Chapter 5

More than one year after slipping out of Hidden Leaf, a nine year old Naruto returned.

A chuunin snapped a picture of an obvious non-shinobi and made a notation in the log.

Naruto made his way quickly back to his apartment. He had been traveling inside Taro off and on for most of a year. Naruto had also grown taller and become more muscled after eating a healthier diet than just ramen. He was barely comfortable inside Taro. Plus the storage areas in the puppet's legs and arms were completely full of storage scrolls

It was not good to be back, but he needed some time to put his next set of plans into effect.

He entered his apartment building and noticed that the place had only gotten dingier. He unlocked his door and walked inside. There was no mail inside. The Naruto puppet was on the floor 'reading,' for the thousandth time, a basic scroll on chakra control.

Naruto crawled out of the Taro puppet and spent a few minutes stretching his cramped muscles.

He then walked over to the Naruto puppet and turned it off. He'd be able to recycle this puppet. Or maybe it wasn't worth his time.

He'd been working on different techniques than just simple wooden puppets.

Naruto pulled out his sealing scroll and swiped it with his blood. Box after box appeared. Green, small boxes were his poison holders. The tan boxes held everything else: puppet parts acquired in his brief return to Suna (immediately before coming back to the Leaf), scrolls on a wide variety of topics, samples of exploding notes from four different countries, and a variety of things Naruto wanted to further explore.

Standard, life size puppets weren't very interesting. They were good worker bees, but awfully single dimension. Naruto had moved on and refined his techniques for very small puppets. He'd invented a technique for controlling mass numbers of them at the same time.

But his new project was something completely insane. He knew what he wanted, but he didn't even know if it could be done. He had seen Tsuchi bunshin and Mizu bunshin…Naruto wanted to create a bunshin from wood or some other base material, with full chakra networks, and controllable through chakra strings.

He didn't even know where to start building the technique.

But he wouldn't give up.

He had the beginnings of his ninja style. Deception, traps; puppets and poisons; seals enhancing everything.

He probably would never have chosen this style had he still had his left leg, had he gone through the standard ninja training. But it felt natural to him now.

He needed time to get ready. He knew his destiny did not lie within the Hidden Leaf Village. It felt unnatural coming back here, but he had a lot to prepare before his final departure.

He pulled a cup of instant ramen from his kitchen cabinet and began to warm up some water. He hadn't any ramen since stopping in a village in Earth Country. He was looking forward to a familiar taste.

His own apartment, his own bed. Cleaner than the rooms in Kumo; larger than the dumps near Iwa; less dirty than camping out in a forest. All the main creature comforts, but…something was missing.

Somehow his apartment didn't feel like home so much any more.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto wasn't much interested in the cereal on his spoon. It had no flavor. There were butterflies in his stomach, too.

Naruto realized, with a touch of surprise, that this was the first year he'd be allowed to attempt to qualify as a genin…had he gone to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Instead he was self taught, learning more from experiments than from generally accepted wisdom. In a way, it hurt. But his nontraditional education also paid unexpected benefits.

His personal taijutsu was acceptable ignoring his disability (and remarkable considering his missing leg)…but he was on a whole other level when battling with a puppet. His ninjutsu was limited, little beyond three types of bunshin, the henge, kawarimi, and a few others he'd picked up by accident in his travels. The kawarimi was his favorite. It reminded Naruto of the best technique he'd ever read of, the Flying Thunder God.

Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to do what the Fourth Hokage had done, his version of being everywhere at once. But Naruto could design something else. It was the item at the very bottom of his rather long list.

Naruto stood up from his breakfast table, leaving the bowl behind. Cleaning his apartment didn't matter any more.

He was ready, everything was packed, the explosive was set to go off in three hours. Naruto headed out of his apartment for the final time. He was now ten years old and it was time to go.

He had one bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's. Damn fine ramen they served, but there were specialties in each of the other villages he'd been to that were just as good. He left a substantial tip as it was unclear whether Naruto would ever return to Konoha in any guise (certainly never with his true face).

"It was delicious, thank you."

"You come by more often, youngster. I like to try out the new flavors with you," the chef hollered back.

"I'll try."

The walk to the Hokage Tower took no time at all. Naruto strolled right in. No one seemed to notice him. Quick enough, he knocked on the Hokage's door and strolled right in.

"Old Man, I just had ramen and remembered that I hadn't stopped by in a long time."

The Hokage looked up from a book…err, a pile of paperwork. That was a fast disappearance. Must be something embarrassing…or perverted.

"Hello, Naruto. How was the ramen?"

Naruto smiled. "Hot and wonderful. We haven't had lunch in a long time, Old Man."

"I know, my child. I've just been so busy."

Naruto walked around the room staring at the walls. "That's alright. So, are you going to let me go to the Ninja Academy this year?"

"No, Naruto. I'm sorry."

Naruto tried to keep his voice as whiny as possible. "But I can do all the techniques. I taught myself from the scrolls you gave me a few years ago."

The Hokage couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice. "No, it's my final decision, Naruto. You may not be trained as a Ninja of the Leaf and I will not permit you to become a Genin of the Leaf, even if you could pass the test."

"That's it, then?"

The Hokage nodded. "I'm sorry, my child. I had wished a different life for you."

"I am sorry, too, Old Man. I wished we never got to this point." At that, Sarutobi felt a small pain in his neck. Another one of Naruto's puppets…but he couldn't move his head, nor his hands, this wasn't a prank. He couldn't even call out for help.

Would he die at the hands of an untrained boy, he, the God of Shinobi? A boy who had taken up puppetry without a mentor and destroyed a Hokage…. It just wasn't possible.

"It's just a paralysis toxin, Old Man," Naruto explained. "You won't be going anywhere for hours. I'll just pull out your dirty book and prop it up in your hands, just like this. You already have a perverted scowl on your face, so no one will interrupt."

Naruto laughed. "No, they won't interrupt you, Lord Hokage. They all have manners, after all," the boy said with a bitter voice.

"You should have done better, Old Man. You should have trained me to be a ninja. Instead, I had to train myself. Now, it's time for me to go, but I'm taking every scroll you have in here."

It took just a few minutes to pull all the scrolls out of their nooks using hundreds of chakra strings. Naruto piled them up and did one more search of the office. He found a couple more nooks. Then he searched the Old Man's desk. A few more items of interest, secret files, stuff with sophisticated seals that would take a long time to break.

He looked at the frozen Old Man and couldn't bring himself to say anything more. Naruto took a blank scroll and began scrawling. "You are wrong. I will be the greatest ninja ever born."

When the Old Man regained control of his muscles, he would see those words first thing.

Naruto didn't know what he would do if he ever saw the Old Man again. He hoped not to have to make the choice. He was just so angry right now.

He unsealed another scroll and the fifth version of his Taro puppet poofed into existence. Naruto stowed the sealing scroll with the Hokage's collection into his puppet, then he crawled inside.

Minutes later, a chuunin at the gate took the man's picture and made a note in his log.

He was halfway to River Country when his former apartment ignited in massive flames.

He was safely nestled in the forest in River Country when a chuunin finally managed to revive the Hokage.

He was well into a few new experiments by the time the Council of the Hidden Leaf realized they couldn't declare a non-ninja as a missing ninja. Another loophole, this one to Naruto's benefit.

Naruto was deeply conflicted about what he'd done. He hated the Hokage, but he missed having lunch with the Old Man. He hated the villagers who glared at him, but he knew he'd miss his apartment and the comfortable ramen stand he visited often. He'd never had a friend in Konoha, but there was no guarantee he'd ever find a friend somewhere else.

There was no time for regret.

The decision was made. He had to live with it.

His only consolation was that Konoha had abandoned him long before he'd abandoned her.