3Disclaimer: Naruto and its associated trademarks are the property of Kishimoto Masashi and various media/publishing companies, not me.
A/N: Ideas files are a common enough thing, so I figured I'd start tossing up some of the random stuff that my muse generates. This ideas file will be for anything Naruto-related that I come up with, and I plan to also put up a similar setup for my Harry Potter ideas (it'll be titled "Leicontis's Literary Laboratory" when I do post it).
Any of these plot bunnies are open to adoption by other writers - just point your readers to where the idea came from and let me know you've used it so I can see it come to life. You can even quote my versions if you want to, but I'd be equally happy to read your takes.
Further information about my bunnies/prompts/challenges will be in their end A/N.
The Third Hokage was battling his ultimate nemesis - paperwork. It wasn't too bad at the moment, though, since he was currently reading the reports by the jounin-sensei of the most recent crop of Academy graduates, describing their first week with their budding new teams. He always enjoyed watching the growth of those young leaves on the great tree that was Konohagakure. Unfortunately, it was during this most enjoyable portion of the day's administrivia that he was interrupted.
Doubly unfortunate was the identity of the interruption. As much as he respected Shimura Danzō, and in spite of the admittedly tense and fractious friendship the two had formed many decades before, the maimed warhawk's appearance in the Hokage's office rarely augured well.
"Hiruzen." As usual, he got straight to the point. "I have heard some very... disturbing things regarding Uzumaki Naruto..."
Sarutobi sighed. "We've been over this, Danzō, and my answer is the same now as it was then: I will not allow you to turn him into one of your emotionless tools."
The cyclopean elder waved his good hand dismissively. "I am not here for that, and in any case the boy is too old now for such conditioning to be viable. No, my concerns now are that his training is being so badly neglected."
"Neglected?" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow quizzically. "As I suspect you know, based on the timing of your entrance, I've just finished reading Kakashi's report and he is training his students equally. Everything is well within what I'd expect for a newly-formed genin squad."
"That is precisely the neglect of which I am speaking. You know as well as I do the events surrounding Uzumaki's unorthodox graduation. Do you simply not grasp the implications?"
"I'm afraid I don't see your point."
"Four hours, Hiruzen!" A tiny bit of heat entered Danzō's voice, an uncharacteristic show of emotion for the man who placed such importance on heartlessness. "A mediocre, borderline illiterate Academy student at the bottom of his class, with abysmal chakra control and virtually no comprehension of chakra theory and who couldn't manage a standard bunshin, somehow managed to learn an A-rank kinjutsu analog of his worst technique from written instructions and a cold start in less than four hours. Even you would be hard-pressed to match such a feat."
"Can you not see the possibilities?" he continued. "Obviously, the boy has a borderline genius-level aptitude for high-level ninjutsu, coupled with chakra reserves that would put most jounin to shame even discounting his... alternate power source. Those two factors alone would be the makings of a potential ninjutsu powerhouse, and yet there is more to consider. Dispelled shadow clones transfer all of their experiences back to their creator, meaning the boy could multiply his training time. Given how many clones chuunin Umino reported him using against Touji, the only real constraint would be the associated mental fatigue rather than an inability to create and maintain an adequate number of clones. Depending on where the boy's mental limits lie, he could reach jounin level in jutsu proficiency in less than a year, albeit without the physical conditioning and field experience that usually accompanies such capabilities."
"Beyond that, consider the... prank he executed shortly before graduating: He painted the Hokage Monument, a landmark visible throughout the village, in broad daylight while wearing a tracksuit colored to attract as much attention as possible. Not only was he able to finish his bit of vandalism unhindered, he also escaped the scene afterwards and briefly evaded several shinobi pursuers. His stealth, escape, and evasion skills are already at least intermittently at high chuunin level. Looking more closely at his Academy discipline records, he has a history of successfully pranking chuunin teachers, which hammers home the point, and also suggests an aptitude with trapmaking."
"Giving him the same training as an ordinary genin is a waste, Hiruzen. Even ignoring the strategic asset he contains, he has the potential to be one of the most powerful shinobi in this village's history, and to develop at speeds that make previous 'prodigies' look like fools. If you cannot, or worse will not see that, then perhaps you are no longer fit to hold this office."
Hiruzen gave his old friend/rival/headache a hard glare. "And what do you suggest?" he asked coldly.
"Begin by finding the boy's mental limits - how many clones, working on how many different tasks and for how long. Once that is established, make full use of that capacity to have him learning from numerous different shinobi simultaneously. Send his real body to jounin Maito for physical conditioning and taijutsu training, so that his body can keep up with his other abilities. Have him develop his chakra control to at least water-walking level as quickly as possible, to facilitate learning jutsu. Make sure he gets at least a basic grounding and an aptitude test in every field you can think of. With his large reserves, it's doubtful that he'll ever be capable of using genjutsu or iryōjutsu, but he should at least learn to detect and dispel the former and to handle emergency first aid and battlefield medicine."
A/N: So yeah, it just sorta stops. I couldn't really figure out a way to close out this scene, so I figured I'd leave it as is and let more creative minds than my own play with it.
Basic idea is this: Danzō insists on Naruto getting training that takes full advantage of his abilities. He and his clones are distributed across the village each day, getting lessons from whoever is willing to give them whenever they're available. It doesn't even need to be exclusively combat training - let's face it, it would take direct orders (and threats of serious consequences) to keep him from tasking a clone to learn cooking at Ichiraku. Also, as Hiruzen might well point out, it helps if the Hokage understands every aspect of the village, including the civilian trades.
My requests for those who would adopt this: Don't go too overboard with powerups - no special items not supported by canon (basic weapons make sense, as would possibly one or two weapons made from the same metal as Asuma's trench knives), no hidden unique powers, no rapid mastery of anything (he's learning a lot of things at once, but in most cases doing so at normal rates). The idea is to simply have Naruto developed to his full potential - that's already enough to speak for itself, without the need for the bonus powerups so many fics add.
A good baseline for plausible power growth would be to have those enemies that totally outclassed him in the canon still generally do so, but by a smaller margin. He's able to hassle Zabuza slightly, Orochimaru is able to hold back a bit less in the Forest of Death, etc. Haku would be in trouble, though - having strategists like Shikaku and Danzō giving Naruto lessons in tactics would likely mean that he would announce his arrival at the bridge with a competent attack against the mirrors, possibly utilizing a shadow clone to do a fire/wind combo to try and destroy them.
