Chapter 5

##Hokage's Office - Evening.##

Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Third Hokage or the Village Hidden in the Leaves, also known as the God of Shinobi. An old man well in his years, forced to come out of retirement after the tragic and heroic sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze during the Kyuubi incident 12 years ago. He is sitting at his desk reading two scrolls passed to him by one Iruka Umino with a look of amazement as he scours the contents. He places the scrolls down on his desk and takes a quick puff from his pipe and laughs.

"This is simply outstanding!" The hokage says, "Genius wouldn't even cover the ingenuity and work the child must have put in to modify and improve the original techniques that have been with us for as long as there were shinobi." He looks at Iruka and asks, "These are legitimate?"

Iruka nods, "Of course! I even tried them myself." He says and rubs his head sheepishly, "Though I must admit that had trouble performing them at first. You know? Familiarity with the originals made refurbishing the modified technique much harder then I expected. But once I got it down I could immediately feel the difference in both techniques."

The hokage nods and Iruka continues, "The clone technique, young Revan renamed the Perfect Clone technique, charges the clones with a certain amount of chakra that you can determine, that it uses to accurately imitate the sensation of a regular person. The smell, sounds, it even kicks up dust and produces an accurate shadow." Iruka says, "Speaking of shadows it still isn't a physical clone and the caster must supply more chakra to keep it active."

"It fixes the main flaws of the original technique, while still be chakra friendly." The hokage says.

"Yes, it really does. The transformation technique he modified is no longer just a mere illusion. It's a bonafide physical transformation." Iruka explains and demonstrates by transforming into the hokage and speaks with the hokage's own voice, "See? It even replicates the voice perfectly. Naruto is capable of performing a real transformation too, but that is just him pumping in so much of his chakra into the technique. This on the other hand could only be seen through by a Hyuga."

The hokage sits in silence as he thinks about the modified original three and then asks, "Did he not modify the substitution technique?"

Iruka shakes his head.

"No. He said it was perfect as it was, but that if someone was skilled enough could turn it into deadly form of combat."

"Hm? I wonder what he had in mind..." The hokage mumbles to himself.

"I don't know, but he did say that he had been experimenting with all 3 since he learned them. If this is the results of his experimenting, I'd say his skills with them may put him at the top of the class. I always felt he had more going for him than meets the eye." Iruka said.

"He is an Uzumaki." Says the hokage with a smile, "Those born from that clan are often unpredictable. He may have less chakra reserves compared to a normal Uzumaki, but his intelligence, life force, and stamina are still there. I'm quite curious as to why a talented child like him isn't contending for rookie of the year, he could give the Uchiha boy a run for his money."

Iruka shrugs, "With him there is no telling. Although lately he had been talking more with his cousin and the Uchiha girl. I seem to recall the both of them going into the Akimichi barbecue place yesterday."

The hokage rises his eyes in intrigue, "Oh? That's interesting. Never once had I seen the young lady to take an interest in another person since the massacre. So many suitors trying to woo her, hoping to gain the Sharingan for themselves. If the young lady has taken an interest in someone, especially an orphaned boy with no backround, then I have a feeling the fools from the council will not like it."

"Sigh... The civilian council have been trying to stick their hands where it doesn't belong. Sometimes I wonder if their interests are more important than our village itself." Iruka says with a sigh.

"I wonder that myself everyday I have to deal with their bullshit," The hokage groans in annoyance as he looks upon a stack of paperwork. "They are responsible for at least 80% of the paperwork I've been doing."

Iruka chuckles, "At least you can use the rejected pile as fuel for some flames."

"Right you are. Anything else you need to report?" The hokage asks.

"Actually..." Iruka goes to explain Naruto's situation with the hokage, "He had been given faulty tools, the training manual he had been given as well as the stances he had been personally taught by Mizuki had intentionally been to leave him open for his opponents, which in the field could be deadly." The hokage nods at his explanation."

"That.... is a problem." The hokage muses, "Why would he intentionally try and weaken a potentially powerful future shinobi. Is his hatred for the boy truly that deep?"

"I don't know..." Iruka says looking a little down, "I've been friends with Mizuki since we were kids, never would I expect him to hold such animosity for Naruto."

"The Kyuubi was truly and disheartening affair, that much is certain. Sorrow, fear, hatred, the people despite the fourth's wishes, needed an outlet, a scapegoat to unleash their negativity on. Poor Naruto had become the outlet for them. Instead of a hero, they chose to make him a monster, drive him into despair, hoping to see him disappear. But unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us civil people, he persevered and endured. He is far stronger than anyone else to come out of that as the bright bundle of sunshine we have today."

"Haha! Yeah, I'm glad there are still some kids willing to befriend him." Iruka says smiling warmly, "His fellow Uzumaki is the one who urged him to talk to me about his tools and taijutsu guide. Plus some of the other clansmen, minus the Yamanaka and Uchiha, have been somewhat friendly with him, unlike the civilians.

"We will look into this. I thank you for bringing this up Iruka." The hokage says.

Iruka is silent for a moment before asking, "Permission to teach Naruto the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

"Oh?" The hokage's brows arc, "Why would you want to teach Naruto that jutsu Iruka?"

"Well you see...." Iruka explains Naruto's circumstances, about how it fails every time he uses the normal clone technique. If a jutsu like that fails due to the very limited chakra needed for it, then perhaps a technique to match Naruto's reserves would work out for him more.

"Hm.... That is a good point. Very well Iruka, teach him whenever you get the chance.

Iruka bows before turning to leave, "Thank you Lord Hokage."

After Iruka leaves the hokage leans back and takes a puff of his pipe and exhales the smoke. He his quiet for 15 minutes before taking out a crystal ball and checking up on his favorite bundle of sunshine, who is surprisingly sparring with the the Uchiha girl.

"Oh? How curious."

Meanwhile.....

##Revan's Favorite Training Spot.##

Revan is sitting down cross legged, watching as Naruto spars with Saya, occasionally chuckling when the blonde hit with a few painful looking hits. Saya shows no mercy during their spars, neither for him, nor for the unlucky Naruto. After a few minutes of sparring Naruto is laying on the ground bruised, panting, and drenched in sweat. It may have been a landslide loss for him, but he did last a lot longer than the last time he sparred with the Uchiha girl. Ditching the old, rigged style, certainly proved beneficial for Naruto.

"Congrats Naruto! You lasted a whole 10 minutes longer than the last time you sparred with Saya." Revan cheers and looks at him cheekily, "But still, you look like shit now."

"Ha Ha Ha. Very funny." Naruto says sarcastically, "I seem to recall you losing all of your matches with her too."

"He's right." Saya comments.

Revan shrugs, "Eh, I prefer mid-to-long range. I'll practice martial arts to build up my body strength, but when it comes to combat I intend to rain hell on my foes."

"How do you intend to do that?" Saya asks, "You don't have access to a clan library to learn from and they won't let you in the shinobi section of the academy library until you become a genin. Even then what you can learn is still limited."

Revan grins and pats the pouch on his side.

"I may not have a library, but the storage scroll my father left me has a few techniques sealed inside. I was told in the note that it can only be opened with a drop of my blood and a price of genin amount of chakra. I'll be drained of chakra for an hour of so, but once I pay the price I can open it. My mother was said to have placed the seal on it herself and no one else was able to open it."

Saya nods, "That is convenient. I have to unlock the Sharingan in order to access the most advanced jutsu of our clan. Otherwise the scrolls would be blank."

Revan pats her shoulder and smiles, "You will get those eyes eventually, I believe in you."

"Yeah!" Naruto agrees.

Saya just smiles lightly and shakes her head, "That is for the future to determine, for now we need to work with what we have."

"Agreed." Revan says. He stands up and does a few stretches to get ready for his own practice. They have all sparred with each other and now it's time for them to practice their own jutsu. Revan had already taught both of them the revised techniques, or at least only Saya considering Naruto cannot even use the clone technique after it had been modified. Learning to mold chakra differently required Saya to practice a little more to perfect it. Luckily the foundation was set by the original technique, so relearning it was a quick affair.

Revan throws his kunai all across the area and starts swapping back and forth between each one of them, further increasing his speed, bouncing off of trees, slashing a tree with a kunai he keeps on hand as an attack, his skill with the ability is improving at a remarkable rate. Naruto is watching in awe.

"Awesome!" He shouts out, "How do you do that!?"

Revan chuckles at his reaction and shakes his head. Saya answers for him, "Revan is using the basic substitution technique and swapping himself with the kunai he throws around the area. Essentially, he has created his own style to imitate the Yellow Flash's Flying Thunder God and Shisui Uchiha's combative Body Flicker. The range is much lower than those two and he must have his target in his sight before he can swap with it."

"Really? Cool!" Naruto says, "Can I do that too?"

Revan replies, "If you practice it long enough and work out the proper timing so that you can swap mid flight, then I suspect you could do it quite easily." Then he thinks to himself, 'Of course I had an unfair advantage thanks to the Force, but thats my little secret for now. Hehehe!'

"Awesome! Fuck the clone technique, I want to master that technique!" Naruto says, pumped up to at least try.

"Don't ignore the other skills Naruto, those still need work too."

"I won't."

"Also..." Revan looks at him and says, "Watch the language bub, your still a kid."

"Sorry."

Revan shakes his head and goes back to his own training.

'Well buddy, this is as much help as I can offer you. Your going to have pull your own weight from this moment on. Wear that headband proudly when you graduate. I really need to return to my Force practice, and I can't be training it out in the open. Far too many eyes hidden around.' Revan says in his head and looks over his shoulder with a smirk. 'I feel as pair of eyes on us and it's not in the near area. I'm not showing too much to get anyone's interest just yet. Perhaps i'll do a little cleaning up after a start practicing a few more Force techniques. A few fools could use some good old fashion brainwashing and being civilians with weaker minds, oh this will be too easy.' Revan chuckles to himself as he continues his training. The young Uzumaki has many plans for the future, but for now he is content with taking his time. He is just a 12 years old boy after all, his real fun starts once he is able to freely leave the confines of the village.