Title: Legacy Namikaze

Summary: Post Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Upset by the treatment of Konoha, Naruto decides to cut his losses and framed his death on a mission. A few years later, Akatsuki is on the move- along with a mysterious organization led by a boy holding an eerie resemblance with the deceased blonde. Parings undecided.

A/N: This is my first attempt at a fic so be kind haha. In this fic, Naruto is portrayed as smarter (No, not SuperStrong!Naruto) but tactically more intelligent. There will be some grammar errors but I will try to fix them up- indicating where they are and constructive criticism are appreciated! This is an extremely short chapter- only about 1, 600 words but that is because it is more of an introduction. This chapter is sorta strange but bear with me it gets better okay?

Disclaimer: I would try to bribe Naruto into my possession but continuing the series would be a problem, so for now, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. (Haha, just you wait Kishimoto! It will be mine soon!)

"Talking" 'Thoughts' "Biju speaking/shouting"

Chapter 1: Discovery

All his life, Naruto had yearned for respect and affection. The glares and the whispers and scorn never affected the jinchūriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. Not outwardly anyway. Despite what people thought, he wasn't stupid. He was aware that he was dense at times and by no means was he the smartest of the generation either. And what Naruto knew was that he was smarter than he let on. Naruto would by no means consider himself a prodigy and learning from scrolls and books took a lot more effort on his part than one usually would. It was on the field his quick thinking to conjure up terribly effective plans made him what one would call a battle genius.

Genius- he hated the word. It only served to place people on a pedestal and let others look an in awe at as they excelled ahead of their peers as many looked on in jealousy. Dead last, a common label regularly associated with the blonde. To Uzumaki Naruto, he could care less. Growing up people thought of him as a prankster and trouble maker. And for him, it was always easier to pretend, play along with what people expected of him and no one would be the wiser.

Regardless of his happy-go-lucky attitude, he was not blind to the villagers hate and accusation towards him either. For him, it was just easier to ignore and keep on smiling- act like nothing happened and continue on his merry way. He thought that after time, the glares would lessen and dislike of him would minimise but bringing (in this case dragging) back a bloody and beat up Uchiha through the front gates of Konoha seemed to give them all the more reason to show their animosity towards the poor boy. He hated it.

He was an orphan, a jinchūriki, a 'monster', a 'demon'. All he wanted was love. Was it too much to ask for?

To the civilians of Konoha- it was.

"Dobe." Naruto barely spared his teammate a glance as he continued to guzzle down the multiple bowls of ramen Iruka-sensei and 'Baa-chan' had kindly bought for him, it seemed that his appetite did not diminish even though he was in the hospital.

After several minutes of silence (with the exception of slurping noises) Naruto put down the final bowl of ramen before huffing a reply, "What now Sasuke-Teme?"

"Hn."

"Don't 'hn' me! Gah, what is it with you and your monosyllables? Can't you even hold a simple conversation?"

"I never knew monosyllables was in your vocabulary in the first place, seems surprising that you even know how to use it in a proper context," The raven replied shortly, much to the growing irritation of the blond. Obviously, it wasn't a good idea to place two ninjas in the same hospital room considering only days before they had tried to kill each other.

Naruto was about to give an angry retort when the door slid open, revealing the nurse that was supposedly looking after them. She directed a cold stare to the blonde, "Brat. You're free to go once you have a last checkup. It's with Shizune-" She was abruptly cut off by a cheer from the blond boy.

"Yes! Y'know you should've released me earlier because it was so boring with the Teme, he doesn't even hold a decent conversation! Oh, and tell Baa-chan thanks for the ramen dattebayo!" He rambled while throwing off the thin white covers and dashing out of the room.

The nurse then turned towards the room's other occupant; "Now then, I hope that dem-boy wasn't too disturbing." She smiled pleasantly towards the Uchiha before muttering curses after the blonde boy and took off, heels clacking noisily down the hospital hallway leaving a puzzled Sasuke.

"What type of prank did the dobe pull to anger the staff that much?" He asked incredulously.

As Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha back towards his apartment he kept a large smile on and strode through as confidently as possible.

"Sweety, don't go near him, you heard what the demon did to the poor Uchiha- imagine what he would do to you so be careful," A mother said as she steered her child away from the jinchūriki while giving him a heated glare.

"I bet it was his fault the Uchiha left, who would stand being around him…" Another sneered as they gave an 'accidental' shove to the boy.

'They would never understand,' Naruto thought glumly to himself as he continued smiling all the while on the outside. 'It hurts…'

THWACK.

Naruto stumbled slightly as he felt a rock make contact with the back of his head as he heard quiet snickers and murmurs around him. He brought his hand up to his head and supressed a sigh as he saw blood on his hand before taking a sharp turn into a deserted alley and deciding to travel via roofs.

"Always, always my fault," Naruto mumbled. "Can't they see that the kunai is not the scroll in which it is sealed? Oh wait- civilians wouldn't know the workings of fuinjutsu (Sealing), my bad." He told himself sarcastically.

Naruto soon found himself in front of the Hokage Mountain. Gazing up he suppressed a wave of nostalgia.

"My face will be on that mountain one day! Just you wait old man dattebayo!" Naruto aged 8 had declared to the Sandaime and grandfather figure.

"Yes, I know you will." The Hokage had replied to the boy. "But for now, will you be forgiving of the villagers?"

Naruto frowned slightly as he subconsciously rubbed his injured shoulder from the attacks. "S'pose I will, it'll be my first step to becomin' Hokage!"

The elderly man laughed good-naturedly. "Jiji, why do they…y'know, hate me so much?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled sadly. "They are idiotic and blinded by their stupidity Naruto, remember that whatever happens, never think of yourself as either a demon or a monster."

"Will do!" The blond chirped in reply.

Naruto let his face go blank as his thoughts took a darker turn.

"Monster."

"Demon."

"Murderer."

Over the years Naruto had learnt to forgive the civilians. Yet, every now and then he would feel the lingering touch of hate overcome him.

"I'm not a monster!" A badly beaten Uzumaki Naruto shouted.

"Well? Who are you then?" the mob had sneered.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be the strongest Hokage of Konoha! Believe it!"

"Don't try to fool us you murderer."

"I'm not!" The blonde had protested, "I didn't kill anyone I swear!"

Yet the crowd had not listened. It was that Naruto learned the hard way- crying got him nowhere and labelled as weak and a crybaby. It was easier to play the fool.

Soon Naruto had reached the top of the Yondaime's head. He was tired and emotionally drained. Sleepy, Naruto leant against the mountain was he sat atop the Yondaime's head and let sleep overcome him.

It was a couple of hours later he woke and after a few minutes of internal debating, decided to head back to his apartment. Unfortunately (Or fortunately as Naruto later found out), there was a large rock in the way as Naruto made his way off the Yondaime's head in which the rock helped Naruto get friendly with the ground beneath him- by tripping and consequently faceplanting him.

"Well shit," he swore as he brushed himself off before picking up the rock and attempting to fling it off the Cliffside, key word being attempted. As Naruto was about to hurl the stone, a strange engraving on the bottom of it caught his eye. He peered closer, it wasn't just an engraving and rather it was a seal.

'A real complex one at that,' Naruto thought as he examined it. The markings were extremely accurate and precise, most likely done by a skilled shinobi and he could make out some of the characters. "The characters for 'find', 'track' and 'chakra' are on there, meaning that it's most likely a modified tracking seal…" He recalled listening to Iruka-sensei talking about basic seals and was surprised he could remember the lesson on seals quite clearly.

The blonde frowned, if it was a tracking seal, what was it doing on the bottom of a rock? He felt excitement sparking inside him, "That means it's gotta be here to track another seal with a similar design down!" Looking really closely, he could feel a faint hum run through the rock- it meant the other seal was in a nearby vicinity. Naruto crouched down and ran the rock over sections of the Yondaime's head to see if the humming got any stronger which it did. He stared when the rock came into contact with an area near the back of the top of the Yondaime's head and watched as the rock vibrated violently signalling that obviously the seal's counterpart was there. He continued to observe as the seal markings seemed to peel off the rock and form another seal on the surface nearby.

"Hm, this one has the character for 'blood' and 'family' along with 'heritage' and a binding seal placed on top and secured with another weird seal thing…A blood seal perhaps? But what's it doing here?" Naruto felt his brows furrowing before a grin filled his face. This place was not commonly used in Konoha and he was sure the creator wouldn't mind if Naruto tried out to see if the seal worked. Hand grasping at his upper leg only to find no kunai pouch (seeing as he was recently discharged from the hospital and had left his ninja gear at home) he sighed and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood. Naruto smeared it over the centre of the seal and waited. And waited. Nothing happened.

Feeling rather disappointed that no explosions or glowing arrays appeared he simply huffed. Not that he was expecting the seal to work but it was worth a try. His train of thought was un-elegantly 'de-railed' when a soft, barely audible hissing could be heard.

"Wha-!" Naruto could only stare at the seal which seemed to now distort before his eyes. The kanji and characters disappeared one by one to be replaced by what appeared to be a summoning array in which a small box of scrolls and and two elegant katana appeared on top.

It wasn't the fact that it worked or the fact that the katana were indescribably breath-taking, no, he stood there gaping at the box which held three neatly inscribed words on the lid:

To Namikaze Naruto

Note: Chapter 2 is done so I'll put it up in a couple of days~

And Done! First chapter up and it's 1.30 am so I should be getting to bed now haha;; There will be more on what happened during the Sasuke Retrieval Mission and yes, in this fic it was successful and Sasuke was brought home by Naruto. This is more or less a starting chappy and the next few will go into detail about Sakura and the rest of the Rookie Nine along with what Naruto plans to do ufufufu. Well, hate it? Like it? Drop a review please? (Try not to flame please though D: 'tis not good) Yeah, no action (how sad) but there will be some coming later on ^^

~Nhazun