The Hero of Konoha: Naruto Uzumaki

The Hero of Konoha: Naruto Uzumaki.

Note: I don't own Naruto or its disclaimers

Summary: The village of Konoha had always been shunning Naruto every since the Kyubii destroyed their precious home. But now a twelve year old academy student, Uzumaki Naruto himself, will change Konoha forever as he becomes his father's next successor.

Chapter 1: Graduation Day

It was a warm and sunny morning in Konoha, as everyone was busy at work tending to their houses, mending their front yards, working on gardening, or going to town buying food. Everyone was busy, but not at the academy in Konoha. Iruka tried to stave off headaches of his students refusing to review the transformation jutsu because of Naruto missing out on his own graduation. Konoha would become a laughingstock of the whole entire five great nations. As Sarutobi watched in the crystal ball while writing on his easel, he could tell that Naruto was up to no good and sighed, "Ugh, when will my own adoptive grandson ever learn to stop with these pranks, it's driving everyone crazy around here. I guess I better send my two best men to go after him." He thought.

Meanwhile outside of the streets of Konoha….

"Naruto Uzumaki, get your ass back here, you shall pay for what you have done to my vest. Do you know how expensive this vest is?" Yelled a chunin shinobi.

"When we catch you, you will never cause this village trouble ever again!" called the second shinobi. But no matter how fast they ran or how high they jumped, they couldn't catch Naruto.

"Come and get me, bakas! You will never prove that was my doing! I will never be caught by the likes of you! You'll have to do a lot better than that if you are going to outsmart me!" called Naruto as he blew a raspberry at the two men who chased after him.

As Naruto and the men jumped from roof to roof, Naruto suddenly turned at the corner of the Nara's residence where a large amount of deer were being kept on the ranch so he hid there. While Nara Shikaku was busy raising deers, he scowled as he saw the approach of two chunins whose style of looks were changed. He couldn't help but groan as he placed his hand on his head and said to them, "Is there something I can do for you gentlemen since you have intruded on my property?" asked Shikaku.

"We're so sorry for bothering you like this, but have you seen the twelve year old demo-"

The two men were suddenly lifted by Shikaku's shadow and they could see his hand grabbing them by their necks ready to choke them. "You better watch what you say in front of a twelve year old who is on his way to be a hero of our place because you will end up suffering the same fate as he did later on." He growled in a monotonous voice.

"We... We're sorry! What we meant to say was, have you seen Naruto around here by any chance?" asked the chunin as he was released by the Nara clan heir while trying to catch his breath.

"It's troublesome to say, but I haven't seen him around either ever since he played the jokes on the entire village. But from what I've seen, he did outsmart you. And I'm surprised to say that he was this creative, which sort of amuses me." Said Shikaku.

"But you don't understand, that kid is not normal and you saw what he did to us. Do you seriously think this is funny?" said the chunin.

"He's right, he needs to be stopped right now so that the village will be safe from that joker." Said the other shinobi.

"To be completely honest, I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but I have to tell you, I am very proud of him despite the pranks he pulled. Not even my son can stop him. As I said, I haven't seen Naruto here so you guys have to look for him elsewhere." Said Shikaku.

The two chunins sighed and left right away to find Naruto. As Shikaku watched, he couldn't help but snicker at the plight of the chunins and thought they did deserve it for picking on a defenseless kid. As he turned back to the ranch he approached Amaru, who seemed to be resting on the left side of the ranch and called out, "It's okay, Naruto. You can come out now, I've scared them away."

Naruto was lucky to have escaped that obstacle as he came out from behind the large deer and sat down on the fence log while petting the herds.

"You really are a troublesome fellow for taking on two chunins like that. What were you thinking? You could have been easily defeated by those two men." Said Amaru, who padded over to Shikaku and sat down next to him.

"Oh, come on. Amaru-san, you know I was just playing with them. There was no harm done to them and they should know better than to pick on a poor defenseless kid like me." Said Naruto.

"Yeah, right. You know that they already hated you, but if you keep harassing them like this, eventually they will kill you, you know that?" replied Amaru.

"Okay, so I went a bit overboard, but hey at least this is payback for what they did to me. I can't let them get to me like this because I can't take it anymore. This will teach them not to mess with me." Said Naruto.

"Man, you really are a pain in the ass, but you are my troublesome adoptive son. Amaru is right, you know. You really should stop these pranks, because you will get in trouble one of these days, you know that?" said Shikaku who placed his hands on Naruto showing a smile.

"Oh, don't worry Shikaku tou-san, They can't outsmart a guy like me. I can easily evade them with no problems at all." Said Naruto with a smile. This had caused the deer raiser to grumble lowly.

The deer covered his face and tried not to laugh but did anyway and thought to himself, "You don't know the half of it Kiddo, no one can outrun you." Even the deer raiser smiled at him but rubbed his head and thought. "He is troublesome just like his old man." As he looked at Naruto, he said to him, "Well, my boy, since you have more energy left, why don't you help me by getting the deers back into the ranch without losing them."

Naruto looked at the deers with a nervous look on his face as he looked at his adoptive father and said, "Are you sure I need to do that?"

The man answered his question quickly and said, "This should be no problem for you." Seeing Naruto started to crack up he asked him, "What? You didn't think you would refuse to do this job just so you can get away from it for free now, did you? Hehehe!"

As the Hokage watched with amusement, he decided now that was enough punishment for him and that he needs to return back to the academy to complete his graduation. So, he sent Iruka over to the Nara household to pick him up and drag him back to the academy.

"I think Naruto really knows what he was doing out there, even though the village shunned him a lot. But he is lucky to have to have the clans to look after him and they do see him as family to them. He does a lot of chores for them and receives a monthly stipend from you, doesn't he?" said Jiraiya.

"Yeah, Naruto does spend a lot of time with the clans and he does have a lot of fun sometimes, but he does need to know sooner or later that the village is not all fun and games." Said the Hokage.

Meanwhile back at the academy, Iruka looked at Naruto with a disappointed look on his face and said to him, "What were you thinking sneaking out of the classroom like that? Today's the day of the graduation exam and you already failed to show up twice already. Either you get your act together, or you won't be able to graduate at all." Said Iruka. He was not used to seeing Naruto act like this before, but he knows that Naruto had been suffering a lot over the past, but he tries what he can to help him.

"But Iruka-sensei, I was just having some fun, can't a shinobi have some fun for a little while?" said Naruto.

"This is no time for fun; you should stay here in class where I can keep a close eye on you so that you won't go out looking for trouble." Said Iruka.

Soon it was graduation time, and Naruto had yet again, failed the exam of the transformation and he was forced to do chores outside of Konoha, which he really hated to do, but Iruka promised him that he would be able to treat him to ramen if he finished all the chores. When Naruto heard those words, he was excited. After he finished, they went to ichiraku to eat some ramen and Iruka had a talk with Naruto by telling him not to sneak out of the classroom during a session and saying that he should focus on getting promoted to genin.

But Naruto told Iruka that in order for him to be a genin, he wanted the village to treat him as a normal person for once and stop shunning him. Also, in order for Naruto to be Hokage, he wanted to succeed his adoptive grandfather, the Sandaime Hokage and then see him as the next hero of Konoha. Iruka smiled at him for that and told him that he still needs to complete his graduation.

The next day, Naruto still had failed the transformation and once again, failed to graduate. Feeling left out, he went outside and sat down on a swing with no one to talk to. As the others watched him, they were disgusted at him because he was a demon. But no matter how harsh the villagers were to him, he ignored their comments and sat down at his apartment. Suddenly, the silver-haired chunin appeared in front of Naruto and said to him, "Why are you looking so down, Naruto?"

"I failed the graduation exam yet again, and now I'll never become the next hero of Konoha. Why does the village always see me as a monster and not as a hero?" said .

"I'm sure you'll pass eventually, Iruka wasn't being harsh to you. He was just worried about you and he feels that your safety is the number one priority. He sees you as his loving student. Try to have more patience, okay Naruto?" said Mizuki while placing his hands on the blonde.

"If this is true, then why hasn't he protected me so well over these last few years before I started the academy? I already know that he took great care of me and all, but he shouldn't have…" began Naruto

"Don't tell me. He shouldn't have underestimated you, right? I know, but he is a special person to you because he cares and worries about you. And so does the rest of your family here. But I think I can help you graduate with a special exam. Meet me in the forest north of the tower with a scroll." Said Mizuki.

"You really think so? I don't know why I am doing this, but okay." Said Naruto. And he went home to make preparations. But Mizuki had something else planned for him as he was planning to kill Naruto and Iruka combined tonight.

As Naruto quietly entered the Hokage tower without the Sandaime's knowledge, he took the large scroll out of its place and placed the cover back on the scroll holding podium and left the tower. As the Hokage slept, he quickly woke up to hear the sound of an alarm going off. As he watcherd, he knew something was wrong and sees a forbidden scroll that was used to be in the tower was gone. At that moment, he knew that it was Mizuki who tricked Naruto to take the scroll so he quickly sent Iruka to find him and also his three former students, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru for backup.

At the forest, Naruto arrived with the scroll and observed the techniques on them. As he continued reading, he came across the Clone technique and was disappointed. "I really don't like that technique. I will try something else." thought Naruto. But before he could continue, Iruka arrived and sees Naruto with the scroll and said to him, "Naruto! What are you doing out here? Don't you know that the entire population of Konoha is worried sick about you? And did Mizuki tell you to take that scroll?"

"Mizuki said that if I could learn a technique from here he would pass me and I was thinking of this as an extra exam." Said Naruto.

"What extra exam? That does not exist. I think you need to take that scroll back to the tower before danger befalls upon you. Listen, Mizuki has tricked you and he would do anything to kill you. I want you to take the scroll out of here and run as fast as you can and don't stop. Think of this as a first C rank mission from me to you." Said Iruka.

But no sonner than he said that, a large barrage of shurikens and kunai knives flew at them. As Iruka tried to push Naruto out of the way, he got hit with most of them and was badly hurt. As Naruto removed them, a second barrage of the weapons flew towards him and he was hit hard with them as well. Believing that Naruto could survive this he quickly struggled to get up and turned to Mizuki and said, "You, don't you dare hurt my teacher Iruka. You shall pay for tricking me like this."

"There is nothing you can do about it now. Besides you are the demon and your father sealed it inside of you and it was the one that killed me and my childhood friend's parents. You are the kyubii reborn. Now hand me the scroll and I shall spare you." Said Mizuki with a evil grin on his face.

"Not on your life! I am guarding this whether you like it or not. You are going to have to be a rocket scientist to outsmart me. Come and get me!" shouted Naruto. And with that he ran off into the distance to the Hokage's tower with Mizuki fast on his tail. Iruka followed close behind with a transformation of the fake Mizuki to protect Naruto with all his life.

As they arrived at the outskirts of the forest, Naruto stopped behind a tree to catch his breath and he felt sad and thought to himself, "Does everyone really hate me for who I am? And now Iruka is turning against me? I really am the monster now and no one really seems to care about me. Mizuki was right, I really am the person to be blamed for what happened." He though as tears came to his eyes and he started to weep helplessly.

But as Iruka arrived he was hit more by the shurikens and other weapons by Mizuki and he sat down on the ground next to a tree and said to Mizuki, "Why are you doing this? Do you have any idea what sort of terrible danger you would unleash onto this village if you take that scroll? Don't ever talk about the demon thing, Naruto is not to blame."

"You really are a hypocrite, why do you keep protecting him? He is a monster after all. You two make me so sick to my stomach just thinking about it. And now since you interfered in saving Naruto's life, I'll be forced to take Naruto's life from this world for all eternity! And there is nothing you can do about it." Said Mizuki. He spots Naruto near a tree and took him out in front of Iruka and started beating him. But still, Naruto didn't flinch because he held onto the scroll with his life without giving it to Mizuki. "I've had enough of you, prepare to die, demon!" yelled Mizuki as he flung the fuma shuriken at Naruto. As Naruto saw the giant weapon coming at him, he makes a run for it but instead of the weapon hitting Naruto, Iruka stepped into take the hit himself as he shielded Naruto from the attack. As Naruto looked up, he was in shock and said, 'Why Iruka, why did you do that?"

"Because you are so precious to me. I know that when I was younger I had suffered the same fate as you did with no parents to take care of me. I know it hurts but thinking about those times is really painful for you and me. I'm sorry I haven't taken good care of you, please forgive me!" Tears came down his eyes and onto Naruto's whiskered cheeks. Naruto slowly got up and was angered at what Mizuki had done and so it was his time to shine and take down the renegade chunin once and for all. "Mizuki, you traitor! I will never forgive you for what you did to Iruka, and I'll be the one to take you down once and for all. Now prepare yourself, because this is going to hurt, Mizuki-teme!" he shouted. And within seconds he performed a hand seal and called out, "Kage Bushin no jutsu!" and suddenly a bunch of Narutos appeared out of nowhere and shocked Mizuki to his core. Even Iruka was impressed to see that Naruto had mastered such an advanced jutsu. "Come and get me Mizuki! I will give you the pain back a thousand fold!" shouted Naruto

"Let's see you try and stop me, Demon! Show me what you got!" yelled Mizuki as he quickly threw another fuma shuriken at Naruto but it missed and sheared a tree in half, ready to hit Iruka, but Naruto moved the broken tree branch somewhere else and started a barrage of punches, kicking, and elbowing at Mizuki. He also landed some blows on his face and chest as well causing blood to ooze out from the silver-haired chunin. "Nice try, Naruto but even your clones won't stop me!" said Mizuki as he struggled to get up. At that moment he knew that Naruto had another trick up his sleeve as he dispelled his other clones leaving the real and the fake one to create a new technique, the rasengan. As Naruto aimed the white spiral ball at Mizuki, it landed it straight into his stomach cauing him to fly in a spiral direction hitting the ground. As the Hokage and the rest of the clans watched, they were most impressed that Naruto could pull off another jutsu of the Yondaime Hokage, even Iruka was impressed with it as well. "Naruto, how much stronger are you getting? If you keep this up you may be as powerful as Kakashi," thought Iruka.

As Mizuki lied on the floor badly wounded, Naruto rubbed his head and said, "Oops, I think I sort of overdid it."

"No, you didn't over do, it, but I think Mizuki's had enough, that second technique you did was simply amazing! I think you are on your way to being a splendid shinobi!" said Iruka.

"You really think so? But what worries me is, am I really the demon? Because no matter where I am, everyone in Konoha sees me as a demon and I don't know who I am anymore. I'm just tired of pranking the village and the civilians treating me like a monster." Said Naruto sadly as tears came to his eyes. He was on the verge of crying.

"You poor thing, Konoha has been so bad to you, hasn't it? Well, I will not let that happen. I will protect you with all my life and so will the sandaime and the rest of the clans of Konoha. You are so special and precious to me and I love you, Naruto!" said Iruka as he embraced Naruto in a hug.

Naruto couldn't help but letting tears run down his eyes as he embraced Iruka in a fierce hug, even though he was wincing in pain. Iruka returned the hug to Naruto just as fierce. And to his surprise, Naruto really does care a lot for Iruka because he sees him as a father figure. After a while, Iruka took out a headband and said to Naruto, "Close your eyes for a sec. I have a surprise for you."

"What sort of surprise?" asked Naruto.

"You can open your eyes now. Congrats on making a new genin of Konoha, I am very proud of you." Said Iruka as he placed the leaf headband on naruto's forehad.

As Naruto saw the leaf headband, he was very surprised and jumped up and down in excitement. As the Hokage looked in the crystal ball, he showed his true smile at Iruka for making Naruto a new genin. "That boy never ceases to amaze me when he learned the fourth Hokage's jutsu. He'll make a fine hero of Konoha one day." Thought the Hokage.

Suddenly out of the forest, Jiraiya and Tsunade appeared and sees the damage done on Mizuki. They were most surprised that Naruto could master the rasengan in just a few seconds. "Look at that, Naruto didn't even need our help, look at the damage he did on Mizuki!" said Tsunade.

"You are right, that kid will make a fine hero of Konoha if he keeps learning new techniques each time." Said Jiraiya.

"This could prove to be more problematic than I had once thought, Naruto is even more of a threat to me and my plans, but I will deal with him when the time comes, hehehehe!" thought Orochimaru evilly as he disappeared from the forest in a puff of smoke.

Out of the blue Sasuke and Sakura appeared in front of Naruto and sees him and Iruka badly injured. They were lucky to have survived the attack and they were escorted to the hospital to be treated for their injuries while the Anbu placed Mizuki under arrest and took him to the Konoha correction facility where he is to be serving his life sentence for the crimes he committed.

"Oh, shit! Now Sasuke and Sakura knows the truth about the monster inside of me. How will I explain this to them? If I tell them this, they'll never speak to me again." thought Naruto as Sasuke and Sakura carried Naruto's arms and walked back to the Hokage's tower.

And that would be the end of this first chapter. I have a few things to clear up Orochimaru and tsunade don't really play a large role at the beginning, but they will later on. Naruto didn't even learn the rasengan until later on. But this is my way of how I like things to pan out as the story continues. Anyway please let me know what you think and I'll see you all next time.

Combatally12