Hello everyone, 

Now I will admit that my understanding of Japanese honorifics come from this website and the Naruto fandom. So if it’s horrible and needs to be corrected, please feel free and let me know in the reviews. I am also trying to use other aspects of japanese commonly found in this fandom, if they are off, just let me know!

Let’s just say that this is not your normal Naruto/SI! Authors note at the bottom. 

Follow me on instagram at wtmcdonaldauthor! You can find me on Patreon under the same name for early access to chapters of Defiant, The Ladder, and Tsunami of the South!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. 

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“Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. You will be a part of Team Ten under Jonin, Might Guy.” 

I had never been the most in touch with my chakra. I knew that I had above average reserves, if my troubles with even the most basic chakra control exercises were any indication. 

But I noticed the shift in my chakra immediately. What came next, I would have never in a million years expected. 

Twenty-five years of another life bombarded my skull in the span of a second. There was a brief flare of pain in my mind and chakra coils but it didn’t even last long enough for me to cry out. In fact, it barely registered. Growing up in an orphanage made one tough before they could even understand the meaning of the word. Not to mention that shinobi developed high pain tolerance very early on in the academy. 

I was too busy seeing another life, in another universe. A universe without chakra. 

I watched myself? grow up, in all its glory. Pain, love and everything in between was shown before my twelve year old eyes as if I was living it over again.

When it ended, I was no longer just Naruto Uzumaki. No no, I could never go back to being just Naruto Uzumaki. 

“Naruto?” 

My eyes focused on the world in front of me. A young girl, with bright pink hair stood in front of me with a confused look on her face. 

Sakura. I realized as I looked at her features like I hadn’t grown up with her. She did not look like an animation. No, she looked like a normal human being with really eccentric hair. 

I had my first reality check in this world within the first five seconds of being in it. It was not an anime. This was real life. 

“Sensei called our names, let’s go.” Sakura said as she grabbed my hand and lifted me out of the seat. I stood up obediently but couldn’t help but notice how strong she was. 

Chakra, idiot. I told myself as I followed her out of the classroom. 

I didn’t look back, but if I had, then I would have seen Iruka, and the rest of the class, watching me warily. 

I shook my head as I walked out in the hallway and forced myself to focus on the present and not what was happening in my mind. An asian man with black hair, and a bowl haircut stood in the hallway waiting on us. 

He had on the hideous green attire he was famous for in my previous life, and the same shit-eating grin. Next to him, stood a smaller clone of the man, although the facial structure was all off. 

Might Guy and Rock Lee. I told myself as I analyzed them. 

“Hello!” Guy said boisterously and way too loud for a ninja. “I am Might Guy! And this is my student Rock Lee!” 

“It is nice to meet you!” Lee said just as excitedly as Guy. Although I noticed his eyes were not on me, but instead on Sakura. His face was getting progressively more red the longer we stood there. 

“Meet us at Training Ground Ten!” Guy told us. 

There was a flex of both Guy’s and Lee’s chakra and they fucking disappeared. 

My eyes widened as I felt their chakra race out of my sensing range with pure physical speed. I hadn’t even seen their muscles flex in preparation. 

I couldn’t help but think to the future and how powerful I would need to become to survive it. 

Fuck.

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I’m not a jinchuuriki. 

My legs bent slightly every time they impacted the rooftops. 

I moved on autopilot. Earlier on in the year, they had beat into us how to properly travel like a ninja. Mold chakra before landing. Crouch slightly. Jump. Eventually, I would develop enough physically to where this would speed up in several ways. I would be able to push off with one leg, resembling more of a bound and cover the same if not more distance and then from there you just get faster at it. 

The fact that I did not have Kurama, the nine-tailed fox, sealed into me had hit me as soon as I left the academy, chasing after Sakura and the Green Duo. 

At least I don’t think I do. There was no secret academy graduation from Mizuki, because I have had all three academy jutsu down since the second month of this year. I thought. And whenever I mold chakra, a massive seal doesn’t appear on my stomach. 

And it was true. The Naruto I knew, and the Naruto my memories knew were two different people.

The biggest similarity is that I am an orphan and have been since I can remember. However, I have been living on my own for the past six months, not since I was eight. And while my relationship with the Hokage is definitely better than some average Genin, it wasn’t grandfather and grandson like. 

I didn’t know the Shadow Clone Jutsu. But on the other hand, I didn’t have to. I didn’t experience any discrimitation in the academy. My taijutsu was well above-average. I had a grasp on all of the academy three jutsu. I knew how to get out of genjutsu pretty consistently, but it could be improved on. 

And now, I’m not on Team Seven under Kakashi. But instead, Team Ten? I thought as I dug into my memories from both lives. 

What about Sasuke? Neji? Tenten? Is Kakashi even alive? I wondered as I realized I knew a whole lot of information that might be useless. 

The rooftops in front of me ended, and I molded a little larger amount of chakra in my legs and core before leaping into the section of Konoha that was zoned as training grounds. 

I came to a very graceful and controlled stop in front of Training Ground Ten. Guy and Lee were in the middle of running through a few kata’s and turned my way when I arrived. 

Sakura took that opportunity to land right beside me. I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize that I had passed her up on the way there. 

“Good. You made it!”

Guy was in front of us again, and I hadn't seen him move. Fuck I’ve got a long way to go. 

Guy’s face lost the bright, up-beat look on it and got serious for a moment. “Normally, there would be a test to see if you had what it takes to become Genin. If you passed, then we would continue as a team. If you fail, then you would be sent to the Corps. I don’t believe that a single test is an accurate indicator of what it takes to be a shinobi of Konohagakure.” Guy explained. 

Well, it seems Guy might be more than what meets the eye. I deduced as he switched gears on us. And that seems to be spot on for his character, oddly enough. 

“So we will train for a week, and then I will decide if you have what it takes.” Guy said. “My tests will be simple. I will break you and see what lies underneath. Understood?” 

“Yes sir.” Sakura and I answered immediately. 

“Good. You’ll want to quit, and go home. You’ll want to ask me to stop. You’ll want to report me to Hokage himself. But if you do, you’ll fail. Persevere, and you will pass. Show me work ethic, and loyalty and I’ll teach you everything I know.” Guy continued, showing me that I was right and he wasn’t an exact copy of what I knew of him from the anime. 

“Now, go home and think it over. We meet at five a.m. every morning on this training ground. If you show up, you accept my challenge.” 

And then he turned around, and started walking at a normal pace towards Lee. I wondered why he wasn’t moving at the same speeds from earlier, but quickly figured it out. He wanted us to see what him and Lee could do. 

Sakura turned to leave and obey our new sensei. Instinctively, my hand reached out and grabbed her arm. She looked to me with a frown on her face, and looked down to where I was touching her like she would cut my hand off.

This Sakura is not the same either. She seems more mature. Then again this isn’t an anime, and we’re trained killers. I thought as I remembered my anatomy lessons and how they were geared on how to kill someone the fastest. 

I dropped my hand. “This is a test.” I told her quickly. “We start now.” 

It was easy to see that the absolute best answer to Guy’s standing answer, was to start right now. There was no room for doubt in a ninja’s mind, they needed to be absolute in their devotion to the cause and there was no room for insecurities. 

Sakura looked at me and a slight frown appeared on her face. She looked like she wanted to curse because I was right. In the end, she nodded towards me, indicating that she agreed. 

I took a deep breath and turned around to where Guy and Lee had stopped training, and were looking at us. 

“We’re ready, Guy-sensei.”

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Right. 

Left. 

Right. 

Left. 

My feet thumped against the stairs beneath me. In my right hand, I held groceries that would be necessary for my physical growth in this world. Mostly meat and vegetables for the high protein I will need.

I could barely hold on to the bags the food was in because of the bands on both of my wrists. A seal was written on each of them. The seal had no correlation to any of the Kanji that I knew of or had ever heard of. There were a couple of lines that I could tell were independent and connected at the same time. The lines intersected in seemingly random patterns and didn’t make any shape I was capable of describing. On the outside, hollow circles were lined up in a circle around the seal. Each was a different ‘level’ on the seal. 

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The first circle was half-way full of ink, showing that I wasn’t even all the way to the first level. I had a band on each wrist, and each ankle. 

My muscles screamed at me to stop moving. Instead I forced myself to climb the last set of stairs and move to my door. I moved inside and put everything in the right place in my apt. 

My mind wasn’t capable of thought, I was so exhausted. But I forced myself to get out some chicken, onions, broccoli, and the best surprise of this world, avocado. I fired up the gas stove and grabbed a skillet. 

I am Naruto… I thought, still in shock over the fact. 

I threw in a healthy dose of butter without thinking about it and let my body take over. I cut up the onions, and broccoli before throwing them in. I set to work on the chicken then and when I was done, I threw them in also. 

What now? I wondered. I used to have dreams of becoming an elite of the village, as the Sandaime had told us our mother was. But I knew who Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze were. Son of a jinchuriki and the Yondaime… 

I threw the top on the skillet and went to peel the avocado before throwing them in a bowl. Garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a little jalapeno juice. That was all you needed for top of the line guacamole. When I was done mashing that up, the chicken and vegetables were finishing up. 

I did my best to bite back the tears that threatened to spill out of my eyes and on to my cheeks. It didn’t work. I was a grown man. but I was also a twelve year old orphan that just found out about his parents. 

I had always wondered why the others found out about their parents when they entered the academy and I didn’t. I thought as a sniffle racked through my body. 

I shuffled my food in the skillet around and started to pour in the teriyaki sauce I had purchased earlier. I didn’t leave it in for too long, just to stir it around and get it warm. I set the heat to low and put the lid back on. My hands took the lid off of the rice and looked at it. A tear fell off of my face, and I ignored it. 

Since I know they died. I can assume they sacrificed their life to seal Kurama into the next host. I thought and another sniffle ran through me. 

It’s done. I noticed as I took the rice off and drained the extra water before putting it on a plate. I reached for the teriyaki chicken and vegetables and poured literally all of it on the massive pile of rice. 

I grabbed my bowl of guacamole, and my plate of teriyaki chicken and rice before moving to my couch that had a table in front of it. I set my food down, and waited for a moment for it to cool off. In the meantime, I dug into the guacamole, and my brain melted in pleasure over one of my favorite foods ever. 

The tears stopped, as I distracted myself with the dinner in front of me. I ate, and ate and ate. In the end, I left just enough for me to pack lunch for tomorrow. I put the food in a plastic container and shoved it into the fridge. 

I’ll need to see if I can store food in storage seals and if they go bad or not. If not, then I’ll just make a day where I just cook enough food for a month and store it. I thought as I realized I would need every hour of every day to catch up with the titans of this world. 

In three years, I need to be on the level of Madara. And I don’t have the nine-tails in me. I realized. I could just become a side-character, live a good life and hope that somebody else puts a stop to Madara. 

Almost as soon as I thought about it, I threw it out the window. 

Fuck that shit. If they lose, I get put into an eternal genjutsu. I refuse to live in a lie. I’ll make my place in this world, by force. 

My brain had accepted my parentage, and moved on to the problem of the future. And that problem was fucking huge. 

Ok, how do I do that. What will put someone on the level of Madara in three years? I wondered. 

Sharingan, Mangekyo, Eternal Mangekyou, Rinnegan are all overpowered. Impossible for me. I said, mentally marking out the most op thing in this universe. 

Jinchuriki… Once again impossible for me. I sighed as I started to clean the kitchen. 

Flashes of Guy knocking around Madara with the eight gates flashed in my mind. Eight Gates will leave the user dead afterwards. Possibility, but not optimal. 

My orphan mind went to how my father had achieved his status as The Yellow Flash. Fuinjutsu, but unless I am a genius, which I haven’t been in either life, it will take a lifetime of mastery with the art to do anything with it. 

A brief glint of sadness went through my body immediately throwing fuinjutsu out of the window like that. It would be really awesome to make my old man proud. I thought for a moment, and continued to brainstorm. 

I reached the shower and turned the knobs on to the perfect temperature that I liked. 

Who says that I need the Flying-Thunder-God, though. I’m sure there are other avenues in fuinjutsu that could boost me to S-rank. I told myself as I stepped in the shower. 

I still had the weights on my wrist and ankles and my eyes flicked to them subconsciously. A hundred ideas of how fuinjutsu could play a role in the series flashed into my mind before I made a crucial decision.

Fuck it. We’re going for broke at this point. Let’s learn everything Guy can teach me, and on the side we’ll work on fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. I decided as I finished up cleaning my body in the shower. 

I stepped out and started to dry myself before I looked up at the mirror in front of me. My blonde hair rose up in spikes, not caring about the water that was supposed to cause it to lay down. My eyes were the same brilliant shade of blue that was shown in the anime. Except, they managed to be even more impressive. It was like looking into the depths of a sapphire. 

My face was handsome and proportionate. I knew that I took after my mother for the facial structure, and that thought made me smile. My teeth were naturally straight, a blessing from the powers of this world. I didn’t know if braces existed in this world, and didn’t want to find out. 

Well, they can probably just fix it with chakra… I corrected myself as I thought about it. 

My hand went to the toothbrush and I began brushing my teeth. 

The sun had just set over the horizon when I went to bed. I set my mechanical bed-side watch to wake me up at four o’clock in the morning and shut the lights out. 

I fell asleep as fast as I ever had. 

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I raised my left arm in front of my face in the form of a textbook block. 

Lee’s leg continued forward to my face as if it wasn’t even there. My body flipped in the air almost immediately and I hit the ground, where I rolled a couple of times. 

I stopped on my back and groaned as the impact registered in my mind. 

“Don’t block opponents who are superior in strength, Naruto-kun!” Lee said as his face appeared in my line of sight. 

I shut my eyes immediately and just enjoyed how good it felt to not move for a few moments. As soon as Sakura and I had arrived this morning, we ran around Konoha for a ten mile run. That was Guy and Lee’s warm-up. Sakura and I had been dropped back off at the training ground to rest as the insane duo continued their normal morning workouts. 

When they had arrived, we immediately started sparring. Guy had deemed my taijutsu up to par to begin learning his personal taijutsu style, Strong Fist. It focused on delivering strong, overwhelming attacks that broke through most guards. There were defensive aspects in the style, but rarely were you on your back feet with the style. 

The only caveat is that it required enormous physical strength and overwhelming speed. The defensive techniques were just body movements that transitioned from defensive positions into offensive opportunities. Guy’s version of defense was offense. 

After an hour of instructions on the basic kata’s, Guy had split us apart so that I could go integrate it while sparring with Lee, and he would further refine Sakura’s taijutsu himself since she needed the most work. He spent most of his time trying to get her energy levels where he needed it. Apparently she was really on a diet and the run had pretty much taken everything out of her. 

Guy’s face when she told him she was on a diet will forever remain in my memory banks as one of the funniest ever. Then he showed his intelligence by throwing around nutritional facts and deep science to disprove the thought process of the bookworm. 

Sakura at least managed to keep up with him in the conversation, and left with a completely new perspective on what nutrition meant for kunoichi.

I was broken out of my thoughts by Guy’s voice cutting through the clearing. I leapt to my feet at what he said. 

a break, Naruto.” 

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“Sensei, wait.” I called out to Guy before he could disappear. He had just dismissed Sakura and I for the day. It was around three in the afternoon, and I had some time before I needed to go home and sleep off the abuse of the day. 

Guy looked at me, waiting for me to continue. 

I didn’t know how to approach the topic, so I just blurted it out. “I want to learn fuinjutsu.” I told the jonin. 

I felt Sakura’s chakra signature leave the clearing as she jumped away. Really need to test my sensing ability. It doesn’t seem too developed but maybe I can train it? 

Guy’s eyes changed a little when I told him that. He looked at me slightly differently. “Why?” Guy asked simply. 

I frowned, not sure how to properly answer that. I knew that lying to a jonin was a bad idea generally, so I decided to go with a half-truth. 

“The Uzumaki were the greatest practitioners in all of the elemental nations. Maybe I have some talent in it.” I answered. Then I held my arm up and showed him the weights. “And if this is any indication, it’ll be fucking useful.” I added on. 

Guy didn’t berate me for my language. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was now an adult and could do what I wanted or because he was thinking. 

“You’ll need clearance. I’ll look into it.” Guy said before disappearing to do whatever he does later in the day. Probably some mission with Lee. 

My first thought was to go home and rest. But I realized that it was too early and I could get some more training that didn’t involve taijutsu or my body. 

There was a tree fairly close to me, so I approached it. I briefly thought about taking my weights off to try this exercise before deciding that taking the easy way out was not the best way to reach S-rank. So I summoned my significant reserves of chakra and sent it to my feet. 

I lifted one of my legs and put it on the bark of the tree. I tried grabbing it with my chakra before moving my leg up and down. My foot stayed glued to the tree. 

So I tried putting all of my weight on the leg. I slid down the trunk pretty quickly. I applied a little more chakra, and received the same result. 

I decided that approaching this slowly might not be the most effective way. So I backed up a couple of steps and drew a kunai out of it’s patch deftly. I wasted no time in running towards the tree. 

My first step was successful, as was my second. Now that I was running, I could feel the way my body was shifting, and could adjust my chakra around my body accordingly. 

Then, I applied a little too much chakra and the wood underneath me cracked. If I hadn’t been taught since I was little on how to fall, and how to keep my balance, I would have fallen on my head. Because of my training, I used the foot still on the tree to push off of it into a backflip. I didn’t have time to mark the tree with the kunai. 

I landed on my feet, and softened the blow with my chakra. I couldn’t help but think of the first try as a success and I smiled. 

“Let’s fucking go.”

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When Guy said that he would look into fuinjutsu for me, I didn’t know that it would mean an introductory book laying on the coffee table in my living room the exact same night. 

Although, when I opened it up, the note inside explained it. 

‘Naruto-kun

Guy told me of your interest in the subject and I took it upon myself to find a starting point for you. If you remember your lessons, you’ll know that Mito Senju was once an Uzumaki and one of their best seal masters. 

Upon her marriage to the Shodai, she shared her secrets with his brother who would later go on to become my sensei and the Nidaime. He wrote five books on the most basic aspects of fuinjutsu and revolutionized how Konoha shinobi learn the art. Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime, learned from this exact book and is considered to be the greatest seal master Konoha has ever produced. 

I am confident that this will be an appropriate introduction for the art. Come to me when you have mastered these concepts, and I will test you. If you pass, I will allow you to continue on to the other books. 

There are a lot of benefits to being a master of seals, Naruto-kun. We will also discuss how your relationship to the village will change if you show proficiency in the future. 

With Love, 

Hiruzen Sarutobi.’ 

I nearly fainted. 

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A/N: Boom! 

It is a huge change from Canon right off of the rip. We learn a couple of things in this chapter, and it all revolves around one thing. 

Naruto is not the jinchuriki of the nine-tails. 

Naruto and Sakura are thrown on Team Ten under Gai. I’ll leave everyone in the dark for now on where Sasuke and Kakashi are. It’s not a huge reveal. In fact, I’m sure everyone will figure it out fairly shortly. 

So Naruto needs to get very very strong in a very short amount of time and he’s going to try fuinjutsu. Of course, this won’t be everything. Nothing in my stories is black and white. He will develop as the world molds him. 

Anyway, what do we think about this take? I am sure it will provide a unique perspective and take on the world of Naruto. 

This will be a much more realistic take than most. Let’s talk in the reviews.