Chapter 1: boredom and torment


Last time:

Sliding the classroom door open Naruto breached into the deserted halls of learning before making his way towards his second floor classroom, class wouldn't start for an hour but he could wait, and the prank of the century would befall whatever poor chunin would be his instructor if they didn't expect the unexpected...

Chapter 1: boredom and torment

It had taken 45 minutes but it was worth it. Grinning from ear to ear Naruto sat at the back of the classroom feet propped up on the desk in front of him, he was giddy with excitement any moment his academy instructor should enter the room and set into motion the events of prancing genius.

As the light thudding of footsteps echoed down the hall Naruto was almost bursting with mischievous glee. As the door slid open as a chunin entered the room, he was in his mid twenties had brown hair and a scare across the bridge of his nose his stride placed him between five foot eight and five foot nine. Taking two steps into the room the chunin stopped looked to his left took in Naruto's waving presence smiled and opened his mouth to greet his first student of the new season, when everything went wrong.

As the door slid open a small seal became depressed this seal caused the next thing to pass through the portal it was painted on to become a super charged magnate, this in turn caused the metal chair in the corner to roll up behind the chunin and scoop him off his feet effectively gluing him down before wheeling him into the front of the teachers desk and spinning him like a top freshly spun.

This continued for about half a minute before the magnetic charge faded, falling from the chair his eyes still swimming in his head the chunin looked up to see Naruto bent double laughing hysterically, if it had been any other day he might have found the prank humorous but the first day hadn't started, he'd forgot his coffee and frankly it sucked being on the receiving end of a good clean prank.

"Are you alright," asked Naruto as he slowly regained his composure.

"What the hell was that?" cursed the chunin, "I couldn't peel myself from the chair."

Reaching the fallen chunin side Naruto extended a hand to help him up, "Uzumaki Naruto, sorry about the rough ride it was supposed to stop after the third rotation I didn't think that you molding chakra would accelerate it the way it did," explained a sheepish Naruto.

Taking the offered hand and pulling himself upright only to have the room continue spinning, "ugh, Iruka, Umino Iruka," mumbled the chunin who was going slightly green.

"I'm sure I will learn allot form you Iruka Sensei," said Naruto a mischievous glint in his eyes.

It was at that moment Iruka realized that he was going to have a very long six years ahead of him, though it wouldn't be dull.

Six months later

It was the first week of spring break and Naruto couldn't be happier not to have to go to the academy, if he had to sit through one more of Irukas history or physics lessons he would have started to lose his mind to the boredom. The only problem to going to the library every day since you could read, you generally read about history when your teacher was a librarian and the entire semester had been almost entirely repeat for Naruto, his class mates were a unique bunch, all of the clan heirs had somehow managed to be placed in the same class with three elite teachers and a dozen of the "best" civilian candidates of the year. If Naruto had to field a guess out of the civilian candidate's one maybe two would pass at the end of the year let alone the curriculum.

Ah well thought Naruto as he walked towards one of his favorite haunts, Ichiraku Ramen. Brushing the banner aside and taking a seat in the ramen bar Naruto couldn't help but smile it had been over a week since he had managed to slip out of class for a bowl, broken from his thoughts by one of his favorite people Ayame Ichiraku, you couldn't argue that Ayame had her own charms long brown hair and matching eyes she was one of the few people in the village that Naruto could converse with without feeling as if he was being ignored.

"The usual Naruto-kun?" asked Ayame as she looked around the corner of the kitchen.

"Please Ayame-chan," replied Naruto as he pulled one of his history books out of his bag.

"What are they teaching this week?" asked Ayame form around the corner.

"Physics and history of the village," whined Naruto, "if Iruka-sensei doesn't teach us something interesting soon I'm going to run out of reading material."

"Oh I'm sure you will get into something more interesting later in the year," piped in the old cook."

"Yea Teuchi? What makes you say that?" questioned Naruto a look of pleading in his eyes.

"You always start with the basics Naruto when Ayame went through the academy she used to come home and complain that they didn't teach any "cool ninja stuff" until about the forth semester," explained Teuchi before being swatted upside the head by his very embraced daughter.

"Dad... you promised you wouldn't talk about the academy with the clients," whined Ayame.

"Aww I'm just a client," pouted Naruto in mock hurt, "that hurts Ayame-chan."

"Of Course not," scolded Ayame in a huff before placing a bowl of Miso ramen in front of Naruto and rubbed his blond hair affectionately. "Dad just likes to tease me about the academy at every opportunity," explain Ayame before glaring daggers in the direction of the kitchen.

With a snap of his chopsticks Naruto slowly indulged in his one true indulgence ramen, half way through his second bowl Naruto looked around the empty stand. "Ayame why did you drop out of the academy?" asked Naruto.

Pouring herself a small cup of green tea Ayame looked at him he eyes held none of the warmth they once did, in its place empty voids of terror and pain. "I don't really like to think about it Naruto-kun," whispered Ayame her voice carried the pain and worried of someone much older than their late teens, "I dropped out in my last year after the fox attack half my class died that night before we reached the shelters."

"I just couldn't continue after that," whispered Ayame as she wiped a lone tear from her eye, "a lot of brave people died that night."

"I'm sorry Ayame-chan I didn't mean to bring up such a painful subject," apologized Naruto as he pushed his half eaten bowl away from him, suddenly no longer hungry.

"It's alright" sighed Ayame rubbing his head, "it's not your fault."

"I should probably continue on my way," mumbled Naruto as he got to his feet, "it's almost two in the afternoon."

"Thanks for the food Teuchi-san, Ayame-chan ill see you both again when I can," called Naruto with all of the happiness he could muster before vanishing from view to return to his apartment.

"I wonder if godfather will show up for the spring break?" mused Naruto as he walked towards his apartment. It wasn't the nicest part of town when Naruto thought about it, he was on the far side of the slums and red light distract besides the social stigmas the location carried it really wasn't a bad part of the village the local people where nice and the ladies were always friendly when he walked by.

Passing through the red-light district was always interesting in Naruto's book, the only time he had ever been assaulted in his life had happened just after he moved into his apartment the first Monday after his ninth birthday.

Flash back

He had bumped into a drunk in the middle of the street apologized for the accident and had received a bottle to the head for his concern. He had woken up in a bed dressed with red satin sheets a women with hazel hair and aquamarine eyes and a very loose kimono standing over him cleaning the cuts on his head and face from the broken glass, muttering something about rapid healing and how he was so luck he wouldn't scare such a pretty face.

"ugh, what hit me," moaned Naruto as he reached to cradle his head his hand brushed something soft and silky with just a slight amount of resistance, opening his eyes Naruto got an eye full of a very firm bust line barley shrouded in purple silk. Doing the only reasonable thing he could do he blushed hard enough to make tomatoes jealous before turning terrified eyes up to look into the soft eyes of the women apparently tending to his wounds.

"Airi he's awake," called the women before looking into Naruto's terrified eyes. "Shhh it's alright, what's your name," asked the women in purple as she stroked his whisker marks.

"Naruto," half whispered half purred Naruto as a women dressed in a red robe entered the room with a tray with a pot of tea and a few cups.

"Oh aren't you a cutie when you're cleaned up," purred Airi as she placed the tray down on the corner of the bed and took a seat across from the other women.

"You sure know how to pick em Hisoka," said Airi as she helped Naruto sit up as Hisoka place a large pillow behind him.

"How did I get here?" asked Naruto in confusion.

"After that man was taken away by an anbu with silver hair I picked you up and brought you inside," explained Hisoka as she poured three cups of green tea. After Handing the first cup to Airi she slowly placed the second into Naruto's hands and helped him bring it to his lips, "you've got a concussion and a few minor scrapes left," said Hisoka as she helped Naruto take a sip of tea.

"I should probably go," said Naruto as he tried to bring himself to a sitting position only for the world to swim into black and pass out.

"Tough kid," whispered Airi as she pulled the quilt folded at the foot of the bed over his collapsed form.

"Yea," whispered Hisoka as she picked up the tray and dimmed the light.

Flash back end

Every Monday Naruto would knock on their door with a pot of tea and visit for an hour and then help fix anything that might have been damaged over the weekend. All of it done for a simple act of kindness that in his heart he could never repay.

Waving to Hisoka as he passed her residence Naruto continued on his way home gaining a wink and a blown kiss in reply much to the ire of every man walking down the street at the moment.

Opening his door and stepping inside Naruto couldn't help but feel even though things seemed to be weighed against him life was pretty good, opening his bag he placed his homework on the table and then unrolled the basic lesson Jiraiya left him to master.

Sealing level one, understanding the relationships between seals, with a smile Naruto sat down at the table and began to read his lesson and do the most basic components on a blank scroll beside him. Sure he knew a few decent seals he'd read about in the library but Jiraiya had mentioned that if he truly understood how they worked he would be able to destine his own. As a fish to water Naruto had taken to the task of learning the unique and exclusive art of Fūin-jutsu theory and design.

If it hadn't been for his godfather's insistence that practice made perfect Naruto would have run out of theory to study during Irukas lectures and he probably would have stopped doing the chakra control exercises he had stolen after he had accomplished the main objective. fortunately the first thing he had learned was that you couldn't just force your way through a seal with extreme amounts of chakra, you needed to match the wavelength the securing seal was written with to activate it. a full onslaught of the Kyubi's chakra had tested that theory and proven the scrolls point only a day after he had read it, serving to only make Naruto redouble his efforts on chakra control.

Six months later the end of the first year

Head on his desk snoring lightly Naruto had his head laying on his finished end of the year exam paper, beside him sat the only other person who agreed with his napping habits Shikamaru Nara the young Nara was the of a few people in his class Naruto felt he could consider a friend, lunch for the pair consisted of a game of shogi and light conversation almost always about the last weeks clouds, unless one of their class mates felt the need to watch their game.

"Five minutes left," called Iruka from behind his desk before throwing a rather large piece of chalk at each of the sleeping forms at the back of his class. A year of being clobbered by chalk had greatly improved Naruto's reflexes a hand snapped the chalk out of the air before brushing the sleep from his eyes. Picking up Shikamarus paper Naruto rolled his eyes, it was blank again he knew Shikamaru felt that it was to "Troublesome" but this was important. Jotting down a half dozen answers for a minimum pass Naruto placed the sheet back under the sleeping Nara before once again placing his head back down on the desk for the last three minutes of the exam a smirk on his face. "I wonder what Jiji will think," was Naruto's final thought before once more reaching peaceful sleep.

Later that afternoon

"Hokage-sama," said Iruka as he entered the aged Hokage's office. "I think you need to read these," exclaimed Iruka handing over a few sheets of paper.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage, the god of shinobi, red over the papers handed to him before fixing Iruka with a quizzical look. "These are from this year's graduating class I would expect," said Hiruzen as he slowly took a drag off his pipe.

"Those were written by one of my students on the first year's completion exam," corrected Iruka.

The shock that rippled through the Hiruzens face was skilfully masked by a cough and an incredulous look at the chunin teacher. "Who wrote this?" demanded Hiruzen his mannerisms and behavior snapping from friendly grandfather figure to harsh dictator in only a moment.

As he felt the uncontrollable urge to stand at attention Iruka replied, "Uzumaki Naruto sir."

well there we have it a second chapter in two days ^_^ yay.

what did Naruto write? what will Hiruzen do? did Naruto continue napping?

all this and more next time, until then enjoy and happy reading

Duze

updated – 13/08/2015 – minor edits to smooth out the story