Starting Anew

The next morning Naruto woke up early feeling fresh as a daisy, despite having been up late last night helping deal with a traitor and the shocking revelations that followed. He stood up and stretched out, working out some of the kinks he had gotten from the night before, and after that he started to get ready for the day, getting showered, getting dressed, eating his ramen and then heading for the library.

As he walked down the street Naruto ignored the glares and mutterings sent his way. While they still kind of bothered him, he refused to let it get to him in anyway. Now that he knew why he was hated, he was more determined to make them see that he wasn't some demon. That he was a proud shinobi of Konoha.

He would start by following his grandfather figures advice and start getting stronger and smarter. Hence the reason he was heading to the library to study. He didn't much like the idea of studying, but he had promised Sarutobi as a future Hokage so he had to go through with it. And if there was one thing Naruto would never do, it was going back on his word.

Who knows, maybe it would actually help.

Naruto entered the library and looked around, feeling his eyes widen at the sight before him. He had never been to the library before and was amazed at how large the place was. There were about four stories in the library all together, and all along the walls and in isles going down the library were books, loads and loads of books.

It was giving him a headache just looking at them.

Just as Naruto was about to make his way towards the ninja section of the library, he was stopped by the custodian.

"I am going to have to ask you to leave Boy," the custodian, a woman who looked to be in her mid-fifties said, spitting out the word boy with venom.

Naruto's first desire was to jump at the woman and start yelling about how she couldn't kick him out. However he had promised Ojisan that he would be an amazing ninja and ninja were mature and did not lose their emotions over something as simple as this. Instead he merely looked at the woman calmly as he spoke. "Listen lady, I happen to be a Shinobi of Konoha, and it's illegal to bar me entrance into the library." To emphasis his point Naruto pointed to his head band, making the woman pale a bit.

"Of course, if you feel this is still a problem I am sure that I could escort you to see Hokage-oj-Sama and we can work it out with him." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, he had almost called the Hokage Ojisan, but that would not sound good if he called the Hokage that right now, after all most people could never get away with calling the most powerful ninja in the village an old man.

The woman took a step back in shock for a second, unsure what to do in this situation. The boy had never actually come to the library before so this had not really been a pressing issue. However, like people who worked at other places she did not want the demon to be in her presence, or in the vicinity of stores of knowledge that could potentially help it shed its human flesh. She soon realized however, there was nothing she could do. It was well known that the Hokage was quite partial with the boy, and would favor him over her. Scowling she turned around and left but not before giving him some 'advice'. "Fine you can stay, though I suggest you take care when reading child. Should any of these books be out of place or damaged in any way I'm holding you responsible."

Naruto snorted as the woman walked off. Seriously, did she think someone like her could scare the great Uzumaki Naruto with such a lame threat? Shaking his head now that the crisis was averted Naruto made his way to the shinobi section of the library. He put his hands in a ram seal and created five kage bunshin's.

"Alright, I want you guys to grab some books and check them out, anything you can find on chakra, seals, taijutsu and basic shinobi skills will be fine. Also, find a book on… politics, whatever that is, Jisan said it was important for a Hokage to know so I need to know it. Bring them back home and start reading them."

"Wait, what will you be doing?" asked one of the clones, angry that his creator was shoving off his reading on them.

"I'm going to go shopping," Naruto said. He hated that he was going to get new clothes, but again, he had promised Ojisan that he would get new clothes, and the man had made a point. After all, he wanted people to take him seriously, and if this would help then so be it. "After all if I want to be a good shinobi I have to look cool too."

Naruto sighed as he was kicked out of another store. Walking off Naruto tried to think of a way to get into a store. Unlike the library, which was owned by the government, Aka the Hokage, the stores were all civilian owned, so they could kick him out if they did not want to do business with him. Which basically meant every store he had gone to had kicked him out, not wanting to sell anything to the Kyuubi brat.

Looking around the blond found a store that looked fairly non-descript, the only sign that told him it was for shinobi was the rather large kunai symbol above the door and the sign that read 'Higarashi Weapon Shop'. Deciding to give this place a try Naruto walked in.

Looking around the first thing Naruto noticed was that whoever owned this place had an obvious love for weapons. There were racks upon racks of weapons lining the entire shop. Swords, Staffs, Scythes it seemed that anything anyone could name was there. He had never seen so many different weapons in one place ever, and some of these weapons he had never seen at all. It was enough to make even someone like Naruto, who knew next to nothing about weapons, drool.

"Can I help you?"

Naruto stiffened and almost shouted as he spun around. Behind him was a young girl that was maybe a year older than him, wearing a Chinese style pink tank top, dark green cargo pants and had her hair done up in two buns. To Naruto they made her kind of look like a panda. Or a mouse. Naruto did his best not to snicker at the thought.

"Helloooo?" Naruto blinked as the girl waved a hand in front of his face.

"Um… what?" Naruto said, blushing in embarrassment as he took a step back and put a hand behind his head.

The girl just looked at him before she rolled her eyes at the kid's inattentiveness and shrugged. "I was asking if you needed help finding anything?"

"Erm…" Naruto blinked in surprise. "You work here?"

"That's right!" the girl said. "My name is Higarashi Tenten. My father owns this store so I come in and help when I'm not on missions."

"You're a ninja then?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yep, I've been a ninja for about a year now," Tenten replied.

"That's awesome!" Naruto stated with a large grin. "I just graduated…" he blinked as he remembered why he was here. "You know you can help me, I was looking into getting some new clothes!"

"I can see why," Tenten said with an amused smirk. "Your clothes are hideous."

"Hey!" Naruto said, feeling the need to defend his clothes. "These clothes are warm and comfortable and-"

"Ugly," Tenten finished with a grin, "seriously who wears orange?"

"I like orange!" Naruto shouted indignantly. Seriously, what was it with people continuing to diss on the color orange? It was the best color in the world! "It's my favorite color!"

"Even so, it's not a very good color for a ninja." Tenten replied, finding the boys defensiveness amusing. "Especially when it's so bright."

Naruto clenched his fists a bit as he resisted the urge to yell. Remember your promise to Ojisan. Naruto had to remind himself. You promised to act like a real shinobi, and real shinobi do not get upset over things like this. Damn him for making me promise this! He's so lucky I promised not to do anymore pranks or I would be pranking his ass into next week! He took a deep breath before letting it out. Feeling a little more in control Naruto looked back at Tenten. "Look can you help me with my clothes or not?" Naruto asked when he felt he had calmed down sufficiently.

"Sure," Tenten replied, amused by Naruto's reaction. She took him over to the clothing section of the store. "So what are you looking for exactly?" she asked.

Naruto thought about what he wanted to look like. He needed something that made him look cool and added a mysterious persona to him. Something that screamed powerful and awesome! Something...

"You know… I'm not sure," he said sheepishly. "I've never really shopped for clothes before so…" He had actually tried clothes shopping once when he was six and had just gotten an apartment, however the store owners had kicked him out before he could actually shop, that had actually been the same day he found his jumpsuits in the trash after the same store he tried to shop from had thrown them away.

"You're kidding right?" Tenten looked at him incredulously. When he shook his head she sighed. "Then it looks like we're just going to have to see what works." She pulled him over to the clothing section of the store, where she began grabbing different styles of clothes and then making him change into many styles she gave him, essentially turning him into a life sized dress up doll.

Eventually she found a style that fit. Now Naruto was wearing dark black shinobi pants that tucked into a pair of black steel toed combat boots instead of shinobi sandals. He had a black sleeveless Chinese style shirt like hers but with a dark orange trim, she had tried to talk him out of wearing any orange but was unsuccessful in getting the blond to completely rid himself of his favorite color. At least there was less orange then before and it was in a darker tone then his jumpsuit had been. His hands were covered in fingerless gloves that had metal knuckles that he could channel chakra through to increase the damage done. His arms were also covered in black bandages up to his biceps. Over this Tenten threw on a black cloak that covered his form down to the ankles. Lastly she changed the strap to his head band, giving it a long black fabric that went down to his knees.

"There, you look much better now," Tenten said, smiling at him. Indeed he did look much better, now that she was seeing him without all the orange he actually looked cute. "Now you like a real shinobi."

"You think so?" Naruto blushed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Of course! So will that be all?" Tenten asked.

"Yes I-" Naruto paused for a moment and his eyes glazed over as the memories of one of his clones hit him.

"Hello, anybody home?" Tenten asked at seeing the blond space out again. This kid is so weird.

"Actually I do need some more things," Naruto said, turning his attention back to Tenten who was looking at him with her head tilted. "First do you have any training weights I can buy?"

"Of course," Tenten said, leading Naruto over to one section of the store. She went up to a shelf and grabbed a box. "This has a two pair set of training weights, one for the arms and one for the legs. To change their weight you just channel chakra into them and to release the weights you just hold your hand in the release seal and say 'kai'."

Naruto nodded at the explanation as he grabbed the box in her hand. "Next up I need a standard set of kunai, shuriken, explosive notes, smoke bombs, and ninja wire, flash tags, a sealing scroll to put it all in and…" Naruto closed his eyes as the information of another clone hit him, this was going to take some getting used to. "And a Bo staff."

"A bo staff huh? Well you're in luck because we have all of those things." Tenten said, once more leading him around the store. "Now then what kind of staff are you looking for?" she asked as she grabbed some of the other equipment he had asked for.

Naruto blinked as he went through the information of his clone. "It needs to be made of a light material, but have heavier ends for added force, if I can get something that has studs or some kind of protrusions to do more damage that would be awesome too. And I want to be able to channel chakra through it."

"Wow, that's quite a detailed item you want."

"GAH/KYA!"

Both Naruto and Tenten yelled as they spun around.

Naruto found himself staring at a bull of man. Large and built like brick shit house. The man had muscles on every part of his body that Naruto could see; he even had muscles on his muscles! He had brown hair and brown eyes much like Tenten. He was wearing an off white shirt, brown pants and a pair of brown boots.

"Damn it tou-san!" Tenten shouted as she clutched a hand to her chest. "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me? And especially when I'm with a customer!"

Tenten's dad merely laughed, "Ah take it easy Tenten. Beside aren't you ninja supposed to be more aware of your surroundings?"

"Do you want to be used as target practice again?" Tenten asked with a maniacal gleam in her eyes and had one of her hands inside her kunai pouch.

Her dad merely sweat dropped before he coughed and turned his attention to Naruto. "So I heard what you want. That's a pretty descriptive weapon. Your fortunate that I have just the thing!"

Naruto watched with a mixture of shock and weariness as the man led him and Tenten to the back room, which turned out to be a forge. Getting a ladder the large man positioned it above a shelf and climbed up. Not finding what he was looking for, he got off and repeating this process several more times.

"I know I put it somewhere… but where- Ah hah! Here we are!" the man said as he came back down the ladder with a large object that was wrapped in cloth. "This was actually custom made for someone else, but well, he had died before I could give it to him. Since it's just been collecting dust over the years, I figured I may as well get rid of it."

Naruto and Tenten followed the large man back to the front where he rang Naruto up.

"Now all that stuff you got there will come to around 10,000 yen," Tenten's dad said.

Naruto cringed a bit but got out the necessary money, it would put him back by a lot, especially since he would no longer be able to gain a stipend from the Hokage since he was a ninja. That meant he would have to find some other way to get food, so he could use the money he had left to pay for utilities.

"Um… I think you missed the staff sir," Naruto said as he realized that the staff should be a lot more expensive then all of his other stuff combined.

"Nah, it's good," the man gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "You can have it to commemorate your first time shopping here."

Tenten gasped, her father had never given anything away, ever. Yet he had just given what Tenten could tell was one of her father's finest pieces of work, and to someone he just met!

Naruto was even more shocked, this man had to know about his status as the Kyuubi container, there was no possible explanation for him not to know. Ojisan had told him that everyone who was old enough to remember that night knew of his status. Yet here he was giving him something that looked like it had taken more time and effort to make then all the time and effort that Naruto had put into all of his pranks combined.

"Why?" Naruto asked in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "You know who I am…" both Tenten and her dad saw Naruto's hand unconsciously go to his stomach, one looked at him with understanding while the other was just confused.

"Because I'm not like most of the fools in this village kid," the brown haired man smirked at the blond. "Besides it's not like I'm giving this away for free!" Naruto looked up at him. "I expect you to come here for all your shinobi needs!"

Naruto looked at the man with shock; he realized that this man was also someone he could count on to see him for who he was and not what he held. He gave the two there one of his most brilliant smiles. "Thanks mister…"

"Kaito," the man replied.

"Thanks Kaito-san," Naruto bowed before grabbing his equipment and running off with a grin. "I'll make sure this staff becomes famous when I'm Hokage!" he yelled out as he left.

Tenten looked over at her father in undisguised curiosity. "What was that about?" she asked.

"Nothing that concerns you for now Tenten," Kaito replied as he looked at where the blond left.

Minato, Kushina, I hope that this will help your legacy grow; it's all I can do for him…

(The Next Day…)

The next day found Naruto in a training field working on several different shinobi aspects. He had summoned around one hundred clones to help him and had them divided into groups of twenty five.

The first group was working on chakra control, from what Naruto's clones had read yesterday, the whole reason he could not do a standard Bunshin was because he had extremely large reserves and next to no control, at least, that was the theory he had come up with from what he read. So he would need to fix that by getting better control.

Right now they were working on the leaf floating exercise, the first and most basic exercise. It was basically floating a leaf over the palm of their hands and making it spin. It was just in one hand at the moment, but Naruto eventually planned on increasing the amount of leaves that he could spin, figuring that the more leaves he could float at the same time, the better his control would be. It was not in the scroll he had read, but Naruto had always been innovative when coming up with pranks, and that ability was easily carried on into other aspects of his life and career if he actually set his mind to it. He wanted to at some point be able to spin a leaf on each finger at the same time, rather than using his palms before he moved on to tree climbing, which was the next exercise he saw when he had skipped to the intermediate chakra control book, just to see what it held of course.

Another group of clones was working on his taijutsu, in the academy he had been told the wrong stances by Mizuki-teme, who had been in charge of the taijutsu lessons, and so he really had no style, fighting more like a brawler then anything. He had originally grabbed a scroll on the basic academy taijutsu style. However he soon found that even with how simple they were, the style simply didn't fit him for some reason. It was odd because he had only started working on it today. But for some reason it felt… wrong, was the best way he could describe it. Like his body type just didn't have what the style called for, or maybe that his mind set did not work for it. Whatever the case the style did not work and he had to find another one.

Thankfully, his clones had found several other styles that they felt would be useful, he planned to learn them all so that he could find out which style would work best and eventually, combine the styles into something that he could call his own style, which would be totally awesome, and then he could shove it in Sasuke-teme's face that he had created his own style.

One of the things he had read (his clones had read) that lead to his decision to eventually create his own style was the knowledge that most shinobi stick with one style that suited them, and only one style. But Naruto had read from one of the basic scrolls that certain styles worked better against other styles, like the Uchiha Clan's fighting style worked well against most styles but was particularly good against styles that relied on taijutsu techniques that they could copy and use against their opponents. But it was susceptible to styles that relied on being faster than your opponent, and styles that relied on unpredictable and un-telegraphed movement. He figured that with the Kage Bushin he could learn them all, even if he was not proficient with them and turn them into something better.

Right now he was learning a style called Muay Thai, a style that relied on stand up striking along with various clincher techniques. The taijutsu was also known as the 'Art of Eight Limbs' because it relied on punches, kicks, knee strikes and elbow strikes rather than just fist and feet. So far this style was the one he was most comfortable with, since it was a more of a straight forward style and Naruto was always a bit of a brawler. Once he got this style down he would start building his own around this one once he started adding other styles to it.

Another group was working with his new staff, he had found an old boujutsu scroll and had decided that a good weapon would help him get stronger. He had decided on the staff because of his admittedly short reach (something he hoped to rectify soon). Like his taijutsu clones they were going through the style katas slowly at the moment, making sure that the muscle memory would be engraved in their minds for when they transferred.

There was only really one problem with using Kage Bushin to train in a physical activity like taijutsu and weapons training. They could learn the kata's of a style due to the fact that muscle memory was a mental faculty, but without a proper sparring partner it would only do so much. He could completely master all of the kata's in a style, yet even then, if he were faced with an opponent with more experience than him, he would lose. Still, at the very least this would mean that he could make his taijutsu as impeccable as possible before he found a sparring partner to really get better.

His last group was divided into two. One group was reading, most of it was on chakra theory, the use of hand seals, trap making, fuiinjutsu and various other shinobi aspects, all of them were beginner books written to teach the basics. The other group was working his calligraphy.

Naruto had decided that he was going to be better than all the Hokage's, and had figured that surpassing the Yondaime in what he was best known for would be the best way to show how just how awesome he really was. The first thing Naruto had learned about the complex art of sealing was that it required a steady hand, and absolutely perfect brush strokes. One wrong mark on a seal and the results could be… explosive. This meant he had to work on his calligraphy, because even if he did not want to admit it, his hand writing sucked.

So Naruto had been forced to delegate a group of clones to getting better hand writing. It was a basic skill he needed to learn, and while it sucked, he remembered Sarutobi's advice about basics being the fundamental stepping stone into more advanced stuff.

At least he was pretty sure that was what he had said. The man had talked so much when he had been giving advice that Naruto was not sure he got it all.

Meanwhile Naruto himself worked on the physical aspects of his training. He would start off with laps around the training field he had chosen, training ground forty three, a training ground right next to the Forest of Death, not that he knew that, since it was completely secluded. He was currently doing twenty laps around the training ground, with his added weights which were at twenty pounds for his wrist bracers, and thirty pounds for his legs, even he got tired. He planned on increasing the amount of laps he could do within one hour to increase his speed. He also did fifty push-ups, fifty sit ups, fifty pull ups on one of the trees, one hundred squats, one hundred log punches with each fist and one hundred kicks with each leg.

And that was his morning routine.

Naruto found himself laying on the ground as he panted, exhaustion actually setting in. it was an odd feeling, he reflected. Naruto had never really felt tired before, something he was beginning to suspect he got from the Kyuubi. Oh sure, sometimes he could get sleepy but never from lack of energy. Right now he was really exhausted.

With a sigh Naruto sat up, he was done with his morning workout but he still had half a day left. Turning to his clones Naruto gave the order to dispel.

Unfortunately they all decided to dispel at once, even with his enhanced healing factor Naruto could not withstand one hundred clones dispelling at the same time, which when combined with his exhaustion from his new morning routine, ended up knocking the blond unconscious.

It was nearly an hour later when Naruto woke up, looking at the sky and sighing in relief as he realized not much time had passed. Promising himself to make his clones dispel in groups to avoid the massive headache next time, Naruto stood up and made a few more clones.

"Go hunting and see if you can find something to eat," Naruto said. He was getting hungry and needed some food, with his money nearly gone from clothes shopping, Naruto did not want to waste it trying to get a decent meal.

While his clones did that Naruto set about to making a fire pit, digging out a small ditch before collecting rocks and putting them in a circle around it. He gathered some dried wood and put the pieces in the middle of the pit. With that done Naruto went through a few hand seals and used a small Katon (Fire Release) jutsu he knew. It was a fairly basic jutsu that was ridiculously easy to learn and he had only learned it because of its use in starting a fire for occasions like this. The jutsu was also easy, requiring very little control to create and one did not need an affinity for fire to use it meaning that anyone who had the ability to channel chakra could learn it.

"Hey boss!"

Naruto turned to see his clones, the one in the middle, who had spoken, was carrying several fish they had managed to catch.

"Good job," Naruto said, feeling a little awkward at knowing he was essentially complimenting himself. "Go ahead and dispel yourselves."

The clones nodded and dispelled as Naruto set about to cooking his meal.

After Lunch Naruto created another batch of one hundred clones and had them restart everything they had previously been doing.

Meanwhile Naruto attempted to meditate. In the book on the basics of chakra theory he had read that by meditating a ninja could sharpen their senses, as well as their mind and familiarize themselves with their chakra. So Naruto sat down and began feeling the chakra in his body. It wasn't hard, Naruto had always had a lot of chakra, in fact finding his chakra had been the one thing he had been able to do before the other academy students. He simply had so much that he did not need to actually spend time looking for it, it was already right there.

Once he felt it, he began to channel chakra to his ears. At first he winced, having channeled too much chakra and hurting his ear drums as the various sounds of the world invaded them. But after a while he managed to find an appropriate balance of chakra. He listened to the different sounds of the forest, or training ground. He could hear several birds chirping and some animals that were scurrying around on the ground. He heard running water, so there was a pond or stream not too far from him, it had probably been where his clones had caught those fish.

He also heard other sounds coming from the Forest of Death, roars, hisses and other odd noises that sounded like they came from some kind of ferocious beasts. The place sounded like something from a nightmare.

He shook the thought off and began channeling chakra to his nose, once again he channeled too much and had to immediately cut back. However, when he found the right amount of chakra where it no longer hurt, he began to try and differentiate the scents he picked up. It was hard since he did not know what some of the things he could smell were. But he did manage to pick up the scent of the trees, the dirt and grass of the field. Other scents he could smell, but simply not recognize.

After a while Naruto stood up, he did not know how long he had been meditating, but he was getting bored. And a bored Naruto was a dangerous Naruto.

Deciding to test his taijutsu limits Naruto put his hand in the ram sign, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" he shouted. There was a large burst of smoke and when it cleared Naruto could see nearly four hundred more clones then there had been in the field.

"Alright! All of you who I just summoned, this is gonna be a battle royal, all of you versus me!" Naruto grinned as he got into the beginning stance for Muay Thai. His stance as near perfect as could be on his first day ever. "Let the ass kicking commence!" Without delay Naruto charged into his clones head first.

Little did he know that he was being watched from afar by a curious observer who had been passing through.

Naruto groaned as he flopped onto his bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. He was not only utterly exhausted, but also sore in places that he did not even know existed. The numerous cuts and bruises he had all over his face and body were just now beginning to heal.

Maybe fighting against four hundred of his clones had not been such a good idea. Ass kicking, yeah right, more like getting my ass kicked. Naruto rubbed his sore ass where several of his clones had actually kicked him.

Despite the pain Naruto was in, he felt good, really good. All that hard work had given him an odd feeling of satisfaction, and while Naruto did not feel like he had gotten super strong from that one sitting, he believed that he had made decent progress.

This day had also been an eye opener for the young blond. Before today Naruto had never really trained, he did occasionally go out to an empty training field on occasion, and he would exercise quite often. But he had never done anything like this. Most of his time was spent throwing kunai and hoping they hit, or trying to come up with some bizarre move that he thought would look cool, with a name like Uzumaki Barrage or some other egoistical name. He realized that those times he had never really made much progress.

He also felt that he was a little more mature. Maybe it was because of the clones he had been using, perhaps they accelerated his mental age since he technically lived all of those clones lives, or at least remembered those clones living there lives from their perspective. Or it could be the meditation he had done at the end, he still hated it, but he had felt better afterwards; well, better until his clones had beat the holy hell out of him. Stupid clones.

Or perhaps his change in mentality was due to the events that had transpired and led him to where he was now. Before Naruto had been ignorant, he had not known why he was hated, or why he was treated unfairly in class by the majority of teachers, or why the other students constantly made fun of and belittled him.

Now he did, the Mizuki incident had opened his eyes. And he had promised not just himself but the Hokage, a man he looked up to as a grandfather that he would become the best shinobi and Hokage ever. And he would be the best Hokage ever, Naruto was sure of it. All he had to do was prove to the people of this village that he was not the Kyuubi, earn the people's respect by becoming a powerful ninja and show how far he was willing to go to protect the village. Then they would see him for him.

Easy right?

Looking over at the clock Naruto saw that it was nearing 10:00. With a stifled yawn Naruto shut his eyes and passed out.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week would be just as busy as today had been, hopefully he could get stronger before it was time for the genin emplacement.

(The Next Day…)

The next morning saw Naruto doing much the same as he did yesterday. His clones had split off into four groups of twenty five, they would again work on chakra control, taijutsu, boujutsu and then reading and fuiinjutsu (Calligraphy for the moment).

Meanwhile Naruto would do his physical work out. It was a little harder than before, Naruto had decided to increase the weights by ten pounds, so he was having a few problems. But he still managed to pull through his routine and this time, he was not quite as exhausted, since his body was already adjusting due to the Kyuubi.

Naruto began having his clones dispel in groups of ten, that way he would not pass out from memory overload. He created four more and told them to go out and hunt.

Meanwhile he was getting the things necessary for the fire pit. However, as he was walking Naruto heard the distinct whistling of kunai, a sound he had grown intimately familiar with yesterday during his battle royal.

Dropping the rocks in his hand Naruto rolled forward, pulling a kunai from his pouch at the same time. Standing back up Naruto looked over where he had been to see an odd flat kunai sticking out of the ground. Looking around the blond tried to find where the person who tossed the kunai was located, even going so far as to channel chakra through his nose and ears. When he didn't find any one Naruto became impatient.

"Oi! Show yourself before I kick your ass!" Naruto shouted, a bit of his old self coming back.

Several kunai were launched from within the trees. Naruto dodged some and blocked others, tossing his kunai into the tree's they had come from. He was not very good at throwing kunai, having been focusing in other aspects, but he had merely wanted his opponent to reveal himself.

Or rather herself.

For it was a female who jumped out from within the trees. As she landed on the ground in front of him Naruto got a good look at the woman. Said woman was wearing clothing that could be considered more of a lack there of then anything else. She had on a dark orange miniskirt that barely covered her unmentionables, a fish net shirt that once again did really nothing to cover her, it was especially bad since she had no bra under it as far as Naruto could see. Over that she had a tan trench coat that covered just enough of her breasts that Naruto could not see her nipples. She was wearing a pair of standard shinobi sandals with shin guards over them and had a Konoha head band on her head that held up dark purple hair that looked kind of like Shikamaru's pineapple hairstyle.

The sight of this woman, who Naruto actually found really beautiful (read sexy, he's just too innocent to think that right now) and yet at the same time frightening for some reason, made him blush and look away.

Of course this caused the woman to grin at him. "I take it you like what you see kiddo?"

"W-well… I… um… it's… er…" Naruto blushed as he began to sputter nonsensical words.

Anko's grin widened. "You know I usually castrate men for staring at me, so you should be lucky I'm making an exception this once."

Those words seemed to reboot Naruto's mouth as he turned back to her, "you know, I really don't think you have any right to attack men for looking at you. Since your clothing your wearing, or perhaps I should say the clothing your 'not' wearing makes you stand out more than Sasuke-teme does when he's running around town from his fan girls."

"Oh hoh," Anko said with an amused smirk, "so the gakI can speak after all, you know I had almost taken you for a mute."

Naruto scowled, "look I'm not in the mood to play games with you… whoever you are. I need to get back to my training, so why don't you tell me why you're here or leave."

"Now don't take that tone of voice with me gakI," Anko said in a teasing tone. Before Naruto could even blink, Anko tossed a Kunai that cut across his cheek before reappearing behind him, another kunai held to his neck.

Holy shit! Naruto thought, his eyes widening. She's fast! I didn't even see her move!

"I was just curious to see who was training out here is all," Anko said in a pouty sounding voice as she wrapped her arm around his neck and pressed her chest into his back. She grinned as Naruto released an involuntary shudder and his blush came back full force. "Really, I mean when you get a new neighbor it's common courtesy to greet them."

"N-Neighbor?" asked Naruto as he tried to ignore the feeling of the woman's breasts pressed against his back. Having never had to deal with any kind of physical contact from a member of the opposite sex, except for the times Sakura hit him, he had absolutely no clue what to do in this situation.

"Uh huh!" Anko said with a grin as she leaned closer to him. Naruto blushed when the woman licked the blood off his cheek, causing Ank's grin to widen, though she was slightly disappointed and confused when she saw that it was already healed. "This training ground is right next to my home away from home," she pointed over to the Forest of Death.

"You train there!" Naruto asked incredulously. He did not know what was in there, but if what he had heard the other day was any indication, it was not a friendly place.

"Yup!" Anko said, smiling at him. "It's such a great place, all the creatures there that would like nothing more than to kill you, the giant tigers that love to feast on human flesh, spiders, man eating plants…"

As Anko continued to list off all of the 'amazing' animals that could be found within the forest, Naruto was thinking about other things. Dear Kami! This woman must be fucking crazy to go in there! And listen to her talk, it's like she gets off on life and death situations! As he continued to listen his mind went down a different path. Although she does seem strong, I didn't even see when she threw that kunai and then she moved right next to me in an instant. It was obvious that when she had first gotten my attention she was toying with me. I wonder…

"You know, you never told me your name," Naruto interrupted the scantily clad kunoichi, who was currently talking about the best way to eat dango, how she got on that topic without Naruto noticing is anyone's guess.

"Well since you're asking, why don't you tell me your name first gaki," Anko said.

Naruto gave her a cheeky grin. "Since you interrupted my training to introduce yourself, I believe it's common courtesy for you to give your name first."

"Heh well I suppose you got me there," Anko smirked. "Well alright! I am the super sexy Mitirashi Anko!"

Naruto gave the woman a grin as he turned around after she let go of him. "And I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage of Konoha!" He stuck out his hand, "Pleased to meet you!"

Anko blinked in surprise, wait this is the Kyuubi gaki? Last time I saw him he was wearing that hideous orange jumpsuit. She had not seen the boy often. Usually she would spot him after he had done some kind of prank and started running from the chunin, jonin and occasional Anbu afterwards. She actually found the boys pranks to be pretty funny and had always looked forward to seeing what kind of havoc he would cause next.

Anko looked the boy up and down; well he definitely 'looks' more like a shinobi in that. I wonder what happened to his jumpsuit?

"Pleasure to meet you gaki," Anko said, taking the hand and shaking.

One of Naruto's eyes twitched, "you know I told you my name so you would use it."

Anko's grin threatened to split her face, "I know…"

Naruto was about to growl at her when he remembered how fast she had been and his disgruntlement vanished. "Hey Anko?" said woman looked at him. "That was really awesome the way you were able to throw that kunai so quickly, and then you got behind me like super-fast. So I was wondering if you would be willing to help with my training?"

Anko's eyes actually widened for a second. She had not thought he would actually request something like that, or request anything at all really. Truthfully she had just been curious to see who was near her turf, since most people stay away from any training ground near the Forest of Death, and had hoped that he would amuse her.

However she thought about the request, she would not be able to spend much time with the boy, but she was curious. She knew of the child, hell everyone knew of Uzumaki Naruto. Aside from being just the 'Kyuubi brat' as some of the civilians had called him, he was also known as the prankster king from hell, as well as the dead last of his class. In fact, she had heard that the only reason he graduated was because he managed to help that Chunin academy teacher Iruka catch Mizuki with a high level jutsu.

Yet here he was, training with a butt load of Kage Bushin, truly an ingenious training method and something she suspected only he could really do. He was still totally rough around the edges, she could tell that he had just started learning his taijutsu style, even with the clones his moves were sloppy. Better than most on their first day but still sloppy.

"What makes you think I would want to train a brat like you?" asked Anko.

Naruto growled as his eyebrows twitched. "Hey! I'm not a brat! You stu-" He stopped right there and clenched his hands together, taking several deep breaths. Getting himself back under control he looked at Anko and smirked. "Because if you train me, you'll be able to brag about how you trained the Future Hokage of Konoha."

"Future Hokage of Konoha huh?" Anko mumbled with a smirk. She had been getting bored with the monotony in her life anyways, who knows, maybe training some brat would actually be fun. "Ok, you got yourself a deal Gaki, just meet me at the entrance to training ground 44 tomorrow and we'll begin the to- I mean training."

"Which training ground is training ground forty four?" asked Naruto, completely oblivious to her slight slip up.

Anko grinned and pointed to the forest where he had heard all of the creepy ass noises coming from the other day.

Naruto felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine but agreed anyways.

After all, how often was it that he actually had someone aside from the old man pay attention to him.

(The Next Day…)

Naruto cursed as he dodged the incoming snakes that were launched at him from the left. Jumping over to the next tree branch Naruto panted a bit as his cuts healed and the bit of snake venom in his body was flushed. Standing up Naruto looked around in fright.

He had met Anko today just outside of training ground forty four as asked. Naruto had been hesitant to follow her when she had begun walking in the forest, but at her insistence he had followed. Almost immediately after that the hunt had begun and he had been running ever since.

Anko had disappeared and then began to play a game of death tag, using snakes, kunai and anything else she could think of throw at him. He had yet to see her since, only catching a few glimpses of her here and there, right before she launched a snake or some other projectile at him.

To top it off there were all of the creatures that were in here that seemed to be flocking to the noise he was making in his haste to get away from the crazy snake using jonin. Everything from giant ass spiders, to large man eating plants were there, and all of them trying to kill and devour him. So he had to not only worry about Anko, but also worry about the creatures in the forest.

Training my ass! Naruto growled to himself. I'm starting to think she just wanted to torture some poor sap, and I was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was beginning to regret asking Anko to help train him.

Hearing a snap from behind Naruto rolled to the left, just dodging a giant spider that had tried to land on top of him. Grimacing, Naruto grabbed a kunai and wrapped an explosive tag around it. He had tried early on to kill these things another way that would be less wasteful, but had learned that he did not have enough physical strength to kill them with just muscle power yet, even when it was enhanced by his chakra. And Naruto had not actually bothered to learn jutsu either, preferring to get his basic skills in chakra control, tai and boujutsu up to snuff.

He told himself as soon as he was out of here he was going to learn some jutsu that would get through these things thick hides.

As the spider began to move towards him Naruto threw the kunai, it managed to hit the creature right in the left eye, one of its only weak points. This was the only good thing this damn forest had given him right now, better aim, since without it he would have been killed from wasting so many kunai.

The creature shrieked and thrashed in pain, however it still continued to charge after Naruto. Putting his hands in a ram seal, Naruto activated the explosive tag. He jumped off the branch as the creatures head exploded in a gout of blood and brains.

Bouncing from branch to branch Naruto eventually landed on the ground. He leaned up against the tree, panting as he tried to get a breather.

Before he could however, several kunai came at him from above. Naruto pulled out his own kunai and deflected some away from him as he rolled across the floor. Coming up on his feet Naruto's eyes widened as Anko swooped down on him like some kind of bird of prey.

He dodged her first kunai slash, jumping back as he tossed his own kunai at her. Anko merely caught and threw it back twice as fast. Naruto was able to dodge the attack but was not fast enough to dode it entirely and ended up getting a knick on his left arm.

Deciding to test his taijutsu, Naruto ran towards Anko. He ignored the fear that welled up inside of him when he saw her grin.

Anko flicked out her hands and shouted "Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake)!" Several snakes were launched from her sleeves. She had used this jutsu enough in the time he had been running from her that Naruto had come to expect it and dodged to the right.

What he did not expected was for the snakes to change in mid direction, coming at him from behind and wrapping tightly around him.

"You know charging at an opponent who is clearly superior to you is just stupid," Anko said with a large grin on her face, she had actually had fun today.

Naruto winced as his bones compressed. "Yeah I kind of figured that, but at the moment I don't have many jutsu to use. Kage Bunshin, Henge, Kariwimi and my own Oiroke No Jutsu and that's it. None of those can be used for long range attacks, and your too fast for me to track to even think of using my kunai."

Anko nodded, "this is true, but you should have taken the time to think ahead and set up some traps or something instead."

"It's kind of hard to do that when you're busy fighting for your life," Naruto deadpanned as Anko's snakes disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Anko rubbed the back of her head, "yeah I suppose it is huh?" Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "But then again in real life, you're going to have to think quickly or you'll get yourself and others killed in the field."

Naruto winced as he rubbed his sore ribs, "yeah I know…"

"Now then," Anko rubbed her hands together. "Since I was kind enough to help you train, you're going to buy me some dango!"

"What?" Naruto asked, thinking he hadn't heard her clearly.

"Yep, that's right you're going to buy me some dango since I was gracious enough to help you," Anko stated.

"But.. That's… but I… fine." Naruto sighed when he saw her pout, this would probably take the last of his money but she had helped him, and now that she had brought the 'I helped you' trump card, he would feel guilty if he did not do as she asked.

"Where are we going?" He held his head down as he mourned the coming loss of his money.

Anko smirked as she grabbed Naruto and began dragging him to her favorite dango stand.

"Ah! That was good," Anko said, patting her satisfied stomach. She had taken him to the place she usually got Dango from, and like she had asked (commanded) he had paid for her meal...

… of fourteen plates of dango. Naruto was actually unsure whether to be shocked or impressed that this woman seemed capable of eating almost as much as he could.

"Glad you liked it," Naruto said dryly, listening to his stomach gurgle a bit.

Anko blinked as she too heard the sound. "If you're so hungry why didn't you eat as well?"

Naruto sighed, thinking about lying to her, but he had been talking to her, or at least, he had listened to her ramble, and found out her profession was in torture and interrogation, so she would specialize in catching lies.

"You already cleaned me out of money," Naruto said with a sigh, holding up his empty frog wallet. "Until I begin going on missions I don't even have enough money to pay for utilities…"

Anko actually looked down a bit at that, actually starting to feel bad that she had pretty much just eaten him out of all his money. Contrary to popular belief, she was not some heartless bitch like most of the villagers made her out to be. However she had to put up a hard front or the villagers would try to harass her like they had after her sensei… she shook her head of the thought and looked at the blond in front of her. "Then why did you actually agree to pay for my food?" She asked.

"Because you helped me," Naruto shrugged as if that explained everything. "You're the first person to ever help me this directly. Even Hokage-Ojisan hasn't helped me like that."

Anko actually felt worse at hearing that. "What about your stipend? You're an orphan right? Don't you get some kind of monthly allowance or whatever?"

Naruto shrugged, "yea when I was a civilian. But now that I'm a shinobi I won't be getting one anymore since I'm considered an adult." He noticed her guilty expression and sighed. "Look don't worry about it, I can see about getting some kind of part time job when I'm not on missions so it should be fine." That is, if anyone will actually let me work.

Anko looked at him oddly before shaking her head. "You know, you're a weird kid. I eat away the last of your money and you tell me not to worry about it. Great… now you actually made me feel bad." She groaned for a moment and looked at Naruto. "So tell you what, I'll help train you when I'm not on missions or torturing some poor sap, for free instead. In return all you have to do is start giving me a good fight."

Naruto looked at Anko for a moment, thinking about the offer. It wasn't bad all things considered. Yeah, she kind of scared the shit out of him… actually she really scared the shit out of him. But she was also super strong from what he had been able to determine today. Strong enough to wipe the floor with him at least. He gave her a large grin, "you've got yourself a deal!"

_______________________________________________

Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake) - C rank offensive jutsu. Allows the user to project several snakes from their wrist as they make punching motion towards their intended target. The snakes bite and wrap around the given target, potentially inflicting multiple wounds. They are also capable of poisoning a victim.

Henge (Transform) - E rank supplementary. A basic technique taught in all academies. This creates an illusionary transformation which can be used to transform into objects, such as items, animals or other people. This technique is merely an illusion and upon being displaced by an object passing through will dispel.

Kariwimi (Body Replacement) - E rank supplementary. This lets the user quickly switch places with another nearby object, usually a log but can be done with others like a plant, animal or even a person, leaving the opponent to counter attack. Many forms of debate have gone about as to what kind of jutsu this is. Some are under the belief that this jutsu is in fact a space/time ninjutsu at its most basic (Space Time Jutsu includes jutsu's such as the Hiraishin used by the Yondaime Hokage).

Oroikie No Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) - E rank, or A rank, depending on who you ask. The technique utilizes the true transformation technique, or shadow transformation in order to transform into a beautiful nude woman. Unlike standard transformations this is a real transformation which creates a chakra construct that envelops the user.