Ch. 1

'What is the use of gods when we live in a world full of them?

Men and women who walk the earth with amazing powers. Some who can breath fire, some who can create earthquakes with naught but a hand sign. Others who can call down great lighting storms to smite thy enemies or submerge them in an ocean of their own creation.

We live in the age of shinobi. The era dominated by men and women who carry the power of the gods themselves, the power of chakra!

So I ask you again! What use are gods when we live in a world full of the-'

Fourteen year old naruto uzumaki slammed the book closed and, without even hesitating, threw it off the edge of the hokages mountain with a ridiculous look on his young, ruggedly handsome face.

"Just wanted to read about some cool super ninja, not have my entire faith shaken, goddamn." He muttered to himself as he sat atop the large stone head of the fourth hokage with his feet dangling over the edge.

Then a sorrowful look flashed a crossed his face." Aw man! The libraries totally gonna charge me for that book! Damn it!" He cried out with a hint of despair in his tone as he flopped backwards and laid there, staring up at the cloudless blue sky above him.

He let out a sight before he closed his blue eyes and just laid there. The sun beat down on his lightly tanned face and it would've been unbearably hot had there not been a light breeze that seemed to ruffle his spiky golden hair. The breeze brushing past him seemed to tickle his nose and in an effort to subdue the itch he scrunched his nose up until the feeling went away.

After lying there for a few moments he let out a breath before sitting up and dragged his hands down his face before giving his whisker marked cheeks a gentle smack.

"Okay!" He suddenly said as he jumped up to his feet without a hint of fear of falling over the edge of the mountain." It's probably about time to head to class. I'm sure Iruka-sensei is wondering where I'm at by now." He finished as he gently patted down his outfit, dislodging whatever dirt or dust that might have settled on him during his rest.

The blond wore a simple burnt orange long sleeve shirt and a pair of black cargo pants that were taped at the shins. Over his feet were standard black ninja sandals and around his neck hung a pair of forest green goggles.

With one last sigh, the blond speed off.

***

"Alright class!" Iruka clapped his hands once as he looked out over the sea of students." Now we'll be talking about one of the most important aspects of a ninja." He smiled at the eager look on their faces." Blending in." Every student facefaulted much to his joy.

"Come on Iruka-sensei!" Kiba cried out from his desk." We thought it was gonna be something cool!" He wined, his loyal companion, akamaru, barked in agreement from atop the boys head.

Iruka chuckled a little." Come now kids." He began in a light tone." When you all become fully fledged ninja, you will eventually take on a mission that will require you to blend in with your surroundings." He lectured." Whether it be hiding among the foliage of a forest or even blending in with the civilians around you in the middle of another village." He told them." Being able to camouflage yourself no matter your environment, can and will, save your lives one day. Also, it's a great way to learn information from the people around yo-"

Iruka was cut off as his classroom door slid open and in his doorway stood naruto uzumaki with a small grin on his whiskered face.

"Heya Iruka-sensei! Not late am I?" The blond asked curiously. He even had that stupid head tilt down pat.

Iruka rolled his eyes before looking at the clock that was resting on the wall above his chalk board which read ' 1:30pm'. He looked back at the blond and deadpanned.

"No naruto, you only missed the last six and a half hours of school." The teachers tone was full of sarcasm but naruto either didn't notice or he simply brushed it off with a shrug.

"But you told me to be here at one-thirty sensei."

Iruka eye twitched." When have I ever told you that?"

"Yesterday."

"You lie."

"Nope."

"I have never told you to be late to class naruto." Iruka huffed out.

Naruto smirked and raised a finger." If I recall." He began." You said ' show up at one-thirty naruto, that's when school starts'."

Iruka rubbed his face." School has always started at eight in the morning naruto." He said in an exasperated tone." It's been like that everyday for the last four years."

Naruto squawked in surprise, his blue eyes wide." Who the hell starts learning so early?" He then squinted his eyes at the man." You monster." He accused which earned him a few chuckles and giggles from the rest of the class.

"Just sit down." Iruka muttered, waving his hand towards the sea of desks and students.

Naruto gave him a mock salute before walking forward and sitting in an empty seat next to sasuke who didn't even spare him a glance. The blond paid him no mind and began to look forward towards Iruka and listen as the man began to explain the dos and do nots of blending in.

      ***

"Ugh!" The blond huffed out as he landed in the grass on his back. He looked up at the sky and smiled slightly at the shades of yellow, orange and pink. Despite the sunset looking nearly the same everyday, he still had to admit that it was rather beautiful to look at.

Around him was an empty field except for three wooden posts sticking out of the ground a few feet to his left. The clearing itself was surrounded on three sides by the thick, lush forest and the fourth side of the clearing was a cute little path that would take him back to the village.

He was currently in one of the villages numerous training grounds. Training ground 3 to be exact and he had just spent the last few house training in both taijutsu and ninjutsu.

The uzumaki continued to look up at the sky and began to think about his life up until this point in time.

He was born fourteen years ago on October tenth, the day his village was nearly razed to the ground by a single mask wearing man. From what the teachers back at the academy had told them during one of their rather boring history lessons, an unknown man in a one eyed mask had attacked the village with an army of.. well.. and army of somethings.

The drawings in the history books were that of some weird white humanoid looking things with short green hair and yellow eyes that apparently, when struck down, turned into trees. Actual. Fucking. Trees. What kind of crap was that?

Apparently the leader of these tree folk was driven off after battling the fourth hokage but the history books say that the fourth hokage ended up passing away due to the wounds he received during the battle later that night in the village hospital.

The village mourned its lost leader along with the many men and women that gave their lives that night and once the third hokage took up the hat once more, his first official act after being reinstated was to build a large black marble monument in the shape of a wall inside the confines of the village grave yard and have the names of those they lost engraved onto it, his wife's included.

After that night, the night of his birth, naruto was given to one of the many orphanages throughout the village. He grew up under the care of the orphanage mother along with a bunch of other kids that had lost their parents that night and were to young to live on their own.

Sure, sharing pretty much everything with twenty other kids was kind of annoying and being picked on a bit due to his whisker birthmarks in his early years kind of sucked, but it was never really bad.

He had a roof over his head and food in his belly, what more could he ask for?

When he turned ten he, along with a few other kids, signed up to join the ninja academy. It was a chance to actually do something with their lives, a chance to make a name for themselves instead of being the No name orphan kids that would ultimately fade away into nothing.

Signing up for the ninja academy also had some advantages, especially if you were an orphan. The first advantage was that you were given your own small apartment, the second advantage being an allowance. The village payed your bills and gave you some spending cash for food, clothes and other expenses. Granted it wasn't a huge  amount of money, but it was enough.

But the truth was that doing all that, giving children their own place, their own money was to instill a sense of responsibility and discipline in them. They had to clean their own place, cook their own food and wash their own clothes. They had to do it themselves, with no one to look over their shoulder and tell them if they were doing it right or not. Not that they couldn't simply ask someone for help if they didn't understand something or if they couldn't quite do something right, but to do that they'd have to go out of their way to find someone willing to help, which was in and of itself, a task.

The only problem was that to continue to enjoy these benefits, you had to stay in the academy until you became a genin. If you flunked or dropped out the village would pretty much send you back to the orphanage until you were old enough to get a job, which was sixteen, and then once you got a job, they'ed ask for that money back.

Out of the five kids that signed up with him, he was the only one that hadn't flunked or dropped out.

Now would he be getting a perfect attendance award any time soon? No. But for the past four years he had made sure to keep both his grades and training up. Was he the smartest person in his class? Not even close. That honor belonged to sakura, sasuke and shikamaru.

What he excelled at was the more physical stuff. His taijutsu was top notch, only outshined by sasuke, mostly thanks to the uchihas fancy sharingan. His mastery over the academy three wasn't anything to scoff at either.

When he was just starting to learn to use his chakra, he found out that he had relatively large reserves compared to his peers and it was a struggle to control the amount of chakra he needed for the three academy jutsu but with the leaf sticking exercise and the tree walking technique Iruka-sensei taught the class, he eventually managed to pull off the jutsus and eventual master them.

Everything was going well for the blond until about three years ago when another tragedy struck the village hidden in the leaves. Itachi uchiha, sasuke uchihas older brother, brutally massacred his entire clan and left sasuke as the sole survivor.

Losing the uchiha clan was a devastating blow to the village as a whole. Not only did they lose a founding clan - a clan that made up about ten percent of the villages overall population- they also lost the uchiha police force and the sharingan.

Now this event didn't have any sort of impact on Naruto's life but it did mess up his classmate sasuke. The last uchiha used to be a pretty happy kid, one naruto was able to joke around with a bit but after that night the uchiha had become withdrawn and spent his day brooding silently while ignoring his ever growing list of fan girls.

After that, fate seemed to give the village a break and the blond had gotten on with his life. He spent his days finishing homework, training and studying in hopes of passing the genin exam he and the rest of his classmates would be taking when they turned sixteen.

With a sigh the uzumaki pushed himself up off the ground and began to make his way back to the village. Not feeling like cooking dinner for himself he decided to head to his favorite ramen stand, ichirakus.

***

"Good afternoon naruto-kun." Ayame greeted with a polite smile and a small wave.

"Afternoon." The blond replied as he took a seat at the counter." How's business been?" He wondered as he looked around the small establishment. Sitting around a few small tables scattered around in front of the main counter were a few people enjoying their meals and chatting with whoever had decided to join them that night.

"Oh you know, can't complain." The brunette replied as she leaned her elbows down of the counter between them." Not as busy as yesterday but it was still kind of a rush." She added with a smile.

"We'll I'm glad you and the old man will be able to pay your rent this month." The blond replied happily before he looked over the woman's shoulder and back towards the 'kitchen' area of the stall. Noticing the absence of ayames father, he shot her a curious look." Speaking of the old man, where's he at?" He asked curiously.

Ayame pushed herself up from her leaning position and huffed." Dads out sick today." She answered." He caught a head cold, nothing serious but you know how it is." She gave him a teasing grin." When men get sick it's the end of the world for them." Naruto chuckled sheepishly." So you want the usual?" She asked with a knowing look.

Naruto nodded his head." You know it sis, didn't feel like cooking tonight and ramen sounded good." He replied as he rested his right elbow on the counter before resting his chin in his right palm.

Ayame nodded her head in understanding." Give me a few minutes naruto and you'll have all the ramen you can dream of, so long as you got the money for it that is." She teased before turning towards the kitchen and heading off.