Chapter 1: The Academy

The ANBU squad leader, Phoenix, was having a pleasant day. No one, no one had asked if he was female, not a single soul. As he patrolled the streets of Kohona, he noticed a small disturbance.

"Captain," the ANBU, Hydra spoke up, his face was covered in a blue Hydra mask, "the commotion is coming from over there." He pointed really far away to a huge dust cloud.

"Thank you, Hydra I'll head over there, you stay here." He replied as Hydra nodded, Phoenix jumped onto a rooftop and started running to the source of the dust cloud.

Once he arrived there he saw a group of men in an all-out brawl. One man was pushed out of the fight and was covered in wounds and bruises. Phoenix faced his direction.

"What happened?" He asked monotonously, the man looked at the ANBU and shakily said, "Some p-people s-started f-f-fighting and pu-pulled everyo-one in-into the f-fight..."

"Thank you." Turned to the direction of the fight the ANBU captain flared his chakra. "Stop." He said softly. Everyone stopped and looked in his direction, but immediately went back to their previous activities.

"Stop f*cking fighting!" He shouted, this time everyone stopped, for good.

"…Es..." He heard them say.

"What did you say?" He asked sweetly sending Killer Intent at them in large waves.

"YES MA'AM!" They shouted, fearfully, but only made the captain angrier.

"Who are you calling a girl?"

"Y-!" One idiot started but was silenced by the ninja's glare. "NO ONE!" They screamed dispersing. Huffing, he turned and teleported to Hydra, who was in the same position as he was before.

"Another group who though you were a girl, captain?" Hydra asked curiously.

"…Yes."

"I believe it's the hair, soft voice and the height..." Phoenix didn't bother commenting. It wasn't really his fault, just the ways genetics worked. But to him, he just didn't understand, they were ninja's, it was honourable to have long hair–even if he was wearing a wig over his bright hair. So it puzzled him that the rest of Kohona still believed his gender was female.

'Definitely the face!' An annoying little voice called the Kyuubi mocked.

'Shut it, Kurama! They can't even see my face.'

"Phoenix, report." 'Hokage-sama' ordered.

"…At 1200 hours there was a street fight, at 1530 hours there was a fire but it was extinguished before any lasting damage was done, there was no casualties, just injuries. Nothing else major." Phoenix reported, he hated patrol, he was an assassin not a police man!

The Hokage sighed as he looked at the paper in his hands. "All ANBU except Phoenix, leave." Even though there was no visible change, Phoenix could sense the chakra of other ANBU leave the room. "Phoenix, take off your mask." The Hokage ordered.

Panic surged through the ANBU's body. The most common reason for the Hokage to ask an ANBU to take off their mask was a demotion, or a long-term mission. Neither that Phoenix wanted to do at the time.

Slowly, he resigned to his fate. Taking the white porcelain mask and black wig off, he hoped for the best.

Phoenix felt bare without his mask. As his face was unexpectedly feminine, he had a long history of people asking if he was a female, it certainly did not help that he had long red hair. Thankfully, his eyes were no longer the bright sapphire blue eyes were no longer the bright sapphire blue they once were and replaced with the legendary dojutsu, the Rinnegan, making him just a bit more… masculine. Or at least he hoped it did.

"Phoenix, I am giving you a top secret 'A' class mission."

"Hokage-sama, excuse me for my rudeness," Phoenix said, "but a 'top secret 'A' class mission'?"

The Hokage chuckled, "Yes, a 'top secret 'A' class mission,' but it has one serious flaw that only you can do." Phoenix held his breath hoping his superior wasn't going to say what he thought he was going to, "I need you not as the ANBU, Phoenix, but as Uzumaki Naruto."

Phoenix's, or rather Naruto's whole world went crashing down. He couldn't remember the last time the Hokage had used his real name, "Permission to speak Hokage-sama?" He asked almost immediately.

"Granted." The old man said in the same speed, most likely anticipating the question.

"Hokage-sama I don't mean to be rude but I specialize on assassination, not infiltration."

"I'm sorry but this is a direct order from the Hokage." He replied, making Naruto frustrated.

"Fine." He complied, seeing no way to get himself out of the ordeal without getting demoted.

"I need you to infiltrate the Academy."

"Eh?" Naruto exclaimed, out of all the things his active brain could think of, that was certainly not the top of his list.

"Yes. I need you to monitor the Academy teachers." The Hokage looked at his paperwork, "There are complaints about teachers and suspicions about them."

Naruto raised his hand.

"Yes?" The Hokage said, sighing slightly.

"How long will this mission be?"

"It is undecided." The Hokage said, sighing once more, "Here are the exact details of the mission. Academy classes start tomorrow. Dismissed."

Nodding, Naruto took the files in the Hokage's hands then teleported away to his apartment flat. Scanning the area for any fresh chakra signals he thought to himself, 'Nee-san isn't here yet.'

After a deep breath, he steeled himself with a plan to get ready for school. Concluding that his first priority was new clothes, preferably one that covered his face. He changed out of his ANBU gear into 'civilian' clothes.

He decided to wear a light blue shirt with the Uzumaki spiral on the back, black shorts and his Shinobi sandals. He set out to buy the new clothes he needed so much.

But he never saw the sad look that the Hokage gave him and his soft parting words. "I'm sorry…"

He entered a nice looking shop and was astounded by the many articles of clothing. After ten minutes or so he chose a black mesh shirt, a dark camouflage jacket with a hood that could cover up his red hair and black shorts. Naruto took five sets of each and went to the counter.

The shop keeper smiled sweetly at him, as one would to a young child. "That would be 12000 ryo." He silently nodded and gave the man the needed money.

"Have a nice day ojou! (Miss)" He called out, cheerfully.

"I'm not a girl..." Naruto deadpanned to the shopkeeper.

"What?" He asked shocked, "I'm so sorry!" He apologised, bowing his head repeatedly

"It's okay... Everyone makes that mistake..." The teen mumbled out, as the shopkeeper went back to original cheery personality, "Well then, have a good day!"

TIMESKIP - NEXT MORNING

Naruto woke up a few seconds before his alarm clock could ring annoyingly, hitting the off switch swiftly.

He then sleepily shuffled out of bed and had a quick shower. Once he was clean and awake, Naruto silently ate his home-made breakfast, cursing his luck as he did.

Before leaving he looked at the seals on his palms, he held his Kanata, 'Rebirth' in his two hands and activated the seal which stored the weapon inside and made sure his hood was covering his face.

TIME SKIP - ACADEMY

"You are Uzumaki Naruto, correct?" A chunin asked as Naruto nodded. "I'm Umino Iruka, I'll be your teacher for the next year. Please follow me." I followed the Iruka-Sensei to a classroom door.

"Be ready to introduce yourself." Naruto nodded as he followed him into the classroom.

Inside the classroom was chaos. There were fan-girls everywhere, lazy and really arrogant-looking people too.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" Iruka-sensei shouted and immediately everyone shut up and rushed to their seats. "There is a transfer student today, please welcome Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto, already deciding the best personality to portray, his real nature "...It is nice to meet you all... My name is Uzumaki Naruto..."

"DARN! ANOTHER GIRL!" A boy with triangles on his face, an Inuzuka, shouted groaning, effectively irritating Naruto to speak louder.

"I'm not a girl." Naruto said just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Everyone looked at him, looks of astonishment etched on their faces, "WHAT?" They shouted in unison.

"…I'm a boy." No one moved, so Naruto decided to move to the seat next to the Hyuuga girl in the back. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto..." He started, his voice no louder than a whisper, "What's your name?"

"H-H-H-Hyuuga H-H-Hinata..." She answered, she seemed to have a very bad case of shyness.

"It's nice to meet you." Naruto didn't bother smiling as his hood was pulled down too low for anyone to see his face. "Nice to meet you, Hyuuga-San… I hope we will get along…"

Naruto had just made his first friend. It was sad he didn't realise it yet.

END!