A/N:

Hey guys. How's it going?...

This is where you're supposed to answer me...

Stop staring, you're creeping me out.

I don't own Naruto.

Everything about the Academy is boring. Especially if you already know the material. I mean I was a college graduate in my past life. This was Kami-damned elementary school again.

OK, granted there were two subjects that actually caught my interest: codes, and Chakra. Whenever either of those came up, the teacher had my undivided attention.

Now; however, we were learning the basics of algebra.

I had been moved up to a more advanced class a year ago, but even that didn't help to cure my utter boredom. It didn't really bother me that my mom wanted to hold me back. I was on the same page, really. I didn't want to go out into the field just yet. No matter what Itachi and Kakashi did, the battlefield is no place for a seven-year-old such as myself. It didn't really matter that I could wipe the floor with anyone nearly any genin, it was the principle of the thing.

To keep myself from banging my head on the table for days on end, I tried to entertain myself with chakra control exercises, or books on fuinjutsu that my mom had lying around the house.

At the moment, I was staring intently at two floating orbs revolving around my index finger. They were the size of large marbles; one was solid white, while the other was a deep black.

"How are you doing that?"

I look over to the voice. "Doing what?"

Mai Kumichi was a little slip of a girl, wearing a light purple, hooded vest, brawler gloves, and cargo pants. She was nine; two years older than me, much like the rest of the class, and civilian born.

"That!" she said, pointing to the two orbs that were still revolving around my finger.

I looked at my finger, then back to her. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I deadpan.

She turns beat red. Oh man this girl is easy to rile up, but she's cut off before she can say anything else.

"Mai-chan, leave Taichi-kun alone and listen. I'm testing you on this tomorrow." Kimiko Yuma was an amazing teacher. She would explain every concept in an easy to understand way, she went out of her way to help people with anything they were struggling with, and she tolerated no shit. But she was nice about it.

"But Yuma-sensei! Taichi isn't paying attention at all! He's just playing with marbles!"

She sighed and looked at me, thinking to herself for a good minute. Then she sighed and turned to the blackboard behind her, "Taichi-kun," she said, writing up a relatively advanced calculus problem on the board, "Please solve this for us."

"Aren't we learning algebra? We shouldn't even touch calculus for another year or two, right?" I ask.

She noded and looked at me expectantly.

I rolled my eyes and got up to walk to the blackboard. As I got closer, I examined the problem. Derivatives of integrals. Ugh, this would take me a few minutes. I hate math.

I picked up the chalk and began to hash out an answer on the board.

A few minutes later, "Happy?" I asked, putting the chalk down and turning to Yuma-sensei.

She noded, satisfied as the rest of the class stared dumly between me and the chalkboard.

"That's why I don't really care if Taichi listens, so stop worrying about him and make sure that you all pass the test tomorrow."

The Academy was a complete waste of time for me. The coding class was interesting, but they spent entirely too much time reviewing the information. Kids didn't pick up on boring stuff like that easily.

The class was basically about the standard field sign language. I was fluent in a month.

Whoa now, unruffle your panties. It wasn't that hard, the language only covered basic ideas, like "Go, target vulnerable," or "Stealth required. No ninjutsu," There was no real grammatical structure to learn, and it wasn't like I was learning anything in math class, so I had a ton of extra time.

My other favorite; the chakra class, was equally stupid. Mainly just because we had two minutes of instruction at the beginning, then the rest was basic chakra control exercises for an hour. Everybody was trying to stick leaves to their heads, and I was sitting on the ceiling twirling Yin/Yang marbles around my noggin.

OK, yeah, I'm a bit of a showoff, but I was bored.

Now all that lead up to the one class we had after lunch: training.

This was split up into three sections: endurance training, taijutsu spars, and throwing practice.

This was the only section that I actually fit in nicely. My placement in all three was around the middle of the class. This was just because I kept adding more chakra to my gravity seal if I started to pull too far ahead of everybody. This meant that I lost just as much as I won in the spars, and my endurance appeared to be about average.

I sometimes found myself wondering how much extra weight I'd been carrying around. I mean I hadn't ever released the built up chakra in the seal, so it just kept getting heavier. At this point, I was pretty sure that If I wanted to bring it back to the same weight, I would have to nearly empty my chakra reserves into the seal.

This process of mine really forced me to get better in the skill department. I couldn't rely on speed or strength to overpower my opponent because of the gravity seal, so I had to straight up out-perform them. Not to mention they didn't let us use anything other than the Konoha standard forms, so my taijutsu style with the clichéd name was useless.

On the plus side, the Konoha standard had a few ways to start a confrontation. Which was a nice change from the Flowing Lotus.

"Are you going to stand up, or am I going to have to come over there?"

I sigh, brought back from my musings, "No, no, Yuma-sensei. I think I can handle it."

I stood back up slowly, looking at the smug countenance of the nine-year-old who just put me on my ass.

"Ready for round two, Nameless-Academy-Student-Number-Twelve?"

Oooo that pissed him off, "I told you like seventeen times!-"

"Can you even count that high?" I muse, and a couple kids watching chuckle.

"My name is ****** ********!" He fumed, looking decidedly put out.

I look at him with half lidded eyes, "Sorry, I think my brain just blocked you out. All I heard there was, 'Be~~ep.'" I dig my pinky into my ear, in an effort to clear out some wax.

"RRRAAAAAAGGHHH" He charged at me blindly, completely forgetting about the match.

I sidestepped his first punch with a grin, slamming my forearm into his, knocking him off balance, and sweeped his over-extended leg with a light kick. That gave me room to come back around with a straight jab to his gut, putting him down for the count.

"You're not going to make too many friends like that, Taichi-kun." Yuma-sensei said.

"It worked, didn't it?" I frown.

"That's not really the point."

"Hey, everybody keeps telling us to keep a clear head in battle. All I did was make it hard for Number Twelve to do so."

She studied me for a minute, then just sighed and walked to mediate another spar.

"Nice win, Taichi."

I turn around, "Hey Shiro. Thanks."

Shiro Nara was by far the laziest kid in class. I suppose that isn't really surprising, I mean he is a Nara afterall. I swear, when it comes to the Nara clan, as intelligence increases, laziness follows.

He was wearing a skin-tight, black tee-shirt with a thin, grey hoodie over top, and grey cargo pants. His hair was on the long side and tied back in a small ponytail.

I'd known Shiro for nearly as long as I'd known Shikamaru. He was always around the Nara compound, so whenever I'd hang out over there, I found myself gravitating to the older kid. He was less annoying than baby Ino. We'd spend most of our time cloud watching with Shikamaru while I fiddled with my chakra.

So basically Shiro and I were old friends, and he was really the only one I could call a friend in the class. He was the only kid there that was at least somewhat on my mental level.

"Did you have to eat into the guy like that? You don't usually issue out an ego-beating." He yawns.

"Ehh, I didn't like the look on his face when he put me on the ground. Why? Think I was too hard on him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nahh, I thought it was hilarious."

I chuckled, "Have you gone yet?"

"Yeah," He scratched an itch behind his ear, "Got my ass kicked."

I full on laughed this time, "You know you would be the top of the class if you actually gave a shit, right?"

"For shame, Taichi!" He mock gasped, raising his hand over his heart, "Wherever did you learn to talk like that?"

"Oh fuck off."

He chuckled.

"Hey Taichi, are you bored in the Academy yet?" Uncle Inoichi said as he walked over to my spot under a tree. The compound was mostly empty this time of day. Nice for a bit of rest under the sun.

Bored? Hell yes, I was bored. Nobody would teach me anything other than chakra control exercises, math, and Konoha Standard. Literally the only thing I could do to pass the time was train. I mean I could go and hang out with people, but I couldn't stand being in the same room as a bunch of seven-year-olds for more than thirty minutes. They just grate on your nerves after a while. Shiro and Shikamaru were my salvation when it came to intelligent conversation, but they didn't give a rat's ass about getting stronger, and that's all I really wanted to do.

Every time I thought about what I would be up against once I graduate, I saw every member of Akatsuki, Madara, Kaguya, and even people like Zabuza. I knew for a fact that if I went up against any of them, I would get my ass handed to me in no time at all. I figured that if I released my gravity seal, I might be able to fight low chunin on an equal ground - if they only used taijutsu - but I was woefully inadequate otherwise.

My repertoire was horrible. I mean yes, I had fuinjutsu and the body-flicker under my belt, but I wasn't advanced enough in either of those to use them in any real battle scenario.

"No~o," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "What would ever give you that idea?"

He snorted, "Well I might have something for you to work on." I perked up. "You can use the Body-Flicker, right?"

Huh, now that I thought about it, I never did show him. I used it a lot just to get around, but I never made a big deal of it.

I nod.

"Well have you ever tried to do it without hand seals? Your control is phenomenal, I think you should be able to do it."

I blink. "What hand seals?"

Now it was his turn to blink, then just stare at me.

"Uncle Inoichi, you there?."

"You mean that you've been using the Shunshin no Jutsu without hand seals this entire time?"

"Um… Yes?" Wait, "You mean to tell me that I learned it the hard way?! There were seals I could have used?! That took me six months!"

He just rubbed his eyes, "Oh Kami this is ridiculous, I mean I know that it's a D-rank jutsu and all, but you're breaking precedents here. You didn't even use one-handed seals, just jumped straight to none at all."

"Wait, wait." I put my hands up, "From the beginning please. I didn't even know that you could reduce hand seals. This solves like all of my problems." It really did, too. I'd been trying to think of a way to keep my projectile seal on my right palm - I really need to find a cooler name for that thing - and still be able to use hand seals. If I could just use my left hand for the seals, or none at all, it would be golden.

"Well it's a bit more difficult than it sounds. First off, it takes a lot more control to use reduced hand seals. I don't know any Genin who are able to reduce the seals for any of the basic three at all. Second, it takes more chakra. Not much more, granted, but more. However, you can reduce that extra cost with more control."

"Basic three?" I already knew about them, but I still didn't want to give anyone a hint at just how much I knew about this world. As far as they know, I was just a kid with the mind of an adult.

"Ah, I guess they haven't even mentioned them in the Academy yet, huh?" I nod. "Well, there's the Henge, Clone, and Body-Replacement. Henge lets you change your appearance, Clone lets you make an illusory clone of yourself, and Body-Replacement lets you switch your body with something of similar mass to get out of a tight situation. They're all seen as some of the most basic skills a ninja should know, and honestly, the Body-Flicker is a bit more advanced, but it should really be a part of that list."

"When do they start teaching those?" I ask.

"Usually not till your last couple years there."

"What?! You mean I have to wait another year or two before anyone even mentions these fucking things?!"

"Language, Taichi. Seriously. You're supposed to be seven."

I fold my arms, "Oh give me a break. I'm being seriously held back here."

He laughs, "Well I suppose I could give you a little advanced instruction. We needed to find something else for you to do instead of the clan training anyway. I'm starting Ino on the Mind-Body-Switch soon, and I don't really want to leave you out on your own."

"That would be appreciated."

A/N:

Remember guys and gals, it is very possible that I'm accidentally stealing ideas from other stories. I've read a lot of them, so my brain might fart and think that it was something original. If you catch a slip-up, please let me know so that I can toss in a citation of some kind. I don't think I've done it so far, but I don't want to actually steal stuff. That shit just wouldn't sit right with me.

Now 95% of this story is original, but there is the chance that someone's had the same idea as me. In which case, I would still like to at least reference their work. You know, share the love and all that.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as Constructive Criticism.

Please do not shove insults up my ass. It might back up all the shit to the point where it comes out the other end, and who knows what that would do to my writing…. I do. It'd be shit. My writing would be shit... Get it? Because I said it would get backed up- You know what, nevermind.

Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.