Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, neither the anime show nor the characters. I'm not making any profit from this. Basically, please don't sue me!
The Perfect Choice
It was the perfect school. Naruto breathed in the cool air and released it in one word, "Perfect..."
He scratched his unruly yellow hair and turned to his former teacher, mentor, and present guardian.
"Ne! ne! Iruka-sensei! This is where I want to go!"
Iruka looked over at his hyperactive charge skeptically.
"Are you sure? You haven't even seen the classrooms yet...and there are so many other things you have to look at first! You have to make sure the teachers know what they are doing and have some experience and high education, the accommodations inside the dorms have to be clean or else you will get sick from all the mold and goodness knows what else growing inside dark rooms, they need to take you for a tour and describe all the different majors and minors they do, oh! And of course, you need to meet the other student because you're only staying here if the are well-mannered and nice!"
Naruto made a face at his sensei. "Ano...sensei, it doesn't matter if the other kids aren't nice. I'm kind of used to that by now...besides, this is college! You always tell me all the bad things that happen on these campuses, but I just have to find the right people!"
His grimace turned into a smile by the last optimistic statement, and his sky blue eyes curved up happily. Iruka scratched his head sheepishly, "I didn't mean that those things happen all the time at college..."
He half regretted all the horror stories he'd told Naruto about senior pranks and immoral students and teachers.
"Although," his mind amended, "it's a definite improvement if Naruto actually remembered anything I told him."
Iruka continued aloud, "College is a great opportunity for you to meet different people, who will be like yourself or maybe not as similar to anyone you know. Here you should branch out your interests and...Naruto? Naruto!"
The blonde was already half way up the hill to a large, graying building that overlooked the shady trees. A sign in front of it read "Konoha College of Liberal Arts" and appeared to have the school's principal and administration listed beneath it, but Iruka couldn't be sure due to the students studying in front of it and leaning against the sun-warmed wood. Other students were scattered on the hillside, lying in small circles or studying solitarily. Several couples were even engaging in some affectionate displays, and Iruka thought again to himself about the immorality of such PDA.
It was by no means a large college, and apparently it did not receive many visitors, so several students looked up at the hyperactive blond bouncing up the leaf-dotted path. Naruto, for his part, did not notice the stares following him as he reached the top and shouted down to Iruka, "Oy! Sensei! It lists the majors right here! We don't even need to go inside!"
His inspection of the school complete, Naruto then began his descent down the path, but slipped on a clump of fallen leaves. He screeched as his feet were pulled out from under him and flailed his arms uselessly when he fell on his butt and skidded down the steep hill. Halfway down, he saw a rock that he was hurtling toward at an alarming speed, so he utilized his primary instinct of survival...and screamed.
"Iruka-sensei!!!"
Unfortunately, said sensei was gaping wide-mouthed at the young boy, and wondering how on earth he managed to slip on leaves and appear so uncoordinated after Iruka had been sending him to taijutsu classes for the past seven years. Flustered, Iruka barely had time to let out a yelp himself as the spinning ball of blonde and orange bounced off the rock and came to land in a jumbled pile on top of Iruka.
The first thing Naruto heard as he dislodged the wad of ground-up leaves from his ear was that the dull ringing he had been hearing was actually the piercing voice of his guardian, who was (Naruto discovered after unclogging his other ear) giving Naruto a flowing lecture about the dangers Naruto posed to himself as compared to any sort of punishment another human being could, knowingly or unknowingly, inflict on him.
"Ittai!" he whined in response to the scratches on his arms, then looked around at all the giggling faces of college students and whispered to his mentor, "Ne...sensei...could you stop it? You're embarrassing me!"
Iruka's mouth hit the ground in shock before he roared, "I'm embarrassing you?! You knocked me over by yourself!"
"Demo, sensei! You're shouting loud enough for everyone to hear..."
"I AM NOT! Well...okay...maybe I am," he amended as he turned to see even the previously kissing couples stop their displays to look over curiously at the livid brunette.
"Serves them right..." Iruka muttered under his breath as he turned back to Naruto, grabbed the blond by his collar, and pulled him away saying something about finding the infirmary to wash those cuts before they became infected.
Naruto looked back at the hill as he was dragged away and jumped slightly as he felt a pair of eyes watching him from beneath the shade of the beech trees. There a pale youth with red hair and vivid green eyes stood leaning against the light bark of the tree. His gaze was piercing, and there was something in the posture of his slight body that told Naruto he was a loner, in a different, more secretive and dangerous way from the many other students who sat alone on the hill. He shivered and dragged his gaze away as Iruka succeeded in pulling him around a curve and the boy was hidden behind the trees.
A/N: in the first chapter, Naruto will be moving in and meeting his new roommate, the one and only, irresistible Sasuke! Of course, Gaara will show up again, plus Itachi and many others! Please tell me if you like it or think its worth writing more!