Chapter 2
Naruto quickly found that it took a lot of effort to be dead last but not flunk himself out of the academy. In his first two years at the academy he almost graduated early and had to actually fail the final exam to keep from losing his bet. He soon found that the best way to be dead last was to do nothing, so he quickly got into the habit of being lazy. That got boring, but then he failed his way back to the class the kids his own age were in and he found kindred spirits.
First there was Kiba, he loved to make bets with Naruto.
.
Iruka walked into class with a small amount of trepidation. The dreaded Uzumaki had joined his class this year after failing the final entrance exams for the second year in a row. Normally having a confirmed failure in his class wouldn't make him so nervous, but this particular failure seemed to go from being unwilling to do anything to being completely insane.
Praying that today would be one of Naruto's lazy days, Iruka quickly got into the rhythm of teaching his class of eight year olds. However, about two hours in the chunin spotted the Uzumaki sharing a whispered conversation with Kiba in the back row. They were saying something about a bet and words, but Iruka didn't bother trying to figure it out as he shouted, "Kiba! Naruto! Pay attention!"
The teacher saw the Inuzuka jab the blond boy in the ribs and Naruto sat up straight and shouted, "I'm gonna be Hokage someday!"
Ino snorted, "Yeah right. You have to be a good shinobi to do that and we all know you're an idiot."
Once again Kiba jabbed Naruto in the ribs and, with a glare at the Inuzuka, the blond shouted, "Believe it!"
.
After Kiba came Shikamaru.
.
A few months later Ino and Sakura were trying to get together a game of ninja tag. Kiba joined in and, with a bet, got Naruto in as well. Now the group was pestering Shikamaru to join.
"No," the Nara said, "running around is far too troublesome."
Naruto's eyes teared up as he said, "Wow, so lazy," he paused to sniffle, "your my hero. After one round can I join you?"
Shikamaru shrugged, and everyone else muttered about how crazy the Uzumaki was. But really they were starting to become immune to his nuttiness.
True to his word after one round of ninja tag Naruto went and joined Shikamaru at aimlessly staring at clouds. By the end of that lunch break the blond boy and the Nara were fast friends, but no one could figure out how it happened when neither boy had spoken one word.