Chapter 4: Start of the academy life, more training and making a friend

April: Konohagakure no Sato Shinobi Academy

Today marks the start of the second month since Naruto started the academy. Just as the old man promised, Naruto was allowed to enroll in the Shinobi Academy, despite the many protests of the Civilian Counsel.

In a strange twist of fate, it was with the blessing of both the Shinobi and Elder Counsel that allowed the boy to be admitted into the academy, though under strange conditions as he had to be placed within a class filled with clan heirs and unlike normal persons that could graduate early as long as they had the "academy three" down, he had to remain the full four years or he would never be allowed to graduate and become a ninja.

Though the aged Hokage was at least happy he was able to get Naruto enrolled in the academy without issue, both he and Naruto knew something was wrong with those conditions, especially Naruto as he was almost positive the two counsels that voted for him were giving themselves time to find ways to either screw him over or like he and the millennia old fox like to call it, "taming the demon." Needless to say Naruto agreed to both conditions.

As usual, Naruto sat in the back row of the class as he noticed from day one that neither of the two teachers, nor his classmates wanted to be anywhere near him, as if he had the plague. So instead of making an issue of it, Naruto just sat in the mostly empty back row of the classroom. This way, at least, allowed him to do some advanced reading on seals without being disturbed as what was being taught in the class now was something he had gone through during the first month of him taking over the body.

Occasionally one of the teachers, a white haired man going by the name Mizuki, would throw him a question from earlier on in the lesson, thinking Naruto wasn't paying attention, only to be given the right answer. Times like these found the white haired teacher giving the boy a dark look whenever he answered correctly, as if saying that, "of course the demon knows this already." It was times like these that found the boy just shaking his head at the teacher's antics before he went back to his reading.

Afterschool

As usual, as soon as class ended Naruto was out the door without looking back. And as usual this caused a dark look to appear on the face of the white haired teacher. The other teacher, a man with a pineapple hairstyle and a scar on his face by the name of Iruka, just let out a sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose while the other students in the class were just glad school was out. Contrary to popular belief, the reason Iruka doesn't waste time asking the boy questions in class or antagonizing him like what Mizuki does is because he knows Naruto already knows the information. Every time Mizuki asked him a question, Iruka always makes sure to watch the boy and every time the boy answered he noticed the boy never even looked up from whatever it was he was reading. This made Iruka realize that it was just a waste of time to mess with the boy like that. Clearing his mind of thoughts of the boy, Iruka picks up his papers and leaves the room after the students.

On his way out of the school, Naruto managed to cross paths with many parents waiting to pick up their children. As usual, again, he sees the looks of hatred and disgust plastered on their faces of the civilian and many shinobi parents as he walks by. Curiously enough, while he was walking he noticed that one of the parents, a woman with jet black hair and onyx eyes was looking at him with a hint of sadness mixed with regret hidden in her eyes. This caused Naruto to slow down in his walk to make out the features of the woman before turning away and leaving the crowd behind him as he exits the academy.

As he was walking he decided to voice his thoughts to his resident fox tenant on what just transpired. Making sure he was on a clear path he asked the fox, "Hey fox, is it me or was that Uchiha woman looking at me with eyes of sadness and regret?"

"That one wasn't you kit. If I didn't know any better I would think that woman knows you, and I don't mean as my spawn. You have any idea how that happened?" the fox queried with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Beats me. It seems that not everyone in this hellhole is actually evil, good to know. Less victims to plan for and more time to allocate to those who deserve it," the boy thought grimly while nodding to himself.

After walking for a good fifteen minutes and avoiding all forms of civilian traffic, Naruto walked down a familiar dark alley, making sure no one saw him, then changed his appearance into that of his white haired disguise before walking out of said alley. Seeing that no one noticed his change, Naruto walked for a while before he blended into the crowd, hiding any trace of his former appearance from being found. Unknown to him, however, was that a certain Uchiha woman was currently looking for his former appearance when she caught sight of his disguise for a brief moment before he disappeared.

The brief appearance of the mystery youth caused the raven haired woman to momentarily forget her original objective and focus instead on him, which ironically is the original objective but she doesn't know that. She decided to follow the youth and see if she could talk to him about what she had seen those months ago.

While making his way to his usual training group to continue his physical training, Naruto kept feeling a pair of eyes following his every move. At first he brushed it off as paranoia but this feeling kept up for ten minutes so he was sure someone was following him. Deciding that it was time to find out who was stalking him and why, he decided take the next turn and use his bloodline to change into an average civilian before turning back, all with a one second interval before anyone noticed. While he was walking back he noticed a familiar pair of onyx eyes. Taking a risk, he decided to enter a blind spot for those walking and changed back into his disguise before walking up to the woman.

Making sure to approach in a non-threatening manner, Naruto got close to the woman before he tapped her on the shoulder. This caused the woman to snap her head to look at him with her eyes showing red, literally. The turn was so fast that he thought that he heard a snap. Seeing that her sharingan was active the boy decided to raise his hands in a placating manner before addressing her, "Um, Miss? Are you the one that's been following me for the last ten minutes?"

To say the woman was surprised was an understatement. Not only did the child she was following manage to escape her sight, said child also managed to approach her from behind without her knowing. And what truly shocked her was that all of this happened in less than thirty seconds. Had this been a mission like back when she was on active duty, she would have killed and wouldn't have known how it happened. 'Damn Mikoto, you've gotten sloppy. How on earth did you allow a kid to get the drop on you,' the woman thought to herself while showing a bitter smile.

"Um, sorry about that. I saw you earlier and wanted to talk to you about something but every time I got close, you seemed to move further away," she explained while still showing the bitter smile on her face before deactivating her sharingan.

"Sorry about that. Since this is something that made you follow me for ten minutes, why don't we go somewhere that we can have that talk, Miss ….." the boy said while pointing to a café across the road.

"My name is Mikoto, Mikoto Uchiha. Please lead the way…."the raven haired woman started as they both walked to the café.

"It's Dyre, Uchiha-san. After you," the boy said while holding the door open.

"Thank you." Both went towards a table for two at the back of the restaurant where they would have enough privacy to have their talk. After both persons made their orders and received their tea, they were left alone to start their conversation.

Both sat in silence for a few minutes sipping their tea before Naruto decided to break it. Placing his cup down on the table, Naruto looked at the woman across from him before starting, though somewhat awkwardly, "So…..Uchiha-san, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Thought it came out awkwardly, Mikoto could see that the youth was trying so she smiled before speaking, "You may call me Mikoto, Dyre-kun. As for what I wanted to talk to you about, it relates to a scene I saw a few months ago."

Thinking to himself and consulting the fox about when such a scene could have taken place, Naruto tilted his head to the right, which Mikoto found surprisingly cute. With both heads drawing a blank, Naruto decided to voice his question, "Which scene could that be Mikoto-san?"

"It was about six months ago. Whilst my eldest son and I were returning home from some last minute grocery shopping, we happened to see you leaving the alley and noticed that you clothes were damaged, as if you were just attacked," the woman stated. This caused Naruto to narrow his eyes a bit while a bit of silver started lacing his amethyst orbs, which didn't go unnoticed by the raven haired beauty.

"Oh? And what of it, Uchiha-san," said Naruto in a frosty tone.

Seeing the slight change in his eyes and hearing the change in address, Mikoto immediately held up her hands in a placating manner before saying, "Hold on, I think you're misunderstanding something here Dyre-kun."

"Please explain then Uchiha-san," said the white haired youth still in the frosty tone.

"At the time, both my son and I were going to try and help you, but you didn't need it. Though your clothes looked like they were cut up with a sharp object, we noticed that you didn't have any blood on you. We also went to check the alley after you left to see if anyone was there. Not finding anyone shows us that either you managed to escape whoever attacked you or you managed to drive them off. Seeing that there was nothing we could do and that you were already long gone we decided to go home. We were even looking for you for the next few days to see if you needed help but we couldn't find you. It wasn't until today when I saw you that I remembered we were looking for you and I decided to approach you myself," explained the woman.

Listening to her explanation, comparing it to his activities for the last six months and seeing the sincerity in which she explained herself, Naruto lost his frosty edge and his eyes lost their silvery touch. Looking down then letting out a deep breath, Naruto lifted his head back up to face the woman.

"Sorry about that, Mikoto-san. Something horrible happened that day and remembering it made me go through some negative thoughts," Naruto said as he lowered his head apologetically.

"Don't be. It's my fault for reminding you of that day in the first place so I'm the one who should be apologizing to you," said the Uchiha matriarch as she lowered her head as well.

After a brief awkward silence, both raised their heads and shared a smile. Thinking that she had taken up enough of the young man's time, Mikoto decided it was time she went home. Before she left thought, she made sure to give Naruto her address so that if he ever needed to talk to her, he would know where to find her. Receiving this, Naruto thanked her and saw her off but not before paying the bill. Mikoto originally protested against such an action since she was the adult but Naruto insisted, stating it was the least he could do after his 'frosty incident.' That and it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Having no choice, Mikoto went home with thoughts of this strange youth while Naruto himself went to his training grounds.

Training grounds

After Naruto arrived at his training ground he spent the first fifteen minutes doing stretches and other forms of warm up exercises, after which he started an intense and near cruel physical fitness training that lasted three hours. At the end of which he was leaning on a tree looking half dead and vastly dehydrated.

If anyone were to see his current appearance they would assume someone had tortured the poor youth and left him for dead. After spending a good ten minutes to rest, Naruto then started crawling towards the nearby lake. It wasn't until another three minutes later that he managed to reach the lake, which he then shoved his head underwater in an attempt to get some water into his body as fast as possible. When he finished drinking and had enough energy, Naruto then threw himself into the cool lake water. It wasn't until two minutes later that he resurfaced, floating on the water surface, albeit a bit shakily.

-Flashback-

Naruto had already learned of the different types of chakra control exercises practiced in Konoha and had already started using them within his physical fitness exercises. It had taken him approximately two days to master the leaf sticking exercise. After that his daily physical training had him doing all sorts of exercises including sprints, shadow boxing, weight training and stretches, all while having a few leafs sticking to his body with chakra. He had kept this up for a month before he noticed that the leaf sticking exercise was no longer as effective for him.

After this he had thought up an idea to make the leaf sticking exercise more effective and consulted his tenant about its usability. When his tenant heard the idea, the fox gave him the approval to try it and they both noticed that, albeit slightly, his idea to have his chakra control was increasing. Seeing that this was working with one leaf, in the following days Naruto kept increasing the number of leaves daily until he could simultaneously keep ten leaves actively moving along his body while he was doing his physical training. Ten was his maximum as any more would cause his mind to wander and one leaf would fall off.

He kept this training up for another month before he moved on to tree climbing. At first Naruto was a bit skeptical of this one but after some espionage work on some of the villages high ranks during their training he was able to see them do it so he decided to give it a try as well. Unlike the leaf sticking and movement, tree climbing took him a good nine days to learn. It took him another month to master this exercise and after using it for so long he had already formulated an idea on how to improve said exercise.

After running it by the fox and getting the approval again, Naruto started practicing with his idea. Unlike the original exercise that had the user send chakra to his feet which he would use to stick to tree, Naruto had the idea of refining it. Instead of having his chakra cover the whole of his feet/shoes like most people, Naruto decided to instead send chakra to specific points of his feet that would still fulfill the condition to stick while using even less chakra. At first this idea was slow going, with Naruto having to figure out the exact points on his feet to use as well as the amount of chakra to send to each point. But after spending a good three weeks on it he finally managed to figure it out. He had managed to reduce the amount of chakra needed to stick to the tree when using the original method at mastery by half by splitting it up into five points per foot. When Naruto had completely mastered his method, the chakra consumption was so negligible that he was capable of training an entire day while sticking to the trees in his training ground. By the end of it thought he fell flat on his face as the kind of physical training he was doing was never meant to be done on trees so when they could no longer support him, limbs broke.

Learning his lesson from that day of extreme tree climbing training Naruto no longer tried spending more than two hours a day doing training in the trees. After a while Naruto combined both his improved chakra control exercise into one while training. This resulted in a vast increase in his chakra and gave him amazing control, but at the end of each day his body would crash from the great strain of both physical training plus the two improved exercises. Not even with the amazing healing abilities of the kyubi no kitsune was capable of offsetting this type of training without a good night's rest. That isn't to say the great fox wasn't trying but even his abilities weren't capable of keeping up with the amount of strain the boy was putting his body through daily.

This routing continued until the end of January, when the boy's body finally got used to it and would no longer crash after a day's worth of training. Instead, Naruto used the extra time he got from this to catch up on his studies on sealing. He was still interested in developing a seal to help him get over his body's dependence on the fox's chakra in case of emergencies. It wasn't until mid-February that Naruto finally started his work on water walking. Since it was similar to tree climbing, Naruto opted to skip the original exercise most were used to and tried to develop a new form from scratch. This was extremely slow going as he wasn't able to make any progress with it, even when he had to start his studies at the shinobi academy.

-Flashback End-

Getting back to his current predicament, Naruto was currently standing shakily on the water's surface. After taking a minute or two to get used to the feeling, Naruto then sat down and started meditating on the water's surface. He was currently using his improvised version of water walking to stay afloat on the lake. This version was based on his improved version of tree climbing, setting up small points on his body that was touching the water to offset his weight. Unlike with tree climbing that would have five points per limb, Naruto was currently making use of the shape of his body touching the water to create points that surrounded the general outline while having a few points in the shape to help support. In the case of a square, instead of having chakra covering the entire area, it is instead focused on the points of the outer perimeter with one or two points at the center. Thought this form looked stable, Naruto knew it was unstable, hence why he was trying to come up with a better way to make his new exercise stable.

This went on for another thirty minutes before he decided it was time to head home. As he was leaving, a stray thought crossed his mind. Seeing that he was already soaked from his earlier dip in the pool and he was leaving anyways, Naruto decided to make this his final test. The thought that flashed through Naruto's mind was instead of having the points separate when they make the shape, why not connect them in a line. Think in the case of a square, instead of there being the four unconnected points of the square, have a line connect them. Finalizing his thoughts on the matter, Naruto then made a line connect the points he was using to stay afloat on the lake. After the points connected, Naruto noticed that it was a lot easier for him to focus on this shape instead of just the points he was using earlier and it used less chakra than having chakra cover both of his feet.

Feeling satisfied with his breakthrough, Naruto went ashore then changed out of his wet clothes and into a dry set he had in a sealing scroll that he made and always walks with. While he was sealing away the wet clothes, that same stray thought came back again, but this time it gave him inspiration on how to make that seal he wanted. Feeling that the thought might escape him, Naruto immediately unsealed some writing utensils and started jotting down the idea. Making the seal into a standard shape, having the functions located at the points where two lines meet and make it so that it could connect to another existing seal while simultaneously prevents another seal from being placed over it, unless it was being applied by the same person who added this seal.

Making a rough sketch of the seal while adding some details to each point for its functions, the end result took the shape of a pentagram which looks like it has a star in the center when it connects to a seal, which Naruto just so happens to use a storage seal to be the test. Naruto then powered the storage seal and placed a stone inside of it. When Naruto decided to add some chakra to power this new seal, he noticed that he wasn't able to access the storage seal at all, but one part of the star seal lit up. When Naruto touched this part of the star seal, however, the stone was ejected out of the storage seal and straight at his face. The stone flew past his right cheek as Naruto dodged to the left when he saw the stone coming at him in that split second.

Looking at the results of his new seal, Naruto was both excited and fearful. He was excited because the seal idea was realizable and fearful because that was too close for comfort. Had that been a sharp weapon or he dodged a second too late, he would have died a swift death. Realizing that he might be unprepared to test this seal further on his own, Naruto turned his thoughts to his tenant.

"Yo Kurama, you saw that, right?" queried the boy out loud.

"You mean you nearly getting yourself impaled in the head by that stone, or the fact that you seal idea might actually work?" queried the fox with amusement laced in his voice.

"Both," replied the boy while holding the bridge of his nose and shaking his head at how close he came to death, again.

"You nearly getting yourself slapped in the head aside, it seems that sudden bought of inspiration might just have allowed you to create the seal you were looking for. The only downside to it at the moment is that you can't fully test all the functions of the seal with your actual body, lest we get a repeat of what just happened," replied the fox, hinting at something.

"In other words, I need to learn a cloning technique. And not just any cloning technique either, it's gonna have to be a physical clone," the boy replied, picking up on the hint.

"Exactly! But with our notoriety with the populace, it would be a miracle if they don't attack us on sight, much less teach us such a jutsu. And that's the normal you without the disguise. With the disguise they would think you are some sort of spy and try to capture and torture you if they see you in certain parts of the village."

"Hmm. Seems it's time to pay the old man a visit then. He's probably the only one who would help me learn such a jutsu. The only downside is that he'll ask why and I'll have to give him a reason," the boy said with a sigh as he started packing up his things.

"Why not tell him you need one because due to your high reserves you're unable to make a normal clone no matter how much you practice. I mean besides us, who truly knows that you have enough control to make that weak illusion?" said the fox with a question of his own.

"No one, and as far as I'm concerned no one will know that he taught me one after I learn it," answered the boy as he started making his way out of the training ground and into the village. Half way through the village the boy finally noticed the color of the sky had changed from bright blue to orange, signifying sunset.

Instead of continuing his trip to the tower, Naruto turned around and started making his way towards the Hokage Monument. After walking for a good ten minutes while making constant use of his bloodline to change his appearance when no eyes were on him, as a form of training, Naruto had finally made it to the top of the monument. Instead of the usual white haired disguise or the appearance he shows everyone else when he appears as Naruto, Dyre was currently in 'his' appearance standing on the head of the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Unlike majority of the village ignorant of Naruto's heritage or the few who know but refuse to acknowledge it, Dyre already knows who Naruto's parents are, at least his father anyways. That's why, at the moment he is currently seated on the stone head of said man.

"Funny, isn't it Kurama," Dyre started as he stared at the sun setting in the western sky.

"What is?" queried the fox staring at the sunset through Dyre's eyes.

"This village 'worships' the man who sealed you into this body but refuses to acknowledge his greatest achievement while simultaneous spitting on his dying words and abusing his heir. They even went as far as killing the poor boy and didn't even bat an eyelash while doing it," the boy continued. During this time the fox didn't say anything and just listened to the boy.

"I refuse to believe the people of this village are as stupid as they usually let on. I doubt it's just the old man and the council elders that know that Naruto was Namikaze's son. There are too many signs there for them to not see it," said the boy out loud. This got the fox's attention as he wasn't expecting him to say such a thing.

"What makes you say that boy? Maybe their hate is so strong that it has clouded their better judgement and have made them visually impaired when they see him," queried the fox.

"At first I believed that to be the case as well. I mean, loss has a way of blinding us humans to too many important things. It wasn't until a while back that I started having this theory of them knowing but still doing it despite that," said the boy as he started meditating on the monument and entered the mindscape. This got the fox out from under his tree and walking out of his forest.

"What did you hear and when was this?" asked the fox with his full attention on Naruto.

"It started during the first week of the academy. At that time you were asleep and I didn't wanna bother you. So one day as soon as I was out of the classroom I ran straight to the bathroom to put on my disguise. As I was returning I passed by the teacher's lounge when I heard them talking about it…" started the boy as he emerged in front of the giant fox.

-Flashback-

Walking by the teacher's lounge, Dyre overhears a conversation about him by the other teachers.

"There goes the brat again. Out the door as soon as the bell has sounded," started chunin teacher A.

"Shouldn't you be glad that the demon is gone as soon as bell sounds? That way we don't have to deal with him outside of school hours," stated chunin B.

"Of course I'm glad the demon brat is gone as well. That way he won't corrupt the other students," said chunin A.

"You sure that's the real reason? Or is it that you don't want to teach 'HIS' son or have him around the other students," said chunin C.

"Quiet your mouth. We don't want any knowing that instead of it being the demon, we instead have to deal with that bastard's son. Hokage or not, that bastard shouldn't have been allowed to have an heir, especially with the things he knew," hissed chunin A.

Seeing and hearing this, the other chunins in the room quietened down so that no one on the outside would be able to hear them. Unfortunately for them though, the subject of their conversation had heard everything before they went quiet. He then lowered his head until his hair covered his eyes as he walked out of the school in his disguise, contemplating about what he just heard.

-Flashback Ends-

"It seems the teachers knew that your sealing was near flawless but even then refused to follow Namikaze's wishes. And if those idiot teachers could figure it out, I refuse to believe that others couldn't. The only saving grace was that they knew if he died, you would reform in a few years, and this was what normally stopped them from doing anything fatal to the child, normally anyways," said the boy as he walked under a giant tree and sat under it.

Listening to the words spoken by the youth, the giant fox entered a contemplative state. If the boy was abused and mistreated because of him, he could only blame himself for getting caught and sealed. But if the child was abused because of who his father was, then that changes things. Even more so since the child had actually died. After contemplating for a while, the fox looked at the youth reclining under the tree and asked, "So what do you plan to do with this information?"

"As it stands, I can say the village is about fifty-fifty when it comes to those who know the kid's heritage vs those who are just grieving. And as the days pass that scale is tipping towards those who know. For now though I plan to do nothing as in accordance with the child. But that doesn't mean I won't change my mind later. Also, I have a lot of things to do until I let the child learn of this information himself to get his opinion on the matter," replied the boy. The last statement, however, caused the giant fox to narrow its giant eyes.

"What did you mean by that Dyre?" asked the fox in a serious voice.

"Exactly as it sounds fox. As it is, Naruto is not gone yet. That day our personalities 'supposedly' fused, I felt it. Instead of fusing like I was proposing, it seems some power interfered and instead put his personality in a stasis of sorts and left me with complete control of the body. I mean, I still got some of his traits which is why I never noticed it immediately, but after a while I noticed my personality was mostly the same from before I died in my world. At first I was questioning why but after learning about this world I figure it was either due to the seal itself courtesy of the Shinigami or it had to do with his father. Either way the kid is still alive. The question is just a matter of how long or what is needed to wake him, neither of which I know at the moment," replied the youth while letting out a deep breath.

This bit of information caused the fox to do a double take on the youth before him before he too let out a deep breath. It seems the reason for the malfunction in the seal might be even more bizarre than he thought. If he is to believe what he just heard, then the malfunction of the seal might not truly be a malfunction but a safety mechanism. Shaking his head clear of such thoughts, the giant fox went under the same tree as Dyre, laid down on his haunches next to him and went to sleep. It seems today's talk was too much for him to think about right now.

The duo stayed like that in the mindscape for thirty minutes while in reality it looked like Naruto was meditating on the Yondaime's head before he got up and made his way home. While passing thought the forest Naruto applied his normal disguise before he made it to any populated areas. By the time he made it to the crowded areas, he felt a bit hungry so he went to the nearest restaurant to have some dinner before making his way home and to rest. Unknown to him, however, was a pair of red eyes that was following him after he left the restaurant. If one were capable of zooming out on the face with the red eyes, they would notice that said eyes were on the face of a youth wearing a black coat with a weasel mask on his face, signifying that this person was one Itachi Uchiha, prodigy of the Uchiha clan currently on duty as an Anbu.

On the following day, Naruto made good on his thoughts and went to the Hokage Tower after class had ended. Since he was going to see the Hokage, Naruto had to change out of his disguise as soon as he got in the tower. He made sure he had entered the bathroom before changing to avoid unnecessary questions. When he finally went to the top of the tower he was stopped by the secretary, a civilian woman who chose the route of indifference instead of hate, which made him think of his theory from the previous day. The woman told him the Hokage was currently in a meeting with some jounin so he had to wait. She then pointed to a set of seats in front of her before going back to work, signifying he sits there and that she was done with him. Picking up on her hints, the youth went to the seat before taking out a book on sealing to continue his reading. Seeing the action from a brief glance with her eyes, the woman released a sigh before focusing on her documents.

It wasn't until ten minutes later that found the office door of the aged Hokage opening and a group of individuals started walking out. Among said individuals we find a few interesting persons that managed to pass the youth without showing a scowl or a face laced with indifference. One was a man with silver, gravity defying hair with a mask covering most of his face and his headband over one of his eyes while wearing the standard jounin attire for the village. This individual's face didn't show it, but his eyes were a bit surprised when they landed on the youth before he started shaking his head then taking out a certain orange book to read while walking away.

The second individual was a woman with purple hair tied like a pineapple. She was wearing a brown trench coat over a mesh top and orange skirt. She had on shin bracers and wore her headband over her forehead, being covered by her hair. This woman looked at the youth, and then revealed a wry smile while showing a face of pity while she passed the youth.

The third person, however, happened to be a youth as well. He was about four or five years older than Naruto himself. This youth had black hair, onyx eyes and trough marks going down his face. He was wearing a black coat over a dark blue shirt and black anbu style pants. On the collar of the shirt, if one was paying close enough attention, they would notice a red and white fan, signifying this person a member of the powerful Uchiha clan. Unlike the previous two persons, this youth stopped to look at Naruto a bit before he continued to walk out with no change of expression on his face.

While all this was going on, contrary to what most of the jounin who saw the boy reading thought, Naruto was observing them. The only one who seemed to notice this, however, was the black haired youth. This made Naruto think that these people were either foolish or had the utmost confidence in themselves. He was willing to bet more on the former than the latter in case someone on the level of Orochimaru had been the one sitting in his seat under a disguise. When the last of the jounin filed out of the room, the secretary walked in to talk with the Hokage for a moment before she came back out and told Naruto that the Hokage would see him now.

After walking in and closing the door behind him, Naruto looked around the office of the Hokage. On one side of the room he could see a bookcase with a few cabinets next to it signifying where the important documents are stored. On the next side of the room he saw an area that looks like it was used to host guests or where the Hokage lounges whenever he has some free time. In the center behind an oak desk with a huge window behind it sits the Hokage fighting the greatest enemy known to all Kages throughout the elemental nations: paperwork. When the aged man saw Naruto enter he decided to withdraw from his fight in order to entertain his young guest. At this moment he would take every chance he got to avoid this formidable enemy.

"So Naruto, how may I help you today?" greeted the old man.

"Nothing much Sandaime-jiji. I was wondering if there was a way for you to teach me how to make a physical clone," said the youth to answer the old man's greeting.

"And why would you want to learn how to make a physical clone Naruto? Don't they teach you how to make the normal clone while in the academy?" asked the old man with some iron in his voice, thinking that the instructors were trying to screw the youth over already (Oh if only he knew).

"It's not that Sandaime-jiji. It's just that every time I try to make the normal clone, it normally comes out pathetic looking, or it doesn't work. Maybe it's because I lack the control necessary for it but it always comes out like that," the youth said, giving the pre-arranged excuse he thought of yesterday with his tenant.

Hearing his reason for asking for the technique, the old Hokage nodded to himself before clearing his throat and looking to one corner of the office. Seeing this action, Naruto turned to look as well, and it was then he noticed the shadow in that corner start to move before it turned into a woman with long purple hair wearing a cat mask that approached the desk and stopped next to Naruto.

"Cat, can I trouble you to go to the 'library' and make a copy of both the kage bunshin no jutsu and the tsuchi bunshin no jutsu and give them to young Naruto here after you're done?" asked the old man.

The woman in the cat mask nodded before disappearing in a vortex of leaves. Seeing this Sarutobi gestured towards the lounge area in the office to wait while he got back to work. Seeing this, Naruto shrugged then went over to sofa, sat down and started reading his book on seals. While he was reading, however, he never noticed the old man had been watching him or the mild surprise he displayed when he noticed the book the youth was reading was about seals. Seeing this, the age Hokage displayed a small smile before getting back to battling his formidable enemy; paperwork.

It wasn't until ten minutes later that the woman in the cat mask returned in a vortex of leaves with the two scrolls in hand. Seeing this, both the youth and the elder stopped what they were doing. Naruto got up front his seat and walked towards the purpled haired woman. Seeing the youth approach, the woman handed him the scrolls before turning to face the Hokage, nodding then walked back to her corner which she then disappeared into. The youth then faced the old man and thanked him for the jutsu scrolls before turning around and leaving the office.

After Naruto left the office, the purple haired anbu woman walked out from her corner and approached the age kage before asking him a question," Lord Hokage, why did you have me give Naruto those two bunshin jutsus? Shouldn't either one have been enough for him to practice with?"

"The reason is simple Cat. You saw the book he was reading, right?" said the old man while taking a small smoke break. Cat shook her head before he continued," It was a book on sealing, and an advanced issue I might add. If I didn't see him with that book, the most I would have given him was the tsuchi bunshin. But since he has it and looks to be taking it seriously, I decided to add the kage bunshin with it to give him some help with his studies."

It took Cat a few seconds before she remembered exactly what made the kage bunshin so special before she nodded her head and went back into the shadows in her corner of the room. Seeing that he no longer had anyone to distract him, the old man took a few drags of his pipe before getting back to face his greatest foe yet: PAPERWORK.

Training Ground

After leaving the Hokage's office, Naruto went back to the bathroom, made a quick change into his disguise and rushed towards the training ground as fast as he could. His visit to the tower gave him a better haul than he expected so he wasted no time in wanting to train them, especially after the fox told him a hidden secret pertaining to one of the bunshin jutsus. He did, however, fail to notice a crow following him ever since he stepped out of the tower and before long both made it to the training field; one to do actual training while another was there for surveillance.

Naruto started off opening the first scroll, which had information on the tsuchi bunshin no jutsu. The information in the scroll read as follows:

Name: Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu

Element: Earth

Class: Suplementary

Description: This technique creates a made of mud or clay of the user. The mud version can reform when struck back to its original shape given enough time or can be used as a restraining tool. The clay version can only reform when in an area rich in earth element and is usually capable of taking multiple hits before it is destroyed.

Reading the description of the jutsu, Naruto was hyped to start his training. He was about to remove his disguise when he noticed a crow looking at him from one of the trees. Knowing that crows do not normally gather in this training ground as well as said crow watching him intently from a distance, Naruto was sure someone was spying on him. He wasn't sure who nor why, but his paranoia from being in this village for a few months has told him to trust nothing. Just as he was about to attack the bird, the crow disappeared in a plume of smoke and a few seconds later a person appeared in what appears to be a murder of crows. This had him on his guard as he took out a kunai, ready to throw the moment he saw something off.

When the murder of crows dispersed, Naruto was able to see who exactly it was that was watching him. It was the youth he saw before when he was at the Hokage tower. Both youths were locked into a staring contest for a few minutes before Naruto ended it. Naruto lowered his guard and put away the kunai before facing the young Uchiha upright.

"Is there anything I can do for you Uchiha-san?" the boy asked in a civil tone, not showing the slightest emotion on his face.

"Not really. I just wanted to verify something before heading home…..Uzumaki-san," replied the young Uchiha in an equally expressionless face.

This got Naruto's attention and the only proof of that seen in the outside world was him raising an eyebrow. It took another 30 seconds of silence before Naruto decided to voice his thoughts," Interesting. What gave me away Uchiha-san?"

"It was the design of your clothes. What you are wearing now and what you wore outside of the office is the same design, just in different colors."

"That alone isn't what you noticed; otherwise you would not have sent that crow in the first place. My guess is that you saw something weird with your red eyes, right?"

"You are right. At first when I saw you leave the tower I found it weird a kid I didn't pass while I was leaving was wearing similar clothing as you. So, to confirm my suspicions I used my Sharingan check when I noticed that there were minute amounts of chakra running through your clothes. So minute that unless I wasn't paying enough attention I would have completely missed it. Seeing that, I decided to have the crow follows you until you got to an empty enough spot," replied the stoic young Uchiha with no change in expression while giving his conjectures. Wanting to verify, the young Uchiha turned on his sharingan eyes again and noticed an irregularity," It seems something had happened in your visit that resulted in you losing a bit of control which allowed me to spot the earlier flaw as I can't seem to find it now."

Hearing the conjectures of the youth across from him, Naruto nodded his head before speaking," Seems like I should keep a better control over my emotions when passing through an area with an Uchiha or Hyuga in the future. Otherwise I might just give away that I'm using a disguise. Or it might just be that you are probably the only person I should be careful around when I'm out as you seem to be observant to a fault."

"That may be so, but it would make finding you a whole lot harder in the future when I need to meet you," said the young Uchiha, agreeing with Naruto's thoughts about his emotions.

"And why would that be a bad thing Uchiha-san?"

"Because then I wouldn't have someone who is close to my age to train with. I don't believe that weird disguise technique is all you know, especially after reading the reports on what you did a few months ago," replied the Uchiha with a small smile on his face.

"You make it sound like I'm the only one hard to find Uchiha Anbu-san." This statement caused Itachi to raise an eyebrow of his own while looking at the youth. "It shouldn't be surprising. I noticed the kind of personnel in the meeting earlier and I remember seeing an anbu passing through the village a few times with a build that matches yours a few times over the last few months. I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you the exact animal mask to verify, right?"

The young Uchiha shook his head before looking back at Naruto and giving him a wry smile. Seeing that both youths could be civil with each other and that they could develop a friendship, Itachi decided to stay with Naruto and help him train with the tsuchi bunshin for a while, giving pointers on any issues he saw. In response to this Naruto decided to give Itachi a basic rundown on seal theory. At first Itachi didn't think it would be something he could use as he was a complete novice and wasn't interested in the field, but that changed after Naruto gave some explanations and showed him an experimental seal; a simplified version of the override seal that is only capable of one action. When Itachi saw this he was startled. When he heard that it was a simplified version of an experiment seal he made from scratch, Itachi looked at Naruto with blatant shock in his eyes before shaking his head.

It wasn't until four hours later, after the sun had set that both youths went their separate ways. Naruto just had to go across the road from the entrance of the training ground while Itachi had to head to the clan district. Naruto decided to give Itachi a scroll with the simplified version of the override seal to see if he would be able to make something new from it while Itachi gave Naruto a scroll on a low level fire jutsu, Katon: kakyu no jutsu(fire release: fireball jutsu).

After Naruto got home that night, he started making plans on how to integrate his new jutsus into his training. With the addition of the two bunshin jutsus, he now had to think up a way to train efficiently while mastery both techniques in a timely manner, especially the kage bunshin as he needed that to continue his work on sealing since it came with a special ability. It wasn't until an hour later that he came up with a concrete plan, after which he made a simple dinner, ate it then went to bed.

After Itachi got home, he had a talk with his mother about him bonding with Naruto earlier. To his surprise his mother also told him about her meeting with the youth the previous day. After they spent a good twenty minutes talking they had dinner with the family before ending their day as well.

Author's Note: This idea is based on some light novels that i have read within the last month, about 7 or so of em that have about 200 chaps each. The idea is that an Assassin dies on a mission, the mission he was to retire on and he gets reincarnated into the naruto universe. the namikaze family is alive with 4 kids, the assassin taking naruto's spot and Naruto was sent to Root, where he dies in the training/mission, or so everyone believes anyways. Some of the stuff from this fic, like the shapeshifter bloodline will be in it, for obvious reasons, while some twists will be added when i think of em. Drop a review and let me know what you guys think about it. Also, he'll have guns. Nothing fancy, just pistols cuz i dont wanna turn it into one of those modern day Naruto fics. anyways, i'm gone for another month or so. PEACE!