Hello!

Getting right to it, here's some insight into this story; Naruto here is very smart, like really, really smart. He is manipulative and starts small but it progresses with each chapter. Kyuubi is more tolerable, even helpful. A small note, if you all don't mind; I'll be putting 'Anything but Being a Ninja' on a temporary hiatus but the rest of my stories that haven't been finished will be continued when I get out of school…in a few months…

Oh! And I want to put 'The White Hornet' up for adoption; just don't feel it anymore, y'know, with all these stories packed up in my head I can't think up how to continue that story. Anyone that wants to take it should PM me first, ok? Awesome!

Update 19/11/2023: Remember when I used to call myself BJ Foy? Good times XD

I don't want to keep you all waiting with my mindless jabbering so, without further ado, I give to you…

Shadows Smirk

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

CHAPTER 1

There were a lot of things medical chakra could do, from healing minor scabs to mending entire skeletal systems, going even further to say that it could heal entire limbs back to functionality. It was even widely rumoured that if a medic was to go deeper into his or her profession then he or she would be able to regenerate from fatal wounds. Most believed that was what the crystal on the legendary slug Sannin, Tsunade Senju, symbolised but thankfully there wasn't any reason for the woman to demonstrate what it was for.

True, medical ninjutsu was a great branch of ninjutsu which all ninjas had great respect for, there were some things that it couldn't do. Like raising the dead, permanently curing hereditary brain tumours, or even healing fatal spine injuries.

Those unfortunate that medical ninjutsu couldn't aid in any way were deeply compensated in other ways if they were ninjas and heavily insured if they were civilians.

Naruto never enjoyed any of these medical privileges.

His medical problems started from birth, 12 years ago when the Kyuubi had been freed and not too long before it was to be re-sealed but this time into the Yondaime's only son, just as Kushina and Minato had used their bodies to prevent the Kyuubi's violent claw from reaching their precious child, the lethal nail had come halfway through and scratched Naruto's right thigh, leaking a small portion of its vile chakra into the infant's growing chakra system.

Popular polls and basic knowledge for the more adept ninjas stated that demon chakra, youkai, no matter how small, was poisonous. It was a tainted, fractured version of the human chakra system that had come to be through less-known means.

Naruto was in a world of pain and he was too young to understand what 'pain' was. It was after this time that Kyuubi had been sealed inside him with the semi-irreversible seal matrix instead of the standard Uzumaki sealing method the red-haired woman used to keep the chakra monster in her, as well as the jinchuriki before her, Uzumaki Mito. The tainted chakra had taken over the poor child's right leg and just as the Kyuubi could take its chakra back, it was too late.

Naruto's whole right leg was now useless.

It was something the Kyuubi would both regret and be thankful it had done when the blonde would ask him in the future. Regret because it was the reason Naruto would never be a shinobi again and be thankful because the boy found something to make him far better than any shinobi.

The bad leg, outwardly, looked as healthy as its other half, albeit paler and a little gaunt, but inwardly it was useless and partly lifeless. Naruto had been confined to a wheelchair since the day he could remember and he had been a sitting duck since the day he could talk; the villagers, not knowing whose son he was, capitalised on the fact he couldn't run by beating him. All the child could do was beg for mercy, but none was given.

On his 4th birthday, he was kicked out of the orphanage, having to crawl to a shelter and last a month before the old Hokage would rescue him.

The only friend he had was the voice in his head proclaiming himself as the Nine-Tailed fox, the most powerful of all the tailed beasts. He had been introduced to the Kyuubi, involuntarily, when he was forced to eat mouldy bread and drink old milk. It was the Kyuubi that kept bolstering him to not give up; if the Kyuubi hadn't been there then Naruto would have gladly submitted to the world.

They say everyone globally recognized has an origin story.

Naruto's origin story was that…

He opened a book.

Well…it wasn't exactly a book, more of a single page in a beat-up paperback.

He had just celebrated his fifth birthday by himself; the Hokage had recently been too busy to visit him, dog mask-wearing ANBU had stopped coming as well, and even the cat that had a curious red ribbon on her ear had stopped visiting. The only person who stayed, since they didn't have any option, was the Kyuubi.

After celebrating another lonely birthday, the child was about to go to bed until a thin book was thrown at him through the window by a drunk villager who just happened to throw the first thing he saw, disregarding all the 'healthy' sized stones around in favour of an old, abused paperback book.

He tentatively picked it up, not having the energy to yell at the man, and opened the book. It was like the heavens had sent him an apology for how messed up his life was.

The book contained only a picture and a page-long paragraph. He was at least grateful that The Third Hokage had taught him how to read and write before he stopped coming; apparently, the picture wasn't a picture at all, it was a seal. He took his time marvelling over how neat and intricate it looked, tracing his fingers over the drawing, his eyes then trailed to the writing. It was in neat cursive and from what he read the picture was a basic fuinjutsu for storage.

His voice murmured slowly as his fingers traced where he was reading. After reading he blinked slowly and read over it again, something in his mind clicked, "Kyu? What do you think?"

The living natural disaster was also reading the writing, he looked at the Shinigami's seal, knowing that he would never be able to break out, and shrugged, "From what I remember, fuinjutsu is a very underappreciated branch of jutsu. The possibilities are endless. I'm certain that with enough dedication…"

"…I'll be able to walk," Naruto finished, he looked back at the seal and relaxed his hands when he saw they were gripping the delicate book harshly, "I-I don't know Kyu, this looks hard," he again trailed his fingers on the seal; Kyuubi allowed the boy to speak, "this fuin-something doesn't seem like much. But you did say it was 'underappreciated' and that the 'possibilities are endless'" the boy hummed cutely and scratched his chin, "you know what? I'll see what I can do, if it's too hard I'll stop," the Kyuubi rolled his eyes and settled in for the night while Naruto struggled up to the window sill directly next to his bed and waved his arms frantically, a mantis mask wearing ANBU operative dropped down from the roof and crouched on his desk, the unknown question asked, "please, Mister ANBU, can you get me more stuff on this, please," the man scoffed and was about to jump away but Naruto wasn't having any of that; he latched onto his leg with both arms and held on, "please," he tried doing what he saw most orphans do to collect more food: pout and widen his eyes. Naruto underestimated the power his kicked puppy look had on people.

The man sighed and quietly flicked Naruto's arms away, he then leapt out the window and came back a minute later with an arm-sized scroll, "beginner's level, kid, when it's done, let me know," Naruto was only half hearing what the man had droned; he had snatched the scroll and was pouring through it furiously, giddy and hyperactive in a way the ninja had never seen from the boy. Mantis shrugged and dropped the empty scroll, brush and ink on the bed, he briefly studied the boy and when he was sure Naruto wouldn't notice he dropped another empty scroll, as a spare, and left.

Naruto wasn't aware, not in the least; he was salivating over the beginner's scroll for fuinjutsu users. His mind was a whirlwind of ideas and possibilities from what the unknown author of the scroll wrote seal masters could do with seals. It said fuinjutsu could seal away entire buildings and even create a solid protective barrier when needed. He filled in the blanks of what the person didn't want to write like it could seal away tailed beasts and, if possible, alter reality. Not too much but to the user's favour.

If fuinjutsu could do this then there was still hope for him to be a ninja. If he could create a seal fast enough before the academy started admitting his age group, then he could be a ninja.

Realistically speaking, it was impossible; one of the signature jutsu the Fourth Hokage used, as outlined by the scroll, took him years to make and even longer to fully master, so he instinctively prepared himself for disappointment. There was one thing he wasn't aware of; it was to never count out an Uzumaki, especially when it came to fuinjutsu.

Sleep left him that night…and the subsequent nights…and the subsequent months of studying the enthralling scroll.

The boy was so dedicated to mastering the beginner's scroll that he had set aside an hour, from 3 am to 4 am, to get some shut-eye. It was just for necessity; as much as he wanted to spend every waking second pouring over fuinjutsu scrolls, practising his strokes, and memorising patterns, he preferred his body to shut down somewhere that wouldn't scatter his research.

It was after three months that he had finally made a successful storage scroll.

Naruto couldn't recall the happiest he had ever been after seeing the stick being sealed into the scroll and unsealed. He didn't need to even ask the Mantis ANBU to give him another scroll; he found another level scroll, bigger and heavier than the last one, on his bed. Little did he know it was the Third Hokage that was giving him the fuinjutsu scrolls through his ANBU ninja. The scrolls were coming straight from the joint Namikaze-Uzumaki sealing scrolls the Yondaime and his wife had set aside for their child if they had ever met their demise. It was the Third's way of keeping the child's mind off his seemingly permanent predicament, and if there was ever a need for Naruto to have a way to defend himself.

It was when the budding seal master was 11 years old that the Third Hokage got the shock of his life.

The boy had been making progress in his seal work so fast that on his 11th birthday, he was a level eight seal master.

Aside from his regular request for an increase in his supply of training scrolls and using every inch of every scroll he was given to further his understanding of seals; Naruto had been ensuring that he kept his primary goal in mind. He spent half a day scouring his scrolls and then spent the rest of the day cracking seals to their basic strokes and separating them so he knew the combinations to make. He tested them on the dead rats in his hovel-like apartment, hoping and praying for their legs to even twitch minutely. His breakthrough finally came when the dead rat scampered erratically around his apartment as if it was being electrocuted. The creature was still as dead as a doorstop; it was only his lower half that was moving but it was the result he had been searching for.

As the rat was running around limply his fingers tapped the table periodically when it slowed down, it froze for half a second and continued moving about madly.

He called it a Forced Movement seal.

Its inspiration, surprisingly, was obtained from a barrier seal. The barrier seal was powered by the user's chakra, if the person ever stopped the flow, then the barrier would momentarily lose its integrity and crumble but if the flow was continuous until the barrier was no longer needed then it could withstand the full brunt of numerous lightning jutsu. The force movement seal functioned almost the same way; one part of the seal would be placed on his useless leg and the other would be in the palm of his hand. Though it was still unfinished, the seal in the leg was to send some chakra to the main chakra points in his legs and the muscles to stimulate movement, the one in his hand was inspired by the walkie-talkies he saw the villagers' children played with, the seal in his palm is where he would channel the chakra and it would immediately go to the leg seal.

The only thing that remained was to add a chakra battery in case he ever forgot to channel chakra and to make sure it wouldn't inflict too much strain on himself. He shakily controlled the epileptic rat to him and scanned over the dead body for any wounds or strained muscles.

Success.

No problems whatsoever. He covered his mouth hastily and giggled. 'No better time like the present,'

"Don't overdo it."

'No worries, Kyu. I've got this.' He overloaded the seal on the paper, a severe downside of the wonder seal, and both leg and palm seals dissolved into small drops of ink. He placed his left hand on the ground and began the long process of drawing the seals, after drawing the seals flawlessly on his palm and his right leg, 'Here goes nothing…' he channelled a trickle of chakra to 'warm' the seal up and steadily increased the flow, his eyes widened when he felt his dead leg twitch again and again, he scrambled to his hands and knees and pushed himself up.

He fell.

He grunted in frustration and pushed off the ground again, stumbling around and smashing back first into the wall. He tried to get his legs back under control but the limbs rebelled and began kicking around. It surprised him that it was both of his legs that went against him, the left leg kicked a hole through his wall and his right axe kicked the only table he had. He reduced the chakra flow into the seal and when he felt his legs crumble under him, he jump-started it again, the rebellion reduced to only a barely perceived muscle twitch this time.

The moment he began walking he felt like a newborn baby, bumbling and crashing into furniture but since he didn't exactly have anywhere to go for a while, he used the week to get used to walking. Then he went to the Hokage's office.

"Naruto?"

"In the flesh!" The last time Hiruzen Sarutobi had seen Naruto he was a short five-year-old boy with dazzling blonde hair and healthily bronze skin.

Now…he looked malnourished.

His dull blonde hair flopped weakly on his head. He noticed the jaggedness of the edges and assumed Naruto had been cutting his hair. His hair became an afterthought as the Third Hokage realised how the boy's skin was too pale and veiny. His skin was pallid and his body was underweight; his clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time. Through the large holes in the boy's clothes, he saw the purple bruises and the healing stab wounds turned scars. The horrifying stab wounds were so large that you would have to be blind to not notice them and how numerous they were. He knew if he was to check Naruto's whole body he would find more.

In summary, he looked at the direct contrast of how one in his lineage was meant to be treated. The Hokage held his face and restrained the tears that wanted to fall. His anguished thoughts echoed in his head, 'How could it have gotten this bad?'

Though he was the one to send the training scrolls to Naruto through one of his ninjas he hadn't personally checked up on him, even through his scrying ball. He has failed to protect Naruto and he knew it. He lifted his head, and though Naruto hid it well he saw the major distrust in his eyes and the way his fingers kept tapping his supposed-to-be dead thigh.

"Hello? Lord Third, are you still there?" There was another reason he had failed; Naruto used to call him grandfather. He put his best game face on and allowed his mouth to fall open when he finally noticed Naruto was standing, the pale blonde took his surprise in stride, "Pretty neat huh?"

"H-H-How…?"

"There was this nice guy that gave me these scrolls on fuinjutsu; it was so interesting I just had to learn it."

'The level of mastery he has to have to create a seal to do this is amazing!' he cleared his throat, saying for the boy to hear, "Well done, Naruto." He watched, confused, as Naruto deflated and his shining expression dimmed. The man asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Gramps—I mean—Lord Third…I came to sign up for the academy. I may be a bit too old but—but with hard work and dedication I can—"

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you can't be admitted," the old man cut him off before Naruto could fall into a nervous rant.

"Why not!?"

The Hokage waved for a cat mask-wearing ninja to stand down after the boy's outburst, saying, "Technically…you still can't walk."

"But I can! Look at me!" he stomped around the room and stumbled after two steps. He cursed foully and stood up so he could walk around again. "I can walk fine!"

"I can see the strain it has on you—"

"It's only a little. I'll get used to it!"

"The answer is still no. You're unhealthy and you're weak." He saw the respect the boy had for him, the little left, falling out of Naruto's eyes as tears.

"And whose fault is that?"

Sarutobi sighed, pinching his nose and closing his eyes. "Naruto—"

"Tell me who's to blame." He used a dirty sleeve to wipe his eyes, trying to stand upright but wilting as his trembling forced him to hold onto a chair. "I spent the last seven years finding a way to walk…so I can finally be a ninja…and you-you won't even give me a chance to prove myself."

"I was just being honest; a weak ninja is not only a risk to their teammates but also a risk to the village." He motioned to Naruto's leg, where the seal was imprinted. The man discarded any softness in his tone, asking the boy, "What if that seal got washed off by a water jutsu?" Naruto faltered, piecing together a reply, only for the man to interject, "Exactly."

"I-I can make it more durable. Waterproof, even; I just need a bit more time."

"The answer is still no." the man placated the boy, sounding almost pleading, "I can register you for civilian school…?"

"No! I want to be a ninja!"

"Naruto…I'll say this once and only once but you can't ever be a ninja."

You can't ever be a ninja

Ever

The Hokage's last words echoed around the room, into the listening ears of the hidden ANBU and the blonde boy.

The boy took the proclamation very well.

The tears stopped flowing and his anguished face smoothed over, he didn't bow as he limped from the office, holding his head high while his hands clenched the pockets of his pants hard enough for his knuckles to pop. Seeing the boy go and acknowledge he had just broken a child's dream, the Hokage went back to work.

His heart berated him for his harsh words but his mind drowned the voice out by saying it was to disillusion the boy.

"I told you he wouldn't agree."

'Yeah well, good for you.'

"That wasn't what I meant." He hadn't seen the boy this defeated in a long time, his eyes were glassy and his weak blonde hair seemed even weaker and duller than normal. Naruto was looking at the ceiling with his face a perfect mask of expressionlessness. His shirt was off and his hands were tracing the latest scar he had, near his belly button, he deeply wondered why he hadn't set up barrier seals and alarm seals around his apartment. Maybe it was because of the childish hope that the people in the village would finally see he wasn't bad.

He chuckled dryly at the thought, murmuring under his breath, "They'd never accept me."

"Hn."

'You were right, heck you're always right; they would never accept me.' Naruto rubbed his face and sat up. His eyes moved to the scraps of paper scattered all over his apartment, on the pieces of paper were unfinished and imperfect seals, the seals that were good enough were neatly stacked beside his broken table. He pumped some chakra into the seal and stumbled to the neat pile of paper. 'What should I do, Kyu?'

"I'm not exactly the best at giving advice." This wasn't true; it was the Kyuubi that had pushed him into studying fuinjutsu and it was also the great beast that picked him up whenever he fell. Kyuubi was always there.

Always.

The boy knelt beside the pile and blankly looked over the pieces of paper. 'I don't know what to do with myself anymore. The only reason I invented this seal was to be a ninja and you saw how that turned out.'

"Then prove them wrong. Make something out of nothing."

'What do you mean?'

"Let's be honest, Kid; I can't stand this place, and neither can you." Naruto didn't even raise any complaints. "You have potential to soar, I can see it, but this place is weighing you down."

'What should I do?' He already knew what the beast was about to suggest, he just wanted it to say it in no uncertain words.

"I propose we make our paradise. Somewhere that appreciates you, with people that truly value you."

Naruto laughed breathily.

"I'm being serious. If this place will not see you for who you are, then either go somewhere else or make your own place."Kyuubigot to its feet and addressed the boy, not in its lazy, dismissive voice, but with a passion that woke the boy up from his depressive stupor. "The spark I saw when you started learning fuinjutsu has turned into a forest fire. That forest fire has the potential to burn brighter and hotter than any star in the sky. Believe me, Naruto." The boy was taken aback by his friend using his name, and the strong heat building up in Naruto's stomach told him how passionate the beast truly was about Naruto's future. "You are destined for greatness."

'…Assuming I agree with you…how do you suppose I leave? I barely know how to walk.' The great beast chuckled darkly after hearing what the boy had said.

"Baby steps. Remember what I said all those years ago: In fuinjutsu, the possibilities are endless." the jinchuriki blinked slowly and comprehension finally dawned on him, as well as ideas for more seals. He couldn't stop himself; he picked up a random sheet of paper and began scrawling over it, crafting and drawing a seal that would soon propel him into global recognition. He made a wrong stroke, discarded the paper and began anew on another empty scroll.

When he was done, he crawled to a pile of dirty clothes and slipped the scroll under it, he shuffled a bit away and drew a clean 'X' on the seal on his belly.

Naruto steadied his breathing and channelled chakra into the 'X' seal…

Authors note

Whatcha think? Good? Bad? Meh?

I'll update this when I can.

Review!

Foy