Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. This fic is only for non-profit establishment

Author's Note: This chapter has been edited by Ibozun

Chapter One

The Questions

Naruto stared hard for maybe the hundredth times that day at the long ice shard on his palm. His mind was jumbled right now after he realized that he had just conjured it out of thin air…just like Haku. He watched as the ice melted on his palm not at all concerned about the cold.

He then concentrated and closed his eyes imagining about a whole ice encasing around his body. He opened his eyes slowly and stared dumbstruck at his reflection on the ice around him. He flicked his finger and the ice quickly changed into water and drenched him from head to toe.

"I guess than I'm not dreaming then," he mumbled as he shivered under the dampness of his jumper. He took off his upper clothes, so he wouldn't be caught cold. The blonde boy gathered dried branches and set up a fire. His eyes watched the fire as it danced, but his mind was wandering around.

How could he do that? Was it his bloodline? But that was very similar to Haku's? If that was true, did that mean that he was somehow related to the feminine dark haired boy? But then that would mean that his parents didn't come from Konoha, probably from Mist or Waterfall who used water as their main attack style. But Sandaime had said once when he asked the old man that his parents or rather his father, since the old man himself was unsure of his mother's origin, was from Konoha and had died during Kyuubi's attack 12 years before. The same as his mother. When he asked what their names were the old man avoided that question and diverted it to another subject. Knowing that the old man didn't want to talk about it, he never asked again about them. But now he was intrigued. And the old man better answered him when he asked.

Contrary to popular belief, Naruto wasn't THAT stupid. Sure he sucked in chakra control and genjutsu, but that was because he had chaotic chakra courtesy of hosting Kyuubi. Genjutsu was for those who had good chakra control and the patience to go along with it, and as he was such a temperamental boy he couldn't avoid being terrible at it. And since no one had ever taught him before the silver haired pervert he wasn't really good, while the other children had their parents and family that helped them. Sasuke maybe taught him self but he had been taught by his family before the massacre of his clan. Now that he really thought about it, the man Sasuke was determined to kill must be the killer of his family. He wondered who it was though. But even when he was trained—more like doing menial chores actually—by Kakashi he couldn't improve much, especially when the so called teacher was always slacking off, wasting their time for what he suspected to be naughty activities, what's with the porn magazines he always had his eyes on. Actually the only time he taught them was in the Wave country when they fought against Zabuza and Haku. He wondered if the jounin really wanted to train them.

He wondered until when he would keep his façade? Was it until the villagers decided to kill him and then he would snap? Honestly he was tired of this, having to smile like an idiot and acting like a fool lovey dovey idiot. He didn't even like the pink haired kunoichi for God's sake! He only picked that act so everyone noticed him. Bad decision, they were indeed noticing him…as a nuisance. Maybe he needed to throw his mask out of the window. He was actually pretty smart and a good strategist although not to the caliber of Sakura or the lazy cow Shikamaru. And he really wanted to do self-study himself, alas when he wanted to borrow scrolls from the library the librarian would shove him out of the building before he could even say 'scrolls'. The only things he thought useful that he got from the academy were kawarimi, and shuriken training. In fact the only ninjutsu he had on his arsenal was a non-element related jutsu as he couldn't read any scrolls about element jutsu in Konoha library and the academy only taught them that much.

Naruto flicked a shuriken from his pouch and shot it in a blur. The star shaped weapon sliced a lizard on a tree 15 meters from where he was sitting. He sighed and leaned on the tree behind him.

He had a good aim with his weapons. He could even rival Tenten although he wasn't used to using multiple weapons at the same time. Of course he didn't show this ability, as he didn't want anyone to know. If he ever showed this in the academy he was sure that the villagers would desire his death even more thinking of him as an actual threat. But he had showed the jounin level jutsu (kage bunshin) many times and no one was doing anything—or as much as he knew anyway. So maybe…just maybe he could drop his stupid act. It would be a nice change.

He wondered if he could use his newfound ability in his fight against Neji. He had seen the match between the Hyuuga main and branch members and concluded that they used close combat taijutsu. From what he heard he knew that when it hit it could cause internal damage without causing external damage or even touching the body of the victim. Which meant that they used chakra induced taijutsu. His ice ability had wide, medium, and also close range attacks—or at least Haku had that ability. Surely he could use it for his advantage. No one would expect it and it would be a great surprise for all.

He remembered the first time he conjured ice out of thin air. It was during the afternoon and the sun scorched the earth. The heat it gave off making even the hard working shinobi wanting to rest and go to somewhere cooler. Naruto was training as usual and beads of sweats were coming off of his body. Exhaustion combined with the great heat, he decided to take a rest and wished for something to cool his body. His body felt funny after he wished that. It was tingling all over and suddenly a brief pain jolted him from his mind. When he didn't feel it anymore he felt the air was much cooler. Opening his eyes, he found that a thick wall of ice was in front of him, hiding him from the sun heat.

Dismissing his memory, he wondered who he would ask to train him? Kakashi could be crossed from the list as he could see that he was…busy with the Uchiha prodigy. He would even bet that when that bastard got out of the hospital he would train him and ditch both him and Sakura. That wasn't fair! He was THEIR sensei, not only Sasuke's private tutor. Might as well learn by himself before the masked jounin did something drastic and at the same time stupid—like asking for another pervert to train him and Sakura. Speaking of that white-eyed boy, maybe he could do some research about the Hyuuga's clan and their ability in the library. He could ask Sakura to borrow them. And maybe he could ask Hinata and Lee. Afterall she was a Hyuuga too and Lee was in Neji's team so he surely had to know something about him.

Naruto formed a needle made of ice suspended in the air and launched it at the poor lizard cutting its head off.

He smirked. Time to carry out his plan. He still had a month to make a plan. And he damn well wouldn't lose to the so-called 'Fate' Boy.

TBC…