Hello everyone! This is my first story, so please be gentle on me. In this story, instead of Naruto focusing on getting attention in the early part of the manga and anime, he is going to be focusing on getting smarter and stronger. A better way to pass the time when all you get in the attention department is bad, no?

I do not own Naruto, sadly. If I did, I would be rich and have artwork with my stories!

A/N: This is an edited version of what was previously posted. I know there were a lot of redundancies with the manga/anime, so I removed those and re-wrote a little bit of the story as well. Nothing drastic, or really noticeable. Just a few things that I thought needed to be written a little better.

Chapter 1

Naruto had always known that bars were the best place to gather information; a bunch of drunken shinobi, letting their guards down, since they were safe at home and surrounded by their fellow comrades. They would even let go of some highly classified information, if the ones high enough in the rankings got drunk enough. Which happened more often than it should. They did, after all, live through the Kyūbi attack and saw their friends and family slaughtered and their village easily destroyed right in front of them. Not to mention the particularly nasty missions most of them had to take after the disaster in order to bring the village back to its "former glory". So it made sense that they would have a lot to drink away.

And speaking of the Kyūbi… So he was the new jinchūriki for the Kyūbi. He figured it must have been something like that, considering the way the villagers treated him. Naruto had read about bijū and jinchūriki in a book from the library, so he knew what it entailed. But why didn't feel any of the Kyūbi's chakra? He didn't even feel particularly malicious towards Konoha. Well, more than he should, considering his situation, which he was sure would be ten times worse if the Kyūbi was influencing him in any way.

Naruto figured whatever seal the Yondaime put on him must have been strong enough to completely block the Kyūbi. Which would make since, considering the Yondaime was surely his father. Naruto would have to be a dimwit not to at least think so. He was almost an exact replica of the Yondaime, and there was nobody else in the entire village that looked like they did.

What Naruto couldn't figure out was why nobody knew that he was the child of the Yondaime. Everyone knew he was an Uzumaki, so they had to have known his mother, who he knew was Kushina, being the only Uzumaki in the village when Naruto was born, since she was the previous jinchūriki of the Kyūbi. His parents were surely married, were they not? And why would nobody know he was the child of a Hokage if his parents were married? The Yondaime was famous, so the villagers and other shinobi would have known about the two of them, even if they weren't yet married, wouldn't they? It just made no sense. Were the villagers that dense that they couldn't even see the resemblance, or believe that he was the child of the Yondaime and his wife? Maybe it was because they couldn't accept that their Hokage married a jinchūriki? Perhaps they thought she had become pregnant with someone else's child? Or did they think that he was just some random Uzumaki child that was born near the village when everyone knew that the Uzumaki Clan had been eliminated? Whenever he thought about it, his head hurt. So he just stopped trying to figure it out. His parents were dead, so why bother? He knew who he was, at least.

From reading what very little was written about his mother and the Uzumaki Clan in the books in the library, he knew that all of the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi had been Uzumaki's, so it was an obvious choice to make him the next one. He was the only other Uzumaki in the village, so he wasn't bitter or angry about it. In fact, it kind of made him feel closer to his clan, knowing that he was part of its legacy, in a way.

He had been on his own since the time he could walk and talk, which made him grow up quick. Taking care of himself, as well as being a jinchūriki, also forced him to be smarter, and more analytical about everything around him. He supposed that he should despise Konoha, but it was the only place he knew, and at least he had the Hokage looking out for him. But he could understand why the villagers treated him the way they did. The villagers hated him because they feared him. And people hate what they fear. But that kind of reasoning was for the weak. Naruto was determined not to let the weakness of the villagers affect him, so he made sure to avoid them as much as he could.

Sticking to the shadows, Naruto left the bar. Nobody seemed to notice, which just made him almost shake his head in shame. He was only seven, for Kami's sake, and he was able to infiltrate a bar full of chūnin and jōnin. It was pathetic. Only seven years after the Kyūbi attack, and they were back to being so overly confident that they weren't paying attention to their surroundings when at home. Of course, he had been training mercilessly in order to sneak around high ranking shinobi, but still. They should always be on guard, for any sort of attack or invading nin.

Naruto silently made his way through the streets of Konoha, using the shadows and making sure to avoid the hot spots for ANBU sentries, towards the Forest of Death. It had become his second home, after realizing that nobody went in there. Well, except for that strange dark-haired chick that he though he heard someone call 'Anko', but she always seemed too lost in her thoughts to notice him. Still, Naruto made sure to stay clear of the area she frequented. He also made sure to stay near the edge, where less of the forest's unfriendly inhabitants were.

Naruto sat down in his make-shift home, under a giant tree that had roots that came so far out of the ground that they created a small cave underneath. Naruto pushed some chakra through his system and looked at the seal on his stomach, finally realizing what it was for. He could tell the seal was a product of a very high level fūinjutsu, but it wasn't one that he had seen before in any of the books he had read. Naruto was just glad that the Hokage had personally taught him how to read, write, and access his chakra when he was five, so that he could start reading and learning on his own. He had already read everything in the civilian and academy student section of the library and had started reading books from the genin, chūnin, and jōnin sections of the library.

The villagers, for the most part, would just ignore or glare at him, but if he showed even the slightest bit of intelligence, they would turn nasty. He had learned to just hide his intellect, and his interest in learning, from everyone. Due to that, all he could do was learn from books, which he had to borrow and return un-noticed, since there was nobody he could ask for help.

When he read his first book on the breakdown of seals, he had been instantly hooked. It felt like fūinjutsu was in his blood. Which, he supposed, it was. He had started off with small, introductory seals, like scroll sealing, and got the basics down almost instantly. It was only after he felt he truly understood seals that he started experimenting.

Most of his experiments ended up with the seal blowing up. But some came out unexpectedly better than he had hoped. One being the seal he had created that allowed him to use the shadows to completely hide his presence while traveling in them. It came about when Naruto had created a seal that he had thought would allow him to control another's shadow, as he had seen the Nara Clan do.

Naruto had basic knowledge on the Clans of Konoha, so he knew what their specialties and kekkei genkai were. He was annoyed at how much the villagers, and even other shinobi, relied on these clans, believing them to be unstoppable. Naruto wanted to be able to do their techniques, in his own way, to show the village that relying on a clan because of their kekkei genkai would be inane. Granted, the Uchiha and Hyūga Clans had dōjutsus which could not be copied, but the clans were still overconfident because of them and there were weaknesses to everything. Naruto didn't know what those weaknesses yet were, but he would be sure to figure them out. He wanted to pick apart the entire system Konoha had for relying too heavily on its clans, which were thought to be all-powerful.

Naruto was on his sixth test seal when it happened. It was the first time he had mixed some of his blood in with the ink he used on the seal. He had placed the seal on the darkest part of a tree's shadow and, using a hand seal that he had come up with specifically for use with his fūinjutsu mixed with the rat seal that Naruto knew the Nara's used when performing this jutsu, said "Fūin: Kagemane no Jutsu*". Naruto immediately felt his body being pulled into the shadow, and his chakra blending with it. It felt so strange that he dropped his concentration and he was thrown from the shadow after the seal exploded.

Naruto continued working with the same seal, tweaking it only slightly, until he polished it up enough for him to be satisfied, which took weeks. With anything new that he was learning, he wouldn't stop until he felt it was perfect and he was incredibly judgmental about his work.

Finally, Naruto figured out that if he placed the seal on himself, instead of the shadow, and concentrated enough, he was able to completely blend into the shadows. Not exactly what he was going for in the beginning but he actually felt this was a really impressive and useful technique. Not to mention a good step in the direction he was trying to go in.

After successfully staying in the shadows for three days straight, Naruto was able to decrease the amount of concentration it took to use the technique. He was just glad that he had so much chakra that he could continuously use it for the time it took to get used to the jutsu. He also tried something new by painting the seal used for shadow travel permanently on his right upper arm. It had burned like it was on fire for a few minutes, but it was definitely worth it. After that was a success, he also painted the one for sealing on his left forearm.

Once he felt that he had complete control over the jutsu, which Naruto named Ryokō no Kage*, he started using it as his constant form of travel, only wondering around the village enough without it to make sure that people knew that he was still around. He was also working on refining the Ryokō no Kage to where he could make the shadow he was in larger or smaller, connecting shadows, and the one he was having the most trouble with: teleporting between distant shadows.

Naruto also began working on building his body's physical strength, speed, and stamina without the use of chakra, and on basic taijutsu. He didn't use any weight seals, though he knew how to make them, because he knew it would stunt his growth or damage his body if he used them at such a young age. Building strength, speed, and stamina was easy, but learning taijutsu from a book was pretty difficult. That was when Naruto started using his Ryokō no Kage to spy on other Konoha nin. From doing that, he was able to see the many different taijutsu styles that the clans and other shinobi used.

Naruto tried doing all of them, finding a style of his own, after incorporating elements from each of the styles he saw. He also started working on his bukijutsu, using all forms of weapons, but mainly focusing on the dual blades that he had lifted from a weapon shop's garbage. The blades were once two full swords that had broken. Naruto had taken them home, leveled them to the same length and sharpened them. They were his favorite possessions.

After training in bukijutsu for a few hours, then switching straight to taijutsu after, Naruto slowly began mixing the two, which actually worked better with the dual blades for the type of taijutsu he was trying to refine. He began a schedule of working on bukijutsu, moving into kenjutsu, then finishing with taijutsu, getting his body used to doing one on its own, and being able to fluidly go between the others.

Only after he felt that he was proficient enough with his fūinjutsu, bukijutsu, kenjutsu, and taijutsu did he start working on ninjutsu. He felt that a lot of shinobi relied too heavily on their ninjutsu, which was a mistake in his opinion. The Uchiha Clan could copy any ninjutsu with their Sharingan and be able to block it. Some sensor-type shinobi could sense what kind of ninjutsu one was going to use and any prolific fūin user could put a chakra suppressing seal on someone. Naruto was determined not to be caught off-guard or vulnerable. He thought up every kind of possible situation where he couldn't do one or more type of a jutsu and made sure that he had backup plans and safeguards.

Naruto didn't jump straight into performing and learning ninjutsu in the beginning. He first studied the introduction to chakra books. He learned how it works, what it does to and in the body, and about his chakra coils and points. Naruto was a firm believer in knowledge being power. If he knew the very basics about something then he could build from that, making the jutsu easier to do and stronger in the long run instead of diving head first into a jutsu and not really knowing what he was doing. That was how people blew themselves up or spent careless numbers of hours and chakra trying to figure something out when it had such a simpler answer if one began from the very beginning.

With that in mind, Naruto's first point of focus was chakra control. He started out with the basic: keeping a leaf attached to his body with chakra and then learned how to walk up trees and on water. He even taught himself to do some medical ninjutsu, after reading some anatomy books, just to make sure his control was perfect. Gaining full chakra control took a lot more time than he thought, almost two months of constant training, but he figured it must have been because he had such large chakra reserves.

Once he felt he had full chakra control, he decided to try and learn some low level jutsu using all the major nature manipulations. He thought that would be the best way to learn his affinity and also try building affinities towards other natures. He had read that full nature manipulation was so rare that the Sandaime was the only known person able to do it, but Naruto was determined to have them all the same, since his goal was to one day surpass the Hokage in power.

Naruto didn't notice any real difference when using D rank ninjutsu of varying nature manipulations. It was when he tried using some C ranked one from a book that he swiped from a jōnin that it became apparent. Wind techniques seemed to take the least amount of chakra for him to do, while earth took the most. Since Naruto figured wind must be his affinity, he decided to work on the natures he did not have an affinity with first.

As was Naruto's custom, he first read about how to mold his chakra into each element and what kind of reactions could occur when doing so. He also made sure to read books on physics and biology, so that he could understand the very makeup of nature. Those books looked barely touched, much to his disappointment. If shinobi were going to use nature manipulation and transformations, they should understand what they were working with.

By the time Naruto was nine, he had himself a healthy repertoire of B and C ranked jutsu of varying nature manipulations. He decided not to learn any more until he perfected his favorites and was able to do them with very little, or no hand seals. He felt that he needed to get his body and chakra more accustomed to the natures before going into the higher ranking ninjutsu.

It was then that the Hokage suggested to Naruto, via letter, that he would like him to attend the Academy. The Hokage wrote that he felt bad about Naruto being on his own all the time and that he should be around children his own age. The Hokage's real reason for enrolling Naruto into the Academy, however, was because he was worried about how Naruto was able to just disappear and reappear whenever he felt like it. Even his crystal ball would not be able to find him. He knew that the villagers were much less than warm towards the boy and he hoped that Naruto wasn't planning anything, or getting involved with anything dangerous. He thought that making some friends his age would discourage the boy from hating the village and turning into a potential threat. He made sure to tell Naruto the day before classes started, just in case he was indeed planning something. The Sandaime liked the boy, and felt responsible for him, but he was the Hokage first and foremost so the village's safety came first.

Naruto did not want to go, since he knew everything that the Academy could teach him already and his skills far surpassed Academy-level anything. He knew that he could not refuse though, because there was definitely an underlying order in there for him to attend, not that it was just a suggestion like the letter read.

Naruto did not want to waste his time, or ruin his rigorous training schedule by going to classes, so he decided he wanted to try something new. He used Ryokō no Kage to get to the river that flowed through the Forest of Death and began creating one of the most difficult seals he had ever done. He had to make it right the first time he executed it, because it would take most of his chakra to do this, and he didn't have time to experiment and recharge his chakra to retry like he usually did.

It took Naruto twelve different tries on writing up the seal before he felt confident that it was the best he could do. He chopped off a large log from one of the trees in the area and placed his seal on top. He then cut his hand, putting some extra blood on the log, since Naruto had started mixing his blood in the ink for all of his seals to make the seals stronger and to give him more control when using them. He then took a large amount of mud and covered the log in it and put one hand over the seal, while the other did a half ram seal and, pushing almost all of his chakra into the seal, said "Fūin: Kyukyoku Bunshin no Jutsu*".

Naruto had noticed that there were clones for each of the different nature manipulations, but he had figured that a wood clone would be able to take more hits before it dispelled since wood was so sturdy. He thought that mixing two natures would also make the clone even sturdier and, after thinking it through, decided that mud would be the best, considering they were both earth based. Plus, the two nature manipulation mixed with the seal should make anything less than a killing blow dispel it. The seal was also meant to lower the amount of chakra the clone was able to use, so that it didn't run out.

He would have spent more time perfecting and practicing creating the clone while going to class and then switch with it, but he didn't want to chance it. Naruto knew that there was no way to completely replicate his full personality into the clone, so going for a few days then sending in a clone that seemed like a different person would definitely catch attention. Also, if there were any Hyūga's in the class, the clone would be able to fool them if they didn't study him to hard, but he was sure they would notice something different with his chakra coils and points if him and the clone switched places. The same if there was anyone from the Inuzuka Clan. It was not so uncommon for someone to have a scent of wood when in Konoha and for a kid to smell like mud. They would probably just think that he had been playing outside a lot. But the original's scent would not have such a distinct wood and mud smell. If there was someone from the Aburame Clan, their insects would be able to smell the difference, as well. So the only choice he had was to send the clone in his place from the very beginning.

He looked over the clone carefully, after it was formed, using the last of his energy to make sure everything looked alright.

"You are to go to the Academy in my place and act as though you are the real Naruto. Stay in the village and only come to me when you have important information, if there is an emergency, or if you graduate, which is your goal. I have given you enough chakra that it should hold you for a few years if you use it sparingly. I want you to make sure people believe that you are not very smart or strong, and try to stay out of the way of the villagers. Understood?" Naruto told the clone.

"Yosh! Dattebayo!" Naruto-clone yelled, bouncing on his feet and looking as though he hadn't been listening, before running off towards the village. 'Perfect. A dud.' Naruto thought sullenly, before losing consciousness.

Naruto knew that he could not return to the village while his clone was there, lest he gave himself away and that would cause a lot of questions to be thrown at him. Maybe more than that, if they thought he was a threat. He had, after all, been spying on his fellow Konoha nin, and that just looked bad on him if they found out, beside the fact that he would "borrow" books from other shinobi without them knowing about it. So after he woke up, he made his way back to his now permanent home under his tree in the Forest of Death. He had already gotten used to hunting and gathering for food there, so he knew that he could comfortably live there and not need to go into town to buy anything.

Now that Naruto no longer had to go into town, he could finally test out the Kyūbi's seal. He hadn't touched it yet, afraid of what might happen. He felt that he knew enough about seals that he wouldn't inadvertently release the bijū, but he didn't know what kind of change him or his chakra would undergo if introduced to the Kyūbi's.

He had tried all he could to find anything about his seal, but he hadn't been able to find anything like it in all the books he read, or the information he got from others, so he thought that testing it out directly was the only option.

From what he could tell of the seal, there were layers to it. Naruto figured if he could just release the first layer, that should be enough for him to access the Kyūbi, but not affect him too much. He had read and heard about the Gogyō Fūin* and its corresponding Gogyō Kaiin*, but it was only brushed upon in the books, and who he had heard it from wasn't an expert with it. From what he could decipher, he thought he could try out the Gogyō Kaiin, and see if it did anything. He would only use a little chakra, to be sure that if it did work, he didn't unlock too much of the seal.

Naruto focused a small amount of chakra onto his fingertips, took a deep breath, and quickly pressed his fingers onto the seal with his fingers spread so that they touched some of the outer layers. The pain in his body the moment he did it was so intense that it caused him to black out.

Naruto awoke to find himself laying on his back in what looked like a sewer with pipes on the ceiling and walls. There was about five inches of water churning around him violently, and it seemed like the walls and pipes were pulsing uncontrollably. Without moving, he did a quick scan of his surroundings but didn't see anything else. He couldn't feel the water soaking him but he could feel the tremendous amount of malicious chakra around him which was originating from the end of the hallway. Naruto got up slowly and started making his way towards where the power was coming from.

Naruto was surprised at his mind's natural defense. The only thing here was the Kyūbi. He wondered if that was an Uzumaki Clan trait or if it was just something that all jinchūriki had, as a way of making sure that nobody could control him and thus the bijū inside. Perhaps it was part of the seal that kept the Kyūbi in check. Either way, he had to make some sort of defense for the Kyūbi as well. It wouldn't be good if someone could just waltz into his mind and easily get to the Kyūbi, even if Naruto himself wouldn't be affected.

At the end of the tunnel was a cavernous room housing a cage with gates that went from the ceiling to the floor. About halfway up the gates, Naruto saw the seal used to contain the Kyūbi within. Naruto slowly approached the gates and, while waiting for the Kyūbi to approach him, studied the seal.

After a considerable pause, Naruto felt the air in the room shift and heard the Kyūbi moving. Naruto could feel the power rolling off the bijū in waves. He had never felt power so strong. Naruto was almost choking on the amount of malicious chakra coming from the cage. Before the Kyūbi was able to finally lay eyes on his container, Naruto did the only thing he felt right doing when meeting with such a powerful being: he kneeled with one knee on the ground, placing the fist of the same side next to it and his other hand on the knee bent pointing upwards, head down in the traditional pose that shinobi gave to their commanding officer.

It took the Kyūbi a minute before he could say anything. Truthfully, he was surprised. No human, especially his jinchūriki, had ever kneeled before him. They usually just barged into his space, demanding power or they would just leave him alone completely. The Kyūbi started getting excited, though he did not show it.

'Perhaps this one can be used. I still cannot control him, due to this damnable seal, but I may be able to coerce him into removing it enough for me to take over.'

"I see that you recognize true power, human." The Kyūbi said, looking down at Naruto. "What has brought you to me before the pre-arranged time within this seal?" The Kyūbi knew what the seal was meant for. It had already started adding very nominal amounts of his chakra into the boy's pathways, but only enough for his body to get used to it. There were still supposed to be years before the seal released its first layer.

"I wish to make a partnership, of sorts." Naruto said, still from his kneeling position, thinking quickly. He did not know that he would be meeting the beast when he tested the seal, but he knew that this meeting could turn out in his favor if he played his cards right. He knew that the Kyūbi would not be happy with his request, but he was going to try and do this the best way he could, in order to be on good terms with the bijū.

"I do not partner with humans." The Kyūbi growled angrily. The human was not displaying any signs of fear and the Kyūbi had to decide if he should try and scare the human into obedience, or if it would give it willingly. The Kyūbi could not tell what was in this human child's mind. It both annoyed and fascinated him. He had never met a human he could not read and this one before him was quite the enigma.

"I said 'of sorts'." Naruto replied. "I know from studying the seal that the layers are meant to be released at certain points and this will allow your chakra to start flowing through me."

"It already has." The Kyūbi interrupted.

"Yes and I apologize for that, but I did not know any other way to speak with you without removing that first layer." Naruto said. The Kyūbi narrowed his eyes at his container but did not speak, wishing the human to get to the point.

"I did not wish to simply take your chakra from you; again, my apologies that it is already happening. I first wanted to ask you for your chakra. I feel that everyone should become strong using their own power, not someone else's, but seeing as how we really have no choice in the matter, I see no other option unfortunately."

"You are asking to use my chakra." The Kyūbi stated, more than asked. Yes, this human was certainly the most confusing that he had ever come across.

"Yes." Naruto replied. The Kyūbi looked up, at the area he knew the seal was at. It was not as if he could say no and his chakra would stay with him. The human was going to get his chakra anyways, whether the Kyūbi wanted it or not.

"Very well." The Kyūbi said, beginning to turn back into the darkness of the cage.

"Also," Naruto stated, for the first time sounding hesitant, which made the Kyūbi turn back to him, curious, "I was wondering if you would be willing to share some of your knowledge with me? I have no family or sensei to teach me anything and although I feel I have been able to come far, considering my situation, I believe that knowledge is the truest and most dangerous kind of power and I can only get so far with the books in the library." Now the Kyūbi was really intrigued. Most humans didn't find knowledge to mean much of anything, which was misguided on their part. It seemed like this human child recognized the power that knowledge could bring.

"Why do you desire knowledge?" The Kyūbi asked.

"I wish to bring about change." Naruto simply said.

"Continue." The Kyūbi said while narrowing his eyes in annoyance.

"The way the village is now is deficient. The villagers are stupid and lazy, believing they are safe, when at any moment they could be wiped out. The shinobi here have gotten arrogant, believing they can handle anything that could happen, when it has already been proven, by you that they cannot. They rely heavily on the clans that reside within these walls, whom they seem to believe are omnipotent. Even the clans think that way about themselves. I want to show the village their miscalculation. I want them to know that they are not nearly as powerful as they believe. I want to show them true power, so they will absolutely understand it." Naruto finished, with slight anger and bitterness in his voice.

Oh yes, the Kyūbi was definitely happy with his new container. He wondered if the human could hear the beginnings of insanity in his own voice. All of the things the human child listed were things that the Kyūbi himself felt. He briefly wondered if he had already been influencing the child through the seal, but disregarded the thought. The seal was unfortunately full-proof against that. This container was definitely going to work for him. If the child wasn't still kneeling in front of him, the Kyūbi would have laughed at his luck.

"I allow you to use my chakra as you see fit. It is your responsibility to access it and control it. It will not be my fault, nor will I help, if you go too far with it. As for the knowledge, I will offer it when, and if, I feel like doing so." The Kyūbi said, returning to the darkness of the cage.

"Thank you." Naruto said, finally standing up after he could no longer hear the Kyūbi moving.

Naruto was unsure of how to return to his body, so he decided to do a chakra pulse, in hopes that it would jolt him awake, which it certainly did. The moment he returned to his body, he regretted it. It felt as though hundreds of shards of glass were shredding up his body from the inside. The pain was so immense that he couldn't move and tears starting flowing from his eyes. It truly felt like he was dying. Naruto now realized why the seal was set up the way it was.

The first layer was meant to loosen once his chakra coils had finished developing and he had unsealed it before then. He knew the only thing he could do was try his best not to fight the invading chakra of the Kyūbi. If he did, it would take a lot longer for his coils to get used to it. He just hoped he would actually live through it.

It took half an hour of excruciating pain before Naruto was able to move again. It took another day and a half until the pain had completely receded. It was only then that he attempted to access his chakra. His body felt as if it was burning for a few minutes, but the longer Naruto drew upon the chakra, the more his body got used to it. Once the burning feeling had gone away, Naruto decided to try out how much the Kyūbi's chakra interfered with his control by trying the simple leaf test.

The second Naruto tried to push the small amount of chakra required into the palm of his hand to make the leaf stick there, the leaf blew up in a fiery explosion that left Naruto's hand with third degree burns, which began healing almost immediately.

'Well, shit,' Naruto thought angrily, 'I have to start all over again!' A sudden surge of rage made him take his frustration out on a fūin enhanced dummy he had created, until he felt calm and clear headed again. 'And my emotions are affected too. Just great. Best start from the beginning. Again.' Naruto began collecting a pile of leaves and, as an afterthought, put on some shinobi grade fingerless gloves. 'Better safe than burned.'

There is the first part of my story. Let me know what you think. And yes, Naruto's personality is much more different in my story than the original. Looking at it psychologically, I believe his mind was stunted from not having affection during the early developmental times of a baby's life, which caused him to crave attention in the manga and anime, but lower his intelligence. Which would make sense, because once he started getting positive attention, he started getting smarter and stronger. In my story, however, he instead focuses on getting smarter and stronger, and avoids getting attention.

Jutsu Used:

Fūin: Kagemane no Jutsu (Seal: Shadow Imitation Technique) - This is Naruto's version of the Nara Clan's signature jutsu. He attempts to recreate the Shadow Imitation Technique using a seal.

Ryokō no Kage (Shadow of Travel) - With the use of a seal, allows the user to travel between nearby shadows while suppressing their chakra signature. A-Rank, Supplementary, Short-Range.

Fūin: Kyūkyoku Bunshin no Jutsu (Seal: Ultimate Clone Technique) - With the use of a seal, the user mixes two types of nature manipulations to create an advanced, self-sustaining clone. Clone is only dispelled by user or if hit with a killing blow. Amount of chakra available to clone is equal to the amount given during creation. B-Rank, Supplementary.

Gogyō Fūin (Five Elements Seal) - A powerful technique that blocks or disturbs the chakra flow of the target. A-Rank, Supplementary, Short-Range.

Gogyō Kaiin (Five Elements Unseal) - Direct counterpart to the Five Elements Seal, this technique removes a fūinjutsu of equal power. A-Rank, Supplementary, Short-Range.