Yo,

I'm back with the next chapter of Change in Winds. You can read next 2 chapters of Change in Winds on my Patron Page by 5th March.

"Normal speech" people talking.

'Normal thought' people thinking.

"Bijuu/Summons" Bijuu or Summons Speaking.

'Bijuu/Summons' Bijuu or Summons thinking.

"Jutsu" is being used.

Enjoy.

Change in Winds

Chapter 1

Gaining Experience

Naruto was in high spirits when he reached the academy as he is an official Shinobi of Konoha now. As he entered, everyone looked at him confidently. Naruto heard the students present take him for some new kid.

He smiled to himself. 'So it worked.' He thought as few recognised him while he was coming to the Academy and others' curious looks confirmed it. He shrugged them off and sat at the back of the class, waiting for Iruka-sensei's arrival. After the initial shock wore off, everyone continued with their work.

He just sat there thinking about the clones he left to continue his Fuuinjitsu practice. The sealing art felt natural for him. At the rate of his practice, he knew he will perfect his calligraphy soon.

Naruto sat reading about the sealing theory, for the class to start and to practise, he wanted to experiment in a secure place with no one disturbing. He stuck to reading for now.

His dingy apartment doesn't fit the bill as it is ready to blow up at moment's notice if he had one strong sneeze. He needs a place that serves as a good testing ground and if possible, a second home.

With these thoughts in mind, Naruto continues his study about sealing from the books and the types of seals used in general. They are very interesting, to say the least.

Exploding tags, Flash tags and Smoke bombs are a few applications of seals and Naruto knew there can be so many more if one puts heart into it and he already plans to.

He read while waiting for Iruka to come and the class filled up. Shikamaru, Heir to the famed Nara Clan, (well known for their intellectual minds) came and sat in the middle row with Choji, another Clan Heir of the Akamichi clan in tow.

Naruto was friends with them in their early Academy days. But it's been heard since Naruto taller to them like how they used it other than the occasional greeting here and there.

Naruto can see things that he couldn't before and pick subtle hints in the postures and demeanour of others. A great skill very important for his shinobi life ahead.

Naruto noticed Shikamaru looking at him but didn't comment and lazily slept on his desk. While Choji started eating chips from a bag he got from somewhere.

Soon others came which included Kiba, Hinata, Shino and finally Sasuke who sat in their seats while other civilian children came and sat in their places. Excited chatter grew in class as most arrived.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with raised eyebrows, to which Naruto replied with his stare. An impromptu staring match started and ended with the Uchiha turning away with a 'Hn' and sitting in his brooding pose, both hands clasped near his mouth and looking somewhere out of the window.

Naruto didn't care much about the Uchiha boy and continued his reading. But all of a sudden, the class started shaking as loud footsteps thumped outside and the door was flung open.

"I came first!" Ino exclaimed, gasping for breath.

"What are you talking pig? Didn't you see my foot stepped into the class first!" Sakura argued and they both had a catfight about it and came near Sasuke.

"Tell her I'm first, Sasuke-kun," Ino asked a brooding Sasuke with a dreamy face.

"Ya right. Sasuke-kun knew I'm first and I'm going to sit beside him!" Sakura proclaimed and sat beside the last Uchiha before Ino could retort.

Sakura looked around as if to find something or someone and looked at Naruto. He didn't directly see her but observed from his peripherals.

Not finding what she was looking for, she sat beside Sasuke and started asking him out and things she generally does. Ino went to Shikamaru and sat beside the sleeping Nara.

Shikamaru cracked an eye open and saw her and closed it. The class was chatting animatedly when the door opened again and Iruka-Sensei walked in with a stack of papers.

"Hello class," he said with a smile but none noticed or cared to listen to him and continued chatting. He got tic marks on his head and shouted with his patented Big head Jutsu.

"Shut up, you brats!" He yelled and the class calmed down.

"Good Morning class," he said cheerfully again.

"Good Morning, Iruka-sensei," we all chorused. He started the class by taking roll calls. As the names went by, Naruto's turn came.

"Uzumaki Naruto,"

"Hai, Sensei," said Naruto with his hand up and everyone turned to him, shocked. Shikamaru shrugged as if he knew and continued to sleep. But others were still glued to him, even Iruka.

Kiba tried to say something, but words stuck in his mouth as he saw Naruto in his new attire looking professional, which is far cry from his appearance and Iruka-sensei spoke before him.

"Naruto- Nice outfit by the way," Iruka complemented, unable to say anything else. Naruto acknowledged with a small smile and Iruka continued the role call. After roll call was completed, he took another sheet of paper.

"Now, students. I'm happy that you all passed your graduation exam. I'm proud of you all. From this day forth, you will be starting your Shinobi career. I suggest you keep everything you learned in the Academy in mind and improve yourself to be more skilled as you move forward.

Remember, teamwork is key to success and one of the fundamental traits of a Konoha Shinobi. I won't hold you any further. I'll announce the teams assigned by Hokage-sama and if you have any problem, you can talk to him," he said and everyone nodded.

"Team 1 will be..." Iruka started and Naruto ignored, thinking about the team he will be assigned to.

Meanwhile,

Hokage Office, Hokage Tower

"Are all present?" asked the Sandaime to the Jounin who agreed to be Sensei this year. Everyone knew one was missing. Disregarding that, he continued.

"My dear Jounin, you are the few that have come forward to take a Genin team this year. Do your best to train them. I think I don't need to lecture you about how to be in a te-" he was interrupted by a puff of smoke.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, a black cat came in my way when I was coming here. So I have to take a long way around," said a silver-haired man. The Hokage sighed.

"Remember, these children are the future of our village and Shinobi force. All the teams have been assigned with due considerations, so there won't be many changes in them.

If you have any objections, send them to me. And you know the drill. Dismissed," the Sandaime commanded and all of them left the room, including Kakashi, who didn't even get acknowledged.

Academy Class Room

"Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto and your Sensei will be Hatake Kakashi," announced Iruka.

When the first 2 names came Sakura screeched in joy and when the last name came she yelled in horror. Sasuke and Naruto had a staring contest again, with none saying anything. Sasuke turned away with a typical Uchiha 'Hn' again and Naruto didn't respond.

'Hmm. I don't know what happened to me, but I can think properly without any shouts or yelling and proclamations about being Hokage. I don't even feel anything even though I'm on the same team as Sakura.

Did awakening my Sharingan changed me this much as a person? Instead of a knucklehead, loud obnoxious idiot, I'm calm, collected, can think well and can observe small details as well.

I think I should continue the act sometime to not raise any suspicion. But this is nice. Something in me changed on that day. I can't help but see everything clearly now. The interesting team though.

Rookie of the year, Kunoichi of the year and Dead last, at least to them. I'll see how it works,' thought Naruto to himself but gave a small smile outside instead of exclaiming loudly. Everyone was stunned because of his reaction or lack thereof. This is very new to them. A quite Naruto and some took it as a bad omen.

"Ok, class. Your sensei will be here to take you after lunch. You have 2 hours to prepare. You should be here by 1 PM." Iruka said happily and everyone nodded.

"Again, congratulations on graduating from the academy, class. I wish you all best of luck in your Shinobi careers," he said and the class cheered.

After Iruka's goodbye, Naruto left to eat. Sakura expected Naruto to ask her out on a date or eat together and the like, but the blonde walked out of the class without saying anything.

Few Hours Later, Academy

After eating lunch, Naruto went to his apartment to see the progress made by his clones in Fuuinjutsu. He saw them still reading the books given by his Jiji and nodded.

He didn't expect them to be done by one as the books given by his Jiji were large and written by the Uzumaki Clan, his clan. After reading Nidaime's note, Naruto understood that there is a real clan with the name of Uzumaki.

That gave him bug relief as he thought himself to be a no-name nobody. Though he doesn't know who his parents are, he is happy enough to know he had a clan.

As he continued reading, the books increased in size by at least 100 pages from volume to volume. He sat on the couch and thought about the things he learned from his Academy books.

The books stressed basic Academy 3 Jutsu's and covered geography and general maps and terrains of all major villages and their current Kages.

They greatly covered history, greatness and all victories of Konoha in the last 3 Shinobi wars. They also, of course, portrayed Konoha as the epitome of Goodness and power and the strongest hidden village in the world.

But because of his first-hand experience with the truths of his village, Naruto knew what Konoha really is. He also learned about Genjutsu, theory and Iryo Jutsu theory though they were covered in his curriculum.

Both branches require refined chakra control to use and then the deterrent for him, people with large chakra reserves can't escape any Genjutsu easily.

Naruto got an idea and looked at the clock to see he still had an hour to go or just send a clone there if need be. He opted for the second option and sent a clone there ahead of time.

He then enacted his plan by creating 5 clones in addition to the ones already there with orders given. All their eyes morphed into red eyes with 2 black tomoes in one and 1 black tomoe in the other. They look frightening, yes. But it didn't faze Naruto.

With the basics already complete, he stared straight into one of his clone's eyes and others followed his lead, dividing into pairs.

"Sharingan: Genjutsu," whispered Naruto. And the clones chorused. They all felt different sensations. First was the feeling of foreign chakra entering their system, understood because of the improved Chakra control. Though the chakra belongs to the original, all the experimental clones felt it to be foreign.

"Did it work?" Asked one clone.

"Let's try," said another.

They made their subjects do various things. One to dance, one to roll, one to walk on toes and so on. After getting enough evidence, they broke the Genjutsu and ordered to repeat it but roles reversed.

Before that, all the victim clones were dispelled, to give their knowledge to the original and other clones and the experience was surreal.

By this point, Naruto got accustomed to 10 clones dispelling at once and all the information they brought with it. So after half of recovering, they continued.

The casters become the victims now and Naruto experienced being locked in a Genjutsu for the first time, the experience his clones provided proved invaluable now.

He knew what to expect in a typical Genjutsu now and tried to escape it by the traditional ways. After many times of practice with his 20 clones, he mastered breaking Genjutsu. He did it in 2 ways.

The first is to cause physical pain which his clones did first when their brain cells were assumed to be dead due to the Genjutsu. After he shouted at their dumbness, they tried it by simply activating their Sharingan and that broke the Genjutsu easily.

He thought of covering his eyes with a genjutsu so that his eyes won't be Red with tomoes when he use the Sharingan, but it is not easy as said.

So Naruto opted for contacts, for the time being, a way to change someone's eye colour and is generally used to better vision by Shinobi as glasses can become a hassle in some scenarios.

He was successful in that endeavour and found a shop in the village that agreed to do contacts for him and Naruto asked them to be Yondaime's eye colour, which is close, almost similar to his shade of blue.

The owner was super happy to help him as he thought Naruto's Henge to be another Yondaime fan.

The contacts fit him perfectly as they are not for any sight, they were immediately prepared. Naruto tested them. They work perfectly well.

When he activated his Sharingan, everything can be seen in blue now unlike where he can clearly distinguish chakra colour. He observed his eyes in the mirror and saw them to be his usual cerulean and nodded in satisfaction.

While Naruto was progressing in his Genjutsu skills and finding ways to improve, his team meeting went without a hitch.

Few hours prior

Academy Classroom

Clone Naruto entered the empty class as he was early. He sat at the same corner and took out a book on Jutsu theory which is used to create new Jutsu he got from the library. This is a book available in the Shinobi section and is within his access limit.

It mainly consists of steps to create a Jutsu and what aspects should it have in general. For example, if it is a Ninjutsu type, it should have Handseals, Chakra manipulation, Chakra nature, Chakra moulding and chakra amount and then comes the Jutsu rank.

The rank generally depends upon the Jutsu damage to enemies or surroundings and also self-damage if any caused.

The clone was deep in his reading when he heard a boisterous laugh and turned to see Kiba coming in. He kept his book in his pocket and prepared for the upcoming provocation.

"Ya, you think so?" Kiba asked Shikamaru, who is looking at the ceiling lazily and picking his ear.

"Ya," he responded and stopped when he noticed the clone's presence.

"Troublesome," he muttered under his breath and went to his seat and slept. The rest of the group saw Naruto and came near him. The group consists of Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Ino and Sakura. They all came near his seat and surrounded him.

"Hey, Naruto, what is with the change of clothes?" Kiba asked loudly. They all are in their normal Academy uniform. Naruto didn't care much about them to observe any difference.

"You idiot, ask him about how he graduated. I remember him failing then!" Sakura exclaimed and Ino nodded vigorously.

"Ya, how and when did you graduate, Naruto?" Kiba asked curiously and the clone observed everyone's interest in the topic as they moved closer to him and even a sleeping Shikamaru cracked an eye open.

"Well," he started and gave a dramatic pause. Everyone inched even closer at this.

"Because I'm awesome!" He exclaimed and everyone stumbled and fell upon each other in a big human mess. Shikamaru also fell from his seat.

"Hahaha," laughed the blonde.

"You built up all that suspense and made us fools," said Kiba rubbing his bum, Akamaru barked in agreement.

"You should learn how to treat a young lady, Naruto," said Ino who fell on Sakura who got a tick mark and pushed her up. She was about to hit Naruto went he just moved back and she fell again.

"I guess, Ino. But I don't have any beautiful young lady like you near me to teach me," he said and winked at her. Ino rubbed her eyes and took a double-take.

She cant believe that Naruto of all people is talking to her like this. In his new clothes, he looked somewhat cool but not as cool as her precious Sasuke-kun, of course. But handsome nonetheless. She blushed and went back to Shikamaru and Chouji, who left the group when he saw them fall.

"Ya right. As if you are awesome," said Kiba. Naruto just shrugged as they went back to their seats, uninterested in the blonde's dramatic change.

The clone sat patiently and saw every team going out with their sensei. He made a note of observing both Sakura and Sasuke in the meantime. And 2 hours passed since everyone left.

Sakura was getting more and more desperate and started walking around the class fuming while Sasuke was brooding in the same corner.

He continued reading his book. After 1 more hour, Sakura was shouting profanities and Sasuke was glaring at the door. He thought of all the possibilities for a Jounin to be this late and waited for the man to come to make his judgement. The door to the room opened and in came a Silver haired man.

"My first opinion of your group is you are all a bunch of idiots," he said and everyone paused for a bit to take what he said and Sakura's anger came full force.

"YOU ARE LATE!" she shouted like a banshee. The man picked his ear up and replied.

"Well, I got lost in the road of life," he said calmly and they there fell from their seats after hearing that. The clone nearly popped at that.

'Yes, it is decided. This guy won't train me or the boss. Better to self-study instead of wasting time waiting for him,' he mentally decided and listened to the man's instructions.

"Meet me in 5 minutes on the roof and he poofed out of existence," Naruto's clone rose an eyebrow. 'Did he just use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?' He thought and went up with the rest of the group.

The man sat at the edge of the railing, reading a small orange book titled 'Icha Icha Paradise'. Naruto knew that book. He made his Oiroke no jutsu(Sexy Jutsu) based on the reference from the book.

'He is reading porn in public and in front of children nonetheless. He is going to be an ideal sensei for sure,' he smirked internally observing Kakashi's habits.

They settled as the man closed his book. Naruto sat to the left, while Sasuke sat beside him and Sakura beside Sasuke. They all looked at him expectantly.

"Well, introduce yourselves," he said plainly.

"What do you mean, Sensei?" Sakura asked in confusion. Didn't he read their files when he was assigned the team.

"Well, tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies and goals or dreams for the future," he elaborated in a bored tone.

"Why don't you show us how," suggested Sakura and he gave her an unimpressed answer anyway.

"Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes are not for children, my dislikes are none of your business and dreams for the future, never thought about it," he said with an eye smile with his single visible eye forming a 'u' shape.

'He just told us his name. It's clear, he is insane,' concluded the clone.

"That's useless. He just told us his name," murmured Sakura and he and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Now you, Pinkie. Tell us about your likes, dislikes, goals or dreams for the future," he pointed and Sakura started.

"Well, my likes are..." she stared at Sasuke and giggled.

"My dislikes are Ino pig pestering and Naruto asking for dates," she proclaimed.

"My dreams for the future are..." She again stared at Sasuke and giggles to herself.

Naruto's clone and Kakashi had the same thought. 'Yep, definitely, a fangirl,'.

Sasuke sweatdropped at her explanation. 'She just stared at me giggled?' He shouted in his mind but kept his cool composure.

"Now you, duck ass haircut," said Kakashi and Sasuke's eye twitched at that. 'What is this idiot thinking about him, I, Uchiha Sasuke, is an elite,' he thought fuming.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike things more than I like them. My dreams for the future are... No, I'll make it a reality is to kill a certain someone and rebuild my clan," he said neutrally with his hands on his mouth.

'Great, I got an Avenger,' thought Kakashi.

Naruto's clone didn't say anything but observed and kept his thoughts to himself.

"Now you, blondie,"

"Yes, thank you Scarecrow," rebuked Naruto and Kakashi's lone eye widened at that.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I like Ramen. I hate the three minutes it takes to cook Ramen and my dream is to become the Hokage!" he proclaimed loudly to the heavens. 'If they accept me,' he thought to himself.

'And a hyperactive loudmouth. Great,' thought Kakashi to himself. He forgot the comment Naruto made on him, drowning in sadness.

"Ok, team. Tomorrow we are going to do survival training. Come to training ground 7 at 5 am sharp and remember, don't eat or you will puke," he said and vanished in another puff of smoke.

The three of them grumbled about lazy Sensei and started leaving. Sasuke left while Sakura followed him. He just dispelled, relaying all the information to the original.

Naruto's Residence

Naruto was practising how to cast Genjutsu with Sharingan when the memories of his clone hit him. His concentration lapsed and the Genjutsu dispelled. All the clones were looking at him after receiving and going through the memories themselves.

"Hmm, looks like we have an interesting team, boys. A scarecrow, a fangirl and an avenger. Interesting indeed. We'll start our seals' practice from tomorrow.

We will go out to find a place somewhere outside the village which is secure enough for us to practise our seals. I don't want to be held back by his lackadaisical nature. Understood?" He asked and the clones nodded.

"And be discreet and make sure to not garner any attention." He added and got a collective 'Hai'. They practised for a few more hours and after completing the practice for the day Naruto dispelled them and went out to have dinner at Ichiraku's.

After eating dinner at Ichiraku's, Naruto enacted his search by merging himself with shadows with black clothes. He wore a black shirt with black pants and bought a black mask to cover his face like his new Sensei. He is an inspiration in that if Naruto had to say. He used Shunshined to the forest outside of Konoha.

In a few minutes, he reached the outer wall of Konoha and jumped over it and made it into the large forests of Konoha. He made 20 clones to search and they all disappeared.

They all activated their Sharingan to search for any chakra trace. Though such massive use of Sharingan costs lots of chakra, Naruto had enough to back it up and they used that to their advantage.

They are searching for chakra trace to find a building that is chakra restricted so that all the activity he does with destructive seals and future practice won't be sensed or heard.

They searched for hours and decided to rest when a clone found a ruined building protected by some kind of barrier and dispelled itself to transfer the information. Getting its memories, all clones and the original came there using Shunshin and inspected the building.

The first thing Naruto's eyes showed him was a broken swirl symbol on the ruined building. It was made of dark brown wood with a swirl engraved in it. He can see the huge amounts of chakra inside from the broken door and cautiously went near it.

"Ok, boys. Looks like some kind of warehouse. It has large amounts of chakra in addition to the barrier. I want one of you to go in and check for any traps, move," ordered the original and 5clones went in to investigate.

Though the building had his Clan symbol, it's better safe than to be sorry. So Naruto decided to test everything before going in himself.

As the clones moved in, they noticed how ruined the building was. Ruined because of time and lack of proper care. They can see so many cracks and broken at some places. They moved to a place where the highest concentration of chakra is and noticed the lack of traps.

On their way, they passed an enclosure like a place where there are many masks. Seeing that there are no traps, one of them dispelled, giving the original green signal to enter and Naruto entered without delay.

He also saw the masks, but since he didn't know what they are, he moved to the room where his clones are. He saw the biggest seal he ever saw there, which in his life is not that much as he came to know about seals just a few weeks ago.

From what he learnt in the books and theory, they are preservative seals, cleaning and conditioning seals intertwined with strengthening seals and blood seals from his best guess.

Not that he can understand whatever is written in them, he just know basics and from basics, he can understand that much. He scanned it closer and bit his finger and spread his blood across the matrix to assess the reaction.

The matrix glowed a faint blue, showing the Seals absorption of his chakra and blood and the building rocked, giving them access to another path as the floor split.

Naruto saw a long corridor with softly glowing lights produced by flickering torches. He moved in with his clones guarding his back. They moved into a large room. There are doors lined up. Each one of them is well maintained and clean

Curious about the rooms, he went in to see what was in the rooms and was surprised by the contents in them.

The first room is set up to mirror a large training ground. It is nearly 500 meters large with lighting coming from somewhere. It also has so many stances, katas and poses painted on all of it.

In the middle of the room was a Big Red swirl which is nearly 10 meters long across the surface and the ceiling. He can see seals on it as well.

He moved to the second room, which is a large library. Large in the very meaning. It seems endless to his eyes, even with his Sharingan. There are books on different things. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Fuuinjutsu, Kenjutsu, Juinjutsu, Bukijutsu, Iryo Ninjutsu and so on.

But most belong to Fuuinjutsu and its types. There are other books like History, Uzushiogakure uniforms and maps of different nations. The uniform of Uzushio Genin is just like his.

Light blue shirt with a black undershirt and grey pants. With the headband of Uzushio on their forehead protector, which is a swirl.

The name Uzushio was on everything in the room as if it is another Ninja village and Naruto decided to investigate further about it and moved to the third room.

Which can be assumed as an armoury. There are lots and lots of weapons in it. Like in thousands which consist of shuriken, kunai, smoke bombs, flash tags, explosive tags etc.

They are sharp as well, with no wear and tear like his normal kunai as if polished recently and Naruto also saw many swords and books on different Kenjutsu styles.

He noticed a missing sword in its display to the side and moved closer. The design of the imprint is something he felt familiar with. He took his katana and put it on the designed imprint.

There was the sound of something unlocking as a drop of his blood was taken from the hilt of the sword. He can see bluish-green chakra enter his sword as it fits in the imprint.

He saw the outline of a woman form in it. He can feel her and her connection to him. It is not fully sentient to talk, but he can feel her emotions and he assumed it is vice verse.

Love, acceptance and joy were her emotions. She loves him and is happy he loves her by the simple act of carrying her around as seals started to form on her.

He doesn't know what they meant but from what he can read, the Kanji read "Protection", "Power" and some other seals formed on her. In a puff of smoke, a scroll appeared in front of him. Naruto took the scroll and opened it to read.

'To The Prince,

This scroll explains about the katana which was left for the Prince of the Uzumaki Clan as an Heirloom. Dear prince, the katana, Mayuri, is an heirloom given to you in this moment of our extinction.

In the second Great Shinobi war, the combined forces of Iwa, Kumo and Kiri have attacked us and our numbers are decreasing fastly. Princess Kushina, the heiress of the clan was sent to Konoha to be the next Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi just a week ago.

We have sent for help, but I think the situation is not favourable for Konoha to send any help. This scroll is sent to the Uzumaki Clan compound in Konoha. Mayuri is made especially for you, dear prince, and we at the Uzushio hope that she suits you well.

We made this especially for you because Princess Kushina is not going to marry an Uzumaki and one of our elders foresaw about a young child of Uzumaki heritage, suffering in his earlier years.

Mayuri won't work for anyone other than you, young Prince. She has some seals to identify you and some other special seals to make her different from others. We hope this will change things for the better for you, dear Prince.

Regards,

Proud Clansmen of Uzushiogakure.'

Naruto re-read the letter many times. His clan people had given him something in their memory. He felt elated and happy at that and they also told him his mother's name. Uzumaki Kushina. He is going to search for her and know who his parents are. He took the katana and looked it over.

She is beautiful after getting new seals. 'Mayuri, what a beautiful name. I think it means True Friend,' he thought to himself and rubbed her. He had a connection to his clan and a friend now.

His heart danced in joy at that. A friend. He always wanted a friend. But now, he got a real friend. He took the scroll and pocketed it and moved to the next door, pushing through his emotions after reading the heartwarming letter.

He moved into the fourth room which turned out to be a living area with further doors inside. He just looked at the door and didn't go any further and went to the next room.

The fifth room is some kind of spa and had a hot spring in it and with so many showerheads. 'So, this is common pool huh,' he thought and moved to the next room.

The sixth room consists of different beds and lots of spirit smells. He thought it to be a hospital wing and moved on. The seventh room is a Dojo and had mats in it withstands.

The eighth room is a storeroom. It has probably tones of wood, bricks, cement etc materials which are used in construction and other equipment like wires, sinks etc. It's a large godown of many things.

Naruto moved into the library as he is most interested in it and read through all the books and took books relating to Fuuinjutsu. 20 clones went to the Training ground to practise seals as they are itching to practise after reading all the theories.

After going through all the Taijutsu styles, he picked one which he liked most and sent another 20 clones to practise it.

The Taijutsu style he picked and liked the most was the Windgod style or Fujinken. The style mainly depends upon the flow and flexibility of the body like Wind.

He didn't know why he liked the name and the style, but it has a nice ring to it and he is going to master it. He knew well that his taijutsu sucks.

Naruto made a total of 50 clones. 20 on Fuuinjutsu practise, 20 on Taijutsu practise while the other 10 went through all E, D and C ranked Ninjutsu scrolls in the library.

Naruto decided to amass knowledge first and practice later when he is free. The night went by as the original reached his residence by 11 in the night and slept with so many emotions.

He discovered what can be seen as his Clan's estate in Konoha. Which suggests a presence of past members residence in the village and found about his clan, sword and most of all, his mother.

'Uzumaki Kushina, huh. What a beautiful name. If only I can meet you, Kaa-chan,' was Naruto's last thought before sleeping.

Next morning, Naruto's House

Naruto woke up at 5 in the morning. He thought of going to the training ground, but after listening to the reason his Sensei gave them about his late arrival, he thought the better of it.

He decided to go around 9, if Kakashi came early he is going to find Naruto at his house but he is not going early and wasting his time waiting for the tardy man's arrival.

Naruto went through his newly created daily exercises which included push-ups, pull-ups and laps around an empty training ground. His clones were already dispelled in the morning and he sent a fresh batch of 50 clones to his clan's estate.

After completing his exercises, Naruto went to the supermarket under Henge and bought some fresh vegetables for his breakfast with some bacon and toast.

His hunger was legendary after all and everything he ate will disgust fast. He started eating vegetables as it was mentioned in a book about the requirements of young Shinobi or Kunoichi, in general.

The most stressed part is about protein and nutritious food as the young shinobi go through many activities in a day as well which makes them burn lots of calories. So heavy meals with nutritious vegetables are recommended.

Naruto followed the suggestion and started eating vegetables after his graduation. He aims to grow taller this year as he is the shortest in his class. He ate and started reading the book on Jutsu creation where his clone left yesterday.

He waited for the arrival of Kakashi or any of his teammates to check up on him and as he expected none came, which means Kakashi didn't come yet.

As the clock struck 9, he packed walked at a sedate pace to the Traning Ground 7. He reached after 20 minutes of walking and saw 2 angry teammates. Sakura was walking angrily while Sasuke looked ready to explode.

Naruto brought some exploding tags and flash tags with him from the Uzumaki estate weaponry to test. He is going to try them on Kakashi, Kakashi is going to be his guinea pig for this test. He saw his 2 teammates staring murderously at him, much less in the case of Sasuke.

"Hello, how are you doing?" he asked cheerfully. Sakura got tick marks and Sasuke's hand twitched as it reached to his kunai pouch.

"YOU ARE LATE. YOU IDIOT!" Sakura screamed. He felt as if his eardrums broke but he got his senses back after a second back and took earplugs out of his ears.

"Well, they are useful and no, I'm not late, Sakura," Naruto told her, the cheeriness in his tone decreasing. He bought earplugs for this purpose. He knew she is going to shout at him.

Sasuke was nearly 20 feet away and is sitting in a tree, so he escaped the full brunt of it. While Naruto is just 15 feet away from her, Sakura tried to hit Naruto, unsatisfied with his escape from her shout. But Naruto is not going to take everything she does laying down and step aside. Sakura lost momentum and fell.

"I think you should see where you are going, Sakura," he said and made no effort to lift her. She stood up with a shocked expression but came out of her stupor quickly.

"How are you not late," she asked impatiently.

"It's simple really. Sensei didn't come yet. I came before him. If he can come whenever he wants while telling us to come early, why should I? I thought both of you are smart enough to see understand that.

Again, considering the circumstances it doesn't look like it," Naruto explained. Both Sakura and Sasuke had the expression of a dear caught in headlights. Their mouths were agape looking at Naruto like he was an alien. Sasuke quickly recovered and came with a counter.

"We came early to discuss the strategy, dobe and you are late," he said in the Uchiha superiority tone. This irked Naruto. After awakening his Sharingan, he can't take people talking to him as if they were superior to him, unlike his dumb counterpart who doesn't even care about the tone or body language.

"Well then, tell me what you are strategizing about. Tell me the plan and I'll add my input," Naruto countered and that shut the Uchiha's mouth up. Naruto smirked.

"Nothing? Then let me tell you the strategy. Konoha is famous for her Teamwork which is promoted in her Shinobi forces. I think the test that Scarecrow is going to give us is something relating to teamwork.

So if we work together, we'll definitely make a good impression," Naruto said with confidence and got the feeling of being stared at like an Alien.

"Who are you! What have you done to Naruto?" Sakura screamed pointing an accusatory finger at Naruto. According to her, this person in front of her is not Naruto.

'Maybe Sasuke-kun changed himself into Naruto to give him a chance,' she thought and inner Sakura agreed by screaming 'Shannaaro'. Sasuke was also taken aback by this level of intelligence. He just shrugged. He doesn't care whatever they think.

'They are going to drag me down. I just want to complete this and go train. I must kill him! He concluded and nodded his at Naruto and seeing Sasuke nod, Sakura reluctantly nodded.

Another half an hour has passed when Kakashi came in a puff of smoke.

"Yo," he greeted them cheerfully. Sakura usually screamed that he is late and he gave the excuse of a black cat and they settled in.

"Are you ready for the survival exercise?" He asked and all nodded. He took out 2 bells from his pocket.

"Your task is simple. You should take these bells from me," he said and they stared at the 2 bells and Naruto questioned the obvious.

"But Sensei, there are only 2 bells and 3 of us,"

"Correct, my blonde student. That is the test here. Only 2 of you will pass this test and the one left will be sent back to the academy," he said with an eye smile and he got the expected shock from his 3 cute students.

"And oh, I forgot to tell. These tests have a 66% fail rate. That means out of 9 teams that graduated from the Academy, only 3 teams will pass and one of you will be sent back to the Academy either way.

You have until noon to take these and the person who gets the bell eats," Kakashi said, pulling out a clock and putting it on a rock and 2 lunch boxes with it.

"Don't forget to come at me with the intent to kill. Begin!" He said and vanished. Three of them dispersed in different directions.

'Hmm, they know at least the basics,' thought Kakashi as he took his favourite book and started reading, giggling perversely.

Naruto played things through his head and found his theory to be correct. '3 Genin, how hard they try can not take a bell from a Jounin. So he is testing our teamwork,' Naruto smirked internally at his perfect analysis.

He made a clone and sent it to distract Kakashi while he went to find his teammates. Activating Sharingan as he already had his contacts on, he saw a chakra signature in the bushes and went there while his clone distracted Kakashi.

"Well, we have an early participant," said Kakashi and started defending himself. He was reading his book while defending against all the punches, kicks and other basic Taijutsu moves he is making.

'He is doing good,' thought Kakashi, still reading his book, while the real Naruto reached Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke, down here," he called as he was lying on the ground below the bushes for cover.

"Naruto. What are doing here? Aren't you fighting Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Ya, that's a clone. I figured it out. As I told you, this is about our teamwork. Think Sasuke, 3 Genin who are fresh out of the academy can not defeat an experienced Jounin like Kakashi-sensei.

So, we should work together and impress him to pass us," he said. Though Sasuke got angry that he, the Uchiha elite couldn't figure it out, he didn't give it much thought as he has more important things than this team and agreed to join the blonde.

"We'll find Sakura and fight together and complete this stupid test," he said and Sasuke followed the intelligent blonde. He never thought a day that makes him follow the blonde of all people will come.

Upon reaching the pink-haired girl, Naruto nudged Sasuke to explain things as she doesn't listen to him. Sakura agreed thinking that her precious Sasuke-kun was genius and they formed a strategy.

"So what we do is attack as a team. No matter what he says, don't fall for him. We can pass this only if we do this as a team," Naruto explained confidently and got nods of acknowledgements from his teammates.

Though Sakura admired Sasuke's cool demeanour, she heard what the blonde said and agreed with it as her Sasuke-kun agreed as well.

Naruto was keenly observing Kakashi's every moment with his Sharingan searching for weaknesses. He saw Sasuke charging with a few of his clones and doing some hand signs and the clone dispelled, relaying everything it learned to the original.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu),"

"Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough),"

Shouted Sasuke and Naruto simultaneously. A large fireball fuelled by a strong gust of wind mixed and ended up increasing the speed and intensity of the flames of the fireball as it sped towards a surprised Kakashi, who quickly performed his own set of hand signs.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Projectile Jutsu),"

A big water dragon rose from a nearby pond and clashed with the large wind fuelled fireball and steam rose from the clash blinding everyone with mist.

"Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough)," said Naruto and cleared the mist with another gust of wind. Everyone except Kakashi regained their vision. Kakashi was near Sakura performing hand signs.

Naruto saw the change in her chakra and knew it to be some kind of Genjutsu as she screamed. He went to her and released the Genjutsu pushing some of his chakra into her body, disrupting her chakra flow.

She regained her consciousness and started looking around frantically.

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked in hope.

"Sasuke is fine, Sakura. Now pick yourself and proceed with our plan," Naruto assured and saw her nod.

He saw Sasuke being dragged to the ground and went to assist him. He pulled the Uchiha up.

"He is trickier than I thought," said Naruto and saw the Uchiha nod in agreement.

"I told Sakura and she went to enact our plan. Let's do this, Sasuke," and with a fist bump, both of them ran towards their Sensei.

Naruto made 10 clones and all of them with Sasuke jumped into the Taijutsu combat with Kakashi. As there are many fighting with him, Kakashi had to abandon his book to not get hurt by the number of attacks sent towards him.

They continued until Kakashi's full attention was on them, Sakura jumped towards his belt where the bells were. Kakashi saw this, but couldn't move as he was surrounded by Sasuke and Naruto's clones on all sides.

Being a Jounin, he was in similar situations a lot and he just performed the Kawarimi to escape the deadlock. The bell rang signifying the end of the time.

"Alright, time's up. You didn't get any bells though," he said and all his students' mood soured.

"You... Pass," he said with an eye smile. He got 3 surprised looks at that and explained.

"Though you didn't get any bells, 3 Genins, fresh out of the Academy are not a match for a Jounin. But you have impressed me with your teamwork. Nice strategies by the way," Kakashi complimented and his 3 students smiled at him widely. Even Sasuke gave a small smile.

"Remember this, those who break the rules are scum,... But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. This is the rule I follow. I hope that you will take this to heart," Kakashi said sagely and got 2 nods.

"You are officially Team 7 now. Meet me at Hokage Tower tomorrow at 8 am sharp," he said and vanished again.

Naruto turned to his new teammates with a smile. "Seems like we did it," he said cheerfully but didn't get any enthusiasm in reply.

"Sasuke-kun's strategies are so great," said Sakura in a dreamy tone.

Sasuke gave Naruto an appreciative nod before walking with his hands in his pockets. Sakura followed Sasuke as a lost puppy. Naruto simply left the training grounds to eat lunch at Ichiraku's and celebrate his official promotion.

Scene Break

After celebrating by eating even more Miso -Ramen than usual, Naruto had a happy meal as Teuchi and Ayame put the bill on the house, a satisfied Naruto moved to Uzumaki estate for more practice.

He saw his clones practising and told them to dispel in batches and created 50 new clones. The new clones waited for all the dispelling done to gain the extra knowledge from their predecessors.

After everything was settled, Naruto gave them new orders. "Boys, we have our work cut out for us. Now, you will divide into batches of 5. Team's 1to 10. Team 1 will concentrate on Seals. Team 2 on Ninjutsu. Team 3 on Taijutsu.

Team 4 5 on Shuriken and Kunai throwing while on trees and water walking. While teams 6 7 reads all the C and D Jutsu Scrolls from the library. Teams 8 and 9 will concentrate on the 2 techniques we have copied, Fireball Jutsu and Water Dragon Projectile Jutsu. Team 10 will follow me to practice Kenjutsu. Is that Clear?" He asked and everyone nodded.

"Hai, boss," they chorused and Naruto led the tye group to a small dojo while the Ninjutsu clones went to training grounds. He found multiple training grounds of different sizes on the floor and decided to use them.

Though are not as big as the main one, others are at least 100-200 meters wide, enough for their practice. He started with the basic stance of the form written in the scroll with his clones following his lead.

Scene Break

A Month Later, Naruto's Residence

The following month after their official appointment as team 7 is not a memorable one for Naruto. But he didn't give a damn about the month. After the first day when they did D-Rank missions of finding A useless cat named Tora, missing objects, Painting fences etc, Naruto started using his clones.

Naruto created a Blood clone, the first one he had ever created and sent in his place and while his clone took his place in his team, he practised his Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Fuuinjutsu in the Uzumaki Estate, far away from prying eyes of the village.

Naruto started staying in the Uzumaki Estate full time as time passed and slept there at night. His skills skyrocketed because of this. His Ninjutsu which was sub-par before was now on the level of a mid to high Chunin.

His Genjutsu was Chunin level as he still had so many to dispel and master. His Taijutsu was the deadliest of them all. The Fuujinken has suited him well. The Taijutsu style revolves around covering his body in thin wind blades at all times.

The user must be precise about any mistake as that may lead to cutting off a part of their own skin. The blades of wind would be circling him as a defence.

He always has a thin layer of wind surrounding him which is created by his chakra or can be taken from the atmosphere around him.

The Taijutsu style has forced Naruto to take his wind elemental control exercises, while the first part of leaf-cutting was easy, the second part was not.

Naruto had to cut a waterfall, which is nowhere near his bee residence. Even if he wants to practise at a nearby one, that draws a lot of attention, which Naruto want to avoid.

So he went on an unofficial B-Rank mission to complete his exercise. When he went to scout for potential rumours, pieces fell in place and he heard about it in a shop while some Jounin were talking.

Flashback

20 days ago

Naruto was out in the village under a Henge to find a mission and a waterfall nearby to complete his second-level wind exercise. While he was crossing an alley, he heard something interesting.

A conversation about some bandits among some Jounin from their vest. It is a B-Rank mission that consists of a Bandit camp raid and freeing the potential hostages.

Naruto heard about how it was already assigned to a team and they will move out tomorrow evening. The mission was very appealing to him.

As he can find a waterfall outside Konoha and practice there without disturbance. So he took it upon himself to do this mission as it also helps him to test his skills in a real combat situation.

Naruto stayed there and noted everything about the mission. The location of the bandit camp, the village which gave it and so on. The bandit camp was located in a nearby village which is 68 Kilometres south of Konoha.

The bandits were infamous and said to have raided so many villages and murdered innocent people. If there is one thing which his present and old self would agree, is killing innocent people for no reason. So he had decided to get rid of the scum from the world.

Naruto also had another agenda in mind as he learnt an interesting fact about his clan. Luck. The Uzumaki Clan's luck is said to be as legendary and as powerful as their skill in Fuuinjutsu.

He is going to test it on a few gambling centres in the town after completing his self-appointed mission other than practising the second stage of wind element control and getting rid of bandits.

That is also another reason why Naruto has decided to go out during midnight as the chances of being detected or seen were very low.

He is already out of the village in the Uzumaki Estate and he had a Blood clone in his apartment and a few in reserve in a scroll in the Clone's pouch.

He moved silently, merging in the shadows of the night and made to the nearest village to the camp after 2 hours of travelling. He created around 20 clones and spread them across the forest to search for the bandit camp. One of the clones found a camp nearly 7 Kilometres to the northwest.

Naruto silently moved in with his army of 10 clones as the remaining were surrounding the camp from all sides. He scanned the area with his Sharingan for any guards and saw tents, around 10 of them with varying sizes and one large tent in the middle with most people as it has the most security.

Trigger Warning

Behind that, at least three people are standing, 1 on the ground and 3 on them. He didn't know what they were doing and went close to observe. He also saw another large tent with more guarding after the first. He noted to attack those 2 places first.

He went close to the people standing behind the tent. There he saw a scene that would scar him for life. A woman was on the ground, still with white liquid on the whole of her body and the men on her still pumping something.

He saw red at that instant as his Sharingan started spinning wildly and 3 shurikens hit the three men in the neck, killing them instantly as they fell with a dull thud.

Naruto went to check on the woman who had a horrified expression on her face and prayed for her soul to rest in peace after sensing no pulse.

Tears leaked from his eyes at the cruel fate of the unknown woman. But he had to snuff them as he heard footsteps and hid in a nearby bush. His clones were going to put all tents on fire on his signal.

The guard, whom Naruto assumed to be the one on duty came to the murder sight and saw 4 still bodies on the ground. He turned around to scream only to come face to face with the most terrifying Red eyes he had ever seen in his life looking at him murderously.

"Sharingan: Genjutsu," whispered Naruto and he interrogated the guard about all the camp and their raids. After getting all the information, he slit the man's throat, killing him instantly.

His mind is not is sane enough to understand what Naruto just did as all Naruto saw was red after seeing what happened to the woman.

From what Naruto learned, there are 75 bandits not including the hostages and women they held. The largest tent to the side was the place where they all were held and the second large one was the leader's tent.

Others were bandit quarters with all the loot they robbed being in the hostage tent. Naruto made a plan of action. He is going to burn all tents except the hostage one and kill all the bandits.

After that, he is going to take all the hostages to the nearby village and drop them there without revealing his identity.

He did as he planned. Most of the bandits were killed by the fire his clones created and the few escaped were dealt by his remaining clones.

Screams echoed through all the clearing as the escaping bandits were killed swiftly and the ones being burnt alive are shouting in horror.

Most of them were dealt with easily but the leader is a slippery bastard and escaped with a Water Jutsu and Naruto started following him.

"You damn dog," the leader yelled seeing Naruto's approach.

"Who sent you? Konoha or the people whom I have warned?" he asked as he stopped out of breath.

"None. I'm here of my own volition," said Naruto coldly. His Sharingan eyes gazing into the brown of the man. As he removed his contacts after crossing Konoha.

"Well, you are good. But that is not enough to defeat me. My name is Roatary Hikure. I'm a Chunin Nuke-nin from Kusa." Roatary proclaimed proudly. Naruto gazed at him coldly, Roatary had an expectant look on his face as if asking Naruto to introduce himself. But Naruto just stared at him coldly.

"Not a talkative one I see. If you leave me, I'll tell you who they were and where they belong. You can go and save them and have all the loot we had," he said in a business tone, not noticing Naruto's Sharingan.

"No. I know who they are and where they were from. I'm here to kill you and that's what

I'll do," Naruto said.

Roatary lately noticed the blood-red eyes with 2 and 3 black tomoes spinning wildly in them. He felt fear of death for the first time in his life. He wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Sharingan Genjutsu: Death Horror," said Naruto said and Roatary started screaming. After torturing the man for another 10 minutes, Naruto killed the man.

After coming back from his adrenaline rush, Naruto was horrified at what he had done. He took solace in the fact of killing for a good cause as he saved many lives from this scum.

When he got back, his clones released everyone and with the original, took all the hostages to the nearby town. He left them there with a note of who they were and where they are from.

Flashback end

It took Naruto a few days to recover from his first kill trauma and after that, he went on with other things he had in mind and that trip turned out to be a great success.

With a sigh, he moved to his bathroom to do his daily activities and prepare for the day. Their team were exhausted and on the verge of exploding now.

Naruto is sure that Sakura and Sasuke are going to throw a temper tantrum and get them a higher-ranked Mission today. He can sense it.

Naruto came from his bath and saw the pile of scrolls he had won from all the gambling centres.

Flashback Start

After dropping all the people in a nearby town, Naruto ventured to a famous gambling town nearby. He heard about this town from some people and decided to check in it.

Naruto reached the town proper in 2 hours and took a room in an inn from the money he took from the loot he took from the bandit's raid as his mission payment and then some.

The village is filled with medium to large scale gambling shops which started with few thousand ryo and moved to Millions of ryo in one sitting. He picked up the money pouch which had 150,000 ryo in it and entered a medium scale one.

Naruto changed his facial features to that of a mid teenager to look a bit older and hid his headband for fun. He entered in only to be stopped by the outside guards.

"Children are not allowed in," said one of the 2 large men. He raised an eyebrow and pointed to his headband and their eyes widened in realisation.

"We apologise, shinobi-san. You can enter," the other said and he went in.

He saw many mats with groups of people and large sums they are playing on display. He saw the lowest one was at 10,000 ryo and sat in that group.

The person. Who is rolling the dice raised an eyebrow but after seeing his headband, he just shrugged off. A large man came out of the group and sat beside him.

"The rules are simple gentlemen. You will call Chō or Han and the winner gets the total amount. Are rules clear to you?" He asked and both of them nodded.

He showed the dice to both of them and shuffled it so many times. Before the elder man could call, Naruto called.

"Cho," and it was even. He won the round. He won that table to its cap of 50,000 ryo and went to the next table.

This table had a limit of 50,000-250,000 ryo cap. He started and observed the dice being manipulated by the assistant, but Naruto won. He shuffled it again, but Naruto won again. He reached the cap quickly and moved to the last and final table which has a cap of 1 million ryo.

He played and observed the assistant officially manipulate the dice using a needle, but to test his luck, Naruto moved forward and his luck proved legendary. He won all games and won 1 million ryo.

He played for 10 times straight and won 10 million ryo and some extra from his previous tables. He took all the moved and sealed them in the scrolls and tried to move out.

The management was not happy with him and sent some thugs to bring back the money and he showed them the hard way that they shouldn't mess with Shinobi. He brought his winnings to his room and sealed them in his storage seals and bought a map to find a waterfall.

After finding one nearby, he went on to his endeavour. He observed the flow and strength of the flow and after being satisfied and making sure anyone were nir around, Naruto trained.

"Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Style: Earth Wall)," Naruto said and a small a meter thick earth wall rose from both sides of the waterfalls and connected in the middle like a bridge. He walked on the bridge and stood on it and performed his favourite Jutsu.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," and 50 clones came beside him and they started to channelling chakra into the waterfall. The goal of this exercise is to make the wind blades as sharp as imaginable so that his wind chakra cut the flow of water cleanly.

The precision and sharpness to cut the flow of water need to be high. The intensity of his Wind is high when compared to normal Wind users for some reason.

His normal D-Rank Jutsu has the power of a Low B- Rank Jutsu. Naruto understood his affinity for wind is strong and his Taijutsu style is solely based on the Wind itself.

He started the gruesome exercise to cut the waterfall and it took him 15 days to cut it and 3 days to completely stop its flow. Satisfied with his progress in the exercise, a happy and noticeably richer Naruto came back to Konoha the next day.

Flashback End

It has been a week since his arrival and his team with Blood clone are still doing D-Rank missions with Kakashi. And the lazy man only training them in Teamwork. Teamwork of all things.

He knew Teamwork is important and Konoha is known for that. But not teaching any chakra control exercises, no new Jutsu or even spars with Naruto only sparring with his clones is pushing dead end.

The fact that Kakashi didn't even tell Sakura to stop being a fangirl is a surprise to Naruto. Kakashi comes late and just read that book and giggle like a schoolgirl to himself.

Naruto is disappointed that a Powerful and Experienced Shinobi like Kakashi would have something to teach them at least that's what he had hoped when he was put on this team. Looks like his hopes are misplaced.

But the man threw it all in the sewer with his behaviour and tardiness and lame excuses. The original Naruto sighed to himself and left to the Hokage tower, nearly 45 days after his team assignments and Shinobi license registration.

He hoped something different happens today and he does something serious for once.

And Cut.

That's it for this Chapter, guys.

Hope you have liked the chapter.

Tell me what you think in reviews.

See y'all in the next chapter.

Suggestions are welcome.

Black Infinity1289,

Ja Ne.