Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but if I did then Sakura wouldn't have been so useless

thanks to me for beta reading

PS: This story is M because violence, cursing, and just in case

Prologue

Konoha Hospital

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was white. The white walls, illuminated by the afternoon sun coming from the window. He sat up slowly, every muscle in his body aching all the while. 'where... am I?' Naruto looked around, confused. Then it all came rushing back to him. Sasuke. The mission. "What happened... I don't remember dammit."

As Naruto thought this a second blonde entered the room. "Tsunade baa-chan" he smiled at the woman as she sat down on a chair next to his bed. "Hey baa-chan what's going on? what happened with Sasuke?" The Godaime Hokage gave a deep sigh and readjusted herself in her chair. Seeing this, Naruto frowned "..did Sasuke go away Tsunade baa-chan...? Did he go to that bastard Orochimaru...?"

"No Naruto, you and Sasuke were both found near death at the valley of the end, in what appeared to be the aftermath of a battle, by Kakashi. Luckily he brought you two back here in time. While Sasuke isn't currently awake he is expected to make a full recovery." Tsunade sighed again and opened her mouth to continue. "Howe-"

"That's great baa-chan! Sakura-chan is going to be so happy!" Naruto's smile permeated the room with happiness. It was the happiest that Tsunade had ever seen him, which was quite hard to believe seeing as how he was almost always wearing a goofy grin of some kind on his face. It broke Tsunade's heart. "Maybe I can finally get her to go on a date with me! and When Sasuke gets better I can help him get stronger so he won't try to leave again! Team seven will only get better and better from this point out!" The blonde finally noticed his surrogate aunt's expression. "Right Tsunade baa-chan...?"

His blue eyes seemed to pierce the depths of her heart when he looked at her like that. Asking her to affirm his 'perfect' future in such a manner. Tsunade steeled her resolve and stared back into the depths of those blue eyes. "...the injuries that you and Sasuke were sent to this hospital with are very different Naruto. You were found with major chakra exhaustion as well as a few minor cuts and bruises coating your body. While you would have died from exhaustion if untreated, a full recovery was almost guaranteed. Sasuke on the other hand was found with a sizable portion of his chest seemingly carved out, exposing and cracking the bones that protect his heart and left lung. An examination revealed that he had been hit in the chest with a powerful chakra attack, the wound matches one that would be made by a rasengan densely packed with chakra. Furthermore the wound is permeated with malicious chakra that has almost completely negated his body's natural healing capabilities. To put it simply, it's a miracle that the boy is alive at all."

Naruto's smile fell a bit, it was still there though. Sasuke was going to be fine after all, and most importantly he was back. Unfortunately, Tsunade wasn't done talking yet. "The council has asked that there be a compensation of sorts for the damages done to the last loyal Uchiha of Konohagakure. Therefor..."

Tsunade schooled her features, she couldn't show any weakness. Even if she didn't want to say what she was going to, she had to. The council had decided on this, it was unanimous on the civilian council and more than half of the ninja council agreed with the sentiment. The elders of course also wanted this. Even as Hokage, Tsunade couldn't go against that many council member's wishes. "Naruto Uzumaki, by the authority of the Hokage you are hereby exiled from Konohagakure no Sato until further notice on the grounds that you pose a danger to your fellow leaf shinobi and to Konohagakure no Sato. You have 12 hours to gather your things and leave the village. If you are still here after the allotted time you will be hunted down by anbu and forcefully expelled from the village. Goodbye, Naruto."

After informing Naruto of his predicament Tsunade turned and left the room. She did not wish to see the the result of this order, nor did she wish for Naruto to see the tears that were beginning to percolate in her eyes. "Damn the council, damn all of them. Damn them all to hell" Tsunade drank more that night than she'd had had to drink in years, not since Dan and Nawaki.

Meanwhile Naruto sat in his bed. his face was blank. The remains of that beaming smile had already shattered and he stared straight ahead with an empty expression. It looked off on his face, in every sense. Yet at that moment, in some horrible way, it fit perfectly. Naruto was as empty as he looked. Devoid of all emotion, thought, reason, it was as though his brain had fallen into disrepair upon receiving information that it could not comprehend. Then the tears started to fall. One after another they rolled down his cheeks and made a home in the bed that he sat on.

It was a full thirty minutes before the tears stopped, and another thirty until the blank stare was replaced. Naruto stood up, a look of dejection and resentment on his face. The boy gripped the Crystalline pendant that adorned his neck tightly, before tearing it from the rope that it hung from and throwing it to the floor. He stepped into the hall, not bothering to close the door behind him. Thus began the miserable walk back to his apartment. No that wasn't right, the apartment was no longer his.

2 weeks later; A village near the outskirts of Hi no Kuni

Naruto sat in a small ramen bar and idly stared at the empty bowl of in front of him. His stomach rumbled as he stared at it, but he could do nothing else. In his hand sat gama-chan, his coin purse which had stayed by his side through thick and thin. It was nearly empty, with only about 80 ryo left in it. Barely enough for the single bowl of ramen that he had eaten. The boy took one last look at the bowl as his stomach rumbled again, then he dropped 60 ryo on the counter next to it and stepped outside.

As the blonde walked down the crowded street he idly noticed that while he had been eating the sun had started to set. He admired it's beauty for a moment before slipping into his thoughts once again. His mind wandered, from his current predicament, to the village, to his friends and pseudo family, to his shoddy house that he found himself missing more and more each day. He would give anything to get it all back, he couldn't though. Even at his age he understood that.

Naruto didn't notice the man until he walked into him. The boy looked up in surprise. The face looking down at him was that of an older man, one in his mid thirties. He had a scar running down his cheek and the beginnings of a beard were evident on his features. "Sorry Mr, I didn't see you there." Naruto said dully before he made to continue his walk. He didn't get very far though as he found the man standing in front of him again, glaring.

"If you think you can walk into me, Gou Kawaguchi, without consequences you've got another thing coming brat." The man, now identified as Gou took a step forward and two other men that Naruto hadn't previously noticed flanked him on either side. It was at this point that Naruto realized there wasn't a single other person on this street.

"Just my luck..." Naruto grumbled to himself.

"So what do you say brat, how about you hand over all your money and valuables and bow before me, the great Gou Kawaguchi. Then maybe I'll let you walk away with your life." Gou drew a large scimitar from his back and took another step forward. The other two men surrounding Naruto each wielded a katana of their own and gave him intimidating looks, similar to the one that adorned Gou's features.

"Have it your way..." Naruto grumbled again as he put his hands into a sort of cross. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu(shadow clone jutsu)." Suddenly five more Naruto's appeared, standing back to back in groups of two and facing off against each opponent. Gou and his two men each took a step back in surprise, However after they got over the initial shock that the boy was a shinobi they reaffirmed their glares. That would be their last mistake.

"Rasengan(spiraling sphere)!" The word echoed across the street, spoken by six different voices. Simultaneously three balls of rapidly spinning chakra were formed in the hands of three of the Narutos, and three bandits found those orbs lodged in their guts. All three men fell to the ground, glassy eyed with drool beginning to flow from their mouths. The five clones dispelled and Naruto went back to walking aimlessly, or at least he tried to.

Almost immediately after he defeated the three men, people began to pour out of the nearby buildings. "Our savior!" "He freed us!" "It's over at last!" Naruto looked around in confusion. One after another citizens of the town flowed into the street cheering. All of them praising him like he was some kind of hero.

The blonde regained his composure and made his way to the person that was closest to him. "Excuse me , what's going on? Who was that man?"

"You defeated him yet you don't know?! That's Gou Kawaguchi, he's been terrorizing this town for months. He'd steal anything he wanted and he made us pay him a fee each week. Those that didn't pay were made into... examples..."

"Months? Why didn't you just send for a ninja village? They could've gotten rid of that pushover in a few days."

"He had people watching the gates... If we'd sent anybody out to request help he would've known. Then he would have killed us and fled."

"I see... Well good for you guys, you're free now." Naruto forced a quick smile before he continued on his way.

"Wait!" The man, followed by a few others, called out to Naruto. The boy stopped and turned around. "Is there any way we can repay you? You've freed our village."

Naruto looked at the man before he turned to leave. He needed to find a place to stay for the night... He looked back at the man and grinned. "Is there a reward on this guys head? like enough money to stay at an inn or something?"

"I believe our lord was offering 1500 ryo to anyone who dispatched Gou."

Naruto's grin only grew larger. "I see, 1500 ryo, huh."

5 months later; Forests of Yu no Kuni

"gotcha." Naruto chuckled to himself as he looked down at the camp from a tall tree. Finding it wasn't much of a challenge of course, the camp was so conspicuous that a blind child could have found it. Regardless, the blonde tended to celebrate even a small victory.

The boy was on the hunt again today. After the incident all those months ago Naruto realized that he could put his ninja skills to use in order to survive. From then on he always checked to see if anyone was willing to pay for the extermination of a bandit group when he came across a town on his travels. He never did stay in one place for long, none of the towns he came to seemed right for him to settle down in. To Naruto the only place that could ever be his true home had abandoned him. So he traveled, he trained, he stayed in a new town every now and then, and he hunted.

He jumped from his perch in the tree and landed nearby silently, masking his chakra as much as he could. They were untrained, couldn't sense chakra anyway, but it was good to play it safe. Besides, Naruto needed the practice. Drawing a kunai from the holster at his hip he made his way forward. The man on guard didn't stand a chance as Naruto appeared behind him and stabbed the kunai through his neck, twisting it and severing muscle, bone, and blood vessels alike. The man was dead before he knew anything was wrong, and Naruto hid his body behind a bush near the entrance.

Once inside he stuck to the shadows, relying on the grey and black clothing that had replaced his orange jacket to hide him from the bandits that meandered around the camp. The fact that they were drunk probably didn't hinder him either.

Once inside the small assassin made his way from tent to tent. In the first tent there were two men in their mid twenties. They were asleep and Naruto easily smothered the both of them. In the next tent there was a single man who was stabbed through the heart and then the lung. In the third tent a man who took a knife through his eye socket and into his brain, his mouth of course covered so he couldn't scream.

This went on for awhile. Naruto went from tent to tent butchering anyone that breathed. His clothes were soaked in blood and he'd had to replace the kunai he was using because it was growing dull. He stood outside the next tent, the fifteenth or something, he'd lost count. There were only a few left though, then he could collect his reward and get the blood out of his clothes. Just as he had done countless times already he entered the tent and slit the man's throat from behind, twisting the blade as he cut, to sever as much as he could. He was about to move on and do the same to the next unlucky bastard he came across, but something caught his eye.

In the corner of the tent, On top of a few dirty blankets that were torn from wear, was a small book. It was well worn, the pages looked old and decrepit and the cover itself was faded. He still saw it though, the red swirl that was on every leaf Ninja flak Jacket. The man had probably just stolen it from somewhere and forgotten about it, but still, for some reason it intrigued Naruto to no end. What was that symbol doing all the way out here in the middle of Yu no Kuni?

He lifted it tentatively and dusted it off. Sure enough the cover was blank except for that red swirl and a single word. 'Uzushiogakure?'

Naruto knew most of the larger hidden villages. There were the big five, there was also Taki, Oto, Ame, Ishi, Kusa, Tani, Yu, and Yuki. There were probably more, but it was strange that such a prominent leaf symbol was displayed on a book that had the name of an unknown village transcribed on it. After pondering this for a moment Naruto shoved the book into one of his jacket pockets. 'I can figure this out after I finish.' Then Naruto was outside again, his next victim already in his sights.

6 weeks later; Entrance to Uzushiogakure

Naruto looked up at the large gates, emblazoned with what he had learned to be the Uzumaki crest. He grinned "Finally, I was starting to think that book was written by some kind of wack job."

The place had been nigh impossible to find. First of all Uzu no Kuni was an island country, and it wasn't on most maps. Naruto spent the first two weeks after finding that book trying to find someone who knew where the damn place was. The book was, of course, no help at all. It was all about the history of the city, it's people, it's downfall. But of course the author conveniently forgot to say anything about it's location other than mentioning that Uzu no kuni was an island. Then Naruto had to actually get to the island. Nobody was willing to take him there by boat because they weren't sure if it existed at all. Furthermore, even with his immense reserves Naruto wasn't sure if he could water walk all the way there. The boy eventually just give up and bought a boat after looking for over a week. The boat was in shambles now on the islands coasts.

Somehow the most annoying part though was finding the village after he got to the island. Naruto knew he was in Uzu no Kuni when he crashed, the Uzumaki crests carved into nearby trees he found told him that. But damn this village was hard to find. He was wandering through the forest for seemingly forever. From marks on trees that he'd left, Naruto knew that he had gone in multiple circles. It should have been a relatively small island, yet Naruto swore he had been to every single place on the island except for the damn village. That is until now.

He stepped forward, admiring the wooden doors with red designs carved through them. Looking further he saw that where the handle on a gate would normally reside there was a sealing formula. Naruto recognized it immediately. It was a special seal that the book had shown a picture of. The seal only reacted positively to Uzumaki blood, anyone else who tried to use it would find that it didn't work, sometimes the seal where even set up to negatively activate when in contact with a non Uzumaki.

Naruto hesitated as he looked at the seal. All he had to do was prick his thumb and put his hand there, then he would finally know for sure that he had a family. Naruto Uzumaki would finally belong somewhere for certain. But... what if it didn't work? Maybe he wasn't really an Uzumaki, after all Uzumaki's were apparently identifiable by their fiery red hair. Maybe it was a coincidence, or Jiji gave him the name because he admired the Uzumaki clan. Naruto had no place to go except for here. He could be a travelling bounty hunter forever, but that kind of life sounded terrible to the blonde boy...

Naruto shook his head 'this is no time to second guess myself. I'm here, I have nothing better to do, I should just get it over with.' He closed his eyes and pulled out a kunai, pricking his thumb and pressing it against the seal. Nothing happened at first, then there was a creaking noise. Naruto slowly opened his eyes again and smiled. If anyone else was present they may have said that he looked like he had been injected with pure, undiluted joy.

The doors opened, just wide enough for him to enter the compound.

The village was mostly rubble, not a single building was standing. Even so, Naruto walked through the gates and into the ruined village grinning like a mad man.

As he walked through the street's though, Naruto's happiness began to dwindle. He had a family, but they were gone now. He looked to the remains of one house and saw a young couple happily moving there things in. In the remains of the market district he could imagine a throng of people, talking and trading goods. He saw Ninja training in the more open areas near the edges of the village and he saw kids running through the streets. He saw beautiful buildings that would never be again. Most of all he saw his mother or his father, or both, he didn't know which one was the Uzumaki. They were all dead now, and the village was destroyed as well.

While he pondered all of this Naruto noticed something very peculiar in the rubble of one of the larger buildings. Another blood seal. He walked up to it and carefully pressed his thumb into it after making another incision. There was a rumbling, and then in front of him the ground started moving. There was a split, soon after the ground itself seemed to open up like a giant sliding door. Then everything stopped as quickly as it started and in front of Naruto there was a staircase that seemed to descend into an abyss. The Uzumaki heir peered down into the passageway. It looked untouched, saved from the destruction of Uzushiogakure.

He carefully took a step into the torch lit passage. Then another. And another. Naruto made his way deeper into the hidden area slowly but surely. He didn't want to set off any hidden traps that his family may have set. More than that though he was just thinking about what could be at the end of the passage. Eventually the stairs gave way to a corridor. Naruto kept walking down this corridor as well. Finally he came across a door. It was made in the same style as the gates to Uzushiogakure were, Uzumaki crest included, the only difference being that it was only about two and a half meters tall. There was also another blood seal in place of a handle which Naruto quickly activated.

As the door opened the boys grin renewed itself. There were scrolls. More scrolls than he could count. More scrolls than he could see. More scrolls than he had seen in one place in his entire life. There were other doors that probably led to other rooms too. "What...is this?" Naruto spoke in a voice of awe as he entered the room.

He made his way to the closest scroll and lifted it up slowly. Upon closer inspection he noticed a blood seal on it. Of course there was a blood seal... Naruto unsealed the scroll and looked inside. It was a technique. He opened another scroll, another technique. He opened more. There was a seal diagram, taijutsu katas, kenjutsu katas, ninjutsu, family history.

A thought wormed its way into Naruto's head as he looked through the scrolls with growing vigor. The book he found had stated that the techniques of the Uzumaki clan had never been found. The Clan's secrets died with the village. At least that's what people thought.

Naruto replaced all the scrolls he had opened at and grinned. He surveyed the room and his grin only widened. There was so much to learn here, so much for him to see and use and do. The Uzumakis may be gone, but they had left him this. With this he could honor them, and more importantly he could continue their legacy.

"It looks like I have a lot of work to do."

AN: So that's the prologue, pretty neat if I do say so myself. Anyway I have a few things to say in regards to this story.

First of all if you like it, that's cool, but don't expect a bunch of updates. I'm not sure if, when, or how often I will update this story. Heck This could be the only thing I post on my account ever. And I definitely won't be posting consistently so don't accept it. Heck I don't even know if my writing style is going to be consistent, it kinda feels like it won't. If I ever think I won't come back to this story I'll put it up for adoption. That hopefully won't happen.

Second of all I have a basic idea of how I'm going to do this story but I have no story board and definitely no concrete plans. I'm basically winging it as I go. If I was the kind of guy that was good at stuff like that this would not be my first story. So if you have any ideas feel free to tell me. Also feel free to give questions/comments/concerns.

Feel free to review and favorite, or don't, your choice. let's see, what else...

I had the idea for this story after I started reading The Golden Fox by Nyce456. I won't go into detail but basically while I like the basic concept of that story, which is similar to the concept of this one as a result, I couldn't read the story itself. The grammar was just too bad and I couldn't do it. So I decided to write this. Go check it out, maybe you'll like it.

Finally I want to give people a heads up that Naruto may become pretty overpowered in this story. I know a lot of people don't like that and depending on how I feel as I'm writing it Naruto may not be overpowered. It's just that sometimes when I'm reading Naruto stories I want to see Naruto completely destroy all of his enemies, so that's what I may go for in this. Guilty pleasure of mine and all that.

Anyway, Have a nice day, I'm going to 'beta-read' this now