A/N: This is just a story idea that I couldn't get out of my head. It's a crossover with Goku in the Academy as a student along with everyone else.

There have been changes made to the two worlds as they've both been merged together. Some details will affect some things, others not so much. Well, just read it and tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Dragon Ball

A Single Step

Iruka held in a sigh as his class slowly filed into the room. It was the end of their lunch break and they, like all children shinobi-in-training or not, were all chatting and fidgeting around. Mizuki escorted the last few in himself, affixing a couple of them a sly smile and making them giggle.

He always told Mizuki that they wouldn't take him seriously if he didn't treat them sternly. With some of these kids, if you weren't harsh with them they'd walk all over you and then never learn anything.

Oh well, he had plenty of time to learn. Mizuki still had a few months before he'd graduate from assistant to full-time instructor.

Counting and naming them all in his head, Iruka quickly deduced that everyone was indeed present and accounted for, which was a surprise in itself. He looked over the usual troublemakers. Naruto was number one on that list, but he had probably already burned himself out with that exploding flour sack prank earlier. Shikamaru would be second, usually following Naruto's lead if he didn't feel like putting up with class for that afternoon.

His eyes glanced over a few more potential troublemakers. However it seemed lunch had calmed them all down; a rare, but not completely unheard of, phenomenon.

A good thing too, as graduation was only a couple of days away and he needed to review several aspects of Shinobi history with them. He nentertained the thought that they were actually calmer because they were trying to actually pay attention to him for once.

"Alright, settle down everyone," he commanded as Mizuki sat down beside him. "We've still got a few more periods to go through before you can all go home for the day. Right now, we'll be going over some key points during the Clan wars..."

Already, he could see eyes beginning to droop.

"And!" he barked loudly, a vein bulging in his temple. "We have Taijutsu practice-"

Quite a few people sat up at that, including Naruto, much to Iruka's satisfaction.

"-followed by Ninjutsu review. Now I know you're all tired but you're only a couple of days away from becoming Genin, and that'll only happen if you study hard, you understand?"

Iruka barely held back a satisfied smile. That seemed to have perked a few of them back up. Children would always be bored with history and basic theory, but give them the opportunity to beat each other up or learn some jutsu and they'd be willing to deal with almost anything.

"Now then," Iruka began, getting out his textbook. "Who can tell me the names of the founders of Konoha?"

Several hands went up.

"Yes, Sakura?"

The pink-haired girl sitting near the front immediately answered.

"Senju Hashimara, Uchiha Madara and Master Mutaito," she said promptly.

"Excellent, well done," he praised. "Now who can tell me the main reason they decided to form Konoha? Yes, Sasuke?"

The black haired boys sitting near the back slowly lowered his hand.

"It was in order to effectively fight off the Demon-King Piccolo and his horde," Sasuke said, his hands interlocking in front of him.

"Correct," Iruka said, smiling at the stoic boy. "Who was Demon-King Piccolo? Ino?"

The blonde girl started and sat up straighter.

"Um, Demon-King Piccolo was..." she quickly racked her memory. "A Demon who declared war on the world about a hundred years ago, but was killed by the Founders a decade later."

"Well done," her teacher said. "Though not all of them survived the battle. Who was it who lost their life? Naruto!"

The blonde boy jolted awake.

"I didn't do it!" he cried out, making the whole class snigger.

"Stay awake, Naruto and do try to focus for once," Iruka scolded. "Which of the Founders lost their life in the fight with Demon-King Piccolo?"

Naruto frowned and thought about it. He couldn't really remember, but the First Hokage was the Hokage so it couldn't have been him. He didn't really care about the other two other than the fact one was related to that Sasuke jerk.

"Uchiha Madara!" Naruto declared with confidence.

"No, Naruto," Iruka said, tyring to remain calm. "Try again."

"The other one!"

A vein visibly bulged in Iruka's temple.

"Which. One?" he ground out.

"I just said 'the other one'," Naruto repeated. "It wasn't the First Hokage cause he was awesome, so it had to be the other one!"

"And what would his name be?"

"How should I know?"

"Because it's a basic part of history!" Iruka yelled. "Master Mutaito sacrificed himself to kill the Demon-King. Come on Naruto, you've already failed the exam twice, you can't afford to still be getting things like this wrong!"

There was more sniggering form the others although this time less effort went into hiding it. Naruto's face went bright red with shame and he glared at Iruka. The Chunin decided not to acknowledge it although he did feel a pinprick of guilt in his heart.

'If he wants to not get laughed at like that, he has to at least put in some effort,' he rationalised. 'At least he's not the worst in the class at the theory.'

That dubious honour belonged to someone else, although Iruka couldn't really blame them either.

"Alright settle down!" Iruka said sternly, affixing the giggling children with a glare. "We've still got another half hour to go and if anyone can't answer a question correctly from now on... Well then we'll have the perfect dummy for practicing chokeholds on then won't we?"

That shut everyone up rather quickly and Iruka went back to questioning the class. Every now and then he couldn't help but glance back at Naruto every now and then. It was hard to imagine that the Kyuubi, a being of such incredible power, could be contained in such a small harmless boy. Even now he could barely comprehend it.

When he had first started teaching the boy, he had observed him far more than any other child. He looked into his behaviour, trying to understand whether or not the Demon Fox was truly influcencing him or not. Yet the longer he looked, the less he saw the Demon that killed his parents and nearly destroyed Konoha, and the more he saw a lonely boy willing to do anything to be noticed.

It was sad how much of himself he saw in that boy.

"Ok, now who was the most influential Ki user in the First Shinobi World War?" Iruka asked, looking towards someone who hadn't answered a question yet.

He soon spotted his target. A small black-haired boy sitting near the middle whose eyes were straining to stay awake during his questions.

"Goku?" Iruka asked. "Do you know?"

"Um," the boy said, looking like he was focusing intently.

"Take your time," Iruka offered his newest student. "I know this is still all new to you."

"I can do it," Goku responded, still frowning. "Master... Shamon?"

"No Goku," Iruka sighed. "Master Shen was the most influential Ki user during the First Shinobi World War. Shamon was the second Kazekage."

Goku frowned and folded his arms, but nevertheless remained silent.

Iruka sighed, the poor boy had only been at the Academy for a few months and was therefore behind in most of his studies. If it hadn't been for the Hokage personally vouching for the boy as well as what was written in Son Gohan's will, he wouldn't have even been allowed in the academy at his age.

"Come on, Sensei," Choji, a rather large boy said. "It's not like history is worth much of our final mark."

Iruka felt a muscle underneath his eye twitch sharply, making the boy cringe. The worst thing was that Choji wasn't even wrong. Theory wasn't worth as much these days, particularly the history portion of the test. This was something Iruka had been working to correct, yet progress was slow.

Even in a village of ninja, change didn't come swiftly.

"Nevertheless," Iruka continued. "Would you want to fail the exam simply because you were a single mark off your knowledge tests? Could you imagine explaining that to your friends?"

There was a resounding chorus of 'No, sirs' before the rest of them put their heads down and got to work.

The rest of the class passed without anything worthy to note. The children took notes for the most part and answered questions diligently, or at least some of them did. It wasn't long before the bell rang signalling the end of their History lesson and they went outside to begin Taijutsu practice.

"As this is your last taijutsu session before your exam," Iruka began, looking over a sea of small faces. "It's especially important that you understand how to apply moves you learned in your katas in actual combat situations. To simulate this, you'll be sparring with a randomly selected partner for this session, the winners will get to do something a little different whilst the losers will go over basic Katas with me."

"Unlike a normal spar, which ends when one opponent draws blood or simply knocks one over, these spars are more serious," Iruka continued. "A winner will only be declared when someone surrenders, leaves the circle or is judged incapable of fighting any longer by either me or Mizuki. This is your last chance to show off to us before your exam, so make it count all of you."

If anything got children their age interested in something, it was a mystery. He didn't want them slacking off right now, not when they were so close to the final exam.

Mizuki drew two names out of a box. The two students who were picked would enter a large chalk ring and begin their spar. At first, the fights were mostly predictable, with no really interesting match-ups. It was easy to tell just from their usual placement in class Taijutsu lessons who would win...

"Naruto and Shikamaru!" Mizuki read off from the scraps of paper in his hand.

"Yes!" Naruto pumped his fist as he practically leapt into the ring, unable to believe his luck. "Come on!"

Shikamaru just groaned.

"Why the loudmouth?" he muttered, as he slowly stepped inside the ring. "Couldn't I have gone up against Choji?"

"Hey Shikamaru!" Ino yelled, from the sidelines. "Show that Dead-Last what for!"

"Don't yell at me," Shikamaru replied. "Why are you even cheering for me anyway?"

"Ino, no insults," Iruka warned, keeping an eye on Naruto.

The two slowly formed the Seal of Confrontation, staring each other straight in the eyes like the custom dictated.

Then they settled into their battle stances. Iruka stifled a wince and forced himself not to say anything when it came to Naruto's poor stance. The boy had sheer strength and endurance on his side, but his finesse was severly lacking.

Although it still wasn't bad per-se, he just wanted Naruto to pass.

Shikamaru's was pretty abysmal whenever he actually bothered to put any effort in whatsoever. Judging by the young Nara's stance, well standing there with his hands in his pockets, this wasn't even going to be one of those times.

"Begin!" Iruka called out, already knowing the outcome.

Without delay, Naruto charged forwards, fist curled back and ready to swing-

"I give up," Shikamaru said.

-and tripped up in astonishment.

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled, after spitting out a mouthful of grass. "I didn't even hit you yet, you wimp!"

"I know when I'm outmatched," Shikamaru stated, forming a half-hearted Seal of Reconciliation with his opponent. "Thought I'd just make everyone's lives easier."

Iruka's palm met his face.

"Shikamaru," he began slowly. "You're never going to get better if you just give up."

"True," the boy replied, standing next to his friend, Choji. "But I'll live longer."

Iruka shook his head.

"Naruto, go over to the winners group," he instructed, before signalling Mizuki to begin calling out the next two names.

Naruto just settled with a slight glare in Shikamaru's direction, before kicking the dirt as he headed towards the small group of winners at the side.

"Sasuke and Goku!"

Iruka's eyes widened. Now this would be a truly fascinating match; the two top Taijutsu students in the class getting to spar with each other just before they graduated. Goku leapt into the ring in a similar manner to Naruto and faced his opponent with a smile. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement, as he watched Sasuke walk into the circle.

Sasuke entered with far more dignity, befitting that of the son of a Clan-Head. He similarly observed Goku with an excited smirk, clearly just as pleased to be going up against the tailed boy as Goku was.

The two each held up a hand, showing the Seal of Confrontation and staring intently at one another.

Then, slowly, the two settled into their favoured battle stances. Immediately with Sasuke, Iruka could see the Uchiha's own Taijustu style mied with hints of the style taught at the Academy. He felt a hint of pride that the boy was able to incorporate the two together so seamlessly at his age. Sasuke was a true prodigy, more than worthy of bearing the name Uchiha.

On the other hand, Goku's stance was more unusual. It was a manner of Taijutsu that the Chunin had never seen before; a remnant, he presumed, of whatever it was his Grandfather had taught him before his death.

Interestingly, Iruka observed as Goku's tail curled around his waist for some reason. There was an answering flash of red in Sasuke's eyes, both elements of hard earned lessons in the past. The two were taking this spar way too seriously.

"You can do it, Sasuke!" Sakura called out.

"Beat up that tailed freak!" Ino commanded.

"No name-calling," Iruka warned, giving the girl another glare. "Or I'll have you replacing him."

That quickly shut her mouth.

Eventually even the numerous girls hollering their support for Sasuke soon died down after it garnered no reaction from either competitor. A gust of wind blew through the training field, sending leaves scattering over the ring.

"Begin!"

The two shot forwards and limbs clashed together in a flurry of blows. Sasuke had a greater reach over the shorter Goku, but the smaller boy more than made up for it with pure speed. He darted around Sasuke's blows like he was dancing and shot under his guard.

Sasuke jumped back, barely avoiding the blow to his stomach, but Goku didn't let up. Pushing forwards, Goku kept up a relentless assault that he was hard pressed to keep back.

Block, deflection, block, block, deflection; it was like a mantra in Sasuke's head as he focused on nothing but his opponent's attacks.

His Sharingan gave him the split second advantage. Ghosts of where Goku's attacks were going o land appeared a split second before the real thing, allowing him to react just that much faster.

Enough to score a good elbow to the boy's face.

Goku staggered back from the blow and Sasuke pressed onwards. He kicked high and Goku grabbed his foot with both hands. Sasuke smirked, then with a simple movement somersaulted over his opponent and kicked him in the face with his other leg.

The boy staggered forwards this time and Sasuke aimed a punch at the back of his head.

But Goku ducked under it and threw Sasuke over his shoulder. Angling his body, Sasuke managed to land on his feet and gain some distance, just in time to catch the smile on his opponent's face.

'Shit!' he thought, as he felt his legs swep out from under him.

His hand hit the floor as he tried to keep his balance, but there was no blocking the fist that went straight into his stomach.

Sasuke practically flew backwards, rolling over and over again until he was nearly at the edge of the circle. Reacting quickly, he sprung up onto his feet, ready to defend-

-Only to see Goku still standing where he was before, gazing at him intently.

He hadn't pressed the attack?

Sasuke settled back into his default stance, anger barely kept in check. His opponent wasn't taking this fight seriously! The tomoe in his eyes span furiously as he promised to make the boy regret his mistake.

Sasuke charged forwards with a cry as Goku sank back into his fighting stance. He punched out at Goku, who diverted his punch to the side. He barely had time to realise his mistake before all the breath was knocked out of his body.

He flew back with a wheeze, barely catching himself from falling outside the ring. Sasuke stood up to his full height, spat out some blood and re-evaulated.

'Stop it,' he scolded himself. 'Don't get angry, that's what he wants. Anger leads to mistakes.'

This time he approached more cautiously, taking in which side Goku was choosing to defend, then launching forwards into an all-out attack. This time his punched seemed to carry more weight. Goku couldn't deflect or divert any of them and was being pressed back.

There!

Seeing the counter-attack coming, Sasuke struck first. Leaning backwards out of range of the boy's shorter arms, he sent his own punch out forwards towards Goku's face. Then suddenly, impossibly, he felt his Sharingan's prediction change and Goku barely avoided the attack.

Thinking quickly, Sasuke braced himself and put all his momentum into the missed blow.

Catching the ground with his hands, he brought his leg up straight into Goku's block. The force of the blow sent the boy skidding back a few feet, just enough time for Sasuke to surge forwards with a right hook into the boy's face.

His joy was short lived as Goku's tail wound itself around his outstretched arm and pulled him downwards into the shorter boy's fist. Sasuke reeled from the blow, his sight swimming as he tried to block the assault coming at him.

Goku wasn't messing around any longer, each atack was twice as fast as before, hit twice as hard and he was finding himself overwhelmed. Each punch he blocked sent waves of pain rattling down his arms, each kick he blocked knocked him back even further towards the edge of the ring despite his best efforts.

Divert, counterattack, block, block, attack, divert.

There was no time to think, or to analyse. His Sharingan was keeping him ahead, but not by enough to land a single blow. Goku danced around his attacks, somehow managing to stay just out of reach of his attacks.

Sweat dripped down Sasuke's head as the two continued to fight. His only hope now was to grab Goku's tail and make him lose his monstrous strength. It had bought him victory before in the past, and right now it was his only hope.

Sasuke knocked Goku's fist to the side and immediately reached for the tail wrapped around his waist. The tips of his fingers just about brushed the fur before Goku leapt out of his reach-

-and then leapt towards him with his leg extended.

All the air rushed out of Sasuke as he staggered back. Pain and anger clouding his vision, he kicked out at Goku to gain some distance.

Sharingan eyes widened as he saw his mistake.

He had overextended on the kick and Goku smelled blood. He diverted the kick even further to the side, knocking Sasuke completely off balance with his back turned towards his opponent. He quickly tried to turn, to muster sme sort of defence against the attack that was surely coming.

'Shit!'

A blow slammed into his back, knocking Sasuke into a nearby tree hard enough to crack the bark. The pain was intense, but nowhere near the worst he had felt in his life. Quickly he stood up and span around. He was still able to keep on fighting.

Only to remember that there weren't any trees in the ring. He'd been knocked outside the circle.

Fuck.

"Goku is the winner!" Iruka declared, just happy things hadn't gotten too intense. "Now remember what comes next?"

It wasn't exactly uncommon for bitter students to refuse to reconcile. Making them run laps together until they dropped tended to cure most of them of that desire. Of course, it wasn't until they became actual comrades that most would actually begin to respect each other. Sometimes it was foolish to expect maturity from twelve year olds...

Goku smiled kindly and stood up straight with his arm extended, ready for the Seal of Reconciliation. Sasuke glared at the smaller boy, the tomoe in his eyes spinning with frustration.

He sighed and deactivated them, before slowly forming the seal with Goku.

"That was a good fight, Sasuke," Goku chirped happily. "You really made me work for it."

"Thanks," he replied gruffly, not even trying to hide his annoyance. "

'How is he so strong?' he wondered to himself as the two parted ways. 'I've been training hard, is there something I've been missing?'

Ita-That man had been a jounin by his age, yet he hadn't even graduated the Academy. The Hokage had denied him permission to take the test early, even though he was sure he could pass it easily. How was he ever going to catch up if he couldn't beat a fellow Academy student in a simple spar?

'Although,' Sasuke noted as he eyed the strange tail swaying behind Goku. 'He's hardly a normal Academy student.'

No normal person could enter the Academy and in a mere six months already be at the same level as everyone else. Goku must have had prior training by someone, but Sasuke had no idea who. No-one knew anything about the boy, what with him being completely socially inept. The only information Sasuke had heard came from unfounded rumours. Stuff like him not even being from the village.

Sasuke knew better than to put any stock into rumours. After all there were dozens about him, most of which he ignored. So there was only one real way to learn anything about Goku.

'I'll have to talk with the idiot,' Sasuke concluded, sounding resigned even in his own head.

He wasn't too fond of interacting with his peers any more than he had to, but if it would give him a hint as to how to overcome Goku's monstrous strength then it would be worth it.

Naruto idly kicked dust up the road, thinking hard about the prank he was going to play tomorrow. He had spent all week planning (doodling in class) what he was going to draw on all the faces of the Hokage. If he did it during lunch break, then no one would realise he was missing until it was too late.

He grinned widly. The prank was going to be awesome! Just the thought of the look on the Hokage's face when he saw it! Hell, even seeing Iruka's reaction would be worth it. Anything would be worth livening up a boring day at the Academy.

Because...

Naruto stopped and turned towards the heads of the Hokage; the four giant stone faces that watched silently over the village. Naruto raised a hand, covering the Fourth's head in particular.

He would surpass all of them someday.

This prank was just his way of letting them know they had a new challenger; letting them know that now they were dealing with a new rival, one unlike anything else they had ever faced. Forget Demon-King Piccolo, forget the Shinobi World Wars, forget the Kyuubi, they were now competing with Uzumaki Naruto! And he wasn't going to go easy on them either.

"Naruto!" called out a familiar voice.

Naruto quickly woke-up from his inner pep-talk and lowered his fist. He turned to see Goku waving at him from nearby.

"Oh, hey Goku," he muttered, disappointed. "I've never seen you outside the Academy before."

"I haven't seen anyone else outside the Academy!" Goku said cheerfully. "You're the first one!"

Before Naruto could process this statement, Goku continued.

"Are you going to fight the mountain?" Goku asked, a little confused. "You were staring at it pretty intensely."

"I- No!" Naruto replied, face-reddening as he looked down at the shorter boy. "I was just thinking about... er... Sasuke!"

He then immediately regretted saying that.

"N-not like that!" he corrected anxiously, unaware of Goku's blank look. "Just how I want to beat his smug face in! Like what you did earlier today! That was really cool by the way, showed that bastard he can't be top in everything."

Goku blinked, unsure of how to respond to that statement. He then looked curiously over Naruto's shoulder.

"Though if it was me; I'd have done it even faster," Naruto boasted, folding his arms "He wouldn't have ever seen me coming!"

"No one will ever see you coming, idiot," a voice from behind him said.

Naruto jumped, before swivelling around to see an unimpressed Sasuke standing behind him.

"What are you doing here?!" Naruto demanded, pointing at him. "And what the hell was that supposed to mean?!"

"Son," he said, addressing Goku. "I want to talk to you."

"Don't just ignore me, you bastard!" Naruto yelled.

"Get lost," Sasuke said, glaring at him. "You're annoying me."

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shirt and pulled him towards him.

"Annoying you?! It's your stupid attitude that's pissing me off!"

"Unhand me," Sasuke ground out, his voice eerily calm.

"Make me, prick!"

"Are you two gonna fight?"

Naruto and Sasuke both looked down at Goku, who was watching the two with a gleam in his eyes. Sasuke looked away first and quickly broke free of Naruto's grip.

"You're not worth my time, dead-last," he declared, walking off.

"Hey, get back here you coward!" Naruto shouted after him, but the prodigy ignored him.

"Forget it, Son," Sasuke said. "I'll ask you another time."

"Um, ok?" Goku answered as Naruto continued to fume until Sasuke was out of sight. "He's real weird."

"He's an asshole," Naruto stated, more sure of that than anything else in life.

Birds fly, fish swim, he would be the greatest Hokage ever and Sasuke was an asshole. It was just the way the world worked.

"Anyway, I've got to go home," Goku said happily. "I've got training to do!"

"Training?" Naruto looked at him like he was mad. "But the sun's setting!"

"So? Training in the dark is just as fun!"

"You're strange."

"I am?"

"Yeah, no one sane trains in the evening. And no one I've met has ever had a tail."

Goku looked at his tail in thought.

"I thought everyone had one," he said, his extra limb waving behind him. "Well Grandpa didn't, but he was old so I thought his fell off or something."

Naruto considered this. He had never seen anyone else with a tail other than Goku. Not even the Hokage had one and he was the strangest person he knew! Suddenly the thought of the Third Hokage with a big wagging dog's tail appeared in Naruto's mind.

"Nope!" he giggled, noting that image away for a potential henge later. "I'm pretty sure no one else has a tail other than you."

"Wow, that must be hard," Goku said sadly. "I can't imagine not having my tail."

"Well I can't imagine not pranking people," Naruto said. "Much better than training if you ask me."

That sounds boring," Goku decided. "I'd much rather train than throw flour at people. Besides, if I don't pass the exam then I won't ever be able to leave the village again."

"'Again?'" Naruto repeated. "You've left the village before?"

"Yeah, I used to live outside the village," Goku said. "Now I've got to get home. I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto!"

The small boy then ran off, leaving Naruto staring after him. The strangest urge to follow to boy appeared, but Naruto held back. He had to get the paints in place for tomorrow, otherwise he could get caught before he even finished!

Forget those other two jerks, he'd pass the exam without training! He'd show everyone how great he was and the exam would be easier than ever!

The Third Hokage leant back in his chair and slowly turned off his crystal ball. It was a useful device, a bit too useful sometimes, but it still had it's limits that needed to be respected. It seemed Naruto and Goku were getting along just fine for the moment, something that could definitely prove to be useful to the village in the future.

It was a tragedy what happened to Son Gohan and to think they hadn't found for so long! It could have been a disaster if that team hadn't decided, on a whim even, to stop off at the old master's home. Only to find nothing but a strange tailed boy, what few possessions he had and his Grandfather's will.

Sarutobi took in a deep lungful from his pipe. What on Earth could have defeated Son Gohan so utterly that he couldn't even have signalled for help before being overwhelmed. Nearby outposts hadn't reported any signs of Bijuu in the area and the fact they still hadn't found a body didn't bode well at all.

Enemy shinobi would have taken the body, but it was almost sacrilege to think his old friend could be taken down so quietly, without even his Grandson realising. Unfortunately, experience had long taught him that even the strongest shinobi could be killed with little warning

It was a most perplexing mystery.

Now, Son Gohan's legacy was living in Konoha, where he would be safe from any sort of attack. If the boy turned out anything like his Grandfather, blood relation or not, then it would certainly be worth all the food he ate.

The old man chuckled at the thought.

"Your Grandson is very odd, Gohan my old friend," he muttered. "I wonder where you found him..."

A/N: Please tell me what you thought. I'd love to hear your opinions in the review section. Any parts you liked, disliked, loved, hated, thought could have been done better, etc.

Thank you!

Also, to those of you who are wondering, this won't affect the scheduling of my other stories at all, so you can still look forward to those as well.