Please read and review. I hope you like this chapter.
Five Years Later
Naruto wasn't stupid, in fact he was far from it. He just put on a mask, a happy face to ignore the glares at his back and the hateful whispers he heard on the street. He knew people didn't like him. Every time he went to buy things in town, people tried to ignore him, or they outright hated him, but no one had hurt him with their fists. He could hear snatches of their conversation, things like "demon", or " never be a shinobi". But they underestimated the will of Uzumaki Naruto and he was determined to prove them wrong. He would become the best shinobi there was. Dattebayo!
And that's exactly what he did, or tried to do. The caretakers at the shinobi orphanage gave shinobi classes for free every weekend. Attendance was completely voluntary. This year he was finally old enough to take them. In the first few lessons, they learned about chakra, drawing on chakra, and hand signs. To Naruto, they were a piece of cake, it was like he was born to do it. In fact, it took him less than a minute to draw on his chakra and create a faint blue glow around him. Kurenai-sensei looked quite impressed, but he wasn't sure why. It was really easy, yet none of the other students could create a glow, but they did draw on their chakra. He felt so warm and fuzzy when he used his chakra. However, this week they were learning chakra control, and he was having a truckload of problems.
Naruto growled as the leaf flew away from him, into the ever growing pile of shredded leaves beside him. For Pete's sake, this was supposed to be the most basic of chakra exercises, yet he had been sitting in the grass for what seemed like hours, trying to make the leaf stick to his hand. Oh, why couldn't it easier, like boiling ramen. All of the other kids could make the leaf stick to them for at least a minute! However, he could get it to stick for about five seconds before it slid off or exploded. It was hopeless, he would never going to get it right. Now how would he become a shinobi?
"Ano, excuse me, but I could help you." a shy voice suggested. Naruto turned around to see a boy about his age, with spiky black hair wearing a black T-shirt and dark blue shorts. Naruto burst out laughing, he just couldn't help it. The boy's hair looked like a duck's butt. With a huff, the boy turned beet red.
"What's so funny, my hair? I knew I should have told kaa-chan to cut it shorter, it looks like a duck's butt, doesn't it? Kaa-san won't let me keep it long like my aniki! It's not fair. It is my hair, right?" the boy asked, clearly embarrassed.
"Y-yeah, gomen. It just looks s-so funny. I think you should grow it out a b-bit." Naruto burst into peals of laughter before continuing," Anyways, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to become the best ninja ever! Dattebayo!"
" As if. My aniki is already the best ninja ever. He's Uchiha Itachi and I'm Sasuke. And besides, how can you become the best ninja ever, if you can't even do the leaf exercise?" Sasuke scoffed.
" Well you should help me then. Then we can both be the best ninjas ever!" Naruto cheered. Over at the edge of the field, Kurenai heard their conversation and rolled her eyes. They still had a long way to go before any of them would be even close to good. At least they were only five, bordering on six. On the hand, Gai, who had been nearby and heard Naruto's claim started a rant about youthfulness, effectively scaring many of the children away from him. They all thought the same thing, Who is this green monster? Genma could only hopelessly groan under his breath as he helped another shinobi hopeful balance a leaf. Why did Hokage-sama have to assign him a shift as Naruto's caretakers? Especially one with Gai, the most eccentric shinobi of all time.
" Alright, so first you have to use just the right amount of chakra-" Sasuke began.
" You mean catra, right?" Naruto interrupted.
" No, it's chakra. We learned about it a few weeks ago. You're rather dumb, aren't you?" Sasuke asked. This time it was Naruto's turn to blush.
"S-shut up! It's none of your buisness!" Naruto denied.
"Alright, you should use less chakra, you're using too much, that's why the leaves are getting shredded." Sasuke advised, motioning to the pile of ripped leaves beside them.
" Right, here I go! One hundred time's the charm! Dattebayo!"
Concentrating on the leaf, Naruto began to gradually oppress his chakra. It was hard, almost too hard, Naruto had the chakra levels of a high genin. When he was five! That was more chakra than Itachi or Kakashi had when they were five. Surprisingly enough, it stuck to him. Naruto furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to keep the chakra level steady. Just a little more, he thought. With a grand flourish the leaf burst into shreds, showering both him and the kids next to him. Many of them shot him looks of annoyance as the leaf shreds messed up their concentration. However, Naruto's happy mood would not be extinguished. He had held the leaf to his forehead for nearly two minutes, a new record for him. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so happy. Except for maybe when he discovered the joy and wonder of ramen.
"Sugoi! I did it! Did you see that Sasuke?! I did it! I'm gonna be the best ninja ever!" Naruto cheered jumping up and down.
"Yeah right. I can hold it to my forehead for a whole ten minutes, and my aniki can hold it to his forehead for hours. He's already in ANBU, and he's only eleven! Try and beat that!" Sasuke boasted.
" Your brother's in ANBU?! He's Itachi, right?" A boy sitting nearby asked excitedly. Naruto recognized him as one of the kids who had caught on to the exercise slightly slower than most. Sasuke eyed him, the boy was around six or seven, with unruly brown hair and slightly sharper and longer than normal canines, sorta like a dog's.
Finally, he decided to answer. " Yeah, he's Itachi. What's it to you?" Sasuke asked in a suspicious voice.
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, heir to the Inuzuka! I'm going to be powerful and kick ass, just like your aniki!" Kiba declared with a smile, not unlike Naruto's. Unfortunately, their conversation was once again heard by the caretakers. One genjustu mistress in particular, didn't particularly favor a certain brown haired boy's choice of words. After all, she did hate perverts and people who cursed. Well actually only children who cursed, not really adults.
" Did I hear cursing?!" she screamed, ruby eyes glinting dangerously.
"N-no Kurenai-sensei! We didn't curse!" the boys answered, shivering under her threatening glare. It was no secret to them that Kurenai was extremely dangerous when provoked. They had learned that early on in the voluntary lessons that the caretakers of the shinobi orphanage taught. The first to get in trouble was Kiba for using a curse word. After that little incident, no one, not even the other teachers, chunin and jounin, would cross her. Snickers were heard as the boys hurriedly started to the exercises again, their palms clammy and sweaty. Kurenai sighed in satisfaction, such is the life of a teacher. Have fun scaring the crap out of students.
" Hey, so, um, are we friends now?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke and Kiba.
" Of course! How can we not be? After surviving Kurenai-sensei's stare, obviously we'd be friends!" Kiba agreed, in a rather loud tone of voice, that didn't fail to attract many people's attention. Naruto nodded and beamed the most brilliant smile to Kiba. Sasuke also nodded, opting not to say anything and instead focus on the leaf on his forehead. He had to beat his aniki's record! Once again, the trio was caught by Kurenai, who didn't quite... appreciate their negative regard to her "friendly" stare.
" Would you like to repeat that?" she asked, walking up to Kiba. Swallowing, Kiba shook his head in a frenzy, hoping with all his might that she would go away.
"Kurenai-sensei! I need help! I can't get my leaf off!" a girl cried form the other side of the field. She was obviously panicking, and about to cry. Kurenai settled with only giving Kiba a light glare, before scurrying off to help the girl with bright pink her get the leaf off of her rather large forehead.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba all let out a sigh of relief as Kurenai left, their leaves floating off of their heads.
"I'm so glad that Asuma-nii-san is watching us tomorrow." Naruto sighed. Asuma was laid-back and a pretty lazy guy.
" Do you live here?" Sasuke asked in surprise, Naruto didn't seem like the type of person to have been raised in an orphanage. He had always imagined them a bit less loud.
" Yeah, my parents died in the kyuubi attack. Old man says my mom was a really powerful jounin, so I live here. It's not that bad. Everyone here is nice and they teach us things about the Hokages! It's really fun! There are two people who are always here and the rest come here at different times. Haruka-nee-san and Akemi-nee-san are always here. Kurenai-sensei, Gai-nii-chan, Genma-sensei, Asuma-nii-chan,Hayate-nii-chan, and Anko-sensei come here at different times. Anko-sensei is even more crazy than Kurenai-sensei. She loves to torture everyone! Even Gai-nii-chan is afraid of her! Haruka-nee-san is really nice, but she always says 'troublesome' and talks about her nephew, Shikamaru. He's the kid with the pineapple hair, Haruka-nee-san looks just like him, except her hair is longer and she isn't as lazy. But she's still lazy." Naruto babbled, pointing out the people he named( except the ones that weren't there). The jounin around the field chuckled at hearing Naruto's description of Anko and Haruka, but they couldn't say that he was wrong. The explanations were pretty accurate.
"Wow, I'd hate to be you when Anko comes." Kiba commented, shivering in fright at the prospect of a person scarier than Kurenai-sensei.
"I agree, the Anko-san you described sounds scarier than my father. I'm glad she was out of town last week, I would hate to meet her." Sasuke shivered. Nearby, Genma nearly died as he burst into laughter. The kids were just far too entertaining to watch. He was suddenly so glad that the Hokage had given him the job. Funny how fast one's mood could change.
At the end of the day, the three had become the best of friends, surprising the supervising jounin and chunin, who would of thought the stuck-up Uchiha could have been friends with a rowdy Inuzuka and the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi? Sasuke had spent nearly the whole day telling his two newly made friends about his magnificent older brother as the two listened in awe. When Sasuke stopped, Kiba groaned.
"How is that fair? You get a cool aniki, but I get an older sister who can't do anything. She's not even a genin yet!" he complained. Suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke shut their mouths. Kiba looked at them in confusion, normally they would make fun of him and laugh. Slowly, realization dawned on him.
" She's behind me, isn't she?" he asked, afraid to look backwards. Naruto and Sasuke nodded.
"Oh shit." Kiba cursed.
"KIBA! I'm going to kill you and that stupid Itachi! I'm way better than him!" his older sister raged. It was quite an amusing sight to see Hana dragging Kiba around and punching him. After all, Hana was only nine.
" I'm sorry!" Kiba wept, anime tears falling off his face. Tsume only chuckled as her kids fought each other.
Not long afterwards, Itachi also came to pick Sasuke up. Sasuke immediately dragged Itachi over to where Naruto and a very bruised Kiba stood.
"Look aniki! I made two new friends! Uzumaki Naruto, and Inuzuka Kiba!" he boasted, that was one more friend than Itachi ever had. The only friend Itachi had was Shisui, and he was extremely annoying and also his cousin. So technically, he was only family, not a friend.
Itachi smiled and waved at them, not the slightest bothered by the fact that Naruto was the kyuubi's container.
"Cool! You're Sasuke's brother! Are you really in ANBU?" Naruto asked.
Itachi nodded before telling them," Sumimasen, but we have to go. Otou-san is waiting for us. I don't want to keep him waiting."
"See you later!" Sasuke called as they left.
" Well, nice meeting you kid. But we've got to go home. Maybe you can come over sometime, I'm sure Kiba would like it. And maybe Hana will too." Tsume smiled while walking away. Naruto nearly died of joy at the prospect of a play date with Kiba. He nodded excitedly.
"Alright! see you next class Sasuke! You too, Kiba!" Naruto called, waving as they left. He stood there watching as they left, still giddy with excitement. He was determined to have the chakra exercises down by next week. That was a promise, and he would keep it.
" Naruto, come on, it's time for dinner! Akemi's making ramen! " Kurenai called as she ushered the other children into the orphanage.
Naruto licked his lips in anticipation. Akemi made the second best miso ramen in the world. Ichiraku's ramen held the record. Maybe he could get a few extra servings if he finished quick enough, he always got the leftover ramen. The thought spurred him on as he raced inside. Kurenai smirked, she knew that would get his attention. Now to cook some extra ramen.
So, how was it? Sorry for the wait. I can't update too much on weekends or at the end of July to the beginning of August, family vacation. I can update on weekdays though. Maybe not a lot after school starts. Should the Uchiha massacre happen? I'm still deciding. Tell me what you think in reviews please. Constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as ideas. Note: Not all advice will be used. BTW, Kurenai and them are fourteen when Naruto is born. Do the math. And they have been taking care of him his whole life. Guess whose relative Akemi is? Bye!