I'm back! You people seemed to like the fic much more than I expected at first (I nearly fainted when I checked my mail that evening…), so I started writing this chapter that same evening while the iron was hot.

Summary so far: Naruto met Tenten in the orphanage they lived in and they soon became good friends. But the constant abuse that Naruto suffered made the Hokage take the measures he could to ensure the blond boy's well-being. On his 5th birthday, Naruto is given an apartment and Tenten is adopted.

On with the chapter!


October 10th, Streets of Konoha

Naruto was walking down the street in company of the most powerful man of the village, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha. The man who was trained by both the Shodaime Hokage and the Nidaime Hokage, knower of more than a thousand jutsu and called by both allies and enemies "the Professor" or "God of Shinobi". A man known all around the shinobi world for his strength and his power, as demonstrated in the last wars he took part in. But even with such a man with him, the glares kept landing on Naruto, and whispers covered the streets. Of course, everyone was very careful not to slip and accidentally calling him anything that could put them in a tight position should the Hokage hear them.

But Naruto paid those glares, murmurs and insults even less attention than ever. His mind was set in just one thing: the new life his 'jii-chan' had given him the opportunity to live. After his 5th birthday, Uzumaki Naruto was to be considered an adult, and given a small apartment to live and a small monthly salary to live with. For little Naruto, the world looked almost as if it was painted in a brighter color. He felt 'as a big guy', an adult. But he was also mature enough to know, in the deeper parts of his being, that nothing could be so good and not take anything from him.

The Sandaime, on the other hand, was very worried for Naruto. Giving him adult status at such an early age could result in many things, and not even nearly half of them were good. But he didn't have any other way of helping Naruto. The thrice damned 'all-knowing' council had made it impossible for Naruto to be adopted into any family. Not that it mattered much, because there were not that many clans that would be glad to adopt the young jinchuuriki into their families. But still, the boy would have been better off living with the Inuzuka or the Yamanaka, two clans that he knew had approved of him. But at any attempt of trying the adoption, the council would claim the boy as a property of the village, seeing as the Kyuubi no Youko was the Fire Country's guardian before the attack, and, as such, not deemed for personal adoption. His advisor Danzo wasn't of much help either, with his constants requests (at least once a month) for 'adopting' the boy with the intention to make him into a weapon for the use of Konoha. That was a solution the council was willing to accept, but the Sandaime would never condemn a little boy with that fate.

The option of leaving him in the orphanage was a direct no. As happy as he was that he had made a friend there (and a good one, by the looks of it), the way he was being treated there made him want to burn the whole building to ashes with all its employees inside, and claim it an accident during the testing of a high-rank fire jutsu. But as much as he wanted to, he remembered that there were still innocent children that needed the orphanage intact for their chance of survival.

The only possible solution left for the boy's problem was giving him a premature adulthood and a place of his own to live in. This was an option the council would accept, due to the obvious risks to the life of the boy that doing this would bring. Risks that the majority of the council was more than willing to run. The boy's adulthood would strip him of his child rights, and he would have to live completely on his own. Added to a request that his allowance would be of a quantity that couldn't possibly be enough for his survival, the council was ready to accept the deal. With a humble and silent apology that the Sandaime directed to his deceased successor, the deal was signed.

And now, he was walking down the street with the blond boy that was the cause of most of his headaches, the most urgent one was a question he had been wondering about since that morning. 'How can I even begin to explain a 5-year-old kid, wait, scratch that, a 5-year-old adult the dangers he would probably soon be faced against?'At that same moment, a sweet aroma reached his nose moments before he bumped into Naruto, who had frozen in his step in front of a familiar stand with red letters in the awning. At that moment, the answer lit up Sandaime's old head. 'Of course, over a bowl of ramen.' "Come on, Naruto. For your birthday, I'll treat you to as much ramen as you can eat." Soon, the Hokage would regret those words.


When Naruto was wolfing down his 6th bowl of ramen, he chatted with the owner of the stand, one Ichiraku Teuchi, and his beautiful and young daughter, Ichiraku Ayame.

"I see, so it's your birthday, Naruto?" Teuchi asked. Naruto nodded vigorously with his mouth still full of the delicious noodles and broth. Teuchi laughed, "And furthermore, you are an adult now? We've got to celebrate our best customer's coming of age!"

Naruto swallowed down the ramen in his mouth as fast as he could, almost choking. "Re –cough- Really? Does it mean you're gonna give me a discount, ossan?"

Teuchi looked over at the Hokage, who was already seeing money growing wings out of his wallet, seeing as Naruto kept eating and eating without seeming to stop in a long while, and found him looking at him with stars in his eyes. Thrown over by the look in the eyes of one of the most powerful shinobi of the world, the owner of the stand said, "Heh, why not? After all, it's not every day that you become an adult, gaki."

"YEAH!" The Ichiraku pair couldn't, and wouldn't ever decide who shouted louder of their two customers.

Ayame chose that moment to go into teasing mode. "More importantly, Naruto-kun, what is this I have heard? Have you gotten yourself a… 'friend'?"

Naruto stopped eating his now 7th bowl and looked at Ayame with a confused expression at the tone of the question. But just a moment later, he discarded his thoughts and grinned. "Yeah, her name is Tenten-chan. She's cool, strong, and fun to be around with. But I thought I had already talked to you about her, Ayame-nee-chan."

The waitress flashed him a sly smile and said teasingly, "That's not what I was talking about, Naruto-kun, and you know it. Tell me, how is she?"

The blond didn't yet know what she was talking about. He was sure he had come there to eat a lot of times after meeting Tenten and becoming friends with her, so he was sure he had told her nee-chan about her. But he decided to follow her game, without knowing he had fallen into her trap. "Well, she is funny, caring, kind… she is strong, and wants to be a ninja , just like me. She has helped me a lot of times, and I help her too…"

Ayame decided to cut to the point, "Is she cute?"

Naruto froze. He even stopped eating, something that worried Teuchi, but amused the other two to no end. When the blond boy gained a healthy red color on his face, he asked the only thing he could think of. "WHAT?"

"Oh, didn't you hear me? Naruto-kun, is that Tenten-chan what you would call cute?"

The blond child couldn't help but see images of his brunette friend in his head. Her chocolate eyes, her smile, the way she changed her hairstyle every day… Every little thing he had unconsciously noticed about his friend passed through his mind. What he didn't notice until it was too late was the growing red color in his face, taking a crimson shade before he looked around confused, touching his cheeks and mumbling "Eh? Eh? A- Are? Wha-"

The trio couldn't hold it anymore and burst in laughter at the blond's antics. The boy could only bury his face in the 9th bowl of ramen and mumble "It's not funny… Ayame-nee-chan, you meanie…" After hearing him, they began laughing even louder. Luckily, the stand was empty aside from them; everyone was preparing for that night's festival. That way, they could laugh and talk as loud as they wanted without having to worry at all.

After a good five minutes in which the blond boy had more or less calmed down and enjoyed two more bowls of ramen, they still were laughing, but in a more controlled way. He chose this time to ask Teuchi if he could use the toilet. When he was gone, the old man asked Ayame to go to the kitchen to see if they had more flour. Ayame knew that they had restocked earlier for the festival, but imagining that her father just wanted to discuss something in private with the Hokage, she left through the backdoor.

As soon as she left, he closed the door to make sure she wouldn't listen in and he talked to his other customer in a serious voice, "Are you sure of what you are doing, Hokage-sama?"

The old man sighed and pinched his nose, feeling his age reaching to him. "To be honest, no I'm not. But it's the only way out."

"Excuse me, but I'm not sure that is the best for him by far. I mean, with all due respect, but you haven't seen what the boy has suffered in the streets as I have. Every day the glares directed to a single young boy make me want to turn my back on this village and say goodbye and screw you all. But I know Naruto wouldn't like it.

One day, when I was closing shop, I heard noise coming from a nearby alley. Out of curiosity, I went to check what was the noise and, what did you think I saw? I saw a young blond boy, not more than 3 years old, unconscious, battered, bruised, blood-covered, and with some weapons which name I don't know buried in his back. I carried him on my arms and sat him on that stool, the same stool he has sat in every day after that. Luckily, my Ayame was already at home and didn't have to see him like that. A child that I seriously thought was dead.

But he woke up. Miraculously, he woke up. When I tried to ask him if he knew his aggressors, he just smiled and told me not to worry. I invited him to a bowl of soup, which he said it was the most delicious thing he had tasted before. When he was leaving he crossed paths with a man who began threatening him, but he just walked away. The next day I saw him, I asked him if he didn't fear them, and didn't want to make them pay. Do you know what he told me?"

"'I don't want to. If I take revenge, more people will come, more people will hate me, and more people will suffer'" Sarutobi cited, almost at the same time as Teuchi, surprising him. "I suppose his treatment in the streets is as bad as it was in the orphanage. But in the streets, he will be able to live. He could escape, he could learn… he could be free. The only things I can give him are this amount of freedom and some opportunities. But don't think I'll throw him at a wolves' den alone. I'm setting up some of my personal ANBU to keep an eye on the boy. Sadly, they won't be able to stay with him 24/7, but things will get better for him."

At that time, as if on cue, Naruto came out of the toilet and walked over to his stool, asking for some more ramen.


When the blond reached the 20 bowls landmark, he began to feel his limit, so he stopped. Over the rest of the meal, he had kept what Teuchi called a "man-to-man" chat with the older men in the stand, trying to understand some more things about the new life he would lead starting the next day.

When the Hokage saw the boy finish his last bowl of ramen, he asked Naruto, "Well, Naruto, let's talk about something else… Do you have a dream?"

Remembering the talk he had had with his best friend some time ago, he answered, "Yeah, I want to be the best ninja ever. And I want to be Hokage!"

Sarutobi smirked, already knowing his dream from the talks he had had with Naruto about his job. "Well, what would you say if I told you I could help you?"

Naruto's eyes widened and shined like blue stars. "Really? You are going to make me Hokage? YAHOO!"

"Oi, oi, hold your horses, Naruto… There's a long, long road to become Hokage, and you should know it from what I have told you over the years… What I'm saying is I would like to enroll you in the Ninja Academy."

"Really? But… haven't classes already started for this year?"

"Well, you could sit a year and wait for the next class or you could remember that I am Hokage and I can put you in any class I damn well want!" the Hokage said, grinning at the young boy.

Suddenly, the old shinobi was holding himself to the stool with one hand to avoid being tackled to the ground by the blond blur that jumped against him, glomping in a big hug and muttering all the time "Thank you… thank you…"

After paying for the ridiculous amount of ramen the boy had consumed, Naruto asked the old man with him for a favour that earned him a smile from the rest of the people in the stand, especially Ayame. "Ne, jii-chan, can you enroll Tenten-chan too? She told me she wanted to be a kunoichi, too, but as she has just been adopted, and all, I'm not sure if she has been able to enroll on time…"

"Heh, of course, Naruto. I'll talk with her and the Higurashi, and if they agree, you will be put in the same class as your girlfriend."

Naruto hugged the old man again, "Thank you, jii-…" Then, the realization hit him. "Hey, she's not my girlfriend!"

At that, Ayame, Teuchi and Hiruzen all began laughing again, while Naruto left mumbling something about perverted nosy Hokages. A moment later, the Sandaime turned to Teuchi and said, "You know him, he has a huge heart. Huge enough for the whole village, and there would still be something left for others. If somebody can turn all that hate into respect, that's our Naruto. I'm sure he would make a damn great Hokage." And he stepped out of the stand. "Come on, Naruto, I'll show you your new place."


When they arrived at the last floor of a broken down apartment building, the old man put a small key in the boy's hands. When he opened excitedly the door in front of them, he said, "Naruto, welcome to your new home," Hiruzen said, opening the door to the small apartment and went inside. He wasn't overly happy of giving this apartment to Naruto. If he could have, he would have given him a better place to live, but with the restrictions the council had put on the boy's life, this was one of the best apartments he could give him. But at least, it looked like a place to live.

The apartment was, at best, small. A cramped a little kitchen, a small living room with a window leading to a balcony, a tiny bathroom and a small bedroom with a single bed and a little wardrobe was everything the apartment had. In the kitchen, there was a fridge that looked like it had lived through a war or two, a stove and a few cupboards that he had filled with cups of instant ramen as a present for the boy. There was a sink with running water and a small window for smoke extraction.

In the living room, there was only an old couch and a small table with a couple of chairs. The best part of that room was the views: from the big window you could go out to the balcony, and, with the lack of curtains, you could get a magnificent view of the Hokage Mountain from the couch, either looking through the window or the big hole that was in a corner of the room. The walls weren't what you would call 'clean' or 'sanitary', seeing as there was a thick layer of dust all over the place.

The bedroom wasn't in a much better state than the rest of the house, but at least there was no hole in the walls. The bed was naked and the mattress looked a bit old, but it was still comfortable. And the wardrobe didn't really matter to Naruto, who had so few clothes he didn't even feel the need of having one. But he figured it would come handy in the future.

The bathroom was the only clean sanctuary in the whole apartment. A toilet, a sink, a small mirror and a shower. Not that he needed much more.

At first, Sarutobi was worried that he wouldn't like the apartment, but that worry simply disappeared when he saw the bright face of Naruto, who was running all around the place testing everything.

The boy, who in his short life hadn't got almost anything from anybody, was utterly excited at what he had in his hands now. His own place. When compared with where he had been living up to then, it seemed like paradise on earth. He could cope with a bit of dust (of course, he would have to clean so only a bit of dust remained), and the hole in the wall, he could always cover with something. It was amazing the boy's ability to always look on the bright side of things. Of course, his joy skyrocketed when he opened the kitchen cupboards.

He turned and tackled his jii-chan in a big hug, while thanking him eternally for the apartment. "Hehehe, I'm glad that you like it so much, Naruto. Just a few pointers: don't eat all the ramen at once. I know you and I fear that's the first thing you would try to do, so I warn you now: don't." At that, Naruto laughed sheepishly. 'Busted'. "Remember that you are going to be given an allowance, and you will have to learn how to save the money you are given so it lasts you enough."

"If you need something, don't hesitate to ask me. I don't have that much free time, but if I can't help you, I'll make sure someone I trust will come and help you or teach you. Oh, and don't worry about training too loudly, or anything like that, the neighboring apartments are all empty, except for apartment 213, where an old ex-kunoichi lives. Don't worry about her, she actually a kind woman, next time I come here I'll introduce her to you."

The Hokage looked at the time and said, "Well, Naruto, I have to get going. I'd love to stay a while longer, but my daughter would chew my head out if I don't take them to the festival tonight… Ja ne, Naruto." He turned to leave, but stopped in front of the door. "Oh, I almost forgot, hehehe. Remember to go to the Ninja Academy in two days' time at 7:30 AM. I'll have everything ready for you and your friend to enroll." And with that said, he left the boy to adapt to his apartment.

Naruto, completely tired and full from the ramen marathon earlier that night, only cooked himself 2 cups of ramen and, after eating them in 4 minutes (3 for the ramen to be cooked and 1 for it to be eaten), he went to bed thinking of his friend Tenten. He hoped that her new family was a good one that treated her well. And thinking that, he felt sleep coming to him.


Before meeting with his family, Hiruzen had to do something else. Just as he was leaving the apartment building, he called his personal ANBU. By his side appeared two cloaked and masked figures, their masks resembled a dog and a cat.

"Inu, Neko, I have a mission and a favor to ask of you. That boy I just left there… I fear for his safety. The village doesn't treat him as he truly deserves, and the security that his new home provides him is almost null. I ask of you two to keep an eye on him. I want him to have a life as normal as I can give him. You are my most trusted guards, and I can't think of any other people to ask this to."

"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. We'll do it," Inu said. 'I owe it to may late sensei, after all.'

"I trust you won't let me down. Dismissed."


Later that night

A group of five men, one of them a chuunin, was walking down the street, each one drunker than the one before. They were carrying half-empty bottles of sake.

"Are you sure?" one of the men asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't like to get into more trouble than necessary."

"Haven't you guys heard the rumor? The demon brat-" The man that was talking shut up in an instant. Luckily for him, it was late at night and no one had heard what he had just said. The Sandaime's Law was still there to punish everyone who talked in such a way of the holder of the Kyuubi. "He is now living alone in an apartment not far from here."

The chuunin decided to put his two cents. "Yeah, while I was in patrol earlier, I heard something about the brat going into a building with the Hokage. I say we pay him a visit like good neighbours, what ya say?"

When they arrived at the building, one of the civilians who now carried a rusty steel pipe he had found in the street asked, "How will we know where he is?"

"Leave that to me," the chuunin said, and then proceeded to scan the building for chakra signatures. He found two of them, but drunk as he was, he could know which was the fox-boy's one. "There are two chakra signatures there. One of them is that damn fox's. I say we check the upper floor's one first."

When they opened the door to the apartment thanks to a jutsu the shinobi knew, they checked the dirty apartment and soon enough they found Naruto asleep in the bed. "Bingo." And the beating began.

Naruto woke up to the feeling of a kunai impaling his arm and sticking it to the wall. Even before the frightened boy could scream, a fist connected with his mouth, making him choke on his words and rendering him unable to shout when he had the opportunity. The ninja proceeded to use a technique he had learned years before from a med-nin, and pierced a point in his neck with a senbon, paralyzing him down from the neck. The blond boy, unable to move or even speak, could only see how the drunken people beat his immobile body with pipes, bottles, knives and various other weapons. They stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach and his chest met the sharp end of a broken sake bottle that stuck there for a while before falling at some moment during the beating. At one particular moment, he saw how two of them extended his leg while other pulverized his knee with a pipe. The poor boy lost count of how many times he lost and regained consciousness during the night, but he didn't shed a single tear.

One of those times he opened his eyes, he tried to look around and found out that he could move his neck again, but he regretted doing so soon enough when a wave of pain rushed through his body at the simple movement. However, he couldn't believe what he was seeing before his eyes. A woman with ANBU clothes and a strange white and red cat mask. Her purple hair fell down her face and over his head while she put her hands, which were glowing green, together over his chest. Not too far from them, another man with silver hair and wearing the same clothes as her partner and a dog mask was tying 2 unconscious men together. A moment later, Naruto began laughing lightly, ignoring the pain that it involved and the fact that now the two young shinobi in his room were looking at him worried, not that he could see it through the masks.

The cat-masked kunoichi talked first, "Boy, do you know the situation you are in? You are lucky to be alive, and I'm almost sure that is we had arrived a little later, you wouldn't be. Why in the damn world are you laughing?"

The blond boy looked at the girl, flashed her an almost perfect grin and said, "I don't know… but… your hands feel warm… it feels… good… and… your hair was tickling me…" and then he let out a light laugh and fell asleep or unconscious, the ANBU couldn't decide for either one.

After a short moment, Yuugao finished healing him, astonished at the natural regeneration abilities the boy seemed to have. 'Maybe the fox is healing him… I will have to talk to Hokage-sama about it later.' Kakashi then called for the ANBU squad that was disposing of the ones they had captured on the street and told them to take the two prisoners that were in the boy's room to prison too. Once the apartment was empty again, they left the boy to have some much needed sleep and exited the apartment. When they were leaving, they ran into an old woman, in her mid-fifties, and clad in a brown yukata, that was running to them as fast as her age allowed her. It was obvious to the young ANBU that the woman had had ninja training at some time in her life, but her age didn't get them to drop their guard.

The woman, however, stopped just in front of the ANBU and said, "Good night, Inu-san, Neko-san. Could you tell me what has just happened?"

Yuugao, with one hand on her ninjato, asked "First of all, why don't you tell us who you are and why are you here?"

"Oh, right, excuse me, where are my manners… My name is Hino Motoko, retired Jounin. I was having my beauty sleep when some drunkards came into my apartment and woke me up. I defended myself as I could, and, then I heard noise coming from up here. As soon as I dealt with the bastards that came into my house, I came as soon as I could."

Kakashi relaxed a bit having checked with his Sharingan that the woman wasn't lying, and he didn't feel any kind of hate coming from her. "Excuse us, Hino-san. There was an attack against the resident of this apartment, and we couldn't fend off all the attackers as we were dealing with some shinobi squads that came to join them. Sadly, most of them fled before we couldn't properly identify them, but we caught a few of them."

Motoko was visibly shaken with the young ANBU words. "Who in the world could attract such attention on his first day of living here?" Just then, the realization struck her like a lightning. "It wouldn't be that Uzumaki Naruto I've heard of, right?"

Kakashi was surprised, as was Yuugao. Even without special doujutsu or other abilities like that, it was obvious that the tone in her voice when she spoke the blond's name was much unlike how it sounded in most villagers' mouths. Something inside Yuugao made her feel that it wouldn't be that bad trusting the woman in front of her with that bit of information, and just nodded in response. Motoko took a hand to her mouth and gasped in surprise and sadness, "Poor kid…"

Yuugao discussed something with her partner. When he agreed, she led the old lady into the apartment and to the boy's bedroom, where he now laid asleep. "We have decided that you could be trusted, seeing as, from a conversation that we earlier overheard, you have Hokage-sama's trust. Please, we can't do much more for the boy, but maybe you could do something more for him. We have to leave now to report, but one of us will remain nearby in the case we were somehow needed. Please, could you take care of Naruto and keep an eye on him?"

Motoko nodded and the cat-masked ANBU disappeared from sight. Slowly, the woman went to look for a chair, and she sat down next to the boy, who was now sleeping almost peacefully. Half an hour, she finally felt the cat-masked ANBU's signature leave her nearby hiding place. When she had left, she reached with a frail hand and tried to stroke the boy's cheek, but he flinched at the sudden contact. She took back her hand and sighed… that poor boy needed some help, and she was going to help as much as she could. She knew that at her old age, she wouldn't be able to do much, but even a small peddle could make a whole mountain crumble.


Inu was reporting everything that had happened to the Hokage, who hadn't taken all too well being disturbed in the middle of the night; but if the topic was a certain blond, he was ready to lose a few hours of sleep.

According to Kakashi, at about 3:00 AM, they found a big group of civilians coming down the street of the building, singing about finishing the Yondaime's work. When they heard that, the ANBU pair stood on their way, but there were some chuunin and jounin mixed in the group, which made the battle a rather long one. After the group was dispersed, and some of the members of the mob were arrested, they went to check on the boy, only to find four civilians and a chuunin beating Naruto to death. Luckily, they stopped them on time, but the chuunin escaped with two of the civilians before they could be recognized. Amazingly, they boy's wounds were already curing themselves when his teammate Neko began the healing.

The Hokage's expression relaxed when he was told about Hino Motoko-san. She was, indeed, a trusted person for the Hokage, and she knew her kindness would help the boy, and her strength would protect him a bit. She was old, but, after all, in her prime she had been called "The Untouchable", because no enemy had been able to land a solid hit on her in her last thirty years of active service. After he approved of her taking care momentarily of the boy, Kakashi left to inform his partner of the news, leaving Sarutobi deep in thought about how he was going to deal with the situation…


12th October, 7:15 AM, Road to the Academy

It was a bright morning in Konoha, and Naruto was walking down the street with a face-splitting grin in his face. It was his first day of Academy, and he felt that it was going to be a nice day, though the glares he was receiving as he walked down the road weren't something that made it seem probable. Smiling, he remembered what had happened the day before…

Flashback

Naruto woke up in the morning completely healed, something that didn't really surprise him. Somehow, since he was little, every wound or injury he had, even the big ones, cured themselves at a fast pace. Then he would feel a slight pain in his belly, but he always passed that off as hunger. The blond looked around him and looked shocked at an old woman who seemed to be dancing slowly in his living room. He looked at the beautiful dance for a moment before the woman suddenly stopped in the middle of a step and looked at him.

"Who are you and why are you dancing in my living room?" the boy asked, slightly confused, scared and curious about the dance.

The woman giggled a little and said kindly, "My name is Hino Motoko, and I'm here because some bad men ruined my sleep yesterday and I heard a noise here, so I came to make sure you were ok." Motoko looked at the now sad and scared boy and said, "Don't worry. They aren't here anymore. Now tell me, what's your name, my boy?"

The blond grinned brightly and introduced himself, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, 5 years old, and I'm gonna be the best Hokage ever! Believe it!" Motoko smiled at the boy's antics. "Ne, ne, obaa-san, can you teach me how to dance?"

The woman looked at him surprised, "Dance?"

"Yeah, like that dancing you were doing before. It was slow, but it was beautiful, and it somehow gave off a powerful sensation. I liked it very much!"

Motoko laughed at that. "That, Naruto-chan, is not a dance. It's a martial art called Tai Chi Chuan, or Supreme Ultimate Fist." Naruto's eyes glowed like the sun. Now he REALLY wanted to learn that. "If you want, I'm no teacher, but I can show you the basic katas."

Naruto spent that morning learning the katas of the cool-named martial art, which he seemed to adopt like a sponge. 'The boy has talent,' Motoko thought, 'maybe I could teach him the martial art that earned me my nickname, Aikido. Time will tell…'

To him, the old woman was really caring and kind and he enjoyed the time he spent with her. With the promise to teach him some more another day, she left the boy to keep 'dancing', as he called it, and cleaning the apartment.

Flashback END

Naruto's train of thought stopped when he arrived the Academy building. There was an instructor waiting for him already, a man with a chuunin jacket and a bandana covering his short silver hair. The man, who introduced himself as Mizuki-sensei, showed him to his new classroom.

The first boy he noticed in the class was a black-haired boy with strangely huge eyebrows and eyes so big it would have been comical if it wasn't for the sadness they bore. A simple glance around him showed him that the boy was being shunned for something he didn't know…

At the back of the class, there was another boy with long black hair. The thing that shocked Naruto the most was his eyes. They were pale white. Remembering something the Hokage had said once, he was probably a Hyuuga, an elite clan in Konoha with one of the strongest eye techniques in the world, the Byakugan. But there was something odd about him, Sarutobi-jii-chan had told him once that the family traits for practically all Hyuugas was white eyes, pale skin and the proverbial "longest stick in the world buried up their asses", which the boy in front of him didn't seem to have. Sure, he was serious, but he also seemed somewhat happy.

After his introduction speech in which he proclaimed his goal of becoming Hokage, which raised a few laughs between his new classmates and a strange look from Mizuki, he scanned the class for a while. Not seeing his friend there, he went to take one of the seats next to the super-eyebrows kid, who introduced himself as Rock Lee.

When the teacher turned his back to the class, the children could hear someone running through the corridor, and the door opened with a slam. "I'm sorry, am I late?" asked the girl that had just arrived. Green shinobi pants, white shirt, chocolate eyes, brown hair tied up in two buns… yeah, it was Tenten, all right.

"Just in time, Tenten-chan, but I'd appreciate it if you arrived early from now on. Class, this is the second new student today, Kirihana Tenten."

After a short introduction, Tenten smiled at the rest of the class, and that smile grew further when she saw Naruto waving at her. She ran to his side and sat down in the other free seat. When Mizuki-sensei turned again, she whispered to him, "Naruto, my parents want you to eat dinner today with us. Would you like to?"

"Of course, Tenten, I'd love to."


TIMESKIP – 6 YEARS

Naruto woke up early that morning and began his morning routine. After washing his face and having breakfast, he spent half an hour going through an advanced exercise of Tai Chi Chuan. After two years of training with his neighbor, she had found out the boy had almost mastered the form and katas of the style. The only thing he lacked was actual combat experience, but there wasn't anything she could do. Her old age prevented her from sparring with him during more than a few minutes, and he had been told to keep his taijutsu training a secret after a 'great' demonstration of the style he had been taught in the Academy. It held so many flaws that it could only have been sabotaged. Not that she told him anything about her suspicions. So she began his training in the forms of Aikido when the boy reached 8 years old.

After that, he read for a while a scroll on seals that Tenten's parents had given him for his last birthday. Tenten sure had lucked out with her parents. They were the owners of one of the most important ninja equipment stores in the village, the Wolf's Fang. That's how she got proficient in the use of storage seals, ranged weapons and various forms of kenjutsu. That girl loved weapons with a passion only comparable to her own adoptive parents'.

After seeing the seals the brunette used to hold the massive amount of weapons she used in combat, he grew curious about that branch of ninjutsu. He, of course, asked his 'jii-chan', about it, who was surprised about the sudden interest of the boy on fuuinjutsu. That surprise would only grow exponentially when he found that the boy actually had a hidden talent for seals, but it was only expectable, knowing after all who his parents were… maybe he should try giving the boy a sword, too. At his young age, he knew how to make some weak containment or barrier seals, storage seals, chakra storage seals and explosive seals.

There weren't many things that had changed in the last six years. The village kept treating him like shit, but the number of beatings he received was cut down a lot, thanks to the effort of the Hokage, his personal ANBU and the old woman. In school, the other children shunned him for some reason he didn't understand. The only ones who didn't treat him like that were some kouhai (namely Shikamaru Nara, Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino (she actually liked most of the pranks the boy pulled), Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata, though the last one seemed actually impossible to talk to, since every time they tried to talk, she would faint or flee on sight), Lee, Neji (though at some point in third grade he seemed to have been given 'the stick'), and Tenten.

Tenten. Well, there was one thing that had changed. In many ways, she remained the same as ever. Petite, kind, caring, tomboyish… But he actually knew her cute side. Under an oath of silence, he had been shown to her room once during the weekly dinners at her home. Reigning over her bed was a huge, and I mean, HUGE, stuffed panda bear, almost as big as them when they were 9. When he said it was cute and it suited her, she chased him all around her house with 2 kunai in each hand, her face redder than the Sharingan. She kept changing her hairstyle every once in a while, but her favorite seemed to be the two tight buns. When he once asked her why it was, she went red-faced again and answered stammering and avoiding his gaze that it was because it was easy to move in while she was training. Other way, her thigh-long hair would most likely get in the way.

Naruto's mind side-tracked for a moment and suddenly an image of Tenten with her hair loose and flowing down her back appeared on his mind giving him a naughty look. Blushing a storm, he wondered where that came from. He didn't feel that way about his best friend… did he?

Anyway, he had to go to the Academy fast. Today was the day of their Gennin exam.

When he arrived, they were being called in alphabetic order. He arrived just when Kirihana Tenten was being called. He threw her a smile and told her, "See you later with our headbands!" Tenten flushed a little and went inside the room where they were being tested, determined to get her hitai-ate.

The gennin candidates kept being called for the exam until only Naruto was left. When he was called in, the first thing he noticed was that Mizuki wasn't there. Apparently, he had caught a bad cold and been replaced temporarily with the instructor of the 5th year, Umino Iruka. This was a good thing, as he was the only teacher that seemed to act normally around the blond boy, almost like a friend.

"Ok, Naruto, you are the last one here. You have already passed the taijutsu exam, but you seem to have failed the genjutsu one. But don't worry, if you pass the ninjutsu one, you will get your hitai-ate. The exam consists on a Kawarimi, a Henge," the blond smiled, those two jutsu were fairly easy, "and the Bunshin." His face fell. No matter how many times he tried to make a bunshin, he always failed hard.

Not one to worry about such things, he went through the two first parts of the exam without much difficulty, transforming into the Hokage and performing a Kawarimi with the teacher's chair, that wasn't currently in use. He took a deep breath and shouted, before the attentive gaze of the instructor, "Bunshin no Jutsu!"


It was noon in Konoha. In the Academy building, children were being praised by their parents and smiling like they had won the lottery. All of them save for four. Rock Lee, who was being praised instead by a jounin that looked like a big clone of him with overgrown eyebrows (even bigger than his younger clone's). Their voice filled the playground with a speech about FLAMES OF YOUTH that made all the ninja around cringe. Hyuuga Neji, who was receiving praises from his uncle Hiashi, but didn't pay him much attention. Kirihana Tenten, who was happy she had got her hitai-ate, but was more worried and sad about her best friend. And Uzumaki Naruto, who, faithful to the prospects, failed to make a good enough bunshin.

He was currently sitting down in the swings, his eyes concentrated on the floor. A moment later, Tenten excused herself from her parents and went over to Naruto. When she reached her side, he lifted his gaze at her and they stopped. Neither of them knew what to say at the moment. Suddenly, Naruto's face broke in a grin and said "I'm glad, Tenten-chan. I knew you would make it without trouble."

The brunette couldn't take it anymore and put her arms around Naruto's chest and cried on his shoulder. The boy was caught on surprise, and when he reacted, he returned her embrace, and, holding her face with his hand, he whispered, "Don't worry, Tenten-chan. I'm okay, and you don't have anything to cry about."

Still sobbing, the girl tried to talk, "But… But Na- Naruto… kun… you…"

"I'm alright. So what? I don't have a headband? I'll get it some time. I'm just too good a ninja, so they want me to teach the next batch. So don't worry. Next year, we'll meet and I'll be the best Gennin of Konoha. Believe it!"

Tenten hugged him tighter and kept crying for a few minutes more. Once she felt better, she slowly pushed away from his soaked orange jacket, neither of them wanting to break the embrace, but they were already attracting many weird looks that added to the constant glares the boy kept feeling. Her parents called for her and she left, leaving him seated again in the swing, down and out.

Another figure approached him some time later, and he looked up to see Iruka's face. "Don't worry, Naruto. I have seen your other exams, and I'm sure you'll make it next year. Come on, I'll treat you to ramen."

The boy smiled and followed the young man to their favourite stand to share a few bowls of delicious noodles. Luckily for Iruka's wallet, Naruto was inwardly depressed, so he ate only 5 bowls, saving it from a sure death.

That night, he went to bed thinking about the new training he would begin the next day. He had promised Tenten that he would be the best gennin of Konoha when he came out of Academy in a year's time.

And Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha never breaks a promise.


AAAAAAAAAND CUT! Woah, 7500+ words, but I just started writing and ideas kept flooding my mind. This chapter was originally going to be just a summary of what would happen after the TimeSkip, and look what has happened. Even a new OC has been born (Anyone who figures out what manga did the idea for the OC pop out from gets a cyber-cookie).

R&R! Oh, and I need ideas for a sword for Naruto and Tenten. Flames will be used to overpower Natsu.

Ja ne!