Chapter 1: A Day in the Academy

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself being cuddled by an orange haired boy. It took him a second to realize that the boy was, in fact, the Kyuubi no Kitsune and that the events of the previous day did happen. Doing his best to slip away from the demon, Naruto took off walking down the only path in his mindscape.

He wondered how he was able to get away without waking the demon up but was glad for the time alone. He walked for a while, not really sure what else was in his mind, and eventually found a long row of doors. "Your memories."

Hearing Kurama's voice from seemingly everywhere, Naruto looked around for the demon but didn't see him. "Where-"

"You are still within your mind. My thoughts can easily reach you anywhere here, just like your thoughts can easily reach me." Came the reply.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "So these doors are my memories then. What happens if I open one?"

The demon responded after a few seconds. "You would have to live through the memory again. You would remember it perfectly, feeling everything you felt at the time. The pain the first time you broke your hand training, the taste of your very first bowl of ramen, the joy you felt meeting Ayame and Teuchi for the first time. You would feel it all again, including the bad moments."

Naruto looked down as he remembered some of the lonely days and nights. Those were times he didn't want to relive. "How can I tell which is which?"

"If you focus on a door an image should appear. That will give you an idea of the memory within." Naruto looked towards one of the closest doors and focused. The image that appeared on the door was of the wolves closing in on him. Shaking his head he walked through the hall but didn't enter any of the doors, even the ones he knew contained happy memories. "Are there no memories that you would want to relive?"

Naruto shook his head. "No there isn't, not right now anyway."

"Then come back here and talk with me more." Chuckled the demon.

Naruto started walking that way, although he wasn't rushing. "What do we still need to talk about?"

"There is little we need to talk about this instant, I just want to talk to you more. Would you rather wake up and sit alone in your bed for a few hours until the academy starts?" Naruto didn't answer that and just kept walking. Eventually, he made it to the room with his armor and the seal. Kurama was still sitting on the couch that had been made for him. "Come, sit with me." Naruto nodded and moved over to the couch sitting down as far away from the demon as he could.

Kurama chuckled at that before shifting so that he was facing Naruto. "So, is there anything you want to ask me?" Naruto looked into the demon's eyes, relief showing when the demon didn't move closer. He might not want to go back on his word, but he wasn't comfortable cuddling up to the demon. He had last night because after almost dying he just didn't have the energy to fight or pull away. There were many questions he could ask though, and he wasn't sure what to ask first.

As the boy didn't answer Kurama decided to start their conversation off. "Did you sleep well last night?"

Naruto nodded and answered before thinking about it. "I don't think I have ever slept better."

That got a grin from the demon. "Good to know."

Naruto blushed a little at the tone the red-eyed demon used. "Why are you nice to me?" The question was one that the blond wanted to know. He was raised to believe that Kurama was a monster who wanted to destroy everything and everyone.

Kurama chuckled and moved closer to the blond. "You are mine, so being mean to you serves no purpose. That is not what you want to know though. The reason I am drawn to you is because you are such a pure creature. I am surprised you are not a holy being rather than a human."

Naruto blushed a little more. "So is that why you wanted me to be yours?"

The demon nodded. "You have had to face the scorn of your people for something you had no say in. Yet, even though you didn't know why they hated you, why you were forced to be alone, or why you were ignored, you stayed pure and forgiving. I have never met anyone or anything like you before. No one… not even him."

Naruto raised a brow at that. "Not even who?"

Kurama shook his head. "I will tell you later. Is there anything else you want to know?"

Naruto looked down at his feet. "Why did you attack Konoha? If you aren't mean like everyone makes you out to be, then why attack the village?"

The demon closed his eyes. "That is something else we will talk more about later. I will tell you that I was being manipulated when I attacked Konoha but that doesn't mean I am nice. I just normally don't care about what happens to humans, with you being the obvious exception." Naruto went to speak when the demon finished talking but didn't get a chance to as Kurama's eyes snapped open. "The old fool is here to talk with you. You should wake up."

Naruto went to speak again wondering who Kurama was calling an old fool when he found himself staring at the ceiling above his bed. Getting up the blond heard a knock on his door, and when he opened it, he saw the Hokage.

'Tell him nothing about me or our conversations!' Hearing the Kyuubi roar in his mind Naruto had to hide a wince.

The Hokage noticed but figured the blond had hurt himself training. "Ahh, Naruto-kun can I come in?"

Naruto nodded and smiled. "Of course, old man." Naruto led the Hokage into his living/dining room and motioned towards a small table. "So is everything alright, old man? I am not supposed to pick up my allowance from you until Friday?"

The old man sat down before nodding. "Yes, everything is fine Naruto-kun. I merely wanted to know why I had received a report about you stealing from a civilian."

Naruto frowned a little before sitting down himself. "I was walking down the street to my apartment before it started raining, and someone saw my orichalcum fragment. They said I stole it and tried to take it away from me."

The Hokage sighed. "The council is making a fuss about this, so I would like for you to give me the fragment for a bit. I will show it to them and explain how you found it and brought it to me, and then I will return it."

'Tell him you lost it in the forest while hiding.' Naruto heard the demon's voice in his head and sighed.

"I spent the night in the forest because the civilian who said I stole it chased me there. I lost it somewhere in the forest." The blond said with a frown. He hated lying to the Hokage but didn't know what was going on.

The Hokage sighed and nodded. "Very well then. I need to get back to my office, but I will deal with this matter Naruto." The man stood up and left.

Naruto got up and got ready to go to the academy. 'Why did you have me lie to the Hokage?'

The Kyuubi didn't answer right away. 'We will talk about it later.'

Naruto scowled at that. 'But-'

The demon didn't let him finish. 'The old fool has spent years lying to you, and if you still had your precious orichalcum fragment he would have taken it and you would never have seen it again. He would have given it to the man who claimed you stole it in order to appease the council of this village. While that might keep them from being upset with you over the ordeal they will just find something else to torment you about.'

Naruto frowned. 'He wouldn't do that.'

A growl came from the demon. 'He has done it before. He will do it again. We will talk about this later though. You need to get ready to go to the academy.'

Naruto frowned a little more before showering and brushing his teeth. Afterward, he went to his dresser and put on his blue shorts and white shirt that had the Uzumaki spiral on it, although the blond didn't know the truth about the spiral. The blond then headed to the academy.

When he got there he saw Sasuke was sitting by himself, and a few civilian girls were sitting nearby. Naruto was about to go sit by Sasuke when he heard Kurama again. 'If you sit next to Sasuke, the females of this class will object to it and tell you to move. Remember if that pink-haired girl strikes you again I will punish her.'

Naruto hearing that, went and sat by himself before placing his head down on the desk. He had sat a few rows behind Sasuke in the seat closest to the window so that only one person could sit by him. Naruto paid little attention to the people coming in, but he did notice that a few civilian girls sat by Sasuke. Normally those girls would avoid him and Sakura would come in and make him move away from Sasuke, and take the seat by Sasuke instead.

Shikamaru eventually came in and took the seat beside Naruto, with Choji following him and taking the seat on the other side of Shikamaru. Naruto didn't mind though because as far as he knew Kurama wouldn't have a problem with them. Sakura came racing in at the same time as Ino. "I won, Ino-pig that means I get to sit next to Sasuke-kun."

A blonde girl scoffed. "As if, Forehead. My foot was obviously in the door first. I get to sit by Sasuke-kun."

One of the civilians sitting next to Sasuke spoke up. "Actually, Sakura, Ino, I am sitting next to Sasuke-kun."

The two girls turned and saw that she was sitting next to the Uchiha. Ino for her part, sighed and sat down with a few of the other girls she gossiped with, while Sakura turned her attention to Naruto. "Naruto you idiot why didn't you save my seat!"

Naruto frowned at that. "You always tell me not to sit by Sasuke, so I didn't."

The girl was about to speak again when the classes two instructors walked into the room. Mizuki was a pale man with silver hair and dull green eyes, and Iruka was a tan man with brown hair and eyes. Iruka also had a scar running sideways across his face, going from one cheek across the nose and ending on the other cheek. "Alright everyone please sit down for now."

Sakura was upset but moved to sit by some of the other girls, although she avoided sitting by Ino. Iruka smiled at everyone. "Alright, so today we will be reviewing the transformation jutsu we started learning last week before heading outside to spar and practice with our shuriken and kunai."

Naruto heard a growl from within his head. 'This academy is a joke. Learning three jutsu and how to throw kunai and shuriken doesn't prepare you to kill.' Naruto didn't say anything as students started getting called up front to try to perform the jutsu. Naruto was a little nervous as he still couldn't perform the transformation or clone techniques right. 'You fail them because you put too much chakra into the jutsu. When you are called up try to focus on using as little chakra for the technique as possible.'

Naruto nodded to the Kyuubi. The blond had noticed that Kurama's voice was a lot softer when the demon was talking about him, then when the demon was talking about the academy. 'Alright, but how do you know that?'

Naruto didn't have to wait long for a response. 'I know plenty of jutsu and a lot about chakra and jutsu theory. We can talk more about that later, just trust me.'

Again, Naruto nodded as he noticed Hinata going up front to try and transform. The girl successfully transformed into Iruka before heading back to her seat. 'Alright Kurama, I will trust you for now.'

Soon enough, it was Naruto's turn and as he got to the front of the class he saw everyone was already chuckling, assuming the blond would fail. Naruto took a long deep breath before gathering his chakra and using the correct hand signs. He made sure to focus on using as little chakra as he could and called out the name of the technique. "Transform!"

In a small puff of smoke, Naruto had transformed into a perfect copy of Iruka. Iruka looked him over before nodding. "Good job Naruto, I can see you have been practicing."

Naruto smiled at the praise and ended the technique with a bow, before heading back to his seat. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei." Sitting back down and ignoring the shocked looks on the faces of his classmates, Naruto closed his eyes. 'Thank you Kurama, I did it! You were right it was a lot easier when I focused on using less chakra.'

Naruto felt an odd nudging sensation from within his own mind. 'You have more chakra in your body than any of your pathetic classmates. They belittle you for struggling with simple techniques forgetting that you have no one to help you train and not understanding that your large chakra reserves make jutsu like the basic academy ones hard to perform.'

Naruto opened his eyes and looked around the room. 'My classmates aren't that bad…' He said defending them.

His reply was a scoff. 'I will admit that some of them are a little less pathetic than the rest, but they are all that bad.'

Naruto frowned at that but everyone was called outside before he could respond. Deciding not to argue with the demon, Naruto sighed. He knew that if he argued with the demon he would probably end up admitting that he couldn't really consider himself close to anyone in his class. Well other than Iruka, the man had saved him in the past and then berated him for putting himself in danger.

As they all got outside Iruka told them to line up and prepare to throw their shuriken and kunai at the targets nearby. One by one the students again tried to get a high score and Naruto was ready to get this part of the test over with. At least this section of the test he always passed. Eventually, they finished and moved over to the sparring ring. "Alright, class! We will be doing things a little different from now on. When we train using taijutsu we will now have a small tournament and we will no longer be separating you based on gender."

That got some shocked gasps and Naruto looked down. 'You won't hurt anyone right? I mean if I lose a spar that is my fault, not theirs, right?'

Iruka kept talking, mainly saying the same thing he said anytime they were set to spar, about fighting with taijutsu only and respecting their classmates. Naruto didn't hear the man though. 'I will not interfere… Sparring is important for your growth as a shinobi, although I would prefer to fight for you until you learn a proper fighting style instead of having you fight like a brawler.'

Naruto looked down a little embarrassed at first and focused once more on what Iruka was saying. "Now then since we have twenty-seven students, someone in the first round will have to fight twice. Then there will be thirteen students left and someone will once again fight twice. We will then be down to six students and after three more matches three students will end up in the finals for a free-for-all. The first fight will be Sasuke fighting Ami."

Sasuke got in the ring and looked the purple-haired civilian girl that had spent the afternoon sitting by him. The girl at least didn't screech like Sakura. However, she also didn't move to the ring. "I can't fight Sasuke-kun! I concede!" She said dramatically.

Iruka sighed before motioning for Sasuke to stay in the ring. "Alright then Sasuke is the one who will fight twice and his match is against Kuro."

Kuro was a black-haired civilian boy who got into the ring with Sasuke. He knew he couldn't win, but wasn't going to give up without fighting. The match lasted only a few minutes with the civilian boy trying to hit Sasuke a few times, and the raven-haired boy countering and knocking Kuro out of the ring while looking both bored and annoyed.

The next few fights were between civilian born students, and then most of the clan heirs, as well as Sakura fought some civilians. In the end, there was only Naruto and a civilian boy named Tomo. The boy was one of the weaker civilians and spent most of his time reading.

Still, Tomo got ready to face off against Naruto, and the blond got ready to fight as well. 'I doubt you will let me fight for you, but will you at least let me give you instructions?'

Naruto nodded as he got in the ring, luckily Iruka had asked if the boys were ready and thought Naruto was nodding to him. "Alright begin!" Iruka called out.

Tomo charged at Naruto and Naruto focused on what Kurama told him to do. He ducked under the first hit and swept Tomo's feet out from under him, getting shocked stares once more from his classmates. Tomo hit the ground and rolled away from Naruto before standing up. He was surprised as Naruto normally fought Sasuke and lost instantly.

Tomo took a defensive stance as Naruto charged and threw a punch. Tomo went to push the blond's fist away, but Naruto opened his fist and grabbed Tomo's arm when the boy tried and pulled Tomo in before punching him with his other hand. Tomo hit the ground once more, his lip bleeding just a little when Iruka spoke up. "Tomo has been knocked out of the ring. Naruto wins."

Naruto moved towards Tomo and offered him a hand to help him up. Tomo slapped away the blond's hand and Naruto cringed when he heard a deep growl from within his mind. The blond quickly moved away from Tomo worried that Kurama would take control and attack the boy. 'Insolent hairless ape! You offer him a hand and he-'

Naruto cut the demon off though. 'It is okay! It isn't his fault.'

Kurama stopped growling at that. 'You stand up to me to defend someone who hates you…' Then Naruto heard the demon let out a soft sigh. 'I suppose he didn't try to physically hurt you after the spar ended though, so would it please you to know I won't attack him.'

Naruto smiled as Iruka looked over who was still in the tournament. There were Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Shino, Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and four civilian boys. Sasuke was once again paired with a girl, in this case, Sakura who surrendered and then paired against a civilian boy who he beat. Hinata, Shino, and Ino were all then paired with civilian-born boys and won their matches. Although, Ino had gotten a little bruised up and tried to cry to Sasuke who ignored her.

Then Shikamaru and Choji were told to fight each other, and neither of them wanted to fight the other. Shikamaru just stood there while Choji glanced around nervously before Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome, I give up. I am low on energy anyway."

Iruka nodded. "Alright, winner Choji. The last match of this round will be between Kiba and Naruto."

Kiba moved into the ring with a grin. "Alright, this will be cake!"

Naruto moved into the ring as well and frowned. He hated being looked down on, but Kiba did have more training than him. 'You can give up if you want, or you could always play dirty like a shinobi.'

Naruto took in another breath. 'What do you mean?'

Kurama chuckled in Naruto's mind. 'The boy is from a clan that prides itself on their increased senses. You could use his sense of hearing against him by screaming as loud as you can. His enhanced sense of hearing will cause him pain from it and distract him long enough for you to strike.'

Naruto looked right at Kiba who was taunting the blond. "Come on, I will even let you get the first hit in."

Naruto ignored Kiba in favor of talking to Kurama. 'Isn't that unfair though?'

A scoff from the demon was his answer. 'A ninja is supposed to be a killer who strikes from the shadow. Do you think an enemy shinobi will ignore such an advantage? You can think of it as possibly saving his life in the future by making him aware of what could happen.'

Naruto nodded his head and took in a deep breath as Kiba lost his patience and charged at Naruto. "AHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed as loud as he could when Kiba got in close, causing the brunette he was fighting to drop to his knees and scream in pain while clutching his ears. As Kiba held his ears Naruto moved in and slammed his knee into the brunette's forehead knocking the Inuzuka out.

Sakura instantly started shouting. "IRUKA-SENSEI, BAKA NARUTO CHEATED!"

Iruka for his part was staring at Naruto a little surprised. "Naruto didn't cheat, there was no rule against screaming, Sakura. Naruto you win, but I am surprised. Why did you decide to scream like that?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, Kiba has enhanced senses right? So, I thought it would give me an opening."

Sakura turned towards Naruto. "That is playing dirty!"

Naruto didn't mean to respond, but he remembered what Kurama said and just spoke up. "Well, if I hadn't done it in a spar then an enemy ninja could have done it after we graduate."

Iruka stepped in between them as Sakura readied herself to punch Naruto. "Naruto is right Sakura. If you don't give it everything you have during your spars then you are only making your sparring partner weaker."

Naruto didn't notice that Hinata was staring at him with stars in her eyes at that. Naruto saw Kiba coming to and moved over to help the boy up, just like he had with Tomo. Kiba seeing Naruto offering his hand though took it, and let Naruto help him up while rubbing his ears. "Dirty trick, Naruto." He muttered. "Don't think it will work next time."

Naruto just smiled and moved back off to the side. "I won't expect it to, Kiba." He said before turning to Iruka as the man called the next match.

Iruka looked towards Hinata and Shino. "Shino, Hinata, the two of you are next."

The two sparred for a while before Shino caught Hinata with a solid blow to the stomach and took several palm strikes in return. Hinata had been sent skidding back from the hit to the stomach and dropped to her knees coughing. After a few seconds and speaking to both of them, Iruka called the match a draw as neither had the energy to continue.

The next match was Naruto vs Choji. Naruto got into the ring bouncing on his feet. With Kurama advising him, he had done better in his spars then he normally did. Choji for his part didn't look like he wanted to fight. As Naruto got ready to move in, Choji raised his hand and surrendered.

Naruto sighed and moved back to the sidelines. 'Foolish mortal…'

Naruto watched as Ino and Sasuke entered the ring. 'What do you mean?'

Naruto could almost feel Kurama rolling his eyes. 'He refused to fight the shadow-user and then refused to fight you. He should have fought both for the same reason you needed to scream at the mortal with the enhanced senses. By refusing to fight he is making you weaker in your future fights.'

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. At that moment Sasuke knocked Ino outside of the ring. 'At least Ino fought him instead of giving up.' Naruto thought to himself before Iruka motioned for Naruto to meet Sasuke in the ring.

"Since Shino and Hinata's match ended in a draw, the final match will be Naruto vs Sasuke," Iruka said as Naruto and Sasuke got ready to face off.

Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes and once again saw the anger and hatred that he normally saw. He recognized the eyes as he had seen them on the villagers countless times, but he could tell that Sasuke wasn't really looking at him. 'Any advice Kurama?'

A few seconds passed as Iruka got ready to start the match. 'He is faster than you and normally ends the match in one blow. He is likely to defeat you before you can attempt any tricks that would help you win. We will be increasing your training right away, but with me here, you can train properly instead of hitting that little punching bag in your room.'

Naruto was embarrassed by that but didn't have time to show it as Sasuke charged at him. Naruto saw Sasuke coming and tried to move out of the way of the first hit, but knew he couldn't make it in time. In that split second Naruto made a plan and fell onto his back, Sasuke's punch missing him by a hair.

Naruto then kicked out with his feet as he was falling, but Sasuke jumped to avoid the blow. Naruto didn't get a chance to do anything else though as Sasuke came down and slammed his knee into the blond's stomach. The hit knocked the breath out Naruto and Sasuke pinned him, causing Iruka to stop the match.

Naruto stood up while rubbing his stomach a little before looking at Sasuke with a determined expression. 'When can we start training?' He thought to Kurama.