Alright so a little later than expected, but here it is! I'll be finishing up the academy next chapter as well as graduation. Then I'll go into more of the canon stuff, well, arcs really. Let's be honest, things are going to go a bit differently. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!


Koguro Tetsu was having a really bad day. First he gets fired from his job as an assistant to a popular merchant, then he gets mugged on the way back home on his walk of shame. He had been by the demon's apartment while on his way home and it only enraged him further. The Kyuubi had killed both his parents when he was 18, and that the demon who did it got to live on was only insult to injury. He thought that he'd go vent his frustrations on the blonde later that night with his friend that also hated the demon for taking his little sister.

When they got to the apartment later that night, they had counted on the boy being there so they could show him living was worse than dying, but he wasn't, so they compromised and agreed to trash his place. What they hadn't counted on was said boy interrupting them, carrying a busty female in his arms that he no doubt had seduced with his demon charms.

Currently, they were standing opposite of the boy in question when he just gave them a bone chilling threat. He had already felt a little put off by the boy's attitude, but it was nothing compared to the sudden burst of killing intent that they were feeling. It overwhelmed him, almost crushing his very soul out of his body. He wanted to scream out in fear, but could only kneel with eyes wide, absolutely petrified. It had been just like that day 11 years ago, the same feeling of dread. The boy had blood red eyes and a dangerous, feral frown on his face.

"I will only ask you this once. Leave, and never come back." It was demanded, not asked by the enraged boy, seemingly turned demon.

Koguro just nodded dumbly, struck in fear from the boy in front of him. With a motion of Naruto's hand, he scrambled to his feet to flee so he could keep his life intact, his partner in crime following hot on his heels.

As if it were a switch, the killing intent vanished, as did Naruto's anger. "Now that that's taken care of," Naruto said with only a small bit of irritation, turning back to the bedroom.

'You know, I always relish in the fear that radiates off people when you do that kit,' Kurama said in her container's head with amusement.

"Oh I bet you do," Naruto said with a chuckle.

Walking towards the bed where Anko was writhing, Naruto's face darkened. He moved to sit beside her, unclenching one of her hands to hold it. She took it and squeezed as the pain tore through her body. Naruto had to wince at the strength she was applying, more so out of sympathy than pain. He stayed like that with her for a few hours until the pain finally passed and she was fast asleep, exhausted from the event.

At this point, Naruto was once again looking over the seal to get a better look. He frowned at it, not being able to see the whole array, but being able to tell that the seal itself consisted of three distinct parts. What those parts were, he had no idea. He assumed at least one part had to be what distributed the chakra that caused the pain.

"This will be a tough one to figure out, dattebayo," Naruto mused to himself.

He was caught off guard when Anko suddenly wrapped her arms around him as she laid in her unconscious form. Not knowing what to do, Naruto just sat there next to her, frozen in place with his arms up not daring to touch her. Eventually, he sighed, seeing as to how she wasn't going to be letting go anytime soon. He lied down on his bed to let her continue to snuggle up against him. All the while his face was bright red from, to his mind, the compromising position he was in with the older Jonin. It was the least he could do to provide comfort for what she had just gone through though. They laid like that for the rest of the night, Naruto getting barely two hours of sleep in once his body made the decision to sleep for him.

He awoke with Anko's arms still wrapped around him with her soft mounds pressing into his side. She hadn't been like that when he went to sleep. Realizing the situation, Naruto's face went bright red, with a small trickle of blood going down his nose. He wasn't mentally prepared for this to happen. He tried to wriggle out of her grasp when she began to stir, letting go and rolling over to face the other way. Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

'Thank Kami she didn't wake up while she was doing that. I don't want to know what she would do to me if she found out she was cuddling with a 'gaki' like me,' Naruto thought to himself and shuddered as he got out of his bed. He probably wouldn't admit it to himself, but he secretly enjoyed laying next to the beautiful woman all night, especially the position he was in when he woke up. He walked over to the kitchen to start making some breakfast for himself and his unexpected bed companion.

Anko stirred once again, the smell of food resting on her nose. She sat up bleary-eyed before she started to panic when she noticed she was in an unfamiliar room.

'Where am I? How'd I get here?' she asked herself, her mind racing. She jumped out of the bed silently to make her way over to where the smell was coming from. She peaked her head around the door frame of the kitchen to see the blonde she had sparred with yesterday making food, breakfast it seemed. Still slightly alarmed, but not as threatened, she stepped over into the doorway to face the would-be chef. Naruto noticed her in the corner of his eye and turned to face her. She had her hands on her hips with an expectant stare.

"Oh, morning Anko," he said with a smile.

"Why am I here?" she demanded.

Keeping up his smile, Naruto started to explain. "Well, we were on our way to get something to eat if you remember, then you suddenly collapsed on one of the tree branches. You looked to be in a lot of pain so I brought you here." At that, Anko suddenly remembered that they were going to that Ichi place when an episode came over her.

"And where exactly is that?" she demanded, never losing the sharpness in her tone.

"Uh, my apartment, where else?" Naruto said with a sheepish smile. He turned back to the food he was making for the two of them.

"I didn't ask you to help me gaki. Why the fuck did you help me?" Anko asked with the same sharpness with a hint of desperation in her voice. She didn't understand how someone she just met would just help her, let alone a brat like this if the rumors about him were to be believed. Right before her episode began, she had remembered that the blonde was the local pariah.

"Well, I mean why wouldn't I? I can't just leave a beautiful girl such as yourself to suffer in pain alone can I?" Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, glancing at the purple haired woman. She just narrowed her eyes at the boy. She didn't remember what happened after she stopped at the branch last night, much like her previous episodes. She hadn't had one in a few months and was surprised it came as soon as it did. Typically they would come every six months or so. Sparring with the kid must have triggered it somehow.

"Anyway, I'm making us some breakfast if you want to go sit at the table." Anko just nodded hesitantly before she made her way to a chair at the square table in the other room. It was one of the few tables that weren't destroyed in the whole place, and she couldn't help but wonder why most of the kid's furniture was in such shambles.

She didn't have to wait much longer as Naruto brought her a plate of eggs, bacon, and diced potatoes and set it in front of her, as well as a glass of milk, doing the same for himself, sitting across from her.

"Itadakimasu," Anko mumbled irritably, eying the food in front of her, making sure the blonde ate first to make sure it wasn't poisoned before she started eating as well. They sat in somewhat uncomfortable silence as they ate their food. After some time Anko broke the silence with a question.

"Say kid, why does your place look like shit?"

"Oh, well, when I got back here with you, some, unsavory guests were here. They seemed to think that my stuff needed to be broken, but I sent them on their way before they could destroy anything else," Naruto said with a half chuckle that had little humor in it.

Anko was slightly surprised at the explanation. "So what, did you beat the shit out of 'em or something? That's what I would have done, or have done, in the past," She said with a chuckle just as humorless as Naruto's had been.

"No, but I did manage to scare them a bit. I don't think they'll be bothering me again anytime soon," he said thinking back how the faces of the two men had looked.

Anko just laughed a bit. "What about you is scary? I've seen scarier shit from pre-academy squirts!" she jibed at Naruto.

"Oh ha ha," Naruto laughed sarcastically, "let's see if you say that when I go kyuubi on your ass," he mumbled under his breath with a huff.

"Sorry gaki, I didn't quite catch that," Anko said still chuckling at Naruto's display.

After she was done laughing at the boy's expense, her mind was plagued with a question. "Hey, why did you bring me to your place instead of the hospital or something? That's what a normal person would do under those circumstances."

"Well it's because I know that they wouldn't of been any help. All they could of done is sedate you, but with the tainted chakra in your system, I doubt it would of worked," Naruto informed, making Anko perk up in alarm.

"What do you know about the mark?" she asked in a dangerous tone with narrowed eyes.

"Well, if you keep it between me and you, I know it's a curse mark from Orochimaru. The bastard snake came up with it to control people and in return give them power," Naruto said with a little disgust.

Anko just ignored his tone. "How the hell do you know about it?! You're just a fucking kid!" she yelled at the kid, standing up from the table as she did so. Naruto just sighed at her angered response.

"You'd be surprised at how much I know. I actually have an offer for you if you're willing to listen," Naruto said looking up at the alarmed woman.

"What do you have that I could possibly want?" she asked with a scowl, upset she didn't get an answer to her question.

"Well I've been taking to fuinujutsu lately and was wondering if you'd let me try to find a way to remove the curse mark," Naruto said, shocking Anko out of her previous mood. It soon returned though.

"How the hell can a gaki like you do that if Jiraiya of the Sannin couldn't even do it!" she yelled at the blonde.

"Hey now I didn't say I could do it, I said I'd like to try if you let me," he clarified with a smile. Anko still wasn't sure about it. If a supposed seal master couldn't figure it out then how could a kid do it? But she did hate the fucking thing. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to let him try. Any chance she could to get rid of the painful reminder of her past, she'd take it. She wouldn't get her hopes up though.

"Alright fine. You can try. But I doubt you'll be able to do it," she said irritably, turning her head with a huff. She sat back down to finish her food.

"We won't know until I try will we?" Naruto said with an infectious grin that seemed to put Anko at ease. They finished their food in relatively comfortable silence until both had finished.

"Thanks kid. That was pretty damn good," Anko said, her regular attitude showing itself once more.

"No problem." With that, Naruto stood up and took the plates and glasses and went off to the kitchen. He set the dishes in the sink and walked back out to his guest.

"Well this has been fun and all gaki, but I gotta get goin. No doubt my roommate is freaking out that I didn't come home last night. I have to deal with a lot of shit from people so when I don't come home she's always worried sick about me." Anko said with a sad smile. It quickly turned into a smirk as she looked up at the blonde in front of her.

"I'll find you in the forest when I'm not busy for you to work on the mark. Possibly a spar so I can kick your ass a bit," She said with her trademark grin. She needed to leave and think things over. She couldn't really wrap her head around this kid. First, he's crazy strong, and then he goes and says that he wants to try to remove the mark that her traitorous ex-sensei gave her that has tortured her for years.

"Yeah yeah whatever," Naruto sighed with a smile on his face. He hoped that he could talk to the girl about some of her village problems. If anyone could understand the hatred that came from something you couldn't control, it was him.

As Anko was walking to the door, she couldn't help but notice something. "Uh, kid, your door is kinda broken," she said, seeing the door on the floor with the hinges busted out. Naruto just sighed.

"So goes the life of the demon of Konoha," he mumbled to himself.

XXXXX

3 months later

The fourth academy year was going to start the next day. Naruto was currently lying in his bed thinking things over since he came back. Over the past few months, he spent nearly all of his time in training ground 44. Anko would come by once every two weeks or so to spar with him and to try to figure out her curse mark. In all of his fuinjutsu studies, it was by far the most rudimentary, and complex thing he had come across. Afterward, they would usually go get something to eat, typically to either Ichiraku or the dango shop that Anko frequented. Naruto discovered that he actually liked dango quite a bit, but ramen was still king to him. He was really enjoying spending time with the snake mistress. She was crude, disrespectful, sadistically sexual, but all in all hilarious and fun to be around. It also helped that she was extremely nice to look at, her easily being one of the most beautiful girls in the entire village. It kind of frustrated him that he couldn't get her to talk about anything personal with him. Every time he tried, she'd either change the subject or just leave altogether. She'd come around one of these days, he was sure of it.

He also put some seals up to guard his apartment so what happened the night of Anko's episode wouldn't happen again. The defense seal he came up with wouldn't allow anyone to enter through it anywhere it was active, so all of the entry points of his apartment, except for Naruto and those he invited. He also made some privacy seals so people wouldn't be able to overhear him say or do anything. All in all, he was happy with his new 'fortress of solitude'. He needed to get a new place to live though. Living in this apartment for as long as he had was starting to get pretty old. He'd have to take it up with the old man.

Speaking of, Naruto couldn't help but think he should tell the Hokage of his situation. It would definitely help if someone knew of his situation, both in practicality and for his mental health. He could also get access to more scrolls and such if he could convince the grizzled old man.

Thinking about this, Naruto decided to get a second opinion. "Hey Kurama, you think I should tell the old man about me coming from the future?"

Naruto could hear a yawn in his mind and could almost see the fox stretching out. 'I don't know kit. I'm not sure how he would take it. If he believed you though it would make things a lot easier. Plus you could warn him about the coming future with Orochimaru and all that.' Kurama said with a disinterested tone. 'Plus it would explain the power you have and will have by the time your academy year is over. As much as I would love to see the fear on people's faces when you go orange, I don't think it would go over well if no one knew about your situation,' the fox informed.

"Yeah I guess your right. I'll go tell him today then. No time like the present right? Wait, is that weird coming from me? Me being a time traveler and all that? Kurama? Hello?" Naruto waited for a response but just got a resounding snore in his mind signifying his tenant didn't care. "Oh fine be that way." Kurama just smirked and went back to sleep.

Naruto got dressed and ready for the day by going through his morning routine and eating breakfast. He looked in the mirror and frowned somewhat at what he saw. "You know, I should probably get out of this kill me orange jumpsuit. As soon as I'm genin, I'm going shopping for some more shinobi-esque clothing," Naruto said with a determined look. He left his apartment and started off to the Hokage tower.

Upon arriving, Naruto got several dirty looks from the shinobi that were standing guard. Naruto just ignored them and went up to the secretary.

"Hey I need to see the Hokage about something involving village security," Naruto said hoping the girl would let him in without fuss. Luckily, she didn't look up from what she was doing and waved him in. As Naruto was walking through the door, she looked up to see the demon had just gotten past her. She scowled and tried to stop the boy but was too late as Naruto closed the door in front of her. She reluctantly went back to her desk muttering something about 'demon children' and their 'evil ways'.

Naruto walked into the Hokage's office only to see the old man looking down at a pile of paperwork with a scowl on his face.

"Hey Jiji, how goes the paperwork?" Naruto said with a smile.

Hiruzen looked up from his work to greet his favorite blonde with a smile. "Oh it goes I suppose. For what do I owe the pleasure Naruto?" the Hokage asked, pushing aside what he had been working on.

"Well, actually Jiji, I need to talk you about a few S-class village secrets that I know about." Hiruzen's face suddenly turned serious as he looked at the boy. Did he know about the fox? Or his parents? How could have he found out?

"Naruto this isn't something to be talking about lightly. If you're lying or pulling a prank I will have to punish you," the old man said in his stern Hokage voice.

"I know I know. But I'm telling the truth and I would prefer if you sent your ANBU out, as well as activated your privacy seals. I can't risk having anything I say leak out to anyone that isn't us." Naruto said in a voice far more mature than Sarutobi had ever heard from the boy. Hiruzen hesitated for a moment, but nodded his head and lifted his hand up to signal for his ANBU to leave. He was also surprised that Naruto had known about his ANBU. When Naruto mentioned them, he looked directly at all three of them like they were out in the open clear as day. Upon leaving, he could of sworn he heard a scoff from one of the ANBU, but he couldn't be sure. Afterward, he activated the privacy seals in his office to keep prying ears from hearing anything.

"Naruto this had better be good."

"Alright, well I'll get straight to the point then. Five years from now, a group calling themselves Akatsuki will resurrect Madara Uchiha, and he then becomes the jinjuriki for the 10 tails, the culmination of all the tailed beasts. From this, a thing called Zetsu revives Kaguya Otsutsuki, the mother of all chakra and shinobi. Me and Sasuke tried to fight her, but she beat us with ease, killing us both, bringing about the end of the world. While I was dead though, the Shinigami for some reason or another was interested in me and sent my mind back in time to when I was first going into the academy. Since then, I've been training night and day, fooling everyone with the help of Kage Buunshin into thinking that I'm just the dead last in the academy." Naruto took a deep breath after his explanation. After the first sentence, Hiruzen's eyes had been wide in shock and continued to grow in it as the boy went on. After his rather quick explanation, he settled down after a moment and narrowed his gaze at the boy in front of him.

"That's quite the tale Naruto. You know how crazy that sounds right? From Madara, to the 10 tails, to the shinigami," Sarutobi said in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, I didn't think you'd believe me. Guess I'll just have to prove it then. I suppose information will do as a first step. If I wasn't from the future, how would I know about the Kyuubi sealed inside of me? How would I know that my parents were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki? How would I know that the Uchiha massacre was orchestrated by you and a few others to kill all members in order to prevent a coup attempt, with Itachi taking the blame?"

If Hiruzen was surprised before, then nothing compared to how he felt now. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How did this boy know all of these things? He didn't even seem fazed by any of it! After staring at the boy for a few moments, the old man just sighed.

"If you know those things then that doesn't leave much room for me to not believe you. Also what you have said is very disconcerting if it is indeed true. Alright Naruto, I believe you." Naruto just sighed in relief, thankful that the Hokage believed him. A weight seemed to lift off his shoulders as well.

"Thanks Hokage-jiji, that makes things easier. I wouldn't know what to do if you didn't believe me. Well, I suppose I could have shown you my abilities." Naruto said with a finger to his chin.

"Speaking of, just how strong are you Naruto?" Hiruzen asked genuinely curious.

"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say around high Jonin level. But by next year I doubt anyone short of the Kage, elite Jonin, or Madara will be as strong as me," Naruto informed matter-of-factly.

Hiruzen was taken aback by this. "Are you serious!? You're saying that you'll be one of the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations? At such a young age, I find that hard to believe Naruto.." he said with doubt in his voice.

"Well I mean I could always show you. Right now I think the only one in the village that could match my speed is Kakashi and maybe a few others," Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Alright, Naruto we'll have to test you on that. You can graduate early and be promoted early if your abilities prove to be true."

"No that's okay Jiji. I want to stay at the academy and make friends. I also want to be on Kakashi's team with Sasuke and Sakura. That's how it was before. Sasuke eventually left the village to train under Orochimaru to gain the power to defeat his brother. I've been working on being friends with him so he doesn't do that, but I still don't know if he'll go or not. Speaking of, five months after I become a genin, at the chuunin exams, Orochimaru will attack the village with Sunagakure. He leads the village hidden in the sound, the new one that popped up recently," Naruto once again informed.

Hiruzen just had a grave expression. "That's troubling news indeed. We'll talk more about it when the time comes though," the old man said with a halfhearted smile. "This is quite a bit to take in at once. You're dismissed for the day while I'll think things over and what I should do. Come back tomorrow after the academy. I'm sure I'll have some more questions by then. Hopefully, this timeline doesn't end like yours did," Hiruzen said with a chuckle. Naruto just smiled at the grizzled old man.

"Hopefully not. Anyway I'll see you later Jiji. I'm going to go train for the day," Naruto said as he was about to leave, only to be stopped by the Hokage's voice.

"Speaking of, where do you train Naruto? I haven't heard any reports of you training outside of what an academy student should," Hiruzen asked in confusion.

"Oh, I train in the forest of death. No one goes there except Anko, but she's pretty cool." At that Hiruzen's face paled as Naruto walked out of the room. His face became serious again however when Naruto peeked around the door.

"It's really nice to be able to talk you again Jiji," Naruto said solemnly. And with that, the blonde took his leave.

Slightly confused at his departing words, Hiruzen regained his composure after a few moments and deactivated his privacy seals, signaling for his ANBU to reenter the room.

"This is going to be an interesting few years, to say the least," the Hokage mumbled to himself, returning to his paperwork, never really paying attention to what he was reading. His ANBU just glanced at each other, confused by the whole situation.

XXX

The next morning, Naruto got up early as usual to do his morning workout. Typically it would extend into the afternoon, but today was the first day of the 4th year of the academy, and he had to uphold tradition. With his resistance seals at level eight still, he ran laps around training ground 44 for about an hour, afterward, he did 100 push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and squats, that taking him about another hour. After looking at the sun and determining it was about a quarter till eight, he turned his resistance seals back down to six. At six, it was much more manageable to go about day to day activities. Six is where he'd tone it down to whenever he wasn't training. Only the strongest shinobi in the village could actually move well enough to fight at that level.

Using chakra enhanced movements had become second nature at this point, improving his chakra control considerably. This also helped increase his chakra reserves gradually.

To deplete his chakra reserves, he'd have to have the seals active for three weeks straight. He turns them off whenever he sleeps so he doesn't have to worry about that though.

Deciding that it was time to head to the academy, Naruto pulled out a seal. It was one he had been working on for while and just finished it the week prior. He put it on his exposed chest and activated it with his chakra. The seal then spread across his body, removing all the dirt, sweat, and grime he had accumulated during his workout while leaving a pleasant scent when it was finished. The whole process takes around three minutes, but it saves time when you can't take a shower. Naruto still preferred actual showers over the seal, but he was kind of in a hurry because the academy started at 8. After he got that out of the way, he unsealed a fresh pair of clothes to change into.

"Man this orange monstrosity get's worse every passing day. I can't wait till I graduate and get cooler clothes," Naruto muttered to himself as he got dressed.

When he was done, he started off towards the academy, when a smile came over his face after he remembered something.

'Iruka-sensei. It'll be good to see you again,' he thought.

It took him about ten minutes to get to the academy building and one more to find his classroom. When he walked in he was greeted with a small glare and then a forced smile from a man with a horizontal scar across his face. 'He'll get over his hatred for me by the end of the year. Just you wait Iruka-sensei.' Naruto thought. Naruto just smiled back, happy to see his old/new sensei again. Through

"Good morning sensei," Naruto said with a smile.

Iruka turned from his desk to face the blonde. "Good morning Naruto. Just so you know, you won't be getting away with any more pranks this year. I was nice before, but I'm bringing the hammer down this year. As you would say, believe it," Iruka said with a half smirk.

Naruto just smiled back just as menacingly. "Oh we'll see about that Iruka-sensei." Well Naruto wouldn't, but his clones would. Losing his smile, Iruka went back to preparing the first day activities he had in store.

As Naruto made his way to a seat next to a certain lavender eyed girl, Iruka shot a cold look at the blonde that had begun to walk away.

'Something isn't right with that kid, besides the obvious thing that he's known for. He seems, off, from his usual self. Something about his behavior and speech just now. It's different. I'll have to keep an eye on him,' Iruka thought to himself. After Naruto sat down, Iruka looked down to go over this year's lesson plan.

"Hey Hinata, how're you?" Naruto asked the red faced girl. She was so caught off guard that he sat next to her that she didn't even hear his question. Realizing that he was talking to her, she just looked down in front of her, poking her index fingers together.

"H-hello N-n-naruto-kun, I'm s-sorry, b-but I didn't h-hear you," the girl said, oozing with nervousness. She hoped the blonde wouldn't get angry because he had to repeat himself.

"I asked how you were," Naruto said with a smile. He had worked on schooling his expression so he didn't look like a blushing idiot in front of the girl.

"Oh, ano, I'm g-good Naruto-k-kun," Hinata said softly. In reality though, she was both horrible and fantastic at the same time. She was horrible because she felt like she was going to faint in front of the boy she admired, but fantastic that she was sitting next to and talking to said boy.

"That's good. So are you excited for your final year at the academy?" Naruto asked.

"Ano, I guess," Hinata said, still poking her fingers together.

"Kami knows I am. More like excited when it'll be over. Then I can finally become an actual ninja, the first step in becoming the Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed, making a few heads turn towards him with glares.

"T-that's g-great Naruto-k-kun. I h-hope you c-can achieve your d-dream."

"Thanks Hinata, that means a lot!" Naruto said with a grin. Hinata's face just went redder.

'He's thanking me now? I almost can't handle this!' she thought frantically. She was brought out of her tumultuous thoughts by a boy walking up to both of them. He had a fur coat on with a little white dog on top of his head.

"That's rich Naruto. You? Becoming Hokage? Yeah right. You have to be the strongest shinobi in the village and people have to like you. You don't have either of those as far as I can see. You'd have a better chance sneaking into one of our kennels without being caught by the guard dogs who are always on patrol." Kiba said with a smirk. "Plus you'd have to be able to beat me, and from the spars in class so far, we both know that's not going to happen."

"Well the good news is I'm going to prove it to you when I do take the hat from Hokage-jiji and beat you into the ground. Just you wait." Naruto said triumphantly as if he already knew. Kiba just laughed.

"Yeah right I'll believe it when I see it," Kiba said walking away from the two. Naruto just sighed as Kiba sat at his desk.

"I b-b-believe in y-you, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said with her eyes closed, straining to say the words. Naruto turned to her with a surprised look and just smiled.

"Wow. Thank you Hinata. That means more to me than you know." It was Hinata's turn to look up at Naruto with a surprised look. After a few moments, she suddenly got dizzy and her head began to make it's decent toward the desk. Naruto reacted quickly and caught her head, laying it down gently so it didn't smack against the hard surface. Naruto smiled with a hint of red to his cheeks as he looked at the passed out form of the girl. 'Hinata, if only you knew.'

"Alright class quiet down, let's begin. As most of you are aware, I'm Iruka, your sensei for the year. As you know.." Iruka began a speech about how he'd try to fulfill his teaching duty as Naruto just put his head down and stopped paying attention to irk his sensei.

'Man I hope this year goes by fast. I can't wait to be apart of team seven again,' Naruto thought to himself. I think those were some of the best days of my life.

XXX

When class was over, Naruto went to leave, only to be caught by Sasuke when he tried to stand up. In his daze of sleep, he hadn't realized that he sat next to him. "Oh hey Sasuke, I didn't know you were sitting there," Naruto said scratching the back of his head. Sasuke gave him a deadpan expression.

"I've been here the whole time dobe. Anyway you down for some training?" Sasuke asked with a half smirk. By training, he meant sparring. They were due for one to fill their monthly quota and he wanted to test his new skills against the blonde. Maybe he'd be able to actually land a hit this time. It irked him to no end that he was never able to touch Naruto, always staying just outside of his reach. To have someone his age to so far outclass him had been a reality check. Even when he unlocked his Sharingan in a near death experience from the blonde, he still wasn't able to touch him. It had been infuriating the way he did it too.

*Flashback: one month ago*

"Alright dobe. Today's the day I actually land a hit on you," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Oh we'll just see about that. I'm going to be a bit more serious than our previous spars, just to warn you," the blond said. Naruto had been thinking back when they were on the bridge in the Land of Waves and Sasuke activated his Sharingan in a near death situation. He wanted to see if he could replicate that by making a situation like that on his own. He was sure Sasuke was going to be angry at him for what he was planning, but he'd understand afterward. Wouldn't he?

"Bring it on," Sasuke said confidently.

"You asked for it." As they both got into their fighting stances, Naruto was the first to launch himself at the raven haired boy. Since this was the way they normally started their spars, Sasuke was prepared for it, ducking underneath the blonds side kick to get a hold of his leg. Naruto just spun out of the way of his hand, bringing down his fist, violently crashing on Sasuke's shoulder. With a grunt of pain, Sasuke jumped back to gain some distance.

'Curse him and his speed' Sasuke thought. He was about to launch his own attack when Naruto was suddenly impaled by 13 kunai. Knowing something was wrong, Sasuke looked around for the attacker. Since he didn't see a trace of the attacker, he went over to check and see if Naruto was alright. Naruto began gurgling as he coughed up blood, bleeding out in Sasuke's arms.

"Come on dobe don't do this! You're stronger than this! You can't be taken down by some measly kunai!" Sasuke yelled at the downed boy. In the first time in a long time, Sasuke felt truly scared, frantic even. He was about to lose his one and only friend that understood him.

"I'm….sorry, Sasuke. I didn't *cough* see that one coming. Please… don't forget about our *cough* friendship."

Naruto's eyes grew wide as he gave one last breath, his eyes glazing over shortly after. After a moment of pure shock, Sasuke stood up in rage, determined to find his friends killer. He began searching when his blood went cold when a presence made itself known right in front of him. Sasuke's eyes went wide with shock once more, then were filled with a deep hatred laced with anger.

"ITACHI!" Sasuke screamed. Why was his brother here? Why had he killed Naruto? Itachi just stood there with a stoic and calm expression that infuriated Sasuke even further. He had on a black cloak with red clouds that Sasuke had never seen before that had a high collar that hid half of his face.

"Hello, little brother. I've come back to finish what I started," Itachi said in an ice cold tone. As if his tone affected the temperature, Sasuke went stiff from the comment. After a moment of staring at his brother, he looked down, his bangs shadowing his eyes.

"I've kindled my hatred. I've made it my goal to train every day to be able to kill you. Just when I made a friend that I could rely on to help me and understand me, you take him away from me!" Sasuke screamed at the stoic Uchiha. "I'm going to kill you right here and now!"

"You seem to misunderstand. You are an insect that I am here to put out of it's misery." With that Itachi vanished from sight, appearing right in front of Sasuke with kunai in hand about to slash Sasuke's throat. Sasuke's eyes went wide in fear. He didn't want to die, not yet! This isn't how this was supposed to happen! With new found anger, Sasuke's eyes flashed red, allowing him to see the attack, narrowly dodging out of the way. He jumped back to look upon his brother once again, with newfound vision.

'What is this? I can see his movements now! Well whatever it is I'll use it to destroy him!' Sasuke screamed in his mind.

If he could see himself, he'd see blood red eyes with two tomoe in each of them. His vision was crystal clear now. He could make out every single detail and recalled everything he saw with perfect memory. He didn't have time to think about what this new power was though, as he was too focused on the situation at hand.

Itachi pulled down his collar to reveal a genuine smile. "Congratulations Sasuke." In a puff of smoke, Itachi vanished from sight, revealing a beaming blonde with a foxy grin.

"I see that my little plan worked. I told you I was going to take this spar a little more seriously," Naruto said rubbing the bottom of his nose with his finger.

Sasuke was just stunned for a moment. Naruto had died in his arms not two minutes ago, yet he was right here in front of him, and Itachi was nowhere to be seen. It took him a minute, but Sasuke finally put the pieces together. He looked at Naruto with an angry scowl.

"What the fuck was that Naruto!? You know how I feel about my brother! Why would you put me through that?!" Sasuke yelled uncharacteristically at Naruto. "I can't believe you'd make me relive the pain I went through that day!" Sasuke was about to kick the blonde out forever when Naruto's sheepish grin caught his eye.

"Well there was a purpose to it you know. Here take this and look at yourself," Naruto said sheepishly, handing Sasuke a mirror. Sasuke just glared at him for a moment. He reluctantly took the mirror to look in the mirror, when the anger dropped from his features and was replaced by surprise. He looked up at the blonde with wide eyes.

"My, my eyes…" he trailed off.

"I knew that you could only unlock them in a near death situation, and this was the only thing I could think of that was a sure fire way to do it," Naruto said rubbing the back of his head once again.

"You did this, to unlock my Sharingan," Sasuke said in disbelief. His scowl soon returned after the shock wore off though. "I'm still pissed at you for doing that though. Playing with my emotions like that," Sasuke said in a scoff.

"Now listen Sasuke. When we're shinobi, enemy shinobi won't think twice about using your weaknesses against you. That includes the hatred you harbor for your brother. I already know of one teme that will try to take advantage of it. You need to learn to control it and not let it control you," Naruto lectured, "Learn to hone and channel it to your advantage. Keeping a cool head in a fight can be the difference between life and death, sometimes for more people than yourself." He got another scoff from the raven haired boy.

"Whatever dobe. I'm done for today. I want to get used to my new eyes anyway." Naruto just nodded at this.

"Alright Sasuke. Just understand that I did that so you could gain Sharingan in a controlled setting, not when your life was truly on the line," Naruto said sincerely. As he was leaving Sasuke called out to him.

"Naruto!"

"Yeah?"

"Just, thanks, I guess," Sasuke begrudgingly said. This caught Naruto off guard however. Sasuke? Thanking him? Oh this was going to take some getting used to.

"No problem Sasuke. I'll always have my friends' backs," Naruto said with a grin. He turned once more to leave the compound.

When he was gone, Sasuke just spent the rest of the day activating and deactivating his sharingan over and over again.

*Flashback End*

Sasuke was still pretty pissed at Naruto for that, but like Naruto said, he understood why he had done it. After all the training he had done with his sharingan, he wanted to see how he stacked up to his favorite sparring partner.

"Actually I can't right now, I have to go talk to the Hokage about some things. Maybe afterwards though. Can I meet you in your compound in a few hours?"

Sasuke got a confused look on his face before nodding. "Sure whatever dobe. Just make sure you stop by," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah yeah whatever emo boy," Naruto said with a smirk of his own. Naruto stood up and faced the indigo haired girl on his left. "I'll see you later Hinata-chan. Maybe we can train together some time," Naruto said with a grin. Hinata just blushed heavily at the attention she was receiving from her favorite blonde, that and the suffix he had used with her name.

"Y-y-yeah, I-I'd like that Naruto-k-kun," The girl squeaked out. Naruto couldn't help but grin at the cuteness he was witnessing.

"Anyway I'll see ya later. The old man wants to see me for something." Naruto left his two friends.

"B-bye Naruto-kun!" Hinata squeaked once again.

He had to smile at her comment as he walked out the door. The girl's cuteness was getting to be too much for him. On the other hand, he couldn't wait to just shunshin out of a room whenever he wanted. The look on other people's faces would be priceless.


Well there ya go. Hope I did okay. Drop a review and tell me what ya think or if you got an idea about where the story should go! Till next time!

Status: Rewritten