Note: I've gone through and edited the whole thing, although no changes to plot. You can find me on tumblr at chortling-dingo.

edited 06/06/2017

Chapter 1

The morning sun shone through a small crack in the curtains to shine directly on the peaceful face of a sleeping girl. Her eyelids fluttered and then squeezed more tightly closed against the bright light. She threw the blanket over her head and sighed contentedly into the soothing dark cocoon. Just as she was about to drift back into sleep, the alarm went off. The sound was blaringly loud in the early morning quiet of her apartment and she jolted out of bed, heart pounding. The blanket twisted around her limbs and she crashed to the floor.

"Shit," she groaned, fighting with the constricting blanket that had come with her.

Uzumaki Naruto blinked open brilliant blue eyes and yawned. She ran her fingers through sleep-mussed golden hair, scratching at her scalp with dull fingernails. The alarm continued blaring through the small apartment until Naruto leaned up to smack it with the palm of her hand. It creaked ominously, but held together.

The silence was almost oppressive after the deafening alarm and Naruto sat on the floor for a moment, wondering why she was awake. Then she remembered exactly why her alarm had been set and she scrambled to her feet.

She rushed through an icy shower and reemerged from the bathroom with one towel wrapped around her body and a second draped over her head.

Naruto picked her favorite orange pants and jacket up from the floor and grimaced at the holes that liberally decorated them. Somehow, she had nearly forgotten how the events of last night had ruined her clothing, and completely changed her life. Although learning about the kyuubi in such a way was devastating, Naruto actually felt kind of glad for the fox's presence. It was probably the only reason she was still alive.

After failing the genin exam because of her inability to perform the bunshin no jutsu, Mizuki had approached her with a highly suspicious 'secret' way to graduate. Once she heard him out, Naruto had gone straight to the hokage for advice. The old man hadn't seemed surprised at the information, but thanked her for coming to him. When Naruto asked if she could do anything to help, the Sandaime's eyes gleamed as if he had been waiting for her to make the offer.

Naruto had waited at the meeting place with a dummy forbidden scroll, but when Mizuki showed up, he had completely taken her off guard by spilling the beans about the bijuu sealed in her gut and then proceeded to do his best to kill her. By the time reinforcements arrived, Naruto was severely wounded. Despite the near fatal experience, Naruto couldn't help grinning when she thought of how Iruka had defended her character. His warm acceptance had made her feel as if she were weightless. After Mizuki was apprehended and Naruto's wounds treated, Iruka gave her his hitai-ate and the hokage taught her a clone technique as a reward. Unlike the genjutsu-based bunshin taught in the academy, the kage bunshin produced physical clones and utilized Naruto's massive chakra reserves.

Naruto had gone to bed sore and covered with painful cuts and bruises; this morning, her skin was smooth and unblemished, the swelling on her fractured ankle completely gone. She had always healed quickly, but never from so much damage in a single night. Naruto was pretty sure that the kyuubi's chakra was to thank for that and she patted her stomach gratefully.

"Thanks for not letting me die, fox," she muttered, feeling foolish for even trying to communicate with the beast sealed within her naval. She wasn't really sure what to think of it. On one hand, the fox's presence was the reason why nearly the entire village hated her, but it had definitely saved her life and, according to the hokage, was slowly increasing her already impressive chakra reserves.

Naruto threw aside her ruined clothing and dug through her battered wardrobe for something else to wear for the team assignments. She couldn't decide whether to be disappointed at the lack of orange clothing in her drawers or not. While orange was definitely one of her favorite colors, she really only wore that jumpsuit so frequently because it had been a gift. It also made her figure shapeless enough that most people mistook her for a boy, which Naruto thought was hilarious. She figured that if people were unobservant or dumb enough not to notice that she was female then she wouldn't bother to correct them. It didn't really matter to her, and the misunderstanding enabled her to skip out on the boring kunoichi lessons, so Naruto had grown rather fond of the baggy jacket.

But even she knew that wearing torn clothing stained with blood and dirt was a bad idea and she dug through her wardrobe and pulled out a pair of dark grey pants that cinched just below the knee and a pale blue shirt with elbow-length sleeves and an orange spiral on the back. Naruto wrapped her chest snugly before pulling on a long sleeve mesh armor top and the blue shirt over it. Although there wasn't much for her to bind, she had learned to use the thick material to protect her developing chest. She had found out the hard way that it hurt like hell to be kicked in the breasts, no matter how small they were.

After she finished dressing, Naruto returned to the bathroom to hang up her sodden towels and brush her teeth. She didn't normally bother with her hair, as she felt there were better things to do than spend time making it look perfect when she was about to go work up a sweat, but today a small part of her wanted to make a good impression on her new teacher. Her hair really was too short to do much, so she just combed out the tangles and allowed her bangs to fall softly across her forehead. Naruto grinned at the overall effect; with her hair styled this way, she looked a bit like the Yondaime hokage, whose face she could see perfectly from her window. She tied her forehead protector—Iruka's forehead protector—on snugly and tapped the metal plate with satisfaction. Although her bangs fell across the headband, the engraved leaf symbol was still clearly visible.

"I'm one step closer," she murmured before turning away from the mirror and heading for the small kitchenette.

Naruto choked down a mealy apple and a dry ration bar, easing the tasteless mass down her throat with the last glass of cold milk. She peeked through her cabinets and sighed at the lack of food. It was definitely time to go grocery shopping. Hopefully her new sensei wouldn't keep them too long today so she would be able to get some food before the shops closed.

After washing out her glass and setting it out to dry, Naruto strapped on her thigh and hip pouches. She double checked that they were fully stocked before sliding her feet inside the sandals by the door and leaving the apartment, making sure to lock up behind her. Slipping the key inside a small hidden pocket in her thigh pouch, Naruto steeled herself for the unpleasant walk through the village.

She would love to be able to jump across the roofs like the other shinobi. She had tried once, a few years ago, and nearly killed herself when she slipped off the tiles. Naruto knew now, of course, that she probably wouldn't have died, but it was still painful enough that she hadn't tried again. Instead, she would have to walk through town where everyone pretended that she didn't exist until her back was turned, when the glares and hostile mutters began. She made a mental note to ask her new sensei first thing about the trick to sticking to the roofs.

By the time Naruto reached the Academy, she was tense and a little depressed. Even though she should have been used to it and now knew the reason for their behavior, she still felt ostracized and achingly lonely. Aside from a small handful, there were very few people in the village that even acknowledged her existence. She had a few buddies in her class, but they never seemed to want to hang out when school was over. Everyone else was either rude, demeaning, or even worse, pretended that she didn't exist.

Naruto had carefully cultivated a cheerful and slightly idiotic reputation as a way to protect herself from the hateful jabs of her classmates and avoid suspicion from the adults, who were often afraid and angry when she seemed too competent. She certainly wasn't stupid and always did her best on her school work. The hokage had told her that she should have graduated even without properly creating two bunshin. Mizuki had been in charge of the taijutsu and weapons portion, however, and had falsified her scores to make Iruka think that she needed the bunshin to pass.

The window to her usual classroom was open and, needing to burn a little energy before sitting at a desk, Naruto scaled the side of the building instead of going through the main entrance. She jumped through the window and stifled a yelp as she landed directly on Uchiha Sasuke, who had unfortunately chosen the window seat this morning. They crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs and the loud clatter of upturned chairs.

Sasuke's elbow caught her hard in the diaphragm on the way down and Naruto struggled to breathe. When she finally managed to suck in much needed air, she realized that someone was talking to her. She coughed and looked up into a pair of annoyed black eyes.

"Will you get off me?" Sasuke repeated, sounding extremely irritated.

Naruto's skin crawled as she registered their entangled legs and the way their torsos were pressed tighter. In a slight panic, she struggled wildly to free herself, only managing to get them both caught in the legs of Sasuke's upturned chair. She barely noticed Sasuke's furious exclamation as she narrowly missed kneeing him in the groin.

Instead of freeing herself, Naruto only managed to attract the attention of the two girls who just entered the classroom. Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura shrieked simultaneously at the sight of their idol entangled with the village pariah and joined the fray, clawing at Naruto and yanking at her limbs to get her away from Sasuke.

Naruto began to hyperventilate, her bright blue eyes opened unnaturally wide as she tried to fight off the two girls and get away from Sasuke, who was nearly vibrating with rage. She wasn't used to people touching her outside of the few glancing blows she received in taijutsu practice. Even the hokage rarely did more than a gentle pat on her head. Naruto couldn't remember ever having received a kindly touch from anyone else in her entire life.

"Hey! Break it up, you four!" Iruka's voice cut through the two furious girls' screeching protestations and he expertly separated them in an instant.

As soon as she was free, Naruto fled to the middle of the aisle to get away, wide eyed and breathing too quickly. She rubbed her arms, resisting the urge to use her nails to scrape at her skin. Iruka scolded Ino and Sakura, instructing them to sit on the other side of the room, and helped Sasuke to his feet. He turned a concerned look on Naruto and reached out to place a steadying hand on her shoulder, but she jerked away from the contact.

"I'm okay, Iruka-sensei," she said a little too quickly, clenching her fists and trying to bring her racing heartbeat under control.

Iruka sighed, his soft brown eyes sad and filled with understanding. "I'm sorry, Naruto. Won't you take your seat?" He moved out of the row and gestured toward the empty seat at the end. Both Ino and Sakura started to protest loudly, but were silenced instantly by Iruka's scathing glance.

Naruto edged around him and sat heavily in the chair. She could feel Sasuke's curious gaze burning into the side of her face, but she stoically ignored it and focused on taking deep, calming breaths. When she felt a warm flush creeping up her neck, Naruto buried her face in her arms on the desk. She was completely mortified and hoped that the rest of the class didn't notice her near meltdown.

She could still feel someone staring at her; Naruto was certain that it was Sasuke. She really wished that he would just mind his own business.

"…maki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke."

At the sound of her own name, Naruto looked up, realizing that Iruka had been talking up at the front of the classroom. And apparently announcing team assignments.

"You will be assigned to Hatake Kakashi," Iruka continued, glancing at Naruto before looking back to his clipboard. "Team 8, Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, you're with Yuuhi Kurenai."

Naruto tuned him out again and frowned at the information she just received. Her new sensei's name sounded vaguely familiar, but she wasn't sure when or where she had heard it. And she just had to be on a team with Sasuke, of all people. Naruto wished that she had caught the name of her other teammate and she looked around curiously to see if she could guess by her classmates' expressions.

Sakura looked particularly ecstatic while Ino looked mutinous. It didn't bode well and Naruto bit back a groan of despair. She really hoped that she was wrong about that one. Having to deal with Sasuke and his holier-than-thou attitude was going to be trying enough, let alone adding one of his most rabid fans into the mix.

She peered through the corner of her eye to find Sasuke still frowning thoughtfully at her. Naruto dug her nails into her palm to staunch the rising irritation and turned to face him. "Please tell me that Sakura isn't on our team."

Sasuke's expression soured, giving Naruto the answer she had been dreading.

"Great," she sighed, facing forward again and propping her chin on her fist. She tried to focus on Iruka's speech about ninja life, but the man really was accomplished at making something exciting sound unbearably boring.

He finally finished talking and then opened the door to let a handful of shinobi into the room. Naruto perked up at the rather eclectic group of jounin. There were two women in the group and they looked badass enough that Naruto wished that one of them was her teacher even though 'Kakashi' was unlikely to be a women's name.

As each ninja left with the groups of three genin, anxiety fluttered in Naruto's stomach. When Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji followed behind the last jounin, a man who smelled strongly like an ashtray, Naruto glanced uncertainly at Iruka.

The man sighed and gave her a reassuring smile. "Your teacher will be a little late," he explained, a pained expression crossing his face. "Why don't you three have some lunch and get to know each other a little better?"

Naruto's mouth twisted in distaste, but she turned to ask her new teammates to ask if they wanted to go to the ramen stand. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Sasuke stood and slouched out of the room without a word.

"Sasuke-kun, wait for me!" Sakura called, scrambling out of her chair and hurrying after him.

Iruka winced in sympathy as Naruto let her head fall with a thunk onto the desk. "Come on," he said, taking pity on her. "I'll treat you to lunch."