Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or most of the ideas here however I do claim the insomnia that caused me to write this in the first place.

Also this is my first real attempt at writing a good fan fiction so I would appreciate it if there aren't any extremely negative reviews just yet.

Prologue start

Lightning flashed across the sky as nature fought the receding demonic energies that had been so recently released. The landscape was torn from the sheer amount of power that had been released and then contained. Everything within was dead or dying except two people who were laying at the edge of one of the craters that dotted the dying place. The sage of six paths was lying on the ground in the middle of an enormous crater that even then was beginning to fill with water. As he lay there he couldn't believe that his best friend was at deaths door because of his own failure, and all because he had almost lost control of the ceremony that was splitting apart the demon he had contained.

Flashback

He had less than 6 months to live before the demonic energy of the ten tailed beast completely destroyed his body and it was free once again. It was time to use the plan that he had never wanted to. This plan was to split the demons essence and power in such a way that prevented it from ever returning. As without this it would most likely plunge the world into war for hundreds of years. The yokai in the atmosphere was exorcised by the people learned to control chakra. They slowly drained the yokai from nature and then expelled it as they used their jutsu. By expelling it along with their own energy it could be consumed by the jutsu. This process would also cause more people in the world to grow and develop chakra coils to a greater extent, Even when the demonic yokai was finished being consumed it would remain so long as the family actively trained and sought out the ability to use their own chakra's might.

The plan had been nearly flawless until the new seven tail beast took more energy than it should have being sealed into a stone tablet, and he wasn't fully recovered in time to seal the eight tails when it was split off from the remaining bulk of demonic yokai. His best and oldest friend was there in an instant and was casting chains of chakra that were able to at least temporarily contain the new demons power. As soon as he had been able to, he immediately started on the new seals for the eight tails containment and was feeding in his own energy to its new home. As the last one of the nine was released from the ten tails corpse, its very body began killing off the nature around it as the powers clashed. New chains appeared from Kushina's hands as she dumped all of the chakra she had left into the chains that bound the shapeless demon that bore nine tails. The eight tails seal flared brightly as its now prisoner was bound tightly into the new cell. Even as he saw his oldest friend's power fading, his hands had begun flashing through the hand seals that she had helped him devise to control the power he was now channeling to contain the last and most powerful of the segments that had split off of the ten tails. It let out a bestial roar as it took the form of a fox just it was swallowed by the silver vase that would contain its power for quite some time. The last of the nine tails power was fading as Kushina collapsed from overuse of her chakra. Even as he saw her fall he had started his final set of seals to make sure that even the corpse of the ten tails would never be used by anyone in the turbulent era that was to come. The body of the ten tails dissolved as nearly every last drop of his chakra was swallowed by the jutsu that was sealing the mighty beast's remains in the safest place that he could think of. As he stared up at the night sky the moon shown so brightly that the patterns on its surface came aglow for even those who didn't know that they were there. A complex set of runes appeared on a crystalline pendant that hung around his neck. The explosion that occurred as the final remaining yokai dispersed wasn't something that he had counted on.

Flashback end

Even as they lay there, they both knew that even if they survived this night they would be living on borrowed time that could end in moments as it was only the energy from nature that was keeping them alive for the moment. While they had some chakra left, it wouldn't have been enough to allow them to live for as long as they already had.

As Kushina lay there, a view of an unfamiliar village took control of her vision as the figures fighting a huge nine tailed fox came into view and then a blond man sealed it into a child to stop the deaths that were happening. A masked figure floated over the man's shoulder and was staring straight at her as he drew the demons soul through the man's body and into the child's consuming both the man's soul and a portion of the tainted energy that the fox was giving off. Slowly the vision faded away and all that was left was the masked figure that still stood just looking at her. After a time that could have been infinity or a single second he spoke in a chilling voice.

"I am the Shinigami, the god of death, and you are so close to death that I can speak with you," the masked figure stated as it almost played with the knife that it held in its right sleeve covered hand. "The vision that I have shown to you is an event that will happen a great many years from now and from his mother's side the child that you just saw is your direct descendant." The figure stared off into the distance as the bluish energy around its knife seemed to swirl even brighter than it had before continuing. "He will live a hard life because of those who want him to be a weapon and those that see him as a demon but throughout it he will live on and struggle through until he achieves his goal of being seen as himself and not the monster that he holds."

The Shinigami turned its glowing gaze back upon Kushina as its visible power took upon another hue before continuing. "You and your sage friend are only alive because you both hold knowledge that the child that I showed you may need in his life to prevent a tragedy that even I the death god would not wish upon humanity. The only question is will you record all of the knowledge that you hold so that your descendent may have a better chance to stop the resurrection of the ten tails?"

Her body was frozen as she listened to the death god and a short vision of the child's future were brought before her eyes should she not provide what help she could. Her mind clouded by the tears and her eyes wet her gaze met the Shinigami's once again and she wordlessly conveyed that she would make to the best of her ability that everything that she could leave would be left to that unnamed descendant of hers.

"You have made your choice and while even I cannot say that you will be able to leave everything that you know all at once I can promise you that even without your help he would have been a person that would never lose and that there is a very good chance that in the final battle he would have won, it never hurts to carry the extra power though, so now life has a much better chance of survival. The last thing that I will tell you about that though, is that no matter what else he does your descendant will carry a pure heart and soul throughout his life. A soul so pure in fact that some of kami's angles look dirty in comparison to his spirit. Now however, I'm afraid that I must lock most of your memories away until the day that we meet again but, you will remember the task that you have taken upon yourself and that you took it willingly even if you don't remember why." The Shinigami turned to leave when one last sentence left its mouth. "You have the last four months that the sage would have had before the ten tails would have devoured him before both of your life forces fade into death so, I would suggest that you get him to help you in your task."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\

Several hundred years later a young girl by the same name stood before the Daimyo of hi no kuni as the ninja team that had rescued her stood waiting upon his decision. For what seemed like an eternity as the Daimyo discussed the proposal that she had given.

After several hours the Daimyo turned back to her and lightly said, "I agree with this proposal on the understanding that when you should choose to retire from your ninja career, that you help in the governance of your former people and that one of your children marries one of my granddaughters when the time should come. Until that marriage at least, none of the village hidden in the leaves save the hokage shall know of your true heritage. However the child that is to marry one of my granddaughters will need to spend at least some of his childhood here at the capitol so that they may know one another for when the time comes."

The young girl rose from the low cushion that had been provided for her earlier and bowed to the Fire Daimyo and said in a very formal voice, "I thank you for respecting my families traditions and for letting me join your country's hidden village. Though I am the last of my family and I would like to leave a duplicate of a scroll that my family has passed down from the time of the sage of six paths within your library."

The last statement caught the Daimyo's attention as things from that day and age were rare and hard to find. He gently asked, "What is contained in this most ancient of scrolls so that I may know what is within my library?"

What little light there had been within Kushina's eyes vanished as she almost blankly replied, "the history of my family as well as all of the knowledge that my family has been accumulating throughout the time since then. It contains volumes on every subject that we have ever come across from battle strategy to ninja arts to the sealing arts. It is a duplicate copy to the one I'm going to carry with me to my new home in case something happens to the original to where it cannot be handed down and so that at the very least the knowledge will not be lost." As she finished speaking one of her ninja escort stepped forward and presented a scroll to Kushina who in turn knelt before the Daimyo while presenting the scroll which he gladly accepted.

As he tried to unfurl the scroll he found it sealed shut with an unfamiliar seal on the opening and so decided to ask about its usage, "How do you open this scroll if I may ask young Uzumaki-hime?"

"The scroll is under a modified blood seal so that it will open whenever a drop of blood from my family hits the seal the scroll opens until it is closed and then it resets," Kushina said with a sad smile on her face. "The real secret to the seal though is that if there should ever come a time when there are no blood members of the Uzumaki family left the seal will dissolve and the scroll will be able to be opened normally however a number of the storage seals inside will destroy their contents at that point."

"Ah, and if that should happen would I need to worry about any of the other contents of my library being in danger from this scroll?," the Daimyo calmly asked as he looked with newfound respect upon the large scroll that he held.

"No, the storage seals in the scroll are set up so that only the contents of select seals will be incinerated while leaving no outward trace until that seal is opened to show the ashes of its former contents," Kushina replied as her eyes finally began to gain back some of their warmth before she continued, "When I was fleeing Uzu I was given these two scrolls by my uncle before he lead the people away from my trail and one other that held a very special family tree as well as the treasury of the Uzumaki family that he had managed to save. The family tree consists of seals and goes back to the time of the sage of six paths. What makes it so special is that it changes itself accordingly for the situation of the owners of the names it depicts, it shows all of my living relatives and the deceased who have a red background upon their name and only one name still bears a blue living background and that is Tsunade Senju which is why I chose the leaf village for my new home and why I chose to leave a copy of this scroll here."

A blond man slowly walked away from the hospital with his hour old son swathed in blankets held tightly in his arms as tears slide down his cheeks even as the nine tailed fox made its way ever closer to the village from where it had reformed after being freed from its captivity. His white trench coat had the Kanji for Yondaime on the back. As he made his way to his office in the tower already knowing what must be done even as he heard his wife's last words, as he sealed the last remnants of her sprit and chakra so that if nothing else their son would have the chance to meet his mother. At least once in his life when he incorporated several very special seals into the formula for the contract that he was about to use. To summon the death god was a fearsome and powerful ability, however within one's life each person who had signed the contract was allowed to summon the Shinigami twice. Once to set up the contract and then to actually perform the jutsu, and he had just finished setting up the sealing arrays in case the fox tried to break free when his wife gave birth and gone to check up on Kushina when he had been informed of the foxes imminent attack, and the more it attacked, the more wild and powerful the attacks became.

Now he was just wishing that he hadn't been so dense when he had been younger, so that he and his wife would have had more time together before she had died. As he sat down in his office he tapped a seal on the underside of the desk and a scroll popped out. Now to most this scroll wouldn't have been very special because it mostly looked like just a simple painting of his marriage ceremony after he had finally discovered that he loved the red haired princess from whirlpool however it also contained seals hidden within some of the more elaborate designs. Closing the scroll he smiled over at his son who was slowly moving around on the low sofa in the corner. The sealing jutsu that he used on the scroll was a modified blood seal so that if Naruto hadn't claimed it within 20 years then anyone could open the scroll. Several hand seals later and a poof was heard as a toad appeared out of a small cloud of smoke.

"Ya need something," the orange and green vest wearing toad asked almost as if annoyed at being summoned.

"Yes, I will be resealing the nine tailed fox soon," the Yondaime replied sadly as he began writing out another scroll carefully. "I'll need you to deliver a scroll to both the Daimyo and the toad elders," the Yondaime concluded as he finished writing on the scroll he had been working on and moved over to Naruto. Pulling a small vial out of his pocket he carefully pricked Naruto's arm and let several drops of blood fall into the vial before using a small medical jutsu to repair what he had done. Taking a minute to mix the blood into a small pot of ink he carefully began inscribing a seal on the scroll before repeating the process in between Naruto's shoulder blades.

Wrapping up the scrolls he gave them to the small toad saying, "The red scroll goes to the Daimyo to tell him what will happen here tonight while the other scroll goes to the elder toads. Before you go I'd like to thank you for all the times that you helped me in the past with messages and such. I only have one other message for you to deliver and that is that I'm going to be summoning Gamabunta in a short while to give me a hand in sealing the fox away."

As the small toad disappeared in a puff of smoke with the scrolls, Minato was staring over at the horizon where the dull red blow was getting brighter as the fox slowly solidified its form for the first time in almost one hundred years.

It had been almost a week since Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, had sacrificed himself to stop the Kyuubi rampage upon its release and the Daimyo sat in his office reviewing the letter he had gotten from the toad summon that had arrived just hours after the sealing had been done.

In essence all the letter was asking was that he give the scroll Kushina had left in his library all those years ago before she had moved to Konohagakure to Naruto sometime after he was six along with an update to the scroll that Kushina had made throughout her life so that the scroll would have all of the information as the copy that Kushina had added to the copy of the scroll that had been sealed behind the doors of the Yondaime's house before Minato had died.

Sighing as he looked out the window he wondered which one of his granddaughters he would engage young Naruto to when the time came and silently decided that it might not be a bad idea if his wife stayed at their house in Konohagakure and kept an eye on things as well as the development of Naruto so that he would have an idea of what to expect when he met him.

As the Daimyo of fire country was entertaining these thoughts Gamabunta was deep into conversation with the elder toads that still lived on Mt. Myoboku.

"Minato set up that summoning seal on the back of Naruto's neck so that even if we choose not to allow him to sign our contract we could at least meet and judge him to see if he should be allowed to sign. Besides if we wait for Jiraiya to let him sign the contract than there is no telling when or if he will sign our contract and we owe Minato too much to not do at least this for him," Gamabunta said before taking another large pull from his pipe before exhaling a large cloud of smoke.

Two of the elder toads looked at each other for a moment before nodding and asking, "That wasn't really the question Gamabunta but rather when we should summon him here to test him."

Taking another long draft from his pipe, Gamabunta replied, "I'd say that at about somewhere between eight through fifteen if no one has any suggestions." At this suggestion all of the elder toads nodded nearly simultaneously (although if it was from agreement or from them falling asleep Gamabunta would never know).

On another plain of existence two sprits were waking up as they slowly moved to stand before a chilling voice finished waking up. "I hope you two have had a restful sleep considering where you are," it called as they both saw the ghastly vision of the Shinigami sitting on an ebon throne in a darkened castle room.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze were left gaping at the Shinigami and the place that surrounded them and couldn't help shuddering every time they looked at the Shinigami.

"Normally the both of you would never have come to this place after you died however because of the fragments of your soul that are still contained within the seal that you used on your son you cannot move past this point until the day that your son has released those portions of the seal and lets you free," theShinigami continued. "Between now and then you may look upon his life through the orb in the middle of this room so that you may see just what your choices have meant for your son."

Chapter 1

Six years had passed since the Kyuubi had been sealed within a child and it was once again the anniversary of the night that the nine tailed fox had attacked the village hidden in leaves. Many things had changed in the intervening years and at the forefront of it was the fact that the village was only back up to two thirds of its strength from before the attack. The third hokage had resumed his post as the acting leader of the village and had issued two laws almost immediately after his reinstatement and of those laws one was out in the open and the other was agreed upon by the Daimyo of fire country that the secret was to remain hidden for at least a number of years to rebuild the ninja forces of hi no kuni. The first law was given to the villagers and stated that no villager was to talk about the nine tailed fox beyond the cover story that had been circulated, while the second law was that Naruto Uzumaki's true heritage not to be told to anyone and that it was to be a double S class secret to any and all who didn't know. A cover story that he had used an orphan and that it is the effects of the sealing that caused Naruto to look like Minato Namikaze. There wasn't a very long list of people that knew the truth because very few had known of Minato's marriage to Kushina Uzumaki. The Fire Daimyo was among the number because he had been at the small wedding that had been held in the capital about a month before Minato was supposed to take over for Sarutobi. Many things had happened since that small ceremony that had been held in a hidden portion of the capital.

Two years previously Naruto Uzumaki had been thrown out of the orphanage and lived on the streets for two months before the third hokage found him curled up in a ball on the edge of a training ground when he had been out for a stroll to check up on the various genin teams in person since he had made a significant dent in his most hated foe, (after all, for such a persistent foe it was only right to give it time to recover, right?).

In those two years Naruto had been taught the basics of how to live on his own by the various genin teams that had been assigned to do so. As time had passed the teams had slowed down on how often they had come until they had stopped coming a month before and he had been forced to make do on his own. And then came that night.

!

He was running. His legs were burning and he could barely breathe beyond the quick short pant that wasn't helping very much. As he turned the corner he came face to face with another one of the groups that were taking an almost perverse delight in cornering him. Several of the villagers started throwing rocks at him as they chased him until one struck him on the back of the knee, jerking his leg out from under him. He fell forward and to the side, sliding some until he hit the wall on the side of the alley. As the villagers beat on him they were yelling things at him which made no sense with the pounding in his head from the impact against the wall as he stopped. After several minutes of this his world turned black and he knew no more.

He slowly opened his eyes to the plain white walls that surrounded him and chemical smell that coated every medical building he had ever been in. Taking a closer look at the room showed that it was one of the rooms that he knew were in the Hokage's tower on the second floor. This was the yet another time he had been treated for a number of various injuries in the past two years since he had been thrown out of the orphanage.

Looking around the small treatment room his eyes came to rest on a small calendar on a desk in the corner. Each date had been crossed out up until the current date, October 10, his sixth birthday.

Four ninja in ceremonial armor came in through the door and stood in each of the corners of the room and removed two ninja to one side of the room furthest from the door. A third was also attempted to be removed from behind a hidden panel in the ceiling and tried attacking when he was exposed. He was sporting a bloody grin on his throat almost instantly and one of the four in ceremonial armor picked up the corpse and along with the two anbu who had been hidden in the room previously disappeared in a column of leaves and a slight wind. Four more people entered the room these ones obviously samurai from the set of their armor and took up positions on either side of the door and one at the other door leaving the last to take the gap next to the window.

A man and woman entered the room and as the door shut Naruto caught a glimpse of another two guards taking up position on the other side of the door. The man was in a very elaborate haymaker and projected a presence well into the room. The woman wore a similarly elaborate kimono that almost screamed nobility.

"Ah, Naruto," the man began. "You worried me for a while after my guards rescued you from that mob."

Now Naruto was confused and all he could think about to himself was why had this man cared enough to save him? He didn't voice this thought to the man though instead he asked, "I'm sorry but who are you?" Normally Naruto wasn't much for manners and other formal things but this man had helped him so the least he could do was be polite for now.

"Ah, at this time my name won't mean anything to you however to partially sate your curiosity I am the daimio of hi no kuni and this is my wife lady Shimji," the man stated before he continued. "Six years ago I received a letter from a man that was a friend of mine to look out for his son and that as the executioner of his will to keep a hold of everything that was supposed to go to his son until his son was old enough to manage it himself. Now with the information that my informants in the village have gathered for me in the last few hours as well as the file on you that the hokage gave me after I told him why I wanted to know I see how to accomplish the favor that my old friend asked of me." Nodding toward the door the samurai opened the door to let a kunochi in less elaborate clothing walked in sporting a noticeable limp. "This is Kisala. She is a retired kunochi that used to guard my wife until she was injured almost two years ago in an assassination attempt. Currently she runs a small apartment building that has a vacancy that I have arranged for you live in for now and she will also take over and teach you what the orphanage was supposed to teach you but failed to. She may even teach you some of the shinobi arts."

At this point Naruto was very confused but his confusion only jumped to higher points when he gestured to the samurai next to the door and the door opened again to allow in another fancily dressed samurai that was carrying a seemingly heavy chest. "This chest contains a number of things from your parents as well as a number of other things. Now Kisala has been briefed about a number of facts and will teach you and show you when the time is right. Now I must take my leave as I've already taken more time than my schedule would normally allow and my paperwork beckons."

With that he and his wife left the room and the next several weeks were a whirlwind of activity as plans were made and Naruto was getting used to the new information that he had been given.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sfhf~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Six years after, night of the graduation exam.)

Naruto while sitting in the clearing in front of a shack in the woods couldn't help but think to himself that this supposed make up test really was stupid for an evil plot made by a chūnin. The funny thing was that he hadn't even stolen the real forbidden scroll; rather he had just taken one of the large blank scrolls from the storage room down the hall while he had hidden the real forbidden scroll underneath Hokage's desk. He would have taken the real scroll but he just didn't need the kind of punishment that it would entail if his plan didn't pan out. Looking back he thought about the things that he had been working on for the last six years since he had met the Daimyo of Fire country and his training in his family legacy began. Hiding almost all of his proficiency in the ninja arts had been a continuous effort and some of the seals that he had applied to his own body and clothes were very much a part of the deception. Sure the Hokage suspected something of what skills he was hiding but not nearly everything that he actually was.

Hearing a rustling in the trees he schooled his features into innocent enthusiasm that he would be feeling if he had actually entirely been the person he portrayed himself as, he looked up and barely stopped himself from reaction in shock. There standing over him was Iruka and not Mizuke, who was looking fairly angry.

"What did you think you were doing stealing the forbidden scroll Naruto?" Iruka all but yelled at Naruto.

"But, didn't Mizuke tell you that he assigned me the makeup exam of a mock mission," Naruto stated quickly in the hope that Iruka could figure out what was going on. As Iruka put everything together in his head the sound of a wire being cut echoed in the clearing. As several kunai were sailing into the clearing Iruka pushed Naruto out of the way of the blades and was knocked against the wall of the shack.

"Ah, Iruka, I was hoping to save you for later but then you just had to be here at this meeting," Mizuke said with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Naruto give me the scroll and you pass the makeup exam." Mizuke said as he regained his seriousness.

"Naruto, he's lying, there is no makeup exam, he's using you to steal the scroll," Iruka yelled as he ripped a kunai out of his leg.

Mizuke chuckled as he said, "you talk about lying to him when everyone around him has been lying to him his whole life. Ever since the law twelve years ago."

"No, Mizuke, its forbidden," Iruka yelled as the law of the third came to mind.

"What is this law," Naruto asked, curious as to what secret Mizuke would spill to get an easy opening.

"The law is that the forth didn't kill the nine tailed fox, rather he sealed it into a human body -you." Mizuke said with a slight sadistic tone creeping into his voice. "You, Naruto Uzumaki are the nine tailed fox."

Naruto was shocked. It was true that he suspected that the nine tailed fox had been sealed in him however he had never quite gotten any proof other that a few hastily hushed whispers, the names that he was called, the mobs of inebriated people that would occasionally chase him. And the seal on his stomach that he had yet to decode even a third of. In his distracted state he never saw the shuriken that Mizuke had thrown.

"Naruto, get down," Iruka yelled as he moved as fast as he could in front of the shuriken's path to stop it from hitting Naruto.

Brain finally rebooting due to the attack by Mizuke from the information that he had received he dodged around Iruka on the left while drawing a rather unusual kunai with his right hand in a reverse grip. The kunai was a dull bluish white rather than the usual black. One sharp jerk forward and the shuriken was cut neatly in two and off in two slightly different directions, with one landing short of its intended targets while the other grazed Iruka's back cutting a vertical slit in the red spiral and a shallow gash into his back beneath it, fortunately not cutting anything that couldn't be healed with a few days rest and some bandages to help constrict the wound or even faster if it was taken care of by a medical ninja.

"Sensei, why did you try and protect me?" Naruto asked even as he took up a protective stance from Mizuke.

"Because you remind me so much of myself back when I was an academy student." Iruka stated as he wobbled a bit from the pain from his wounds. "You're always trying so hard, and even when you fail you get up and laugh about it. It was like looking in a reflection of the way that I once was."

"That's a lie, Iruka would say anything right now to make you keep the scroll," Mizuke said before releasing an evil laugh.

Kunai disappearing back where it came from Naruto ran. Running almost diagonally from where he knew the village to be from where he was. The trail behind him wide left obviously enough for even Mizuke to find even though he wasn't as good at tracking as other chūnin were supposed to be.

With Iruka and Mizuke following him he knew that he would need to hide soon so that he could contemplate the new information that Mizuke had let escape as well as the truth behind why Iruka treated him as he did on occasion. Lost in his own thoughts he almost didn't notice as Mizuke and Iruka landed near him and talking and even then he didn't register any of the short conversation that they had until he heard Mizuke state, "Naruto is a beast, and like a beast he'll pour his rage and hate into the scroll and use its techniques for his own power to destroy what he hates."

Mizuke's laughter echoed over the area as Naruto mentally went through what he knew of Mizuke's skills. In the near silence Naruto heard a slight chuckle that escaped Iruka before he pulled himself into a more upright position and said, "You're right, that is how a beast would act."

Silence settled across the clearing as Naruto began thinking about how much of an act Iruka was putting on with how he had acted earlier and how much he had lied to him over the years. The next sentence that came from Iruka's mouth blew all of those thoughts right out of Naruto's head as Iruka continued, "But Naruto isn't like that. Sure he makes mistakes but he works hard, even though everyone jumps on him for his mistakes but his suffering only makes him stronger, so you're wrong he's not a beast. He's Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf village."

"You're a fool," Mizuke said as he unclipped the second shuriken from his back and started spinning it in his hand. "I was hoping to save you for later but I changed my mind." Charging forward as he finished his speech Mizuke never saw the knee that connected with his chin. His overly large shuriken was sent flying into the forest.

Landing and tossing the large scroll he carried so that it landed near Iruka, Naruto narrowed his eyes and said, "lay a hand on my sensei again and you will die."

"Ha, like you could do anything to me, brat." Mizuke said as he regained his balance from being thrown back. "Just try a punk like you can't do anything to a chūnin like me, I can take you down with just one attack."

"Just try it, but I should warn you, you've already lost." Naruto said calmly before making a strange hand sign before pulling out several of the blue white kunai and throwing them. None of their paths would hit him so Mizuke just let the kunai fly past him. Pulling out one last kunai, Naruto threw it at his feet and formed one last hand sign before touching the kunai.

Chains erupted from every kunai connecting them into a box like shape around Mizuke, trapping him within it's confines. A bluish barrier snapping into place just inside the confines of the chains along with a faint blue sheen covering the ground beneath Mizuke's feet.

Panicking a bit, Mizuke shot forward and bounced off one of the walls of the barrier. Several minutes passed as Mizuke tried more and more desperately to break the barrier that he was trapped in. His chest rising and falling more and more rapidly as each attack failed. Soon he slumped to the ground in the center of the barrier. After waiting another minute Naruto let the barrier drop. Almost instantly Mizuke's breathing got better as soon as the barrier dropped. Pulling four more kunai from somewhere on himself Naruto launched them so that one was next to each of his limbs. Unzipping and reaching into his jacket there was a slight poof of smoke and his hand removed a black bladed katana with three links of chain extending from the hilt.

As Iruka saw Naruto move toward Mizuke's head with a sword in hand he just about yelled, "Naruto, what do you think you're doing?"

"Ehh, sorry sensei," Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head although he hadn't stopped circling around toward Mizuke's head. "I just don't want Mizuke waking up and escaping before the whole story gets out."

As Naruto finally got around to Mizuke's head and began moving closer and began raising his katana over his head, Iruka yelled, "Naruto, stop!"

As the blade tore home ripping into the ground Iruka had closed his eyes when because of his injuries he couldn't get around to stop it in time and didn't want to see his one time friend die in front of him. Opening his eyes when he only heard the sound of a blade cutting earth he saw the odd sight of Naruto's katana stabbed into the ground just to the left of Mizuke's neck barely nicking his throat and drawing a slight amount of blood that ran down the blade. Naruto was standing next to the katana running through hand seals somewhat slowly showing that while he knew the technique he was using it wasn't one that he had practiced extensively. Noting that it took a huge number of seals Iruka saw several among the sequence that he didn't recognize before Naruto layered his hands over each other so that his palms lined up together and a white energy surrounded them.

"Sealing style: five chained restriction seal. Seal." Naruto roared as he slapped his palms down on the sword and they moved his palms over the sides of the hilt with seals lighting up all along the blade of the katana. Chains started forming from both the katana and every one of the kunai that wrapped around the limb that they were closest to. A strong flash of light nearly blinded Iruka as it lit up the clearing to brighter than it had ever been.

As the light cleared, black markings were spreading along Mizuke's neck, wrists, and ankles. After almost a minute of the markings shifting they settled into markings circling around each of the affected limbs with a circle with the kanji for restrict facing the direction that had one of the kunai or sword was piercing the ground nearest him.

"That should hold him for awhile." Naruto said as he gather up the weapons and returned them to their hiding places and Iruka struggled to come to terms with the new information about his student. Placing his fingers into a cross shaped hand seal Naruto called out, "Shadow Clone Jutsu." and in five puffs of smoke there were now six identical orange clothed blonds. Four blonds moved over to Mizuke and positioning themselves at each of his limbs picked him up and started toward the village. The last shadow clone moved over to Iruka and helped him stand up because while Iruka wasn't injured enough that he couldn't walk his balance wasn't the best at the moment. The original grabbed the blank scroll from where he had stashed it.

After they reached the tower among a large grumbling group of chūnin and jounin Iruka was shocked when the Hokage handed Naruto a headband and congratulated him on a job well done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sfhf~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later after a number of chūnin and jounin finally moved off after finding out that not only had the stolen scroll been hidden in the Hokage's office the whole time but that the chūnin that had raised the alarm had been the real one trying to steal the scroll and that that the demon brat had a number of skills that he had kept hidden. Iruka and the Sandaime were talking about team placements as the recently graduated students teachers would normally do to help assign the new teams.

"I'm still not quite sure how Sakura managed to get the top kunochi spot when I'm looking at her file." Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage said as he looked through the files that were across his desk.

"Yes, well between the fact that this year there were only two kunochi from clans and the fangirlish tendencies that they almost all had, none of them except Hinata reached over the minimum physical limit so most of the kunochi rankings are by the bookwork and tests that are given during the year and if you'll look Sakura is very smart when it comes to bookwork." Iruka answered while scratching his nose nervously.

"Ah, yes, I see the notation in the file now." Sarutobi replied as he saw the yellow warning tape on the side of the folder. "Could you explain how she beat both Ino and Hinata from her class though?"

"Ino and Sakura were friends at one time and over time both became fan girls of Sasuke Uchiha and because of what she thought would win her Sasuke, her training suffered." Iruka began with Sarutobi nodding after a certain point as the facts clicked in his mind. "Hinata on the other hand, while she exceeded the physical requirements fro kunochi, did not meet the required level in other areas as far as we could determine. Now, there is a very high probability that it was a problem with her self confidence that caused her to score so low on the tests, but there isn't anything that we could do as we can only score students on what they decide to show in class."

"Hokage-sama, what are we going to do about Naruto because with his graduation it puts the numbers off by one." Iruka said suddenly as he had just counted the number of folders on the desk.

"Don't worry Iruka, I already noticed that problem and have a solution to it." Sarutobi said as he continued leafing through the folders on his desk idly making notes on possible teams on a paper to the right. "For now we will institute him as a one man cell under the pretext that ether more will be assigned to his team as we get more Genin in need of a team or he will be moved onto an existing team when one of their members is promoted or dies. Also for right now he won't have an assigned instructor but that will change when he ether gets more people on his team or when he is moved onto a team." as Iruka started to open his mouth to complain, Sarutobi continued, "And before you complain you need to know that even if Naruto were sent back to the academy as he has already graduated once he is no longer eligible for the orphans stipend and he would be required to work out some way to get money and this will allow him to do d-rank missions even if he doesn't pass the test that I'm going to give him to insure that he meets the requirements of a freshly graduated genin. Who knows, maybe I'll assign myself as his supervisor until he has more teammates. It would certainly get me out of this office more often even if it was just to observe his training."

The protests that Iruka had been about to make died on his lips as the sandaime partially explained his plan if Naruto were to pass the test that he was going to give him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~sfhf~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of the first chapter

Took me a long while to write this because of a great lack of motivation on my part because even though I put up the prologue up on here over a year ago I just really couldn't decide how to proceed with the story until recently. Also I did receive permission from Ackdam to use the one man team idea but as this was over a year ago I don't know if he remembers it. In the future I will probably draw a number of ideas from other fan fiction but with the number of them that I've read it is difficult to tell just where any idea comes from when it comes into my head. Anyway constructive criticism is always welcomed as are messages telling me what people like and don't like however unless I'm told what a person doesn't like about the story I cannot fix or attempt to fix it for whatever reason.

Valor