A/N: This is my first fic! Yay!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would make the stupid villagers pay for treating Naruto and Gaara like that!!! Pay, dammit!!
Umm…so yeah….
Oh, READ HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their school works like this in my world: Mizuki teaches first half of the class, and Iruka teaches the second half because he's still a newbie. Mizuki was their teacher first, which is why Naruto is so bad at the basics; he didn't have a good teacher.
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Chapter 1: A New Sensei
/Twitch/
"Uzumaki!" Mizuki-sensei's voice yelled out for the fourth time in the last minute.
Gritting small, uneven teeth, Naruto growled, "Yes, Mizuki-sensei?" Chilling blue eyes glared up at the silver-haired Chuunin.
Mizuki glowered at the small blond and reprimanded, "Uzumaki! Don't take that tone with me, Uzumaki!" He thought to himself, 'Why does he want to become a ninja?! Oh well, there's no way he's passing this class anyways!'
Naruto sneered, "Geez, you must really like my name, yelling it out like that all the time."
'Why that little…'
Mizuki narrowed his eyes, but before he could retaliate (probably by humiliating the blond yet again), Iruka-sensei walked into the room.
Iruka-sensei was a new teacher. When he became Chuunin, he did reconnaissance missions with Gekkou Hayate and Mitarashi Anko, his previous Genin teammates. However, when they wanted to take the Jounin exam, they opted out. He wanted to be a teacher.
Everyone liked Iruka. He was a better teacher than Mizuki-sensei, and he didn't argue with Naruto 24/7.
Iruka-sensei said, "Are you done with your lessons, Mizuki-san?"
Mizuki gritted his teeth, but attempted to smile at Iruka, though it came out more like a grimace. "Yeah, the chibis are yours, Iruka-san." He then stalked out of the room.
Naruto immediately sighed with relief. Mizuki hated him with a passion, though for what, Naruto didn't know. He picked on Naruto every single day, and he humiliated him a lot.
Iruka-sensei, on the other hand, was extremely nice to him. He even treated Naruto to ramen sometimes. He didn't know why Iruka-sensei treated him differently; it wasn't a subject Naruto particularly cared for. He had an inkling that the reason everyone hated him was not a pretty one.
Iruka-sensei started talking about the rules of the shinobi, bringing Naruto out of his reverie. Naruto stifled a yawn as he looked out the window to see a clear blue sky with white, fluffy clouds lazing by. He glanced at Iruka, then out the window.
Even though Naruto liked Iruka-sensei, he was now completely restless and antsy.
So, as soon as Iruka-sensei's back was turned, Naruto leaped out of the open window, relishing at the freedom as he rushed out towards the forests.
He distinctly hear an annoyed voice of a certain sensei yelling, "NARUTO!!!"
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Naruto looked at the training dummy in front of him. He had been using chakra to fuel his punches and kicks, but he knew that his form was extremely sloppy.
However, no one was around to teach him, and his copying skills were not that great. The only one willing to teach him was Iruka-sensei, and he had missions, classes to teach at the Academy, and shifts in the Mission Room. Naruto didn't want to add on stress to the already-overworked Chuunin.
He sighed and decided to work on his ninjutsu. He made a hand seal and yelled out, "Kawarimi no Jutsu!" concentrating his chakra on the training dummy in front of him.
When he blinked, he was that he had done the jutsu correctly. He tried it again, this time trying to switch places with a log that was farther away from him. "Kawarimi no Jutsu."
When he blinked again, he noticed that he didn't move at all from his spot. His face scrunched up in thought. 'Maybe I didn't use enough chakra…'
So he tried again, this time putting more chakra in the jutsu. "Kawarimi no Jutsu."
He failed again, replacing himself with the dummy barely a foot away from him, instead of the log five feet away. "Kuso…" he muttered, annoyed. "I need to get myself a sensei!"
So he trudged out of the forest, thinking of the jutsus he needed to learn, and headed to town.
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A silver-haired Jounin walked aimlessly throughout town, his left eye covered by a hitai-ate with the leaf symbol on it. The lower half of his face was covered by a navy-blue cloth mask.
His right eye was fixated on the contents of a small, pocket-sized orange book that he was reading. The book was called "Icha-Icha Paradise, Vol. 3" and there was a warning on the cover that said "XXX RATED. NOT SUITABLE FOR PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 18."(1)
Though to any random person, he looked calm, unsuspecting, and relaxed, those who knew him well knew that this Jounin was ready for any attack. He was especially wary since he knew that his fanclub was probably congregating right now.
The slightly odd Jounin noticed an orange blur coming towards him from the left. Even though he could've avoided it, he didn't because, frankly, he was bored, and he was sure that someone wearing that amount of orange could be at least some form of amusement for him.
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Naruto looked left and right for any potential sensei that he forgot to look in front of him. He slammed into something and fell back on his butt, dazed.
He looked up and saw a silver-haired man with the standard Jounin jumpsuit and vest. He had a dark-blue cloth mask covering the lower portion of his face, and his hitai-ate was slanted to cover his left eye. His right eyed was looking down at him in amusement.
"Sorry, kid." He held his hand out to the nine-year-old.
Naruto looked at the hand suspiciously. Whenever he fell down, people laughed at him. No one had ever really helped him up before (except Iruka-sensei, of course).
But he decided to take a chance, and he took the hand…
…and the Jounin helped him up, and that's when Naruto first started trusting him.
"Ohayo," Naruto greeted, "and, arigatou!!"
The man's right eye curved into an upside-down u. "No problem, gaki."
Naruto pouted and said, "I'm not a gaki!"
"Fine then, chibi." The Jounin chuckled at the enraged look on the nine-year-old's face.
"Ne, I'm not a chibi either! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"
Kakashi looked at the boy closer. He was distracted by the orange clothing, the big blue eyes, and the wild blond hair, but now he noticed the three whisker marks on each cheek. 'So, this is the Jinchuuriki…'
His eye clouded over with sadness. 'This boy looks like Arashi-sensei…could it be?'
He blinked and tried to remain calm. "Well, since you introduced yourself, I guess I should too…"
After a couple of minutes of silence, Naruto sweatdropped. "Umm…so what's your name??"
"Hmm?" the man sounded, as if noticing Naruto for the first time. "Oh, I'm Hatake Kakashi." His eye curved into an upside-down u again.
"Hey," Naruto asked, "what's with the eye thing?"
Kakashi looked down at Naruto, confused. "The…eye thing?"
Naruto gave the Kakashi a wide grin. "Yeah, the eye thing. When you smile, your eye curves up into an upside-down u…"
The man just did the odd eye-smiling thing and replied, "Really? I never even notice!"
Naruto looked at him doubtfully, but said, "Ok, then. Hey, Hatake-san…"
"Call me Kakashi," he interrupted. "Hatake-san makes me feel old."
"Well, aren't you?" Naruto asked, genuinely confused.
Kakashi just chuckled and said, "Never mind. What were you going to ask me?"
"Oh, umm…" Naruto tapped his chin and looked up at the sky as he struggled to remember. "Oh, yeah. Can you teach me?"
This time, Kakashi got a serious look in his eye. "Teach you? Naruto, I'm not sure…"
Naruto's eyes clouded with hurt, and he looked down at the asphalt in sadness. "I see. I thought you'd be different from all the other villagers. Never mind, then." He turned and walked away, and as he did, his trembling lips formed a smirk, and his faded eyes regained a mischievous sparkle.
He was, after all, a prankster at heart.
'Three.'
'Two.'
'One.'
"Wait."
'Works every time.' Naruto smiled deviously before returning to his "kicked puppy" look.
He turned around and sniffed pitifully. "What?"
He looked up and was startled at the fact that the Jounin was just a foot or so away from him now. He saw Kakashi-san's eye looking down at him impassively.
"Nice try, chibi. But I'm asking you to reconsider because I'm not sensei material."
Naruto sent Kakashi a long look. "So? You'll still have to take on a Genin team. It's a requirement for Jounin. Think of me as practice! If you can handle me, you can handle anyone."
Kakashi considered this. 'Gaki has a point…'
He looked down to see Naruto play one of the oldest-yet-most-successful tactics in the book: the puppy eyes.
Kakashi sighed and closed his book, admitting defeat. "Ok then, chibi-gaki," and he did his little eye-smiling thing at the protests Naruto had over his new nickname. "But let's go to the Hokage to make things official."
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A/N: Yay!!! I managed to get that done! The first chapter was actually longer, but a) I felt that this would be a nice stopping place and b) I'm a lazy bum... so troublesome (to quote my ultra-favorite shinobi in Konoha).
(1) I actually have no idea how old you have to be to read Jiraiya's pervert books, and I didn't feel like looking it up, so...I'm gonna assume it's 18.
Btw, I'm thinking that Naruto's nickname be Naru-chibi...well, at least, Kakashi will be calling him that...
To my friend Sarah: I know you're disappointed my first fic isn't Harry Potter, but I promise I'll upload an HP fanfic soon! (I'm her beta!)
Please READ AND REVIEW!! /cough cough/ pretty please??? .