Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I get paid for this (tch...)

AN: This will include a more Minato like Naruto with some Kushina like tendencies. Mostly he'll be more intelligent and mature but still likes to pull pranks and be on the energetic side.

The rating will change over time when I add more bloody and/or lemony scenes and the genres might change as well...

Pairings are undecided but could go either hetero or homosexual in nature and there is little to no chance of there being harems. Maybe one person with two mates/lovers but that would be it, maybe. I'm not worrying about it until the story develops more, but I'm open to and appreciate opinions, they may or may not have sway in my decision. Seriously though, NO big harems. PERIOD.

A blond haired, cerulean eyed boy was simply making his way back to his apartment, strolling through the streets and ignoring the glares of the few villagers that were making their way home as the sun dropped. The boy did not like calling the small, poorly kept room he had a 'home', but it was one of the few things he could claim as his own.

As he continued along the river, the only road he knew that was not often used by most villagers, he noticed another boy sitting by the river on the docks. The blond stopped and stared at the curled up figure, taking in the black high collared short sleeve shirt and grey shorts, white wrappings covering his shins and going into black shinobi sandals. The most prominent feature of his clothes being the red and white Uchiha clan symbol emblazoned on the back of his shirt, his coal black hair fashioned in a way that reminded the blond of a cockatoo that added credence to what clan he was from. After eyeing his own scruffy white t-shirt and black capri shorts, the only symbol he wore being a red flame/swirl on the center of his shirt, he was about to walk on, never having had a good opinion of the arrogant Uchiha even after the massacre, but something about the other boy stopped him.

It was a sense of familiarity he got when looking at the other boy that stopped him, which at first confused the blond for what could he have in common with the heir to a prominent clan, and one revered and respected by the village no less?* After standing and thinking about it for a moment, observing the Uchiha sitting by the docks, he realized with a start just what felt so familiar about him. The dark haired boy seemed isolated and loneliness nearly rolled off of him in waves.

Perhaps this boy did not feel nearly as much suffering from elongated periods of both isolation and loneliness as the blond had, but equally he could not help but sympathize. The blond had dealt with an environment that caused both daily and understood the pain better than many in his village and even though those same villagers were the cause for his suffering, he did not wish those feelings on anyone because he knew just how much it hurt. So, even if it meant hanging out with the arrogant, show off of an Uchiha, the blond made his way down the grassy hill and onto the wooden planks, walking all the way to the end and sitting down next to him, ignoring when the dark haired boy stiffened. The blond simply began swinging his legs over the end of the dock, not saying a word.

The dark haired boy glanced up from above his knees where his face was previously buried to find that the blond that had joined him was just staring at the sunset in the distance. The Uchiha raised his head further, looking to the sunset as well, a strange and undeniable warmth beginning to pool in his chest at the silent understanding and companionship that the blond seemed to be emanating. Neither said a word as both watched the sun disappear behind the horizon.

(3-year time skip: Konoha Academy)

Iruka looked scanned his class as he walked in, taking a cursory attendance as he walked to the podium in the front of the room. He was shocked to see his favorite, hyper active student, Naruto was on time, though he seemed to be having a harder time with Sasuke's two more devoted fangirls because of it. What was even more surprising was that Naruto was uncharacteristically ignoring them rather than argue with them like he usually did.

Sasuke was also oddly quiet seeing as he usually added his own cold, biting remarks in defense of his best friend, but today he seemed almost amused at the fact that Naruto was being verbally bullied by the two loud girls. Iruka shrugged and put aside the strange behavior of the even stranger friends, turning to the board to prepare for class when he heard a poof and two small squeals of surprise that were cut of mid way.

Iruka whirled around, only to see the same scene as before however Sasuke and Naruto were now both grinning at each other, Ino and Sakura wide eyed and holding their hands firmly over their mouths. Iruka sighed as the remains of the smoke around them dispersed, already having deduced the reason for their odd behavior.

'So Sasuke henge'd into Naruto and used a clone jutsu for himself to make me believe he was here on time and released it while the real Naruto came late and snuck in through the window as soon as my back was turned.' Iruka sighed again as he tiredly asked the question he knew would not be answered truthfully.

"Would any of you care to explain what just happened?" Sasuke's expression had returned to the impassive mask that he always wore around anyone but Naruto, the girls only shook their heads vigorously before scurrying to their seats, and Naruto gave that foxy grin that he was well known for, his eyes squinting closed as he placed his hands behind his head.

"Nuthin' Iruka-sensei. Just pulling a small prank on Ino and Sakura so they'd leave us alone." The excuse was simple, but surprisingly plausible, leaving Iruka slightly worried.

'Oh great. They're getting better at infiltration and deception, not to mention planning and tactics...I didn't expect to be teaching my students in such an unintentionally roundabout way...Why can't they just pay attention during class?' Iruka mentally cried, but despite his miserable thoughts, he couldn't help the proud smile that made its way to his lips as he shook his head in exasperation. Those two never ceased to surprise him.

After the tragic event of the Uchiha clan massacre, Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have formed a deep and unbreakable bond of friendship. It helped both boys to not be isolated during their childhood and greatly supported Sasuke since his brother betrayed Konoha. Naruto had stepped in to replace him as a kind of irresponsible same age brother or perhaps even as an older brother figure despite Sasuke being older by a few months.

Iruka wasn't the only one surprised by the pair's forged friendship. The entire village was taken aback when the only loyal heir to the prestigious Uchiha clan started to associated with the village pariah and since Sasuke was treated like a prince, the villagers did not know how to act around the two when they were seen together.

The villagers were afraid to glare or look coldly at Naruto like they usually did for fear of Sasuke thinking it was him they were glaring at, fearful of offending him and losing any favor they thought they had. However, they were also afraid of showing respect to the heir, even if they only wished to greet him with a simple nod or bow since they were afraid others might think that they were acknowledging or showing respect to the demon brat.

The result ended up being that the two were avoided all together whenever they were seen walking around the village together which suited the two just fine since neither of them liked to interact with the villagers and the two went out of their way anyways to avoid the villagers by taking less crowded roads or simply using back roads and alleys that Naruto knew like the back of his hand.

Both Naruto and Sasuke enjoyed being able to get to know each other better** without being ogled or criticized by their peers and the villagers, both appreciating the privacy as they began to go more in depth into their lives. The two had become close friends rather quickly, their bond only growing stronger when Naruto had discovered the reason he was hated through a slip of the tongue of a drunken villager that had attempted to take Naruto's life on his birthday and later telling Sasuke after having dragged Sasuke to his favorite spot in the entire village as proof of his trust in the Uchiha. Naruto wanted to show the Uchiha that he wasn't the only one who was isolated for who he was, that Naruto could understand much better than anyone else, that he shouldn't feel so alone. He had also told Sasuke of who he suspected his father to be, again bringing with it an understanding of living up to a name, living in someone's shadow.

Having seen first hand, and being told of Naruto's life so far as well as the kyuubi and the fourth hokage, that Naruto had dealt with just as much, if not worse, suffering than himself helped put his own troubles into perspective and even helped him overcome the loss of his family, if only just a little, just as Naruto had overcome the need to feel hatred and get revenge on those who mistreat him.

Oh, Sasuke still had the desire to avenge his clan by killing his brother, but being with Naruto and hearing his dream of becoming hokage and protecting the very people that made his life a living hell made Sasuke more aware of his desire to become strong simply for the sake of killing one man rather than for the sake of protecting what is precious to him.

It was then that Sasuke had decided that he would become strong for that purpose, rather than revenge. He would become one of the strongest shinobi in the Elemental Nations to re-establish and uphold his clan's honor, to protect his village, and to help his friend achieve his own dreams. Sasuke knew he was not the leader type, though he could lead if the occasion called for it, he very much preferred to be alone, but Naruto was different.

It wasn't difficult for the Uchiha to see the hidden potential that Naruto had in both strength and charisma so it was an easy decision to decide to start training with Naruto, helping the whiskered jinchuuriki out a lot when he had admitted to struggling with academy because of past teachers having sabotaged his friend from reading and writing to taijutsu forms and kunai/shuriken throwing. It didn't help that Naruto had naturally horrendous chakra control either.

After intensive reconditioning and training on Naruto's part and some serious studying on both their parts, they had finally gotten Naruto up to speed and even managed to get themselves both up to at least mid genin level at the tender age of 10. The training had very well paid off as they had discovered the few upsides to Naruto's mis-teachings as well as why he had difficulty with his chakra. After having been forced to write and throw and lead with his non-dominant hand, Naruto had become ambidextrous, using his right hand more often even though his left was stronger.

Naruto had also learned to do any jutsu with only one handed signs along with the fact that he didn't have to say the names since his teachers had told him not to, knowing it would be more difficult for him to pull off the jutsu even with the right hand signs, but once Naruto had figured the right hand signs he could pull of the academy jutsu...all except one. The clone jutsu. This was where Sasuke's discovery had come in. Through some research in the academy libraries and some sneaking in the hokage tower***, Sasuke had discovered that the reason for Naruto's poor control was because he simply had too much of it.

Naruto, though happy with finding the cause of his problem, was not so excited towards the solution as it meant spending hours upon hours of meditation and different chakra control exercises. Thankfully their little trips to the hokage tower bore more fruit than simply just figuring out the problem and deducing the solution. On their trips they had found various chakra control exercises, scrolls on elemental affinities with chakra paper provided, some low level jutsus, and even a reference to a forbidden clone technique that was hinted to help speed up training. Needless to say both youths were interested and wasted no time finding the forbidden scroll to look up that single technique.

Though both were eager for this technique and knew that even looking into the forbidden scroll was something they shouldn't do especially for academy students, they had already broken into the Hokage tower many times and both had agreed to look and read that one technique and maybe not even use it if the repercussions were too severe.

Though at first they had felt guilty in looking in the scroll, like they had felt slightly guilty for breaking into the tower, they felt slightly justified in doing so because both Naruto and Sasuke knew that Naruto wouldn't get the education he needed if they simply waited around for an unbiased teacher so both decided to simply 'go all out' so to speak by learning all they could before they graduated and became genin.

Sasuke did so because he wanted to protect Naruto and grow stronger with him, helping each other out wherever they could, augmenting their strengths and helping the other overcome their weaknesses, covering for each other's weaknesses if they couldn't. Naruto did so for similar reasons, but also to be strong enough to defend himself from ninja both in and out of the village since other villagers would not be so blind to how much he resembled his late father and him becoming an official ninja of Konoha would bring him closer to the other ninja residing here that he had not met or seen much of before and Naruto thought that was not entirely a good thing since he did not know if they would hate him for what he holds and having any ninja hate you is hazardous to your health.

Both had, then, obviously been absolutely giddy when they had found and read about the shadow clone jutsu and its capabilities, how it could send the user its memories when dispelled along with any remaining chakra it had. The only downside was the chakra consumption but Naruto had enough to be his own army and Sasuke had always had more chakra than his peers so being his own team was more than enough for him especially since he didn't need as much help as Naruto needed to with keeping up his chakra control.

Needless to say, both boys were looking at each other, their grins stretching from ear to ear as they put away the original scrolls and took with them their copied findings back to the little secret base they had made atop the hokage monument. Both boys were running at full speed, their eyes wide and alight with excitement, the two practically drooling at how much they could accomplish with that one jutsu and both thought one thing as their eyes steeled with determination.

'Tomorrow is when the real training starts.'

Naruto could honestly say that kage bunshin was a godsend and in fact, he's probably already said as much to Sasuke. Thanks to that one technique, Naruto's chakra control improved by leaps and bounds, to the point where he decided to try his hand at medical ninjutsu. He soon discovered that with the amount of chakra he possessed, he could perform feats thought near impossible for most iryo-nin thanks to his monstrous chakra reserves and could possibly regrow limbs if he studied and practiced enough...as long as he kept perfect chakra control of course.

Sasuke himself had found kage bunshin useful in that he had perfected, if not mastered, most of his fire jutsu, the ones he used the most he could do easily without having to say the name or even do the handsigns, though he still made a point to expand his ninjutsu library with the scrolls they'd gotten from the tower, like Naruto.

The duo had also made a point to practice with their affinities, both happy with what they'd discovered. Sasuke had not been surprised with fire, but had been pleased that he had a secondary lightning affinity that was almost as strong as his first. Naruto himself was not surprised with his strong wind affinity, seeing as how he remembered the yondaime having one, but the secondary and tertiary affinities of water and earth shocked him a little, not because of the elements themselves, but the fact that he had two secondary affinities that were equally strong though it was obvious that wind would always be his strongest.

Their progress with their affinities soon came to a halt, however, when they discovered that their training with their elements couldn't go much further than learning the first stages along with some starting elemental ninjutsu. The grudgingly accepted that they would have to wait until they became genin to learn more powerful jutsus from their jonin sensei since they didn't wish to infiltrate the jonin sections of the Hokage Tower...even though they've technically already looked into the Forbidden Scroll which is much worse, but it wasn't their fault that the thing was so poorly guarded!

They were also somewhat unhappy with their progress in tai and genjutsu as well. Sasuke was blocked from more powerful genjutsu thanks to Uchiha scrolls being sharingan-only activated and it also stopped his progress with the Uchiha taijutsu style since he had gotten it as good as he could get it without having an active sharingan. Naruto himself could go no further with the simple academy style taijutsu and genjutsu was something he was all but immune to thanks to his chakra reserves, being that only the strongest could capture him, and thanks to his control he could perform powerful genjutsu which he was extremely proud of, but upset with since he had no access to them again having to contend himself with waiting until they get a jonin sensei.

Not satisfied with having reached a standstill in most of their training, the two quickly decided to find something to specialize in instead of sitting around waiting to build up their ninjutsu libraries. Sasuke had started practicing kenjutsu after having remembered his mother's skill with it and some simple fuinjutsu, recognizing the usefulness of being able to create simple traps, barriers, and explosion seals on the fly and it would have the bonus of improving his writing and saving him money in the long run, but he decided he wouldn't try to go beyond simple seals since he wanted to invest more time in kenjutsu.

Naruto, however, had gotten very interested in fuinjutsu, his father's famous hiraishin seal and his own shishou fuin seal having nothing to do with his interest of course. Of course his interest in fuinjutsu was also not enough to occupy his time seeing as clones could learn fuinjutsu without his needing to do anything but wait or join so he began to avidly touch on kenjutsu as well, wanting to at least be able to wield a sword if the occasion called for it, but his attention was soon diverted to something else when he found some rather old books in a forgotten part of the civilian section of the public library. It was there that Naruto had found books on a certain taijutsu called Shaolin kung fu and the history and culture of the ones who used it.

Naruto soon became fascinated with both the style and how the culture well revolved around the mastery of the former. It took no time for Naruto to enthusiastically begin training in it. As he read on about their history, he discovered that the original users, monks, had discovered their chakra, or chi as they called it, and were able to call upon it to harden certain parts of their body to withstand wooden or metal poles and even be able to stop spears and lances from running them through.

They also used their chi to augment the strength in their arms and legs so that they could break stone and metal and pierce glass with simple needles and it made Naruto think to a certain slug sannin, wondering if the woman had only rediscovered a method that had already been discovered and by monks with no more chakra than a civilian held! Needless to say, Naruto had found something besides fuinjutsu to train with.

Unfortunately for the two, they knew that they could not spend every waking minute training, so every week they would take a break from all their training for a handful of hours every day or every other day depending on the intensity of the day's training and simply relax, this did not include meditating at first since that was still considered training since it took effort. After they had finally gotten accustomed to actually relaxing and being calm, something both had trouble with seeing as both were doers and tended to always be doing something, they had begun to develop hobbies and interests outside of training.

Sasuke had, in his serious desire to continue training without training, taken up calligraphy as a hobby to do in order to wind down and relax, actually having found it peaceful and relaxing when he got into it for the purpose of winding down rather than simply for the sake of improving his fuinjutsu. He had also taken to learning how to forge his own weapons, mostly only kunai and shuriken since it would again save him money in the long run and as an added bonus, he wouldn't have to go to the village as often. It was then Naruto discovered that Sasuke was a rather frugal person despite his upbringing as the youngest Uchiha heir.

Naruto himself had found himself studying botany in his free time, growing his own fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs for foods, medicines, and poisons as well as simply having a fascination and strangely deep connection with nature itself. It was in his love for nature that he found meditation to be more than simple training. After having countless numbers of clones doing tedious and repetitive task and receiving those memories multiplied by hundreds, Naruto had developed an incredible patience that would astound anyone that knew Naruto to any degree, since everyone knew, Sasuke included, that Naruto had a hard time staying still for more than three minutes. Naruto had made the wonderful discovery that simply sitting in a natural setting, isolated from the village and its inhabitants gave Naruto a sense of peace that he had very seldom felt, a connection to the life around him that left him awed every time.****

Sasuke himself was more than a little surprised that meditation had become a regular habit for Naruto, but was glad that it brought Naruto that peace of mind, relaxed him in a way that Sasuke knew he couldn't be around most anyone but his most precious people and there were very few on that list for Naruto and even fewer on Sasuke's since, admittedly, Naruto was the only one currently on the list.

Of course, more often than not, the duo found themselves spending most of their free time together which wasn't much of a surprise and it wasn't difficult to think of something useful to do when they weren't training. Since both were in such politically high and/or precarious situations, the two made the easy decision to study and learn all the laws of the village and strive to learn as much as they could about politics, going through the trouble of learning as much as they could about different clan laws as well in case of any situation. Psychology as well was thrown in, knowing that a deeper understanding of the psyche would help them in the long run.

The two had also taken to learning business management seeing as both were clan heirs as well as delving further into Konoha's history, looking to the tower, when they completed the history books provided at the academy. It was through this that they learned about Uzushiogakure and the Uzumaki clan which they immediately connected with Naruto, obviously. Of course it was almost as easy finding out who Naruto's mother was after that seeing as there was only one other Uzumaki residing in Konoha before and after Uzu's destruction. Naruto was ecstatic to find out his mother was a woman called Kushina Uzumaki, better known as the red death, even though he was sad to find that she had died the same day his father had, he was happy to know who she was.*****

Sasuke could only shake his head in exasperation as he realized that his best friend was the child of the Yellow Flash and the Red Death, heir and basically prince of the fallen Uzushiogakure, and heir to the Senju clan as well since they discovered that his mom was the granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki, wife of Hashirama Senju. It should have been Lady Tsunade who was heiress to her clan, but since she has not been an active ninja in Konoha, or even been in Konoha for more than ten years, the responsibilities of heir fell onto Naruto. Both Sasuke and Naruto were only glad and relieved that the Namikaze weren't technically a clan so he wasn't the heir to three clans.

Their discovery, in the end, had only made the two friends closer, making them family in all but blood, if not closer seeing as Sasuke trusted and confided in Naruto more than he ever did his own family and Naruto's bond with Sasuke was the first true one he ever made and therefore incredibly strong. Despite all the secrets his surrogate grandfather, the sandaime hokage, was keeping from him, Naruto couldn't bring it in himself to hate the old man, seeing as he probably hid everything from him for his own protection. Naruto also placed a hefty amount of blame for his misery and Uzushiogakure's obscured past on the civilian council since they were the ones that headed the academy after having managed to filch control of it from the ninja council during the Sandaime's transfer back to hokage and probably took many other responsibilities not suited for them during the power change.

Though Naruto still found some fault in some of the things his jiji did, he knew his grandfather figure was old and tired and at a disadvantage with the now overpowered council, but it would be easy enough to fix if Hiruzen just grew a backbone and reminded them that this village was a dictatorship, not a democracy. It may take time, but it could be done. Of course, Naruto wasn't very focused on his grandfather's political problems right now, instead focusing on getting stronger with Sasuke so he'd be able to defend himself against anything that may come their way.

*haha oh, Naruto, you'll find out soon enough.

**get your mind out of the gutter you pervs! They're only eight years old and I'll tell you right now that this WILL NOT be a SasuNaru pairing. These two are just going to be bff's so don't hope for more please.

***Ok yeah, I know, 8-11 year olds breaking into the Hokage Tower is a little far-fetched but in my story Naruto is already established as a prankster and don't you think Naruto should already be intimately familiar with the hokage tower not only because of his visits with his surrogate grandfather but also because of the pranks he's probably pulled on not only the hokage but the anbu and any other poor chunin or jonin that's working there as well? Also, it's not like for all their little break ins, they've been looking in the heavily guarded, super secret areas, only certain archives or libraries that don't usually grant access to genin or academy students so try not to get your panties too twisted because of this.

****Alright, so I just want to explain that he's not actually connected to nature and by that I mean he's not in sage mode since I would assume that that's what sage mode is supposed to entail. Naruto's just more in tune with nature and finds it more peaceful and relaxing since he can't relax around people or the village in general sans a few places because he's constantly on guard, but when he's alone and only surrounded by trees and nature basically, he can really relax, though his super attentiveness to nature will come into play later. Let's just say there's a reason for the hyper focus on plants rather than animals...a rather large hint there.

*****I feel the need to explain why Naruto(and Sasuke) didn't immediately figure out who his mother was after finding out about his dad even with his last name. If you think about it, it should be fairly easy to figure out, if not then here. Uzugakure and the history of the Uzumaki in general is basically hidden from the majority of the populace and only key figures really know about them so it's understandable that they wouldn't figure it out until they actually looked up Konoha's true history in the Hokage Tower and it wasn't even their real intention, they just wanted blanks filled in that were left in the standard academy history books. There's also the fact that Kushina Uzumaki herself wouldn't exactly be super talked about in Konoha since most didn't know that she was a jinchuuriki and again most people didn't befriend her since she was an outsider/refugee. Anyone who knew her may not have even known about her jinchuuriki status and those who were close to her are either dead or ignoring/don't know about or are keeping the secret from Naruto (i.e. Mikoto Uchiha, Kakashi, and Sandaime). So add not knowing about Uzushiogakure on top of not knowing any other Uzumaki in the village as well as the fact that many people including close friends may not have known Kushina and Minato were married, Naruto chalked it up to a random name they gave him at the orphanage.

Also, I'm really sorry that it's mostly just descriptions and details and stuff. I swear that there's going to be way more dialogue and character interaction from the next chapter on. This was just kind of a preface/base work for the rest of the story. This is also my first time writing a story in which I strive to write long chapters so bear with me.

I'd like to clarify that the entire training description/summary takes place between the ages of 8-11. Sasuke and Naruto won't be god-like as some enemies will actually be a challenge to them and the progression of their training may seem a little unrealistic but kage bunshin is basically a strength boost cheat. In all seriousness though, the usefulness of the technique shouldn't be underestimated and for as much chakra and control as they had by the time they got the technique(they'd been increasing their chakra control and reserves since they started training), both could use the technique to the utmost efficiency, making as many as possible with as little chakra as possible so try not to nitpick so much. I am sorry for the vagueness of the time that passes as it's just a general overview of training over the course of years even though it sounds like it's all happening at once.

Another point that may come up is how mature the two seem to be, but I again attribute that to liberal use of kage bunshin. Keep in mind that they make a bunch of shadow clones and then get all their memories afterwards and these are all the same person with different lines of thought, so not only does it speed up the progress of maturing, it also makes them much better 'thinkers', capable of thinking of a bunch of different scenarios or cases at one time, much like Shikamaru, though they're not geniuses with an IQ above 200, they are definitely mentally older than their physical age.

One last thing, reviews would be appreciated in any form since flaming doesn't affect me, though I ask if you do that they be legitimate and not just you bagging on my story. I do hope you like it though...