Konoha's Pariah, Naruto Uzumaki. He had woken up early, eaten a cup of ramen, and rushed to the Ninja academy to start learning. As he left, a shadowy figure flitted after him, staying up on the rooftops. Despite the young boy not knowing this figure was there, this too was a normal part of his life.

Halfway to the Academy, Naruto spots a group of children abusing a small fox.

"Hey! Stop that right now!" The would be ninja rushed over and slammed into the much larger boy who was kicking the fox. Sadly, his heroic effort failed, as the older boy didn't even flinch when Naruto's small frame hit him. Naruto bounced away, landing on his rear. The group of children took advantage of this, and surrounded him before he could get back up. The bully he had run into grabbed his arms and picked the six year old boy up into the air.

"Ok, we'll stop, and pick on you! Momma says you're bad, so we'll be good guys for hurting you!" With those malicious words, he tossed Naruto to one of his friends, who pinned the young boy's arms to his sides while holding him up. The first bully followed after Naruto, and slammed his fist into the younger boy's stomach. He pulled his hand back and did it again, grinning. One of the other children joined in, and that started a cascade. Soon, all of the children were hitting Naruto in the stomach, as well as in the sides and in the face. After several minutes of this pounding, the boy holding Naruto got anxious.

"Hey hey, I wanna hit him too," he whined. Another of the boy's nodded and took Naruto, holding the poor boy upside down for a change of pace. This proved to be an unfortunate decision. Naruto's foot slammed into the boy's chin, making him bite his tongue and causing it to bleed. The boy dropped Naruto in shock, and the young boy managed to scramble away. He stuck his tongue out at the group of bullies, who were freaking out and trying to clean up the blood from their friend's mouth.

The first bully saw this, and screamed at the group to get Naruto back. The boy took off, easily outdistancing the older boy's. Sadly, he ran into another person, this time on accident. This person turned around, blinking in shock. He looked around for whoever had run into him, and finally looked down. He grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt and pulled the boy to his feet.

"There he is!" Naruto squeaked when he heard this, and dove between the stranger's legs and took off. The older figure shrugged in confusion.

"Strange kids these days.." He looked back around to where Naruto had come from, and blinked again when he saw a group of four boys running towards him. He put two and two together and sighed. When the first of the boys reached him, he reached out and rapped him on the head, stunning the bully. He did this to each of them when they got in range.

"Four on one? That isn't fair." The older man snorted and walked away. Naruto had paused at the corner, and saw the older person stopping his pursuers. He grinned in relief when they dropped to the ground and started crying for their mothers, then hurried on to the Academy. All of this had not been normal for Naruto Uzumaki. What followed was all too familiar to the boy.

"You're late Uzumaki! Don't bother coming to class if you can't make it on time! Get out." Those words chased the pariah out of the classroom. In tears, he went to the swing and sat down on it.

It's not my fault I was late. Those bullies were picking on the animal! I couldn't let them get away with that. He kept crying until he felt someone sit down on the swing next to him. Wiping his eyes on his sleeve, he looked over. The person had his eyes closed, but Naruto recognized him. It was the stranger from earlier who had stopped the bullies from chasing him. While Naruto was studying the person's face, the person spoke.

"So, you going to explain why those boys were chasing you earlier? I'd feel really bad if you stole something from –" Naruto cut him off.

"I didn't steal nothing! They were being mean to the fox and I told them to stop!" Naruto crossed his arms and puffed indignantly, completely forgetting his tears. The other person laughed.

"Good to hear that. So, what are you doing out here and not in class?" Without opening his eyes, the person pointed back towards Naruto's classroom. The younger boy felt his lip quivering as he was reminded of his punishment.

"I was late so.. the teacher kicked me out…" Naruto began crying again, which panicked the older person. He got off his swing and knelt down in front of Naruto, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders and shaking him.

"Hey com'on kiddo, stop crying! How about uhmm…" The person cast around desperately. Crying children were not something he was used to dealing with, and it showed. His next words would end up changing Naruto's entire life.
"I know! How about I teach you whatever it was you would be learning in that classroom?" At his words, Naruto looked up, using the feared puppy dog eyes on the person.

"R-really?" At the teen's nod, Naruto flung himself off the swing seat and onto the startled person. He pulled his face from the older boy's shoulder to speak.

"By the way, my name's Uzumaki Naruto, not kiddo! And I'm going to be the next Hokage!" His words were met with a wide grin.

"Well then Uzumaki Naruto, next Hokage, I am Rei Ronnel. And uhm… I'm a wandering ninja." The now named Ronnel reached up and rubbed the back of his head. He stood up, Naruto hanging from around his neck.

"Say Naruto, how old are you? Four or five?" He was curious, because the boy was rather small and light. Needless to say, he was shocked when he heard the boy's answer. Shocked, and just a little angry.

"Nuh uh. I'm six!" Ronnel grimaced. The only reason a six year old would be this small was malnutrition. Deciding not to push things right now, Ronnel began walking around, causing Naruto to giggle. The young boy swarmed up and turned around, so that he was now sitting on the teen's shoulders, with his hands resting on Ronnel's head. After Ronnel checked to make sure the boy was secure, he asked a simple question.
"Hey, do you know somewhere that I can teach ya without it becoming crowded?" Naruto nodded in response to Ronnel's question, and for some reason, used the teenaged wanderer's hair as reins to guide him. They were quite the spectacle as they walked through the busy village, drawing whispers and glares. Ronnel noted the glares with some confusion. They arrived finally at a large empty field near a stream that had several poles on its bank. Ronnel hoisted Naruto off his shoulders and sat him on one of the poles and stepped back.

"Alright then. What was it your class was going over?" Ronnel crossed his arms as he regarded Naruto with a cocked head. The boy fidgeted for a moment, striving to recall what the instructor had been talking about when he walked in. His small face lit up when he finally remembered.

"Jutsu! Sensei was talking about the different types and all! And uhm… katas! Something about Katas." Ronnel listened to this rambling answer and tapped his chin. Shrugging, he decided to teach Naruto what he had been taught. This bit about 'katas' would have to wait, since the teen didn't know how combat moves for swords and the like related to jutsu. After taking a moment to organize his thoughts he sat down and picked up a leaf.

"Alright Naruto, since your lesson was to be about jutsu, I guess I'll start off by explaining what jutsu are." The boy leaned forward, his face intent as he listened eagerly. This Ronnel person hadn't been mean at all, and had helped him and cheered him up! Surely he wasn't going to be mean like everyone else was.

"Jutsu are how a shinobi controls various things. From enhancing our own bodies, making them faster and stronger and being able to see things that are far away, to controlling the elements themselves. Jutsu, or abilities, are divided into several branches. I'm starting off with an overview of those branches, then I'll give you a bit more detail about the primary three that most ninja use." He looked up at Naruto to see if the boy was listening. His hair stood on end when the boy leaned so far forward that he fell off the pole that Ronnel had set him on. The teen sprung forward and caught Naruto before the boy hit the ground.

"Naruto! You've got to pay attention to your surroundings kiddo!" He sat up and set Naruto on the ground, brushing his face and vest clean of dirt. After Naruto had done the same and sat down with his back against the pole he had just fallen off of, Ronnel sat against one of the other poles. He popped his neck and sighed.

"Now then… ah yeah. Ok, the main branches of jutsu are these: Taijutsu, which focuses primarily on hand to hand combat, and techniques that are helpful to that; Genjutsu, which is illusion techniques, designed to mess with your opponents mind; Ninjutsu, which focuses on elements and controlling them, as well as chakra consuming techniques that affect the environment and not your body or mind." He noticed a look of confusion on Naruto's face, and held up one hand. "I'll answer questions in a second. Ok, those are the basic three types of jutsu. Then you have Fuuinjutsu, which deal with sealing, and Iryoujutsu, which is all about healing people. There are also weapon styles, like kenjutsu and bojutsu. " The basic introduction done, Ronnel waved for Naruto to ask his questions.

"Ne, Ronnel-sensei, what's chakra?" Ronnel's eyes widened at that. He blinked then rubbed his face for a second.

"It's probably the 'kata' you mentioned, and you just misheard it. Chakra, to answer your question, is energy. This energy is used for most jutsu, no matter what type. Chakra is made up of a person's mental and physical energies. Thus, someone who has trained his mind or his body has more than someone who hasn't. And someone who has trained both, has more chakra to use than someone who has trained only one. As a rule, the more chakra you have, the stronger abilities you can use." He grinned at Naruto's look of understanding.

"Ok, now I'm going to go a bit more into detail about the basic three jutsu types of nin, tai, and genjutsu. First up is ninjutsu." He held up the leaf in his hand. "Ninjutsu is divided into two main categories. First would be non elemental ninjutsu, like this." He made the leaf float up on a pad of pure chakra.

"The second is the branch of shoshijutsu, or elemental abilities." He focused his concentration for a moment, and the leaf split down the middle. Naruto had his eyes locked onto the leaf, his mouth hanging open.

"Cool Ronnel-sensei! How'd you do that?" Ronnel chuckled at the pleading pout that Naruto adopted.

"Wind chakra. It's my main affinity, and I'm quite good at it. That was a basic wind chakra exercise, and all I did was make a miniature blade of wind. But enough of that for right now, you'll probably go more in depth in class." Ronnel discarded the halves of the leaf and stood up. Naruto stood up right after him, and followed the teen to a tree. He watched as Ronnel placed his knuckles against the tree.

"Next up is the intro to taijutsu. This is hand to hand, physical strength." He pulled back and punched the tree, causing cracks in its bark to appear up and down the length. Then, the teen winked at Naruto, before punching the tree again. There was a loud crack in the air, before the tree feel sideways to the ground. Naruto was still wide-eyed.

"That, was applying chakra to my fist. There's supposedly a woman named Tsunade who could completely destroy a tree like this with a single punch, but I don't have near that much chakra control. Taijutsu is about that. Enhancing your physical abilities, whether through a jutsu like that, through chakra enhancement like my punch, or through learning a martial arts style such as capoiera. Now.. there is one final branch of the basic three, genjutsu. Ready to see that?" At Naruto's eager nod, Ronnel turned to him and looked him straight in the eye. The teen ran through a short chain of hand seals, his hands flashing faster than Naruto could track. When he finished, he muttered a short phrase softly, then grinned.

'Ok, try leaving this place." Naruto blinked in confusion. Why would Ronnel tell him to leave? The six year old shrugged and turned and walked back to the Academy.

At least, he thought he did. For some reason, he ended up next to Ronnel again. Naruto blinked and turned, and ran towards the river. He leapt over it and began running in a random direction, only to bounce off of someone's back.

"Gee Naruto, keep running into me like that I'll think you're trying to hurt me." Ronnel laughed. The younger boy was obviously fooled by the jutsu he had used. After watching Naruto run around like a headless chicken for several more minutes, Ronnel grabbed his shoulder and dispelled the technique.

"Relax Naruto. That was a simple genjutsu, one that makes the victim run around in circles no matter how hard they try not to." The boy shot him a dirty look, making Ronnel laugh harder. "Ok.. you suck at genjutsu. But relax, as an added bonus, I'll teach ya something." Ronnel could swear that at that statement Naruto's ears literally perked up. The boy adopted such a pathetically eager expression that Ronnel felt slightly embarrassed.

"Please Ronnel-sensei?" There it was again, that blasted puppy dog eye jutsu. Ronnel swore to himself that only young girls and actual animals could pull it off better than the boy in front of him.

"I already said I would. Alright, listen up." The boy snapped to attention in front of Ronnel. "When you know that you are caught in a genjutsu, there are two widely used methods for breaking out of it. The first, and easiest, is pain. If you can hurt yourself, that will almost always break you out of illusions. There are a few high level ones that that won't work on, but most chunin don't know anything that strong. Makai, most jounin don't for that matter."

"Uh, Ronnel-sensei, I don't think I'd like hurting myself over and over…" Ronnel snorted when he heard Naruto.

"Oh suck it up. Like I said, there are two ways. The second is slightly harder, but less…painful. Ok, put your hands up like this." Ronnel placed his hands in the ram seal, and watched as Naruto copied him.

"This is the ram seal, the most commonly used seal for gathering chakra. Ok, now.. close your eyes and visualize your body. Right above your pant line is a blueish orb." Naruto spoke up while Ronnel was taking a breath.

"And there are lots of little blue lines all over my body, and even little blue dots too! But Ronnel-sensei, what about that red orb thingy behind my blue one?" Ronnel blinked.

"Uh… ignore that for now… not important yet. Ok Naruto, you can apparently easily visualize your chakra network. Now then, pull some of that blue stuff out and push it into the seal. Then push it out through the seal, and say Kai." What on earth is that red chakra? I've never heard of it before… He blinked when his hair lifted up. He looked at his impromptu student, his eyes widening.

"Naruto! Use the jutsu!"

"Kai!" The boy shouted. A wave of chakra pulsed out from the boy, pushing everything away. When things settled back down, Ronnel coughed slightly.

"Naruto.. I don't think any B rank illusions are safe from the amount of chakra you just pumped into that." The boy rubbed his head sheepishly, then both males laughed when Naruto's stomach rumbled.

"Thanks for the help Ronnel-sensei! I'm going to go eat lunch now!" The young boy took off like a bolt. Ronnel looked up at the sky, surprised to see that it was indeed nearing noon. He shrugged and was about to leave when the cloaked figure from before landed in front of him.

"Rei Ronnel, you are to come with me." The teen sighed.

"I don't get a choice, do I?" His answer was having his arm gripped, and vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Hokage's Office

The cloaked and masked and Ronnel appeared, the figure throwing Ronnel forward. The teen put his hand up and caught himself on the edge of the desk before he ran into it.

"Geez guy, it little less easier wouldn't kill ya." He said, then blinked. He turned around slowly. There was a person sitting at the desk. He was older, Ronnel would guess in his late seventies. He was puffing on a pipe, and staring at the teen from under a large hat marked with kanji that read 'Hokage'.

"So you're the guy the kiddo wants to grow up to replace." The Hokage nodded.

"Yes, Rei Ronnel, I am. My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen, and I am the Sandaime Hokage. Now then… you and I need to talk."

Ichiraku's Ramen Stall

Naruto slurped down the last of a large bowl of ramen. He patted his swollen belly contentedly, then stood up and helped the waitress clear his bowls. They began washing them. This was a normal thing, for the boy would often eat more than he could afford, so the ramen stall owner would have him wash dishes to pay. They were nearing the end of the large stack when a person entered the stall, grumbling about old men who spied.

"Welcome to Ichiraku's Ramen, what can I get for you sir?" The waitress, Ayame, asked, pulling out a small note pad and a pencil.

"Uh… Green tea and a chicken ramen please." Naruto's ears perked up, he knew that voice! He plunged the last of his bowls into the soapy water and scrubbed it furiously. Ayame came back to the rear half and was pouring out some green tea that had just finished steeping when Naruto nearly bowled her over in his haste to run to the front. She walked out after telling her father the order to see Naruto perched on the customer's shoulders. She blinked in shock.

"He did this earlier to. It's like he thinks I'm a horse." The quirk to the lips calmed Ayame, who was afraid the customer would hurt Naruto.

"Ne ne ne, Ronnel-sensei! Thanks for teaching me today! I can't wait to go back to school and show Sasuke-teme what I learned!" At Ayame's curious look, Naruto pointed to the pavement outside the stall, where small craters were. Ronnel's chuckle had her looking back at the teen.

"So, you've already figured out how to enhance your punches?" The boy nodded frantically, nearly bouncing off Ronnel's shoulders. A small bell chimed, and Ayame brought Ronnel his ramen.

"Well then Naruto.. I have something you might like to hear…" The boy looked down at the top of Ronnel's head, an eager expression on his face once more. Ronnel dragged things out, picking up his chopsticks and breaking them in half slowly.

"Itadakimasu." He said quietly before pulling out a portion and wrapping it around his chopsticks to place in his mouth in a small bundle. When he swallowed, even Teuchi was leaning towards Ronnel slightly.

"The old man in the tower asked me something about you…" Ronnel continued, before repeating his actions of rolling the ramen to eat it. He swallowed again and speared a piece of chicken, placing it in his mouth to chew. When he swallowed that, Naruto bopped him on the head.

"What'd Ojiji want already???" Naruto asked with a slight edge of expectation in his tone. Ronnel smirked and ate more ramen before answering.

"Well, he wanted to ask me to train you…" he trailed off again, this time to drink some of his tea. He looked up, and noticed that everyone's eyes were on him. Luckily, he was the only customer in the stall, so Teuchi wasn't going to mess up someone else's food. He sighed.

"No appreciation for setting up the moment." He grumbled. "I agreed of course, if you do. If you agree, you'll be coming with me on my travels, and I'll be teaching you more. He got me to agree to have you back in a few years so you can spend the last year with your graduating class, so you can become a Konoha shinobi, and one step closer to becoming the Hokage." In the ensuing silence, Ronnel was able to finish his meal. He finally tilted his head back to look up at Naruto. He was shocked to see that the boy's eyes were brimming with tears. He was about to ask what was wrong when the boy spoke.

"Thank you." Naruto could barely speak. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you-" the boy was becoming louder with each repetition, until he was nearly yelling it. Ronnel clamped a hand over Naruto's mouth and sent a confused look at Ayame.

"Naruto… aside from my dad and I, and the Hokage and a couple of ANBU, he hasn't really had anyone who cared. And none of us can train him, or teach him… so you agreeing to is like a miracle for him." Ronnel blinked. He tilted his head.

'Does it have to do with a certain furry person?" He thought, his mind flicking back to the conversation with the Hokage he had had. At Ayame's nod, he growled. "Just because-" This time, it was Ronnel who had a hand clamped over his mouth. He remembered that Sarutobi had said that Naruto wasn't to know about his burden until he was older. Ronnel sighed and nodded, and Ayame with drew her hand. Ronnel did the same, but had to put his hand back as Naruto was still repeating 'thank you' over and over again.

The teen stood up and removed his hand. "Naruto, what do you need from your apartment?" The boy grew quiet.
"Nothing Ronnel-sensei.. if we're going to leave…… please let us just go…" Ronnel was confused at the sudden loss of spirits.

"Uh, is there any one you'd like to say good bye to?" Ronnel stiffened when he felt someone walk in behind him. He turned around, and for the second time that day was looking at Hiruzen Sarutobi. Naruto vanished from his shoulders, only to impact into the Hokage's legs.

"Jiji-chan thank you!" The boy began repeating the word into the Hokage's robes. The elderly man nodded and stroked Naruto's hair softly. He looked up at Ronnel, his eyes carrying a message. Look after him. Ronnel nodded to the unspoken plea. Sarutobi peeled Naruto back and knelt down in front of him.

"Naruto-kun, Rei-san here is going to be your teacher for the next few years, and he travels a lot. You probably won't be back here until it's time for your final year at the Academy, are you sure you want that?" The boy nodded and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. He turned and ran to Teuchi, hugging the ramen chef's legs fiercely, before slamming into Ayame. The girl managed to bend down and catch Naruto in a hug.

"Be good Naru-chan, ok?" She nuzzled his cheek, then stood up and set the boy on Ronnel's shoulders. The teen blinked. Everything had just happened inside of a few minutes.

Ronnel winced when one of Naruto's legs hit a small seal, one that was freshly carved. It wasn't put on in ink like a normal seal, no, this was carved into his skin on his shoulder. Sarutobi had put it on himself. In the center was Naruto's name, and around it was an array. Sarutobi wasn't a fool, to go about randomly entrusting Naruto to anyone, no matter how nice. This seal would compel Ronnel to protect Naruto above himself, even to the point of sacrificing his own life for Naruto. Ronnel sighed and looked at Sarutobi, who merely tilted his head in a challenge. Ronnel backed down, knowing he was no match for the Hokage.

"Alright Naruto, I hope you're ready, because I'm leaving…" The boy nodded from his perch. Ronnel sighed again.

"Well then.. Hokage-sama, Waitress-chan, Chef-san, see you guys in a few years." Ronnel turned and headed towards the gates, knowing that if he stayed, or more accurately, that if Naruto stayed, it would be harder for them to let them go. At the gates, Ronnel paused.

"Remember Naruto… this isn't a permanent goodbye. We'll be back in a few years." The boy's reply was to bury his face in Ronnel's hair, crying. Ronnel fought back a sob of his own, cursing his emphatic tendencies, then took off. Naruto wouldn't be seen by the villagers again for several years, and when he was, he would be a totally altered person.

Prologue End

A.N.

Well… this is my first time at writing a fanfiction. I'm currently in need of a beta reader. I'll try to keep chapter lengths up to this length, so this might be a long story. This isn't going to be a godlike Naruto, nor is he going to have a super bloodline. All he's going to have is training. That said, he is going to be strong. Why? Because, in the manga, the first time Naruto was told that by a teacher that they believed in him, he learned an A rank jutsu in a matter of hours. Remove the impediments of teachers that want to slow his progress, and Naruto is going to be a lot stronger than he was in the series.

Oh, before I forget, translations of some words people might not know:

Shoshijutsu – elemental jutsu, refers to ninjutsu that affect the elements.

Capoiera – this isn't translatable, it's a martial arts style that was disguised as a dance, deals primarily with circles and spinning, and kicks, lots and lots of kicks.

Makai – Hell, Underworld.

Itadakimasu – roughly 'thanks for the food', or 'time to eat'. This is said by Japanese speakers before they eat, and is equivalent to saying grace.

Ojiji – grandfather, formal. Jiji is informal.