He sat in the final row, towards the right of the classroom, he wasn't exactly in the corner, but he wasn't close to the short stairway connected to each row, his seat was nice and comfortable between Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, the destined lovers.
Well, that was what Sakura would have everyone believe, and Ino, and nearly every other girl in the classroom. Sasuke was quite popular with the girls; his dark and mysterious aurora just had the females flocking like flies in heat.
And despite such circumstances, the raven haired Uchiha clan heir ignored them, completely and utterly, he wasn't cruel in his rebuttals, but he dismissed any attempt at getting a 'date' or even a 'hangout' out of him.
Naruto didn't see the point in it, when such diverse and, in a sense, alluring choices were available, why not make use of them? But no one really cared about what he thought; he was the class clown after all, the 'dead last'.
"So how about it Sakura? 15 minutes, if you're not satisfied you can leave, just give me that much, pleeeaaaase!" his shrill voice pleaded at the pink haired girl trying her best to ignore him.
"Naruto, you stupid childish idiot, how many times have I told you, I will never, I repeat, never go out on a date with you! Do you hear me? NEVER! I HOPE YOU JUST SHUT UP AND DIE ALREADY!" she shouted angrily, her cheeks reddening and eyes blazing.
She was harsher than usual today, less violent, but harsher; she must be close to her limit, 'I wonder how much it would take to break her,'
It was a simple experiment, to give the persona he was using at the academy some realism he added some minor supporting details, nothing major, but enough to make the act believable. His 'crush' on Sakura was one of such things; other examples would be his orange jumpsuit, constant pranks, love of all things ramen, and absolutely terrible performance in the shinobi arts.
As the girl huffed to herself, he carefully moulded his face into an expression of sorrow, one noticed by the surrounding classmates, before quickly replacing it with a beaming smile and happily proclaiming, "Someday you'll change your mind Sakura! Someday you will understand the true greatness you're missing out on!
Her eyes narrow dangerously, a likely sign she would attack him, however, surprisingly she sighed deeply, left her seat and walked away towards the room's exit, without any sort of comment. Another unusual behaviour, things were changing apparently, maybe he should have been a bit more insistent?
"When will you give it up? It's getting sad, really."
"No one wants to hear your opinion duck-butt."
"What did you just call me dead-last?"
"Hmm, did you say something Sasuke? I was busy not listening to you, please, repeat."
Sasuke wasn't quite as violent as Sakura, he nursed grudges and released them during spars, burying his aggression and saving it for later channelling as if he was honing its sharpness and impact. It was quite unhealthy, but what did Naruto care if the kid went psycho like his brother and decided to kill a clan, hell, if Sasuke asked nicely he might help out.
"Hmph, you're lucky we're done sparing for today, else I'd have to humiliate you double." The Uchiha arrogantly remarked.
Sometimes he considered actually fighting the raven-head for real, sometimes, but never in a serious frame of mind. Losing his cover early would be very detrimental; it was enough that the Hokage suspected his unusual visits to his many friends (clients) around the village.
"Oh? Is that so, how about we give it a go, right now, come on, you a chicken or something? Afraid I might pluck out one of those precious little eyes of yours?" He goaded.
Naruto watched as the Uchiha's fist clenched and unclenched momentarily before the heir responded, "You know as well as I do I can't do that, I have no reason to get implicated in your deliberations to break every rule possible, if you want to pick a fight, summon a bunshin and knock yourself out, Oh wait, I forgot, you can't."
The superior smirk he flashed before also standing up and passing by him to go have lunch outside received an immediate response, "Someday I'll show you Sasuke," it was mumbled, but the boy in question heard the remark loud and clear, his smirk only widened.
The charade really grated on his nerves, but he had to do it, else it'd spell a lot of trouble for him.
Oh well, that was enough pathetic-ness for today, he was hungry.
As he passed by the rows occupied by various students he could hear the joking murmurs and giggles, it was the usual garbage, people mocking him for being such a clingy and annoying brat.
Really, who knew 4 years of acting could give him such a fantastic rep. For a ten year old, he was quite disliked, and not only by his classmates for his less than admirable actions, the entire village had a grudge against him.
Apparently being the Kyuubi's jinchuriki was not cool. Who knew?
Oh well, the struggles of life and all. Since his role was done for the day, he might as well skip out on the remaining history lessons, no reason to waste more time, plus he had that annoying little job he had to prepare for and get done.
The blond was not amused, but his charges sure as hell were.
He thought the job would be simple, sit around with some kids, act as a cheap but reliable bodyguard for 5 hours; a standard odd job. He didn't get the details until much, much later.
The job was provided by one of the Land of fire's biggest crime bosses. Why did he have to always associate with such troublesome people?
The first hour was annoying but ordinary, the two children, Hina and Ryu, each around the age of 7, joked around about how he was nothing more than a regular kid that wouldn't stand a chance against an enemy shinobi or even a grown man, it didn't help that he was a bit shorter than Ryu. He took things in stride, making use of his friendly persona to join in on their fun; thankfully they eventually got bored and went on to doing their own thing.
Things got a little interesting in the second hour, when the first attack came. He wasn't part of the main defending force, so he didn't concern himself with getting involved in the battle; but when things settled down he went to see how the other bodyguards fared. With an unnoticeable flick a slight gleam around the entrance seemed to curve smoothly, allowing Naruto to open the heavy oaken doors to the room safely. Creating a small gap to peak his head out, he found the men dragging away three bodies, two of which were mob members.
Well that was a bad sign; they only had 10 people defending the perimeter, well, 8 people now.
Originally, his client, Yami (weird name right?), had planned on relying only on his own escort of mob members to defend his niece and nephew, he had a few low level shinobi among them apparently.
The high-level missing ninja that were in his employ were kept close to person as to properly defend him from any real threats, as well as to prevent Konoha from getting the full gist of what was going on and messing around with the dealings. After all, their position was within the village itself; a small warehouse that was refitted as a safehouse, meaning, if any high level shinobi were present, Konoha would eventually notice the foreign signatures even if suppression seals were used.
Which is where he played into this whole thing, one of his clients, Doro, had a good relationship with the crime lord, so when the topic of defence came into question, Naruto was immediately recommended as an untraceable, skilled, freelance shinobi. And best of all? He was cheap, so Yami got quite the good deal out of using him as an extra buffer of defence in case things went south, like they were about to.
The men surrounding the room gave him a hard glare for opening the door and possibly comprising the two children, he was all too happy to immediately shut them as things were about to go down. He quickly sealed the heavy doors, and adjusted the defences. He then padded his clothing methodically, loosening specific pockets while readying himself for battle. The enemy was smart, but not careful, the mob members may have not noticed, but he did, the unmistakable flash of steel, the suppressed sound of footsteps and the smell of human sweat and blood were glaringly obvious.
A sudden woosh of kunai was heard with the unmistakable thumps of the black daggers hitting their targets. Shouting ensued from the defending party, but it was for naught, the enemy was silent and efficient, knowledgeable about their targets and prepared with all counter measures.
The clash of steel rang from the spacious hallway/room outside the children's position, with the risk obvious, Naruto turned towards the two, ready to usher them into the special closet composed of an insulator- iron casing to provide proper protection against most reasonable threats.
"Get into the closet." His tone was clipped as he walked towards the end of the room and entered the ridged key into the closed door, the acted out mirth dispersing from his features, leaving his eyes a cold calculating icy blue.
The two were raised in such an environment, where danger and bodyguards were common, so they tolerated the threat better than any normal 7 year old civilian, however the signs of fear were obvious if one knew where to look.
As they rushed into the closet, Hina called out to him, "Come with us, I'm sure it'll be okay, there's no way uncle's men will lose, and you can protect us better in here, yeah, you don't have to be out here, so come in, it's safer in here."
Here pleading tone was laced with pity, she feared he would die, how cute.
"I am your bodyguard, no more, no less... Your uncle's men are already dead."
With that final shocking (to the children) statement he shut the now obvious mechanical door of the closet, and made sure it was sealed.
The enemy was silent, either waiting for something or preparing for their entry.
The doors flew open with 3 masked shinobi jumping in while a noticeable ranged attacker provided support.
The three men never anticipated the slowly stretching wire that was being manipulated by Naruto's fingers. His hand suddenly forcefully clenched around several wires and pulled them down roughly.
The rush was abruptly cut short as the 3 men were sliced in half, their torso's sliding off their waists in a bloody mess, Naruto paid their death no mind; there were other enemies to eliminate. With burst of chakra he shot around the bodies narrowly dodging the shuriken that was meant to slice his jugular, allowing it to safely cut through his dyed black hair.
The masked individual did not wait for the blond to reach him, choosing to pull a tanto from the sheath on his back and meet the blond head-on.
Naruto flicked his left wrist before pulling a kunai to meet the masked man's slashes.
Kunai slid against and parried tanto for a few tense moments before Naruto suddenly replaced himself with a chair near the end of the room.
Both chair and man were engulfed in a localized high pressure explosion.
The negative pressure produced by the seal induced explosion caused a sudden inward localized pull, which shot the singed and burned enemy back into its centre and dispelled the summoned over-sized lizard that was hiding in the rooms rafters.
Before the attacker could even gain his bearings a chakra powered kunai shot through his mask and exploded midway through the man's head, the large amount of chakra within it causing the non conductive metal to grow unstable and erupt, Naruto had memorized the average time for such a reaction.
"I may have overdone it with that last one." The blond muttered to himself.
Before he went and let the kids out, he checked up on the other dead attackers. They were curiously dressed like anbu, except for the masks, which were plain white; he'd never seen something quite like it, though he wasn't exactly too knowledgeable on all existing organizations, he'd have to ask around later.
Once he removed the masks and any usable/ sellable gear, he burned all the bodies, better that than be implicated in something later on.
He couldn't hide the bloodstains, so he didn't bother, though he did make an attempt to move the various organs lying around after he bisected those 3 attackers.
The mob members were also moved to a different area, as he didn't want to scar the two children too much, that would hurt his relations with the crime lord, and he'd prefer to keep things at the very least civil, he didn't need a whole mob to be after him.
Once done, he let the children out, they were a bit pale, and looked fearful as they noticed the blood and the obvious lack of their uncle's men, proving Naruto's statement true, but they were safe and in a stable mental condition which was all that mattered. They also opted to stay within the closet for the rest of duration, albeit with the door ajar.
Naruto didn't mind, made them easier to defend.
He had another hour and a half before the job ended and he preferred not to risk failing in the final hurdle, so after slapping a few powerful chakra limiters on his major tenketsu points, he formed a crossed hand-seal while channeling as little chakra as possible.
Numerous puffs of smoke quickly appeared and dispersed around him, producing the now deceased mob members, although noticeably more ethereal and un-detailed. His skill with the bunshin, even on low chakra capacity, was less than admirable, but it would do the job.
The illusionary men spread around the area, the most detailed remaining within, while the less than realistic remained on the outside, taking positions previously occupied by the living.
'Well back to waiting, at least I got some action; maybe they'll send more next time? If there is a next time that is.'