Author Note

First, I want to say thank you to everyone for reading my first fanfiction on this site. As of now, it will be of epic-length that will be subdivided into at least three books within the book itself. Bellow are the summaries for the current books.

Book 1 (ch 1-60): Starting from the formation of Team 7, watch as during their first mission Naruto meets the Kyuubi and strikes a deal with his inner demon. From there, Naruto begins his quest to understand not only the power that was sealed inside him at birth, but also his own power. Watch as he begins the journey to become what he was born to be, an Uzumaki.

Book 2 (ch 61-70): Jiraiya and Naruto have officially left on their 2-3 year long training trip. With the help of one of the Legendary Sanin, watch as Naruto grows into the ninja that he could once only dream about. However, not all is as it seems with this 'simple' training trip. A dangerous enemy with a decade-old grudge is beginning to move and Naruto will have to do everything in his power to become stronger in order to survive. Not only that, but he'll have to deal with Jiraiya's attempts to bring out his inner-perv.

Book 3 (ch 70-onward): not available yet.

This story will be rated M for violence, language, other adult content, and potential lemons during Book 3. Book 1 may be able to pass as 'T', but as the characters grow and mature, the contents of the book will as well.

This story features a stronger and more mature Naruto, but at a progressive and realistic pace. However, while he may grow into a stronger and more mature individual, Naruto is still Naruto and he will still have his moments. This also features a seal-master Naruto later on and takes a look at what it would be like if Sasuke never got the curse mark and left the village.

Pairings in this story currently are: Naru/Hina (minor development starts around ch 19 with major development around chapter 25). Sasu/Saku (begins ch 59). Shika/Tema, Neji/Ten, and Shino/Fu (these are minor pairings at the moment, but will see more development starting in book 3). Other pairings have yet to be announced or determined.

There may be minor bashing. If I do include some bashing of major characters (Konoha 12 for example) it won't last too long and is usually used in character development. I will only consistently bash those who I feel truly deserve to be bashed (council, Hyuga main branch [not including Hiashi/Hanabi/Hinata], Orochimaru, and Danzo).

Enjoy.

A/N: Hey everyone, I am currently in the process of going through and editing the spelling and grammar in this story. This will be rather timely process, so if you see a spelling mistake, please just bear with me. I am also changing the names to the Japanese arrangement (ex. Uzumaki Naruto). This was a convention that was started later in the story and I am simply making things smoother. The same thing with the underlining of jutsu names. Again, please bear with me while these changes are implemented.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters

"Normal speech"

"Normal thought"

"Demonic speech/extremely pissed off Tsunade"

"demonic thought"

Jutsu/technique

Note: Just a quick heads up, this chapter is more of a refresher on the events surrounding Naruto actually becoming a genin (aka bell test). If you do not feel like reading the Bell Test, then I suggest you skip to the next chapter where I will delve a little into some of the first missions of Naruto and his friends. However, I do suggest you read the A/N at the end of this chapter.

The Uzumaki Tales: Return of the Whirlpool

Book 1

Chapter 1: This Year's New Genin Teams

Today was the day. Today was March 5, the day that this year's class would finally end their time in the academy and become full fledge ninja of the village. The graduation exams had been held just two days ago with all but one student graduating. This student was Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto was the village prankster and the class clown. He was also considered the 'dead last' of the class and everyone thought of him and his proclaiming that he would become Hokage as a complete and utter joke. No matter how much Naruto tried, he couldn't manage to succeed for some reason. Even the simplest jutsu, such as the Clone Jutsu, were too much for Naruto and as such, Iruka was reluctantly forced to fail Naruto.

Iruka didn't want to fail the blonde child that he had become emotionally attached to, but seeing as the child had failed to perform even the simplest jutsu, was forced to decide that Naruto was not quite ready to be a ninja. Frankly, Iruka was beginning to doubt that Naruto would ever be able to graduate. And then THAT event happened.

On the evening of March 3, Naruto stole the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing as an attempt to earn some 'extra credit' and pass the exam. It was on this night that Iruka and Naruto did battle with the traitorous Mizuki, one of the now former academy teacher. It was also on this night that Naruto finally learned why his life had practically been a living hell. He was the Kyuubi no Kitsune, or rather the Kyuubi was sealed inside him.

Just under twelve years ago, the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village, resulting in many deaths and a great deal of destruction. Seeing no other way to defeat the beast, the Yondaime Hokage, the greatest shinobi of his time, sealed away the great beast into a newborn infant. This infant was Uzumaki Naruto.

Now, Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi nor was he some manifestation of the Kyuubi. The Yondaime had made one last wish that Naruto be regarded as a hero of the village for keeping the Kyuubi at bay. Unfortunately, the Yondaime's dying wish was ignored and the village began to torment the child. This upset the Sandaime Hokage, who had returned to his former position after the death of his successor, and many laws were enacted. The most notable was to forbid the village from even mentioning the Kyuubi. Unfortunately, this resulted in the village shunning Naruto, leaving him to contemplate why the village hated him. What was worse was that the child was an orphan, not knowing the love that only a parent could give him. Whenever he would ask the Sandaime about his parents, the Hokage would just bypass the answer to the question by saying they were "great people". This and the shroud of secrets surrounding Naruto only served to further the young child's misery.

And then it happened. After years of constantly failing to master even the simplest of jutsu, Naruto finally did it. In a time where his and his sensei's life, one of the few people who had actually acknowledged him, Naruto finally performed the Clone Jutsu…or rather the Shadow Clone Jutsu. This was a jonin-level technique that told Iruka enough…Naruto was in fact ready to become a ninja. As such, Iruka decided to pass Naruto, by giving him the Leaf headband off his own head.

Looking around the class room, Iruka couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of pride come to him. All 27 students in his class had managed to pass. This was a rare accomplishment that he would be sure to rub in the face of the other teachers later. He only wished that ALL of his class would become true genin.

"Alright class, I would like to congratulate you all for becoming ninja" the instructor announced. "I have your team assignments right here. After I call out your teams, you will be dismissed for the morning and report back here this afternoon to meet your new senseis."

With that Iruka began announcing the team assignments. "Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura was happy that she was on Sasuke's team, but mad that Naruto was also there. Naruto was happy for being with Sakura, but mad that he got stuck with Sasuke. Sasuke, well he hated both of them. Hinata was also a little disappointed that she would not be with Naruto. "Team 8 will be Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Team 10 will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji." The class was dismissed.

With the newly minted genin given the rest of the morning off, Naruto figured now would be a good time to ask his crush and now teammate, Haruno Sakura, to grab lunch with him. Unfortunately, this turned out like any other attempt to get to spend some time with her. She rejected him, rather harshly. It was no secret who Sakura liked as it was the same guy most of the other girls in his class. She was an avid fan girl of Naruto's other teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto didn't like Sasuke, simply because of all the attention Sasuke got and the slight rivalry the two had developed during the academy, although Naruto constantly got his ass handed to him by said Uchiha.

Unfortunately for Sakura, she was shot down just as harshly when she tried to see if Sasuke wanted to grab lunch. Instead, Sasuke simply went off to brood about some unknown issue. It was then that she realized what she was treating Naruto like...in fact, this actually got her to think about being nicer to the blonde the next time they ran into each other.

All of the genin met back at the classroom after lunch break and awaited for their new senseis to come and collect them. While the other teams left with their senseis, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were left alone in the classroom, waiting…and waiting…and waiting. They had been waiting for just over two hours before someone finally came into the room. It was their jonin sensei, who had somehow managed to fall for one of Naruto's more obvious and ridiculous traps. Naruto had wedged an eraser in the door, which would fall when the door opened. For Naruto, the trap worked perfectly and their new sensei was bonked square on the head as the eraser bounced off his gravity defying silver hair.

For their sensei, this gave him a bad fist impression. All he really said to them was "My first impression is…I don't like you" before taking them away to the roof of the academy for introductions.

Their sensei went first, introducing himself as Hatake Kakashi, a jonin in Konoha. Unfortunately, this was all Team 7 got out of their sensei as the remainder of his answers were rather…vague.

Naruto followed up. Unlike Kakashi, Naruto basically read off his autobiography for the most part, stating his dream to become Hokage and his absolute love for ramen. His hobbies included eating ramen and pulling pranks. Kakashi sent him an intriguing look, almost as if he knew Naruto from a long time ago and was slightly curious as to how the boy had grown.

Sakura was next. Like Naruto, she didn't hold back, although she really didn't say much. No, her expressions told the entire story. In short, she was a die-hard Sasuke Uchiha fangirl, who was probably only here to impress Sasuke.

Sasuke finished off the introductions. His introduction was much darker than the two before him, stating that he disliked many things and like very few things. His dream, or should I say ambition, was to kill a certain man and to rebuild his clan.

"Hmm, a ramen-obsessed failure, an emo 'avenger', and an obsessive fangirl" thought Kakashi as he made his impressions on the team sitting in front of him. Sadly, this was going to be like every other team…they would fail his exam. He hated to do it as one of the children given to him was the last member of his late friend and former teammate, Uchiha Obito, and his sensei's…well, I'm not allowed to talk about that because of the Sandaime's laws.

Kakashi gave his team the dreaded news of the actual genin exam, telling them to meet him at training ground 7 tomorrow morning at 8:00am. This test would determine if they were amongst the 33% of their class that passed the exam. Oh, and he told them not to eat breakfast or else they would throw up.

Kakashi was a lazy liar. That was Team 7's second impression of Kakashi and one that they got before beginning the exam. They were told to meet up at 8:00, but Kakashi didn't even bother showing until just after 10:00. Furthermore, the 'don't eat breakfast' part turned out to be a trick to simply make them suffer more.

Kakashi explained to them that the objective of this test was to obtain the two bells that he had tied to the side of his belt. However, because there were only two bells, only two people would pass while the third would be sent back to the academy; that is if they even managed to get a bell. Instantly, Naruto began to shout out against this, questioning the whole point of the test.

Kakashi began the exam, giving them until noon to take the bells from him. As soon as he started, Sakura and Sasuke darted off into the trees to conceal themselves like a true ninja would. As for the third member of the team, well…

"Come and fight me!" declared Naruto, not even bothering to hide himself.

"Baka" both Sasuke and Sakura though, observing Naruto from their hiding spots.

Naruto charged as the one-eyed jonin only to halt when Kakashi reached into his back pouch for what seemed like a weapon. To Naruto slight disappointment, it was an orange-colored book titled 'Icha Icha Paradise'. After overcoming his initial confusion, Naruto resumed his attack, hoping to teach the jonin a lesson for underestimating him. Kakashi managed to dodge ever single blow with minimal effort, if even that, not even having to take his eye off the book.

"A ninja isn't supposed to get caught from behind, idiot" Kakashi said, appearing in a crouching position behind Naruto. Kakashi made a quick hand seal as Naruto tried to react in time. "Too late. Hidden Technique: 1000 Years of Pain!" Naruto was sent flying while Sakura and Sasuke just looked on in embarrassment. All Kakashi had really done was poke Naruto in the ass, sending him flying into the stream in the training ground.

"You sure are weak for someone wanting to become Hokage" taunted Kakashi as it became obvious that the blonde wasn't surfacing anytime soon.

"Shut it you! I'm going to make you acknowledge me!" shouted Naruto as half a dozen Narutos burst out of the water. For the first time since meeting his team, Kakashi was actually slightly surprised. Even Sasuke and Sakura were amazed by the fact that Naruto had managed to pull off this many clones…and not just normal clones, but physical ones.

"You still can't beat me with that jutsu" Kakashi said as the eight Naruto's charged at Kakashi. Before he knew it, a seventh Naruto had grabbed Kakashi from behind.

"Weren't ninjas not supposed to get caught from behind? Right Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said ironically. "Here comes revenge for poking my ass like that!"

Even Sasuke admitted that Naruto had come up with a decent plan. Naruto made a fist and punched Kakashi, only to realize that he had punched one of his clones. Before anyone knew what was happening, the Naruto's were beating up each other. Kakashi had used a Substitution Jutsu to get out of that mess.

Naruto spent the next few minutes trying to find where Kakashi went. To his delight, he found one of the bells sitting by the base of a tree. "Hehe, he dropped a bell" Naruto said, reaching for the bell. Next thing he knew, he was pulled into the air by a rope. He had just walked right into a trap. Kakashi then appeared and picked up the bell. One down, two to go.

Seeing his opening, Sasuke unleashed a barrage of shuriken upon Kakashi. All of them hit their mark as Kakashi was pinned into a nearby tree with half a dozen shuriken sticking out of his head.

"Poof!" Kakashi turned into a log, using a Substitution Jutsu to avoid any damage. Sasuke was cursing as he had just given up his position. Panicking, Sasuke bolted out of his hiding spot as Sakura did the same, not wanting to lose sight of her crush.

Sakura quickly lost sight of Sasuke, only to find herself in Kakashi's trap.

"Hello Sakura" said Kakashi, appearing behind her as she was caught in a swirl of leaves. The next thing Sakura saw was a beaten and bruised Sasuke crawling out of the bushes, roughly a few dozen kunai and shuriken sticking out of her body. And then he collapsed to the ground….dead. Sakura cried out in horror as she lost consciousness due to the genjutsu placed on her. Two down, one Uchiha left.

Kakashi moved to the next clearing, tripping a wire and sending a barrage of knives at him. He easily dodged the trap that Sasuke must have set for him. When Kakashi recovered, he quickly found himself engaged in a taijutsu battle with Sasuke. Kakashi easily repelled Sasukes attacks and Sasuke was forced to resort to something Kakashi really was not expecting.

"Fire-style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" shouted Sasuke. Genin fresh out of the academy weren't supposed to know jutsu on this level. It was surprising that Naruto knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but the fact that Sasuke also knew an advanced jutsu…he was beginning to hate the fact that he would be forced to fail them in less than an hour now.

The flames died down and Sasuke couldn't see any sign of Kakashi anywhere, that is until a pair of arms came shooting up out of the ground, dragging Sasuke into the ground so that he was buried up to his head. Three down.

Shortly after, the three academy students found themselves back at the posts with Kakashi facing them. Sasuke and Sakura were sitting against two posts and Naruto had somehow managed to get himself tied to one post.

Kakashi gave them a quick lecture about not working together, emphasizing his point by telling Sakura to kill Naruto or he would kill Sasuke. He didn't actually mean it, but it was just to help prove his point. Kakashi agreed to give the three one more chance, as long as they did not share their lunch with Naruto.

After much complaining, Sasuke decided to go against Kakashi's rule and offered Naruto his lunch. Sakura quickly followed and Kakashi caught them in the act.

The three of them prepared themselves for the punishment and Kakashi delivered. They passed. They were now officially ninja of Konoha.

Yuhi Kurenai had been assigned to Team 8, consisting of Hinata, Shino, and Kiba. Like the other jonin, she had been tasked with determining whether or not her team had the potential to become an actual team of shinobi.

Hinata was the current heir of the Hyuga clan, currently the most powerful clan in Konoha; however, her father had labelled her as a failure due to her lack of skills and her shy and timid nature. As such, her father, Hiashi, had assigned Kurenai to watch over Hinata since a few years ago while he shifted most of his attention to his younger daughter, Hanabi. Kurenai wasn't too fond of the treatment Hinata had received at home and she was sure her father still cared for his daughter. However, clan politics had gotten in the way of what's best for Hinata. Kurenai took this as a challenge, determined to make Hinata into a kunoichi that the Hyuga clan would regret casting aside. It was for this sole reason that she would most likely pass her team, even before she tested them.

Kiba was the younger of the two children in the Inuzuka's main family. For years, the Inuzukas were renown through Konoha for producing some of the best hunter ninjas in the shinobi world. Their relationships with dogs made them ideal for tracking and their own senses were more beast-like as well. Kiba's own sense of smell was about 100x more powerful than humans, not nearly as strong as a dogs, but still…

Shino was the final member of her team. He was the clan heir to the Aburame clan. The Aburame were, in a sense, outcasted by some of the population of Konoha as they lived in symbiosis with insects, allowing the insects to live inside their own body. However, much of the shinobi population knew of the potential the Aburames possessed and as such, they had a great deal of respect for the clan. Shino's knowledge of the insect world and ability to make use of the faint chemical signals found in insect pheromones made him a valuable member in a team that was destined to become a great tracking team, if not the best.

Kurenai saw the potential in this team to be great. She would put very little effort in testing them as she was pretty much set on passing them the moment she was assigned this team.

Sarutobi Asuma had been assigned to the clan heirs of the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans, as per tradition. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were the selected members of each clan who were destined to form the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Konoha's legendary combo rivalled only by the Raikage and his brother in terms of teamwork.

Ino was, and still was, one of Sasuke biggest fangirls. Like all the other Sasuke fangirls, this held back her own potential. If she could just focus more on her shinobi career and less on the last Uchiha, she would be one hell of a kunoichi.

Shikamaru, like the rest of the male populous in his clan, was extremely lazy yet possessed superior intelligence that was seen nowhere else. Like Ino, Shikamaru had immense potential, but he held himself back as it would be too much effort for him to care about much else.

Chouji was the final member of his team. Chouji was the heir of the Akimichi clan. The main problem with Chouji however, is that he cared more for food than shinobi training. Sadly, this was common in the Akimichi clan.

Asuma would likely pass this team as well without much evaluation. He knew the three of them were destined to work together, like the generations before them. All he had to do was to get them out of their own little worlds and start working together. Once that happened, his team would be a force to be reckoned with.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, gathered all of the jonin instructors assigned to this year's class. Like in the past, there was only about a 33% pass rate for all of the teams. In particular, the most notable team that passed was Kakashi's team. He had been assigned to test genin teams for the past 7 years and all of them had failed, miserably. However, this team had managed to pass. Many jonin credited it to the fact that the Uchiha was assigned to him. Out of the nearly 1000 students who graduated this year, only 300 (or 100 teams) were actually going to become genin.

Author Note (warning: potential spoilers)

So here is the REVISED first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

Just a quick note, if you have read or seen the cannon up until the Fourth Shinobi War, the Allied Shinobi Forces had numbers ranging around 80,000 between all five villages and the Land of Iron's samurai. With Konoha being one of the larger nations, I have estimated that its shinobi forces number around 15,000-17,000. As such, I find it highly unlikely that only 9 new ninja are added to the force each year. This was kind of hinted in cannon when they only focused on Naruto's class. I will only be focusing primarily on the 9 genin who graduated from Naruto's class of 27 students, but please be aware that there were many other classes than graduated at the same time as Naruto and his class. As such, this makes the number of new genin more realistic. Now, there are other paths to becoming a shinobi, but the academy is the path that most ninja take towards becoming a Konoha shinobi.

While Konoha won't be quite as large, there will be a population of around 25,000-30,000 with a ninja population of around 10,000. I'll explain this later on.

I hope this clears up a few things right off the bat.

I hope you enjoyed. Reviews and Comments greatly appreciated.

Edit (3/5/13): Some minor formatting and A/N changes

Edit (3/18/13): A/N changes and formatting.

Edit (5/8/13): Spelling, grammar, and formatting changes