The Perfect Shinobi (Part 1)

The Beginning of Life as a Ninja.

Over the next year Naruto easily became the top of the senior class. Training with Itachi and Shisui made his strength increase exponentially. Shisui even became bold enough to call him the strongest 7-year-old in the world. He learnt quite a few new jutsu including a solid transformation jutsu, and he learnt the secret to Itachi's crow replacement. When Itachi uses it, he only uses Genjutsu half the time. When he doesn't have a Genjutsu in effect, and he isn't able to use one, he uses chakra to make a clone of crows that he replaces himself with. The crows aren't strong and are not reliable enough to use in direct combat, but they are very useful for distractions or getaways. When Naruto uses the jutsu his body morphs into black foxes instead of crows. Naruto didn't know why his version used foxes, but Itachi and Shisui seemed to understand.

Itachi and Shisui taught him the great fireball jutsu, the lightning fox jutsu, and the gale palm jutsu. He couldn't use the fireball jutsu as easily as the other two, but he could use it to a satisfactory performance. Shisui also decided to teach Naruto his signature move the body flicker, but Naruto couldn't use it that well. He had a long way to go before he could use the jutsu to an adequate level.

While he was in the academy his relationship with the five kids, he met that day on the roof, was solidified. He became remarkably close friends with Yugao. Who seemed to really like hanging out with him. Hana, Izumo, and Kotetsu all became close friends with Naruto as well. Hayate on the other hand seemed reluctant to become friends with him. Naruto didn't know why, but he thinks it has something to do with Yugao. Hayate seemed annoyed with how close Naruto and Yugao were becoming. It was a strange feeling for Naruto. He never had this many people that he could talk to. If asked how many precious people, he had before this year he would only raise one hand showing three fingers. Now he has to use two hands. If he gets a few more precious people, then he will have to start counting toes.

Today was the last day of the academy. If Naruto passed the Genin test then he would never have to come back here, and he would be in a three-way tie for second youngest to graduate the academy alongside Itachi and Minato Namikaze. The youngest to graduate was Kakashi Hatake at six years old. Naruto was about 7 and a half years old and the rookie of the year. He broke the records the Fourth Hokage set in the physical and the written portions of the exam. Now all he had to do was the three academy jutsu, but Naruto still couldn't do the clone jutsu. The chakra needed to use the jutsu was too small for someone with his reserves. He completed the tree walking exercise, and the water walking exercise yet he still couldn't do the damned jutsu. Shisui joked that he would need the chakra control of the most esteemed medical ninja to perform the jutsu. Naruto scoffed when he heard that.

Itachi told him not to worry about learning the jutsu at all because of his use of the shadow clone jutsu, but Naruto took this as an opportunity to get better. He knew that the clone jutsu had almost no battle uses, but he wanted to learn it as a benchmark of his chakra control. After all the only reason Itachi taught him the shadow clone was because he didn't have the chakra control for the normal one.

Flash

"I still can't do the clone jutsu." Naruto said with evident frustration.

"Don't worry about that jutsu too much it has almost no uses in battle." Itachi said in his indifferent tone.

"I know but I need to learn it to graduate." Naruto said while calming down.

Itachi stands up and approaches Naruto. "I'll show you a more useful jutsu. With your chakra reserves you could use this jutsu to new heights when you're older."

"What is this jutsu big brother?" Naruto asked.

"I will be teaching you the Shadow Clone Jutsu. This jutsu is an A-Rank Forbidden jutsu, but I think it would be very beneficial to your progress." Itachi stated with a blank face.