11 Uzumaki Naruto!

{1 hour later}

The sun was slowly settling in as I arrived back at my apartment. Not having a smartphone to check the time felt a little weird; throughout the market, I couldn't find a hint of a pocket watch. Apparently, they were premium products that only rich businessmen and merchants used.

'I'm gonna have to get used to the new money system aren't I...' The quips about watches aside, my current wealth was not too bad. I didn't have a lot of spending power but had enough to buy some snacks and other eatables.

I thought about buying some vegetables, but I wasn't much of a cook, and learning it seemed like a chore. Sure, I would most likely be able to gain cooking skills, but who cares about that? It's not like that's gonna help me.

Another thing that I noticed was my lack of hunger. Even though it hadn't been long after 2 bouts of exercise and grinding plus an hour of shopping, I should have been feeling a little famished, but I wasn't. I double-checked all my perks and skills, and my gamer body wasn't a thing.

'Would it be a luxury not having to eat, or am I going to go insane because of it.' Thoughts regarding my weird situation aside, I arrived at the stairs to my house when I noticed the familiar mop of hair.

The bright blond was an idiotic hair color I concluded as I looked into pure blue eyes, the whiskers though looked a lot better than I expected. In the classroom, my attention was focused on Sakura's ass, so it was forgivable that I didn't notice the main protagonist of the story, right?

"Where have you been? We agreed that we would race today, weren't we?" Naruta spoke, his voice definitely a pitch higher than normal as he continued muttering, "...baka, wasting money on chips like Choji and not on Ramen."

...

'Huh, was Akio and Naruto friends?' I thought the situation didn't seem as far-fetched as both of them were orphans. The thought of increasing my friendship with Naruto and maybe correcting his Taijutsu style appeared in my mind, but that thought was quickly shoved aside.

'Naruto must have a lot of surveillance on him and even though I couldn't sense anyone doesn't mean that there aren't at least a couple of ANBU watching us at the moment. I should deny his request and maybe keep my distance.' I concluded. No offense to the poor orphan but my life was far more important to me.

"Sorry about that, Naruto, but I have been practicing my Taijutsu form all afternoon, and I'm tired. Maybe some other time?" I nodded to the blond. Not wanting to sound too harsh, I left the question open with room for interpretation.

It seems like I'm a bit unfamiliar with my own personality as Naruto gave me a look that screamed, 'Have I gone crazy?'

"You practicing Taijutsu? Are you sure you didn't spend the entire time doing pushups? And since when do you get tired? We are the unsurpassable duo. We never get tired!" The blond went rapid-fire as started questioning and screaming at the same time. His body moved with passion as he yelled the last statement.

'Okay, so maybe we're a little more than friends, and breaking off abruptly would send the wrong message again. Still, I don't want to be entangled with him and under scrutiny for too long because I will mess up.'

Stuck in an impossible situation I sighed and waved away at the blond, "I'm tired of being a punching bag and although we both have talent when it comes to training our bodies, I think it's time that we start training more toward being a shinobi and focus on Taijutsu don't you think?" 

Naruto blinked. He stared at me for a moment before he took a sigh of relief.

The blonde nodded as he agreed, "You finally gave up your ambition to be the fastest shinobi alive? Good, we can spar then. Iruka sensei has been nagging me to focus more on actual skills as well. Let's go. I know just the place!" 

In a matter of seconds, Naruto went from being relieved about the situation to being excited once again. I could tell that keeping up with the hyperactive blond would be a chore, but at the same time, I don't think I have much of a choice here.

'A sparring partner would still be good, right...' I consoled myself as I lifted the two bags filled with snacks and spoke, "Alright, give me a minute, let me put this away."

"Fine, fine, just hurry up!" Naruto grumbled as he followed me up the stairs. I didn't know what to make of this as this Naruto was a little strange, but then again, he wasn't a kid starving for attention like in the anime. 

Naruto seems to have had 'Akio' as a friend for a while, so he was less brash and wasn't 12 like in the manga. 

'Shit I never really thought about it, unless the game system forced the timeline to remain the same a lot of things won't happen as they did in canon. The main cast is 18, not 12, although they are a little less experienced and have shelters. They aren't kids and won't make the same decisions as their canon counterparts. Even just my presence totally fucks with the entire premise of Naruto. With Sasuke not being his first friend, the whole story won't revolve around the emo... right?'

As the realization that the canon timeline was kind of fucked in the grand scheme of things settled in, my footsteps felt a little heavy. The entire reason I haven't selected the timeline change option was because future knowledge was quite important for my plans. Now, though, everything seems to be crumbling, and even the deadline of the 4th shinobi war being 3 years from now seems a little strange.

'I'm a bit fucked aren't I?'

...

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{30 Minutes later...}

I looked around at the clearing that Naruto had apparently found, it looked like a training ground from what I could see as it resembled the standard structure of a training ground from the show. There was a lake not too far away, the clearing was secluded with trees providing plenty of cover. 

Targets were hammered on some of the trees as Naruto hopped excitedly in front of me.

"How exactly did you find this place?" I questioned. Naruto looked toward the sky as he had his thinking face on.

"I was chasing a dog and arrived at this super secret training ground. What do you think?" Naruto questioned back, looking eagerly at the place.

"And you didn't tell me about it?" I asked, finding it quite funny to see the blond boy flush.

"I-I was just making sure that no one else used this place for safety reasons," Naruto said.

It was pretty easy to tell he was lying as he looked at me with a face that screamed with guilt. I nodded and let him off. The place was kind of neat. If only it had a training post like the academy training ground, I would have ditched that place in a heartbeat.

"Alright, let's spar," I said as I walked a couple of steps toward Naruto.

The blond seemed happy to agree as he quickly took the basic stance. Both of us had the same starting stance, but I could see that Mitsuki hadn't spared Naruto in this timeline as well, and his foot placement was quite crocked. The distance was right, but the angle was wrong, so it would be a little harder for the blond to use his full strength.

'I'll deal with it later. Naruto would probably only listen to me if I beat him.' I concluded that I was feeling quite confident as I nodded to the blond and asked, "Ready?"

Getting a nod in response, I braced for the blow and spoke, "Fight!"

Naruto jumped toward me the moment I spoke. He was fast, far faster than my eyes could follow his movements precisely, but from his stance, I had a general idea of what he wanted to do. Trusting my gut, I sidestepped the obvious haymaker that Naruto was going for by utilizing one of the movement katas from the taijutsu style and took that opportunity to punch under Naruto's guard. 

My fist collided against the blond's chest, just in the middle of his ribcage, and the blond folded in half. I was a little panicked as Naruto immediately started coughing.

'Okay, my PHY stat is considerably more powerful than I was giving it credit for.' 

"Naruto?" I asked as the boy moaned in pain. He looked at me with bleary eyes and spoke, "Y-you could have held back, ya know!"

Hearing the catchphrase was both amusing and concerning. It took a minute for Naruto to stand up, and when he lifted his shirt up, a purple bruise was already forming on his chest.

"Okay, I guess we need to take a break," I said, but Naruto immediately protested.

"Noo!" he whined. "It will be okay. I promise I'll be good to go in a few minutes!" 

"Alright, alright, no need to whine." I nodded as I sat down, and the blond followed soon after, I had so many questions that I needed to ask but I settled for one that was quite important for now, "Hey Naruto, who taught you the academy taijutsu style?"

...

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AN—I have a backstory prepared for old Akio, and the story is progressing in this direction because of the choices the MC made in character creation. If he had selected, let's say, 'Complete Control,' then the backstory would have been different! 

I never intended to copy past canon, so after the chunin exams, which would be just a little different as well, the story will diverge a lot!

P.S.- Chakra control class next!