My breath caught. I was already exhausted from my scrape with Sasuke earlier in the day. I was being chased. By who? I had no idea. I was sixteen years old, and this thing was ridiculous. And then I was flattened.
"Give me the code." I couldn't see the man above me clearly.
"Give me the code, damn you!" I flinched as he threw another punch at me.
I had no code. Everyone else had codes their families had passed them, but me? I was an orphan. No one cared about me, and it had taken me the good part of my first two years at the Academy to make friends. This was my third year. No one was really expected to pass after three years. Some did, but they were the one's considered special. Almost all of them went into Black Arrow.
"The code! Give it to me!"
Those were the last words I heard before I lost consciousness. I awoke the next day in the hospital wing of the Academy. There were soft voices speaking around me, and I wondered who they were. I opened my eyes and almost instantly wished that I hadn't.
"Naruto!"
"Yes, Lady Tsunade?" I flinched. She was the best doctor, but she had a temper that was hard to deal with.
Her expression inexplicably softened.
"I'm glad you're alright."
I looked at her questioningly.
"Huh?"
"Idiot, you were almost killed! What were you doing…"
And it kept going.
I was released from the hospital wing a few days later. I had a few bandages and a scar or two to show for it. Kiba and Shikamaru greeted me enthusiastically, well Kiba did, at least. Shikamaru just muttered something about how troublesome it was that I had missed the first day of summer vacation.
We walked to the walls that separated us from the ocean. The walls were at least one hundred and fifty feet high and completely clear. The water level came about half-way up at the time, but at high tide, the waves would come much higher. We stood gazing at the water for a while.
As we turned to walk to our respective houses, I caught a glimpse of Sasuke. He was as dark as always, his hair falling in his eyes and his mouth formed into a hard line. I tried to call out to him, but he didn't say anything. Kiba cuffed me on the arm.
"You always try to talk to him, but he's not going respond. He's a weird kid."
I nodded still staring after Sasuke's back. My mind flickered back to the incident the night before. What was the code? I didn't have any codes. My parents were dead, so there was no one to pass on the knowledge me. I had no clan secrets, no hidden weapons. I was stuck with general issue equipment with no special features. It sucked.
Later that day, I was walking to my dorm. Ahead of me, I saw Iruka walking down the corridor. He looked unusually serious, and stopped when he saw me.
"Naruto." He said. What did he want?
"Given the events of last night, we believe you should graduate the Academy and get to more specialized training immediately. You'll be assigned to a three-man squad tomorrow."
"Wait, really? Yay!" I punched the air.
I didn't really have a clue about what had happened the night before, but I was happy that I had graduated. It was the first possible year I could graduate. This put me in genius standing, something I wasn't really used to. Most of my friends were older than me. People my age tended to be immature and bully me, and I had heard that everyone of them had graduated as well. I had a good season coming.
I lay peacefully in my bed that night. I was content, for at least a little while. And I drifted off to sleep in the soft moonlight drifting through my window. Shadows were falling in my dreams. I heard a loud growling, and I saw a flash of bright orange. I woke with a start. My hands were clutching the sheets and I was drenched in cold sweat. What is that? I wondered.
As I lay awake trying to fall asleep again, it came to me. The thing I had seen in my dream was a giant nine-tailed fox. My heartbeat was unnaturally quick. Nine-tailed foxes didn't exist I told myself. But as I got up to get a drink of water, the image haunted me. It felt familiar in a way I couldn't really explain. I went back to bed shortly and fell asleep again, but no foxes invaded my dreams.