AN: Long time no see! To be honest… I completely forgot about this story. Sorry for the long wait! Hope you enjoy!
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"Hello! My name's Akari! I hope we can be friends!" the girl exclaimed, smiling broadly. Then she bowed, sitting back into her seat.
They were introducing themselves to the class, and Akari was first as they were going by the alphabetical order.
Choji, Hinata, and Ino introduced themselves as well, when Akari had lost interest, tuning the rest of the introductions out as she glanced discreetly at Naruto. He was a complete mystery to her.
Yesterday, when they found him, it was in the red lights district, but it didn't seem to bother him, at all. The shinobi that investigated didn't seem to care much about the explosion, and that was strange too. Most of all, she hasn't really seen anyone really pay much attention to Naruto before. At least, not in the positive way.
She was shaken out of her thoughts as the blond stood up, grinning widely.
"Yo! Name's Naruto, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage! Believe it!"
Giggling at his bold declaration, as well as the angered retorts from… certain other classmates, she turned over to look at Sasuke.
He was a great brother, and he really cared for her, though he'd never admit it. Smirking at the tsundere-like attributes of his brother, she had to stifle a laugh as she compared it to the emo-like appearance he gave off. It was amusing, it really was.
Like, really.
Sasuke stood up, bowing stiffly. "Sasuke. Don't expect me to play nice."
Like that, his curt introduction only seemed to make the females in the room swoon even more, making Akari sweatdrop.
Soon after, Iruka started speaking again, and she saw that both Naruto and Sasuke were entirely focused. Shrugging, she paid Iruka-sensei all of her attention, too.
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Stretching out his arms, Naruto yawned as, finally, class was over. He had decided not to do anything today, luckily for his instructors, instead opting to listen as best as he could in class.
He was going to be Hokage, after all!
Grinning widely, Naruto opened the window and exited much like the day prior, albeit with a lack of an enraged Iruka chasing him.
Quickly, he jumped from one building to another quickly, much quicker than a normal human, reminiscing of when he first learned the Body Flicker Technique.
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"Jii-san! Jii-san!" a young version of Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet energetically as Hiruzen turned to look at the boy with an eyebrow raised.
"Jii-san, teach me something, a jutsu or whatever!"
The man looked amused. "Naruto, you know I can't do that. You're too young, and it'll be unfair for your peers in the future."
"But, Jii-san!" Naruto pouted, looking imploringly into the aged man's eyes. "Shikamaru and Choji say their parents are already teaching them jutsu! And I saw Sasuke using a fireball jutsu earlier!"
Hiruzen stared at him for a bit, before caving in.
"Fine, Naruto. But you have to be careful with this one, or you can get hurt." he warned, sighing as Naruto grinned wider at the promise of danger.
The next hour, Hiruzen had spent all his time with Naruto, something that was unprecedented though he loathed to admit it. Silently, he decided to spend more time with the orphan.
Naruto had quickly picked up the Shunshin within the first half of their time, and though he complained about it initially, he was soon teleporting all over the training ground with glee.
The Hokage smiled contentedly as he saw the young boy play around joyfully. After all, what was the point of leading a village if you can't even make one boy smile?
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The next weeks were plagued with Naruto's pranks, made even worse when the Anbu was reportedly unable to catch him, barring Dog and Cat.
He had created a monster!
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Chuckling at the year-old memory, the blond sighed in contentment as he sat down and spread open a scroll.
Yesterday, after Shikamaru and the others had found him and Akari, the group played around with some of the other seals he had made until it was time to leave. Before they did, however, Akari had promised to return, and the others had given mixed replies, but mostly good ones.
It was awesome! He finally got to play with other kids his age, though he had hung out with Shikamaru and Choji from time to time, it was more just staring at the sky than anything else.
Unfortunately, yesterday had left Naruto's stock of seals dry, so he was doing his best to replenish them.
He was still scribbling away furiously when Kiba entered, and soon after that came Shikamaru and Choji, and finally Akari.
"Sorry." she raised a hand in apology, rubbing the back of her head apologetically. "I had to talk to my brother."
Shrugging, Naruto greeted her enthusiastically, dragging her over to the others with a wide grin on his face.
"Everyone's here!" Naruto exclaimed, surprised but happy. "What do you guys wanna do? I made more seals?"
Kiba shook his head, nearly bouncing off as he sat by a small, dingy table. "Nah, man! Show us how you do your pranks! How come you never get caught?"
Akari nodded rapidly in agreement, and Choji perked up in excitement.
Shikamaru sighed, but even Akari, who'd just met him, could tell he was interested.
Fidgeting sheepishly, Naruto looked around, but saw that they were genuinely curious. Slowly, a smile grew on his face, as he nodded. "It might be easier for me to show you. Come on!"
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Akari and the others were standing atop a building near the Hokage's building, peering up at Konoha Rock. Directly above them, a tiny yellow and orange dot was scaling the mountain, bucket of paint in one hand, and a giant brush in the other.
Naruto hooked the bucket to the rope, and set the paintbrush inside it before, letting go and hanging solely by the rope attached to his waist. Quickly, he shrugged off his jacket, and tied it around his waist in preparation of the oncoming chase.
Taking a deep breath, he grinned and got to work.
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Hope you enjoyed! ^^