I do not own Naruto.
A Past Retold: Chapter 2
It was early morning in the land of fire, and the sun was just starting to peak over the tall walls surrounding the magnificent village hidden in the leaves. The Hokage mountain was bathed in its golden light as the birds started chirping and the villagers started stirring. A sliver of sunlight also entered a dingy apartment window, falling on a head of messy golden locks peaking out from under a thick blanket. The bundle beneath it stirred slightly, emitting soft snoring sounds.
The room was a mess. There was dirty laundry spread out all over the floor, a surprising amount of it in various shades of orange. Empty instant ramen cups were littered around the apartment on almost every surface the place had to offer, on the floor, on the kitchen table, in the sink... even on the bed where the lump was still gently moving up and down accompanied with peaceful breathing noises. One could even spot more that a few cockroaches scurrying around, over and under the mayhem that was the floor.
Suddenly there was a ear-splitting ring as an alarm went off somewhere in the confines of chaotic living space. The blond bundle stirred again before a small child-sized hand wormed itself out from under the covers and blindly started feeling around for the source of the commotion. It started it's search slowly and clumsy at first, but as the annoying sound kept blaring through the apartment, the hand got more and more frustrated, moving faster and flinging garbage around before the bundle it hailed from suddenly lunged and a small boy escaped from the warm burrow he had constructed through his sleep.
His hair was a mess of sharp golden spikes, his face rounded by baby fat. The boy's chubby cheeks had three whisker-like lines on each of them, giving him a fox-like appearance. His cerulean eyes were narrowed with annoyance but still quite dull with sleep. The child fumbled around a bit before finding the noise emitting device and in an almost aggressive manner, switched it off.
Naruto yawned and stretched, trying to rid his mind of the sleep that was still clouding his thoughts. He had been having such a nice sleep before that stupid alarm had gone off and ruined it all.
Slowly he got to his feet and started trudging through the ankle deep mayhem on his floor towards his small fridge, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his small hands as he went. He was wearing an overly large old brown T-shirt that came to about his knees and had some holes in it. It was so stretched out that the neck of his shirt fell over one of his shoulders.
Finally he reached his destination, after some curses and stumbling that came from stepping on something sharp or particularly gooey. He opened his small fridge , grabbed the milk and drank a few gulps straight from the carton. Then he had a quick shower, hunted around for something suitable and orange to wear, and headed out to the academy.
It was still quite early but most people were already out and going about their normal morning routines. Ninjas were training or heading out for an early start on a mission, villagers were setting up stalls and rushing to their places of employment. Some house wives were already flapping their dusting cloths out various windows as they went about their cleaning.
Naruto walked with his usual wide grin on his face, eyes squinted and almost shut so that he wouldn't see the angry glares thrown at him. He really did not understand what the deal was with everybody or what he had done that was so wrong... It was also not worth the trouble to ask someone, their glares would simply intensify, like him not knowing was even worse than whatever he did. Some people had even spat at him, growled at him, shouted at him and very often thrown things at him. Therefore instead of paying attention to their hateful eyes, he simply ignored it. One day he would be Hokage and they would all look at him with those kind eyes and smiles as they did when they saw the old man. He would even make a rule that people were not allowed to be so mean to other people.
A few hours later, Naruto was slouching in his seat, with his palm cupping his cheek and his elbow resting on his desk His eyes were drifting shut, bored out of his mind with the dull facts that Iruka-sensei was lecturing about. Like really, why did he have to know the origins of the shuriken? As long as he knew how to throw the metallic stars at his targets, he was sorted in that department. Knowing where the stuff came from was just useless information that he did not need to fill his brain with. Why couldn't they just learn how to kick ass? That was much more useful.
The bored blond peaked through his one half open eye, looking around at his class mates. Shikamaru was snoring a few seats away from him without a care in the world. Chouji was seated next to his sleeping friend, slowly munching away at a bag of chips, his eyes dull. The amount of time it was taking him to open them after every blink was slowly but steadily increasing.
Kiba was having a deep discussion with Akamaru, not paying even a shred of attention to the lecture. Hinata was quietly sitting near the back of the class, not really standing out at all. Ino was staring dreamily at Sasuke who was sitting a few seats in front of her. The bastard himself was just brooding about something, most likely not hearing a word about what was going on either. Sakura was dutifully taking notes, but shooting hopeful glances at Sasuke every few seconds. Shino was blending in with the background near the back of the class...
Everybody was bored out of their minds, no doubt about it. Kids were simply not meant to sit still for such a long amount of time.
Suddenly there was a spark in the infamous prankster's open eye. A mischievous grin slowly making its way across his features.
Quickly wiping any trace of his devious thinking from his face, Naruto raised his hand.
"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka-sensei stopped his lecture, looking up from the text book in his hand.
"May I please go to the bathroom, Sensei?" The blond asked, his voice the sound of pure innocence. Really this should have tipped the scar nosed teacher off. Nevertheless, he gave the blond permission and continued boring his class half to death. There really was no way to enhance a shuriken history lecture, but it had to be taught. The teacher was rather bored himself in fact.
A few moments later there was a commotion down the hallway.
"What the...?" Iruka thought as he heard some of his colleges arguing down the hall and the sound of a lot of things falling and a cat yowling. The spiky haired chuunin instructor sighed and placed his text book on his desk.
"Ok class," He announced. "Self study until I return. If I so much as hear a peep out of this room while I am away it will mean detention."
There was a chorus of "Hai"'s from his more diligent students, while a few of the others stirred slightly in their sleep. He gave another mighty sigh and closed the door behind him.
As soon as the man left, Naruto tumbled in through the window, some twigs and leaves stuck in his hair, his clothes in a more rumpled state as they were before. All of the awake students watched as he snuck over to the teacher's desk in the front of the class, tinkered around with some of the drawers, and then made his way back to the window, crackling madly as he went.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed. Her high pitched voice rudely waking the napping students, much to their displeasure. "What do you thing you are doing?"
"Well, it's his fault for giving such a boring lecture, Sakura-chan." The blond replied, giving the pink haired girl a bright smile as he climbed back out the window and onto the tree branch he had used to get there.
There was a slight creak in the branch, causing the escaping prankster to lose his footing, and after swinging his arms helplessly, he tumbled to the ground, a muffled yelp and thud signalled his landing a few seconds later.
The whole class chuckled at his misfortune. Even the ever brooding last Uchiha had a smirk on his face as he said "Dobe" softly.
A few moments later Iruka returned holding Naruto by the scruff of his neck.
"Naruto!" he exclaimed "Detention for a week! How did you even get Tora into the building? Do you have any idea how much damage that demonic cat caused?"
"Sensei!" The accused blond screamed as he tried to escape the hold the man had on his neck.
"Who said I let the damned cat in? You have absolutely no proof! Innocent until proven guilty DATTEBAYO!"
The scarred chuunin actually growled at the blond. "I will find proof Naruto... Mark my words..."
As soon as the man released his student the child lumbered to his seat, rubbing his neck, a slight limp evident from his previous fall.
"Why are you covered in twigs and dirt anyway Naruto?" Iruka asked, holding the base of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, his eyes closed.
"Uh...I fell." The blond replied, scratching the back of his head.
"I thought you went to the bathroom." The instructor countered, crossing his arms.
"I did. I ...Uh... fell in the bathroom, ... slid on the floor and flew out the window. It was quite amazing Sensei, you should have seen it."
Iruka just sighed again and headed toward his desk, his hand reaching out to open a drawer.
"IRUKA-SENSEI STOP! NARUTO MESSED WITH YOUR DESK!" Sakura yelled, standing up and pointing at the aforementioned blond. "He sneaked in here through the window when you were out!"
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto looked at the pink haired girl with anime tears running down his whiskered cheeks. "You ruined it! My brilliant plan all ruined"
"Seriously Dobe, if you wanted your plan to work you shouldn't have done it in front of the whole class." Sasuke smirked
"SHUT UP, TEME!"
Once again the class was filled with chuckling students. Iruka carefully opened his drawers and discovered a simple trap involving smoke bombs. "Not a very good trap at all"he thought as he easily disabled everything. "Not up to his usual standard."
An hour or so later the class had settled down and the previously napping students resumed their comfortable napping positions. Iruka was seated at his desk, marking some assignments. The diligent students had started doing some homework.
A certain blond suddenly grinned, his eyes lit up. Shikamaru was looking at the prankster with a frown on his brow, this would most likely end up being troublesome.
Naruto placed his hands in a seal and silently whispered "kai!"
Suddenly there was a flash and a bang. Iruka jumped up and attached himself to the roof, kunai in hand, looking for the enemy after his chair seemed to explode. A few girls shrieked at the shock of it all.
A loud crackling laughter filled the room as the dust cleared. Naruto was rolling on the ground laughing, gripping his sides. This was all just too good. The prank had finally come together.
"NARUTO!" Iruka-sensei yelled, his face red with rage. "DETENTION FOR A MONTH!"
Tears were running down the laughing prankster's face as he finally pulled himself up to look over his desk.
"You fell for it!" he yelled as he continued laughing. A couple of his classmates laughing as well, a few looking scandalized. Shikamaru just smirked a bit before going back to his nap.
"HA HA! I knew Sakura-chan would snitch on me, so I made it look like my prank involved your desk when I actually attached a flash tag to the bottom of your chair." Naruto explained, wiping the tears of laughter from his face. "Oh that was so worth a month of detention..." The blond continued, ignoring the warning look from Shikamaru. "HAHA! You should have seen your face Sensei!"
"Well Naruto," Iruka said, standing up from his perch on the ceiling, before allowing himself to fall down to the ground gracefully, doing a casual flip in mid air, landing gently on his feet and placing the kunai back in his thigh holster. "If one month of detention isn't enough, how about three?"
"NANI?!"
Truly Iruka was slightly impressed that the blond actually though ahead and planned for his class mate to snitch on him. Even if she had not it would still have worked. Add to that the fact that Iruka still had no idea how the young troublemaker managed to get the demon cat in the school to cause the distraction. The cat was regularly causing genin teams trouble.
"Please see me after class so that we can discuss your detention." the instructor said and returned to his desk to face the bane of all teachers existence... marking assignments.
Naruto just hung his head. He wasn't really that mad, the prank had actually gotten him some attention, and the whole class was laughing this time. Honestly, it was almost worth all three month's worth of detention. Maybe he could even get Iruka to teach him some advanced ass kicking techniques as he carried out his detention every day.
A few weeks later Naruto was busy dusting down one of the classrooms of the academy and Iruka was supervising him, marking some assignments at the same time.
"Ne Ne, Iruka-sensei?" The blond suddenly spoke up after a full two minutes of being silent.
"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka replied, not looking up from his work.
"Could you teach me a new kick ass jutsu? I'm almost done with the day's cleaning and..."
"Naruto" Iruka interrupted him, "I can't teach you anything before you fully understand the basics."
"I understand the basics!"
"No, you don't." The instructor countered, still not looking up from his work.
Naruto was getting annoyed at the chuunin. "How would you know?" The blond yelled, waving his feather duster in the instructors direction.
"I know, Naruto, because I am the person responsible for testing you on the basics, and based on this weeks assignment, you clearly do not understand the basics" The man looked up from his work, showing Naruto his failing grade on the assignment he had just recently marked.
"That doesn't count."
Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And why not?"
"It's history." The blue eyed trouble maker replied.
"And?" At this point Iruka had put his marking pen down and was resting his chin on his interlaced fingers.
"It's not important." The blond replied with a shrug, going back to his dusting.
"History may be the most important subject of them all Naruto." Iruka said softly, his head tilted to the side. "The whole point is to learn of past mistakes, draw strength from previous heroes ... understand why we are even doing what we are."
Naruto just shrugged his shoulders and continued with his task. Iruka just sighed silently and started marking again, it was clear the boy simply did not understand the importance of the past.
A few moments later an ANBU appeared in the class, startling Naruto enough to tumble off the chair he had been balancing on to dust the higher shelves of the class' bookcase.
"ANBU-san, how may I help you?" Iruka asked the silent killer. The trained assassin turned his white crow masked face toward the man.
"I am here to deliver a message to Uzumaki Naruto." The crow masked figure replied. The figure had a deep voice, hinting toward being a male underneath the dark cloak and mask.
"Eeeh? What you want with me?" Naruto asked, getting to his feet, cursing the chair as he did so.
"Hokage-sama requires your presents in his office at once."
Within seconds Naruto was out the door, accompanied by the ANBU officer.
"Later Iruka-Sensei!: The blond called over his shoulder. Absolutely elated at getting out of detention. He did not even have to make up some elaborate excuse this time. "I can't have the Hokage waiting for me now can I?"
Iruka just sighed once again, shaking his head slightly... That boy would be the death of him one day.
"Ne Ne, Crow-san" The hyperactive kyuubi container addressed the silent ANBU officer. "What does Jiji want with me?"
"I do not know, Uzumaki-san" The man remotely replied.
"Why not?"
"I was not informed."
"Weren't you curious?" Naruto asked, holding his hands behind his head as he walked, looking at the ANBU from the corner of his eyes.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Knowing why Hokage-sama does things is none of my business, Uzumaki-san." The ANBU's voice was starting to get a sharper edge to it with every passing question the blue eyed boy asked.
By the time the pair reached the Hokage tower, Crow was quite close to strangling his charge. The annoying brat would simply not shut up. For the whole fifteen minute walk from the academy to the tower, the boy had been babbling non-stop. A man could only take so much before he is driven to the edge. ANBU were not used to being talked to, or being expected to talk back. They lived in silence , communicated without a sound and even that was rare. The poor ANBU officer was seconds away from starting to pull his own hair out the brat was so annoying.
The moment they arrived at the Hokage's office the man politely introduced the blond, excused himself and disappeared from sight to revel in the beauty of silence.
"Jiji!" Naruto greeted the old village ruler.
"Good afternoon, Naruto." The ageing man greeted him back with a smile. The man was silently chuckling at Crow's behaviour. That specific ANBU was usually so patient and hard to anger... Naruto genuinely had a gift for getting under peoples skin, or a curse, depending on how one looks at it. It could definitely be a great weapon one day.
"I hear you have been causing trouble at school once again, my boy." The Sandaime told the blond as he put away some of the more important documents on his desk. This meeting would require all of his attention.
"Not trouble, Jiji," The blond explained as he moved closer to the old man's desk. "I have just been making class a bit more exciting." The whiskered boy continued with a cheeky smile on his face. "It's Iruka-sensei that caused the trouble. If class wasn't so boring, I wouldn't have to make it better, dattebayo"
The Hokage chuckled at the boy's answer. "So what have you been studying recently that is so boring, Naruto-kun?" He asked as he laced his fingers in front of his face, is elbows resting on his paper covered desk. Hopefully the pages his elbows were leaving imprints on were not too terribly important.
The young trouble maker made a face of disgust and muttered a single word. "History."
Hiruzen could not help but laugh a little at his answer. "But my boy, history is probably one of the most important subjects you can learn."
"Why? It's boring and all the people we learn about is already dead." Naruto looked away, crossing his arms.
"The best way to learn something, or get better at something is to make mistakes and learn from them. Like if you use a kunai for the first time and cut your hand, you learn to hold the kunai properly next time, right?" The old professor started lecturing.
"Jiji," The blond sighed like the whole conversation was just too troublesome for him to pay proper attention. "I am too awesome to cut myself with a kunai."
"That is not the point, my boy... You learnt how to hold the kunai from a book or an instructor, correct? Well, if someone had not made the mistakes first, learnt from them... and then written a book about it, you would have cut your hands to shreds by now."
"Hai, hai." The blond replied, waving his one hand in an almost dismissal.
The Hokage sighed and shook his head a little. "Very well then Naruto, I did not call you here to talk about your school work." The village leader sat back and took a long drag from his pipe, releasing the fumes a few seconds later.
"I am going to tell you about your parents."
The blond froze, his eyes widened. "M-my parents?"
"Aah, but first, I must introduce you to someone. Due to certain circumstances, she was forced to leave the village the day you were born, and I could not tell you about her for her own safety." The Hokage explained before raising his voice slightly. "Natsumi-chan, you can come in now."
The office door opened to reveal a woman with dark red hair and bright blue eyes, the exact shade of Naruto's own eyes.
Naruto looked at the woman with open curiosity. She looked like a normal jōnin, the lower half of her face hidden by a black scarf.
The young Kyuubi host then turned back to the Sandaime "What does she have to do with my parents, old man. You told me they were dead." He asked, his voice clearly showing his displeasure at being interrupted.
"Just a moment, Naruto-kun." The old man replied before addressing the jōnin. "If you would be so kind as to seal the room, my dear."
The red head then closed the office door before placing her hand on a complicated looking seal design and placing some chakra in it. After she was done she turned back to the ageing village leader and gave a small nod in his direction, to which the man smiled before looking back at the confused boy in front of his desk.
"Naruto-kun," The Hokage started, "This is Uzumaki Natsumi. She was your mother's sister and is thereby your aunt and only living relative."
The small blond orphan's eyes widened even more than they had moments ago before he turned to look at the woman once again. He was completely frozen on the spot, his cerulean eyes glued to the only other pair of cerulean eyes in the room, his body shaking slightly.
"Hello, Naruto-kun." The woman said as she moved further into the room, her voice slightly uneven and her eyes soft. "I am glad to finally get to meet you, nephew."
A.N. Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you think, if you have any suggestions or anything. This is my first time doing something like this so any criticism is welcome.
Namikaze Kakashi
