"I hope you understand your faults here, Naruto-kun" said Hiruzen Sarutobi

"Yeah, Jiji, I'm sorry" said blonde jinchūriki, not looking from the floor, an action that put frown on elders face.

"I'm not mad at you, my boy, as you were following your sensei's orders, but you should know better. Everything ended well, if by well one can consider one of the promising chunnin turning traitor and wanting to kill another chunnin and genin" said Sandaime massaging his temples.

Naruto's eyes for the first time since start of the conversation left the floor as his head snapped up to look at his grandfather in all but blood "What do you mean genin, Jiji!?"

"What I mean is that even thou you failed the exam for the second time, you learned Kage Bunshin no jutsu which is very advanced version of Bunshin no jutsu which made you failed, therefore this is yours now" said the Professor putting Konoha's hitai-ate on his desk and pushing it forward for the blonde to take. Naruto stepped forward and raised his hand gracing Konoha's symbol, an action, that put soft smile on the elderly Sarutobi's face, a smile that quickly turned into a look of confusion, when the boy stepped back, not claiming the object that he craved for from the moment he stepped in the Academy.

"Naruto-kun?"

"I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"Today Iruka-sensei, one of my precious people almost died because of me. I'm not strong enough, I'm not good enough yet. I can't accept this knowing that I get it by being fooled and causing harm to one of the people I want protect the most. What kind of Hokage would I be if I'd do that-tebayo" said Naruto, while his eyes burned with determination, that Hiruzen Sarutobi saw only in one person before, the boy's mother.

"Naruto-kun..." Sandaime looked at the jinchūriki sadly "...nothing will change your decision?" seeing him shake his head negatively, he could make only one choice "Very well, than I will tell Iruka to expect you after vacation in his class. If it's all, then I think it was a long day and we all deserve rest."

"Thanks Jiji, but... ummm, since this was going to be my reward, can I ask for something else?" asked the blonde hero.

"Reward? It's too late for ramen, since Ichiraku is closed already, and I won't give you another jutsu." said Sarutobi narrowing his eyes at the end of his speech.

"No, no it's nothing like that, it's just*sigh* Iruka-sensei said once that thanks to chakra control we can use jutsu better and we waste less chakra, so if I got better control, than I could make even more clones and kick even more asses, so even though I know that I probably will never be as good at this as Sakura-chan and because that leaf thingy don't seems to help me as a reward I would like to request all chakra control exercises-dattebayo." said Naruto trying to be as professional as possible.

"All?"

"Yeah, all. I know I'm pushing my luck-tebayo, but I d-don't want to be weak anymore. I want to be strong enough to protect my precious people, to protect this village that is precious to me. I want to be strong enough to live without regret-dattebayo." said Naruto, while the fire in his eyes intensified thousand times.

'I don't know if there is someone, whose Will of Fire burn brighter than yours Naruto-kun and to think the villagers take you for the Kyūbi, such ignorance' thought Hiruzen, as cup his chin thinking "Let's make a deal; I will give you them..."

"AWESOME!"

"Let me finish..." said Sarutobi at which Naruto had decency look sheepish and scratch the back of his head, mumbling apologize "as I was saying, I will give you all, but not at the same time." seeing confusion in the young ones eyes, he took out blank scroll and when he ended writing something, continue "This is the next exercise, after as you called it "the leaf thingy", when you master it I will give you next one, ok?"

"Thanks Jiji!" yelled Naruto taking scroll and hugging Hokage

"Don't mention it, besides this is the least I can do to atone for all the pain my decision and this village put you through" said the Professor looking down at the blonde with soft, sad smile, while he hugged him back

"Don't worry Jiji, I never was too good at holding grudges. I forgave them long time ago, all this hatred thing never made any sense to me." said Naruto giving Sarutobi his 1kkMW smile, which the elder chuckled at and ruffled young ones hair

"That's why you're so special. Let me give you a piece of advice though, if you want to be Hokage you have to be good at economics, geography of elemental nations, laws, those of Konoha and international, and many more. I hope you know where I'm going." said elderly Sarutobi

"You mean I have to study!? Oh man, I hate studying, it's so boooooriiing.*sigh* Well, if it will help me be better Hokage than there's no helping it, but there may be a problem, Jiji."

"Problem? What kind of problem Naruto-kun? You just have to go to the library and... " Sarutobi stopped seeing that young boy was now avoiding looking in his eyes, which confused him greatly "Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, I tried that, but the lady said that it's better for the likes of me to be as far from books as possible. I only tried to get some history books-tebayo. So umm... would it be okay if you write me a note for her to allow me to get books, Jiji?" asked blonde jinchūriki.

"I'll do something better than that, next time when you come to me for new chakra control exercise, I will send one of my ANBU with you to the library, to make sure you will be allowed access at any time you want" said Sandaime, smiling at his grandson in all but blood.

"Cool, can it be Neko, she was nice to me in the past, and she have pretty hair, not as pretty as red or pink hair, but really pretty too" said Naruto with his signature grin.

"Hehe... very well. Oh and before you go, you can train at training ground 50, I will make sure to put it as occupied as it was not used in some time and you can train afar from prying eyes" said old Hokage at which blonde thanked him for "now of you go, it was a long day, we all need rest" and with one last hug the blond stormed out of the office, letting thoughts to consume him Hiruzen looked out of the window 'You both would be proud of him today, I just hope you will find it your hearts to forgive me and this village for all the things your son had to endure, although maybe we all deserve your wrath. That boy is too good for his own good, I hope that will never change though'and with this final thought he stand up and left the office to retire for the night.

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Naruto was standing in a small clearing of training ground 50, his training ground for some time. There was a small river on the other side of the clearing that was surrounded by the forest. The Hokage was right, it wasn't used in some time since the grass was reaching almost to his knees. All in all a good place to train. Not being one to waste time he quickly unrolled the scroll and took out his torch he get from his apartment and started reading 'Man it's good thing that I left those clones to clean my place, it was such a mess. OK, running up&down a tree using only my chakra to stick to it, I will get it in no time dattebayo.'

Half an hour later we can see drenched in sweat blonde shinobi-in-training laying on the ground panting " Damn, it's harder than I thought it will be, but..."said as he raised and readied himself to charge the tree once more "... nothing worthy comes easy I guess." and with that he run at the tree, but before he managed put his foot at the bark his head was bombarded with memories which ended with him running in, instead of up the tree.

"Ugh... what was that, it's like I suddenly remembered that I cleaned up my apartment from... couple... different... CLONES!" he exclaimed sitting up "But how... it's like I didn't only remember that, but have done that myself. Hmmmm... OK, let's try it out Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"out of the smoke appeared 10 clones "OK, broke into two groups, first will be doing physical exercises, each one different, and second group will work on tree walking exercise, do it for half an hour and then dispel"

"Hai Oyabun-sama"

"OK, now I have a little time to rest" said Naruto as he sit down against a tree watching his clones working.

"OK, times up, dispel*poof*hmm... strange, I don't feel any stronger, so that mean, that I will have to train my body on my own, but..." he said as he run to and up the tree, managing to get higher than even his clones before slipping up, which put colossal smile on his face "chakra control, learning jutsu and maybe even taijutsu styles can be left to clones. Now Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" this time created one hundred copies of himself "OK choose a tree and start running up, every five minutes the one that got the highest out of you will dispel, to help others, if you reach top, start pretend to fight, that will help to do it without thinking, I think. Well, get to it."

"Hai Oyabun-sama"

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu" another 15 copies came into existence "You guys go and read all the scroll at my, well ours I guess, apartment dispel once you understand all that is written in it"

"Hai Oyabun-sama" and with that they run off

"OK, it's time to work that body of mine to the ground-tebayo" he said hitting his fist into open palm and smirked "When I will graduate I will be strong enough to protect this village and those precious to me or my name is not Uzumaki Naruto - dattebayo".