A Godfather's Influence

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

Chapter : A Pivotal Day

Today was the day. The day Naruto would take his first step toward becoming Hokage. Naruto's first day at the ninja academy was today and he couldn't wait. He could finally show everyone what an awesome ninja he would be, then they would have to acknowledge him. Maybe he could even make some friends.

"Hello Naruto. Are you ready for your first day?" An old man wearing white and red robes asked. "You bet Jiji, I'm gonna be the greatest ninja ever! Then you'll have to give me that hat," a young boy with blonde hair and whisker-marks on his cheeks replied. "Come on Jiji or we'll be late!" The Third Hokage, known to Naruto as Jiji, chuckled. "I've been waiting for you to get ready. If you have everything, we can go."

As they got close to the academy, the Third noticed that Naruto seemed even more jumpy than usual. "Is something the matter Naruto?" he inquired. "What if none of the other kids like me?"

The Thirds expression hardened. Of course, he thought. "Why wouldn't they like you?" Naruto put his head down, covering his eyes with his bangs. "Nobody likes me. They all think I'm a demon. What did I ever do to them, Jiji?" The Third put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You didn't do anything Naruto. They're all just caught up in their preconceptions. I'm sure you'll meet people who can see past that." After that, the two walked in silence until they came up to a large building. "We're here Naruto. Try to enjoy your first day. Now I have to get back to my office. That paperwork isn't gonna do itself, unfortunately. Goodbye." With that, the Third vanished.

While walking towards his classroom, Naruto noticed some of the other children glaring at him. But why? He couldn't understand why everyone hated him so much. Not paying much attention, he didn't notice someone walking directly towards him until they had barreled over him. "Watch where you're going, loser." The entire hall broke into laughter. The academy sucks already.

The rest of the school day did not go much better. Naruto was ignored, insulted, or in Sakura's case, punched whenever he tried to introduce himself to someone. Even the teachers hated him. The only exception seemed to be Iruka-sensei, and that's because he only seemed to strongly dislike Naruto. Sadly enough, Naruto was willing to count that as a victory. Even so, for Naruto the school day could not end soon enough.

When class was let out, Naruto tried to run out of the classroom, but someone tripped him and he fell flat on his face. Naruto figured he should have been angry, but it was such a fitting end to his school day that he just decided to lay there until the rest of the class was gone and hope no one kicked him on their way out. "Are you ok?" Naruto heard someone ask. The voice was close to him, so he figured that they could be talking to him, but no one other than Jiji was ever concerned about his wellbeing so he decided that he was imagining things. Then he felt someone poking him. "You're not dead, are you?" When Naruto raised his head, he saw a boy his age with a lazy expression on his face and what appeared to be a black pineapple on his head.

Realizing that someone was actually willing to talk to him, Naruto hopped to his feet and dusted himself off. "No, I'm fine. Hi, my name's Naruto!" The pineapple-haired boy continued to stare at Naruto with his bored expression. After a few moments of thinking, he finally replied. "Well you're pretty loud and that's troublesome, but you don't look like a bad guy, so hey Naruto. My name's Shikamaru."

Naruto was a bit surprised. He rarely made it past his name before he was told to jump off a cliff, and on the rare occasion that he wasn't rejected, the kid's parents would pull them away. Assuming this would be the case, Naruto was determined to talk to Shikamaru as much as he could before Shikamaru's parents forbid him from ever talking to 'The Demon' ever again.

"Hi Shikamaru. I'm gonna be the greatest ninja ever, then I'm gonna be the greatest Kage ever!" I wonder if he's always this loud Shikamaru thought. "That sounds troublesome. I'm gonna be the ninja that does the least amount of work ever. Yeah, that sounds like a good goal for me." Naruto couldn't tell if that was a joke, but the lazy expression on the pineapple-haired boys face suggested that it was not.

"Man that sounds so boring! Ninjas have to be awesome. I wanna slay dragons and rescue princesses and all that good stuff."

The two started walking outside with the blonde-haired boy practically shouting about how awesome it would be to be a ninja and the lazy boy being too lazy to talk about how troublesome being a ninja was going to be. Once they got outside, Shikamaru saw that his dad was already waiting for him. "Hey Dad. School was tiring. I think you're gonna have to carry me home." Shikamaru's dad, Shikaku, raised an eyebrow at his son, then his face relaxed into the signature Nara look.

"Yeah sure, why not?" Shikamaru was a bit surprised by the response. "Wait really?" he asked.

"Yeah. That way we'll get home faster and I can go back to bed." Naruto had just met Shikaku, but for some reason this reply did not surprise him. I wonder if the whole family is like that. It was then that Shikaku noticed Naruto standing there. "Hey Naruto. I didn't notice you at first without you screaming about becoming Hokage. Are you and Shikamaru friends?" It seemed like a simple question, but Naruto didn't know how to respond. Was it a trick question? Would Shikamaru's dad forbid them from being friends if Naruto said yes? Would Shikamaru be offended if Naruto said no? Luckily for him, Shikamaru answered for him. "Yeah, we're friends."

"That's nice. See you around Naruto. We have to go now. My bed isn't gonna sleep in itself." With that, Shikaku picked up his son and vanished in a shunshin.

Naruto was quite shocked. He didn't know what kind of reaction he was expecting, but he was expecting a reaction. It probably would have taken too much effort, Naruto mused before beginning his walk home, alone. The Third was too busy to walk him home. He's probably preventing a war or assembling a team to go rescue a princess, Naruto thought. If the young boy knew the truth, he would probably renounce his dream of becoming Hokage. All the respect in the world wasn't worth doing that much paperwork.

As he was walking, Naruto decided that today had been a good day. The number of people not named Teuchi, Ayame, or Third Hokage who were willing to talk to him was at an all-time high. That number was only two, but it shattered the previous record of zero. After this realization, the blonde decided that he wouldn't let anyone ruin this day, so he jumped onto a nearby rooftop. Well he tried to anyway. He really jumped into a wall. After dusting himself off, Naruto decided he would walk home instead.

Naruto arrived at his apartment to an unusual site. It wasn't that someone had broken in or left graffiti on his door (that had happened three times already), but instead that there was a letter attached to the door. The boy briefly wondered if it had been delivered to the wrong address, but written across the front was his name, Naruto Uzumaki. Should I open it, he wondered. It could be a trick from one of the villagers. In the end his curiosity won out, and Naruto cautiously opened the envelope.

Dear Naruto,

You don't know me, but I know you. Man that sounds creepy. Creepiness aside, I'm glad to finally be able to talk to you. My name's Jiraiya and I want to be your friend. Unfortunately I have a lot of work to do, but I hope that I will be able to meet you in person eventually. I'm very busy so I'm gonna have to cut this short. If you want to respond, ask old man Hokage and he'll find a way to get your message to me. I'll be in touch.

Your Friend,

The Gallant Jiraiya

Aka The Great Toad Sage

Aka the envy of men everywhere

Aka the dream of women everywhere

Aka the author of the world renowned Icha Icha

That guy sure has a lot of nicknames was Naruto's first thought after reading the letter. His second was that this was probably a joke. Then again, he did tell me to go ask Jiji. Guess I might as well.

And with that, Naruto headed off to go talk to the Hokage.

Well, That was chapter one. I would love to know what you think, so feel free to review. I'd prefer constructive criticism, but if you just think it sucks, feel free to say so.