Disclamer: I don't own Naruto nor any characters or abilities created by Masashi Kishimoto. Original characters, abilities and bloodlines in this story (there will be) are mine. If someone out there thinks an ability or character of mine is cool and wishes to use it, feel free. I only ask that you give me credit.

Date: 06/14/08

Summary: While running from an angry mob on his birthday, seven-year-old Naruto finds himself in a strange land where a shinobi turned priest offers to train him as a ninja. Naruto eventually discovers there is more to the world then just shinobi when he unlocks his spiritual power. Not a super Naruto fic (I hate those ones) but more of a smart and wise naruto fic.

Reviews: Please review. I enjoy reviews, even if its only one or two words. I do not appreciate flames. If you don't like this story, its concept, or my writing style then don't read it. Don't read it then complain to me about it.

Spiritual Fox
Chapter 7: Home for School

Naruto was back to Konoha. He stood outside the gates and prepared himself for the inevitable chaos which he was about to walk into. He understood why it had to happen though, being trained outside of the village for four years with an unknown man was a major cause for alarm. The boy fully expected to be detained and questioned, and once that was over and he was allowed back inside, he was probably going to be shadowed by ANBU until he became a genin.

Yoshi, for his part, had been understanding. He'd told Naruto just to answer honestly and, if he felt it necessary, to take the Hokage to the mountain for awhile. The ramen freak had decided not to mention that he could go back to the mountain at will, especially when he didn't know where he'd come back out. He liked the priest and he couldn't stand to have his home ransacked just to appease the minds of the village elders. If worst came to worst, they'd just lock the boy up somewhere and refuse to let him become a shinobi. In that case, he'd just go to the mountain and never return. Naruto was confident that the Old Man wouldn't let him be outright killed, so that was something positive to think about.

The priest had done more these past five months then just given him social interactions, he'd also been teaching him things which couldn't be learned on the mountain. Different plants from various areas and which to avoid, how to survive in the dessert and on snowy mountains, he'd even taken Naruto to a fishing village and gave him a lesson on boats and sailing. While traveling, Yoshi gave his student a few ninja lessons and was even kind enough to give him a chakra control exercise, the tree-walking drill. It had taken the blond two weeks to learn that exercise, but it could only help the boy to gain better control of his chakra.

Now here he was, in front of the gates to his hometown ready to go to the academy and become a ninja. Yoshi had wanted to stay with Naruto till he reached the gate, but they both felt it better if he wasn't insight. If he was with the boy, the Konoha shinobi might try to apprehend the priest, the priest would fight back and it would open a huge can of worms for his student.

Naruto had been terribly sad when Yoshi said he was going to leave, it was even worse then when he left the mountain. The best part of that place had been the blond's teacher, that the priest had looked at him and accepted him even knowing what he held inside. Yoshi seemed to understand and even gave the boy a few words of encouragement.

"There's no need to worry, little one. We'll meet again sometime. I'll contact you when you graduate from the shinobi academy."

The boy saddened slightly, "How 'bout sometime before that? You know…"

"Sorry Naruto," The man had a look of slight pity in his eyes while he answered. "but you can't rely on me all the time. You're a good kid, so I'm sure you'll make some friends at school eventually. There's no need to worry, even if I'm not around you won't be alone."

Naruto seemed resigned that he wouldn't see his teacher for a year and just let the subject drop. However, there was another matter he wanted to know about, "Are going back to the mountain, sensei?"

His happy smile back in place, Yoshi replied, "Nope, I'm going to wander aimlessly for a bit. There have been a lot of shinobi wars, and there are so many lost souls wandering about. I'm going to do what I can to help them move on." The priest ruffled his student's hair while saying, "Keep trying your best and doing what you're able, little Naru. In the end, that's all any of us are capable of. Instead of regretting what can't be helped, its better to do what one can.

"Right now, this parting can't be helped, and it saddens me as well. But right now, I'll focus on the other things I can do and I'll look forward to the day when we'll meet again." With that, the man turned to leave. His last words were, "See you later Naruto."

With a slight smile, the boy replied, "See you later Yoshi-sensei." After standing in front of the village gate, Naruto decided to just use the head-on approach and just demand to see the Hokage. The chunin gate guards had been staring at him for a while, wondering who the kid in front of them was. They'd hoped that the boy would just leave and not cause any problems, but they were sorely disappointed. "Hey, I need to speak to the Hokage, could one of you take me to him?

Guard A looked at Guard B, they could both feel that the child was going to be the source of an annoying amount of trouble. "Where are you're papers, brat." 'A' asked.

Naruto bristled at the slight insult and said, "I don't have any, and I don't want to be called 'brat' by someone like you."

'B' replied, "You can't come into the village without any papers, and what do mean 'someone like us'?"

"The old man's been expecting me for a while now, and I mean two-bit chunin who lost the draw and got stuck with gate duty."

Both guards got angry at the blond in front of them and began analyzing him. The boy looked about ten or eleven years old was wearing a dark red shirt with matching pants and sandals, he was carrying a pack which, judging by the bulges, seemed to be full of personal belongings as well as books and shinobi gear. He had bright blond hair and blue eyes, and he might have appeared nice except he looked and smelled like he hadn't had a bath for a few weeks, which was probably the case if he'd walked here as the pack indicated. His looks were also dampened by the angry frown on his face.

'A' decided to answer. "What's your name brat."

"Naruto Uzumaki, now lets go to the Hokage, squid face."

Both men stiffened at the name. The name of the demon brat who disappeared four years ago. The Hokage had told everyone on gate duty to be on the look out for an 11-year-old boy with whisker like marks on his face, answering to the name Naruto. He'd ordered everyone to immediately notify him if they found such a boy. Now here was the child, standing before them and demanding to see the Hokage.

"You know, I could have just scaled the wall and snuck in to see the old man but I decided to just be nice and approach you gate guys. Now you can't even do me the favor of taking me to see the old Hokage. You dolts better do something before I get angry, decided to knock you out and let myself in."

'A' and 'B' just looked at each other for a second. They both considered just driving the demon brat off, but if the Hokage ever found out then they'd be thrown into jail and would never get to see the light of day again. Finally, 'B' said, "I'll go report this to the Hokage, you keep an eye on this runt of a demon." The man disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and the other two people were left to look at each other.

Naruto eventually took his pack off, set it down and began rummaging through some of the side pockets. He finally pulled out a deck of cards and asked 'A', "He'll probably be a while, you wana play a few hands?" Yoshi had introduced his student to various card games in an attempt to make him more social. It helped that the boy seemed to have good luck when it came to cards.

The guard just smiled and said, "Your on, brat."

--

With everything that had gone on recently, Sarutobi needed a break. First Naruto disappeared, then only a year after that the Uchiha massacre lost them one of their best clans. Then, soon after, a new clan appeared wanting to join Konoha in exchange for medical treatment. Half the council of elders had been against it saying they just wanted to get into the village and attack from within, the other half had wanted to let them join to help increase their numbers. They eventually joined the village, but after imparting their clan weaknesses to Sarutobi and the elders while agreeing to be under indefinite ANBU watch.

Now Sarutobi was hoping and waiting for some sign that Naruto would be coming back to them with the intention of join the village. All in all, it was a stressful time. Soon, one of the chunin gate guards entered the room and announced, "Sir, there is a young boy outside claiming to be Naruto Uzumaki and is demanding to see you."

The elderly Hokage was sitting behind his desk in with his hands clasped together, now his back had straightened considerably, eyes had narrowed and his hands were clenched tightly. "Are you sure it's the boy?" If this man was lying, then he'd be handed over to Ibiki with little to no remorse.

"He matches the description, sir." The guard was happy to be telling the Hokage the good news. The intensity of the man was overwhelming, he'd hate to have to face him if the news was bad. "Blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker-like marks on his face. It could have been a henge, but there aren't many people who could copy from a description."

"Lets go see." If it was an imposter, then whoever it was would tortured into vegetable by Sarutobi himself.

--

Guard A, who identified himself as Masahiro Namiki, was sitting on the ground playing poker with Naruto. Masahiro thought the kid had wanted to play Go-Fish or something else, but the kid wanted to play poker, and he was good at it too. They weren't betting money or anything, but they had agreed that whoever was behind when Guard B, Masa said he was named Toya Shinomi, got back would give the winner enough money to by a bowl of ramen. That had been Naruto's suggestion, but Masahiro liked ramen too, so after showing each other they had the money to pay, they got to playing. They were betting sticks to keep track of points, and Masahiro was now regretting his decision to gamble seeing as he lost half of his pile to the boy. The next hand was no different then the other ones.

"Two pair," Masa showed his hand of two Jacks and two Nines.

Naruto got a big grin on his face and showed his cards, two Kings and two Tens. "I win."

The blond pulled the pile toward himself while humming happily. The chunin couldn't take it anymore and began shouting just as Toya and Sarutobi arrived. "You're cheating somehow, damn it!"

The new arrivals watched as the two began a shouting match. "Like hell I cheated, stop blaming me for your lack of luck. Its not my fault you got stuck with gate duty and can't play a card game!"

"Shut up you runt, I can't help it if my luck is off today."

"Excuses, excuses." Naruto countered. "The old man's here with your friend, so fork over the ramen money."

Masa, in an effort to distract the boy, turned to greet the Hokage. "Honorable Hokage, I was just entertaining the young guest before you got here."

"By ignoring your watch duties and playing poker?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at the man who stiffened and began sweating a little. "Well, you did loose the bet, so I guess I'll let it slide this time."

Masahiro relaxed slightly until a young voice interrupted. "Speaking of loosing, fork over the cash you cheapskate." As the chunin looked down, he saw the blond had an angry look on his face and was holding out his hand. With great reluctance, he pulled out his money and gave it to the boy. Masa looked over at the observers, the Hokage had a slight smirk as he watch the interaction while Toya was just smiling to his hearts content. Somehow, the man knew there was going to be a ton of rumors about this exchange courtesy of his gate watching friend.

Naruto began counting the bills and smiled when he was finished. "Pleasure doing business with you, Masa."

"I want a rematch sometime, you brat." The chunin growled out.

"If you want to loose your money that badly, then no problem." With a smirk, the boy walked away from the fuming gate guard and approached the Hokage. "Hey there, old man. How's life been for ya?"

The display he'd just witnessed convinced The Third that this boy was Naruto. It wasn't just the looks, it was also the quick temper, the complete lack of respect, and the love for ramen. Smiling, Sarutobi replied, "As well as expected. We need to talk, Naruto, please come to my office. With that, the old man left and Naruto followed, waving goodbye to the gate guards. As they walked through the village, Naruto couldn't find much that changed in his time away, which was good for him since it meant the ins and outs of the streets were the same.

Eventually, the duo reached the Hokage tower, as well as the old man's office, and Sarutobi was staring at the blond demanding to know everything that had happened since the boy had left Konoha. Naruto had been expecting something of the sort and began his longwinded story. He told the old man everything, the chase, the fog, the mountain, the meeting, nothing was spared. Sarutobi was interested in the training the boy had undergone, and Naruto had shown him examples of his shuriken and kunai abilities while talking. The old man looked like he was going to throw a fit when Naruto told him about his month long survival training, and when the boy had told him about his last nine months of with the priest the Third decided to send ANBU after the man and also a few to backtrack Naruto's trail in hopes of finding that mountain's location.

Naruto had told the old man about the jutsu he'd learned, but neglected to talk about the Light and Dark jutsu as well as the spirit training he was undergoing. Sarutobi wanted to see the blond in action, so Naruto showed him Wind Blast and Wind Burst. By the end of the whole story, Sarutobi wanted to take on Tsunade's habit and get himself horribly drunk. Instead, he told the boy, "Its good to have you back in the village. There have been some changes, the biggest being the loss of the Uchiha clan and the addition of the Ryuuza clan." The Uchiha's are gone? I thought they were one of the strongest in the village.

"Who are the Ryuuza's, old man?" Naruto asked.

Sarutobi shook his head. "Its too late to discuss it now, but maybe you'll find out on your own. Your apartment is the same as before, do you still have your key?" Naruto searched his pack before finding and pulling out his key. "Good. The place might need a little cleaning, but it should only keep you busy for a day or so. Tomorrow, I'll give you some money so you can buy some groceries, for now I'll give you these." The old Hokage handed over three ramen coupons to the Ichiraku Ramen shop. "You've probably wanted to go there since you got into the village.

Naruto grasped the tickets in his hand and finally said, "I could kiss you right now, old man." Hoisting his pack on his shoulder, the blond child said, "I'm gonna use these then get started on the cleaning." It shouldn't take long if I use Kage Bunshin to help out. I only promised not to use that technique to train, not to clean. "Its great to see you again old man, I'll see you later." That went better then I expected. No tourture or interogation, just answering the Hokage's questions.

"Naruto, the next year of the academy starts in a week. I can enroll you in an advanced class, but only if you think you'll be able to pass the tests."

The blond saw that question for what it was and replied with a cocky smile, "Just let me know what class I'm in, old man. I still need to become a genin if I want to be the next Hokage and take your job away from you." With that the boy left and the Hokage had felt a rush of happiness. It seemed that whoever this Yoshi character was, he'd been telling the truth, Naruto didn't seem to be a spy nor was he hurt in any way. Sarutobi would have know if the boy had been lying, and while the child seemed to have left a few things out he'd been telling the truth when he said he wanted to become Hokage.


After a short stop at Ichiraku Ramen, which was completely delicious plus old man Teuchi and Ayame were thrilled to see their favorite customer again, the boy got to his old apartment and began cleaning. With the help of his Shadow Clones, Naruto cleaned everything, bedroom, bathroom, windows, floors, kitchen, stove, fridge (it was empty, there were no perishables in the house, the old man took them out when he learned Naruto wouldn't be there for a while). All in all, the cleaning of the whole apartment took no more then an hour, after which Naruto took a shower to get himself clean and also created a Kage Bunshin to take his cloths and bed sheets to a laundry mat for a good washing.

Sometimes, Naruto loved having the chakra levels of a high jonin, it was so nice to be able to make multiple Shadow Clones to help him with everyday stuff. All that cleaning would have taken him a day or two to without them. It might have been good to do the work himself, but he wanted to wander around the village for a few days and get a feel for everything again. The blond also wanted to find someplace where he could train seriously in relative privacy, he was planning on downplaying his abilities while in the academy. All that really mattered to Naruto was becoming Hokage, he really didn't care if everyone underestimated him, it could only help to win some later battles to have everyone think he was a dunce. So, he would look like a idiot during school while doing the serious training in secret.

When his shower was done, the boy began unpacking his belonging, which included his shinobi gear, the rest of his clean cloths clothing, a few books which Yoshi let him keep (including a cook book), some souvenirs from traveling, and a journal which he'd been writing in since he left the mountain. Naruto figured the old one had too much information about his training, he had written down almost everything he'd done in his last journal and if the Hokage had read it then he'd know what Naruto was keeping secret. Hence, the old book was still back in the mountain and the new one he'd been writing in didn't have any information he didn't want others to know about.

Soon, the clone was back with the laundry and sheets, everything was set and it was time for dinner, which was spent at Ichiraku ramen once again. The place was just too good for its own good, he was sorely tempted to use his skills to spy on the shop and find their secret ingredients, but decided to just let them have their way.

His last few hours were spent meditating. Naruto was able to meditate deeper then before, the safety of his home meant he didn't have to be so focused on the outside world. Even Naruto could tell, there was some sort of goal he was trying to reach with his spirit strength, and once he reached it something special would happen. Until then, he'd just have to keep meditating.

When he finally slept, it didn't take him very long succumb to the sensation. The apartment was a lot different from his room on the mountain, the mountain was silent while the apartment filled with background noise of other tenants. Luckily, the boy had been traveling in the real world and could easily fall asleep in areas with and without a bunch of noise. In truth, that was one of the reasons Yoshi had taken him on the nine-month trip, to get the boy used to the different sights and sounds of the world.

The second day back was fairly uneventful, it began with breakfast (which was a few cups of ramen he still had in the house), then moved on to wandering around the village to find what had changed. Everything was the same as before, but the boy found the Uchiha clan compound was sealed. It seemed like the old man had been telling the truth, there were no Uchiha left, only their empty compound remained. Naruto didn't feel much sadness over the loss, he didn't have any friends among the clan but there hadn't been many Uchiha who openly scorned him.

Before the blond could go exploring again, an ANBU came and told him to go see the Hokage. It wasn't like he could ignore something like that, so Naruto jogged to the tower to see what the old man wanted form him. When he got there and finally saw the Hokage, the boy found Sarutobi only wanted to give him some money for groceries, tell him that he'd be getting an allowance once again(until he became a ninja and started getting paid), as well as give him his class schedule. Apparently, his teacher was somebody named Iruka Umino.

After getting the money and thanking the old man, Naruto went to the market to buy what he needed. He got essentials: milk, eggs, ramen, spices, fruits and veggies (if Yoshi came by and saw he hadn't been eating greens then he'd get it for sure), more ramen, meat, rice, everything to make his own ramen. Cups of ramen worked fine and Ichiraku ramen was delicious, but there was just something about making his own occasionally which was just completely satifying.

When he got back to his apartment, the blond took the time to unload everything himself and eventually made himself a lunch of rice and beans topped with a small amount of veggies. It was a far smaller quantity of veggies then this teacher would have given him, but it was something. Eventually he finished lunch and went back to exploring the village. Everywhere he went he encountered hate full glares from the towns people, it bother him but not as much as it did before. There was one section of the village which was new to the blond, and it was one place where he wasn't looked at with distain, the section of the new Ryuuza clan. After the Kyuubi attack, many people had died and that left many houses empty. The survivors all moved into houses toward the center of the village for comfort and safety, leaving the outskirts of the village empty. Apparently this new clan of about 50 fully trained shinobi, some retired ninja, the occasional civilian and some kids, decided to occupy the some of the buildings in the empty outer village. The off duty ninja Naruto could find were wearing standard Konoha shinobi gear complete with the Leaf headband and the backs of their shirts held their clan symbol. It was the silhouette of three fingered lizard claw, probably a dragon claw if the name ment anything.

When he went wandering through this newly inhabited section, he found that most people didn't take any notice of him, let alone look at him hatefully. It made sense, Sarutobi had made a law preventing anyone from talking about the Kyuubi being sealed inside of him. All the adults knew because they'd been around during the sealing, but they couldn't talk so this new clan would have no knowledge of the fox sealed inside of him. All Naruto knew was that it was nice to be around people who didn't look at him with hate in their eyes.

The days went by and Naruto continued to search the village and the various training grounds. Eventually, he did find one training ground which seemed to be little used. It even had a secret entrance so the boy could enter or exit without telling anyone. He was sure the ANBU which were following him would tell the old man about it, but unless there was something special about the area he would let Naruto have his private training. And Naruto did train, he couldn't learn any new jutsu, nor could he improve his taijutsu without a sparing partner, but he could work on improving his speed, strength, stamina, and shuriken throwing.

Eventually the week passed and the academy began, but the Hokage did get a visit from Iruka about his new student. "How can you think of letting that thing into the shinobi program?" The chunin demanded. He was livid, most of the villagers had been glad that the mini-demon disappeared. Half of them hoped that the monster would stay away from the village permanently, but then it re-appeared. Its bad enough that it's back walking around the village, but to let it become a ninja, and put it into a class in their final year! My class at that!

Sarutobi had been expecting this. He knew Iruka to be a level headed and kind man, but there was little doubt he would have a reaction like this when he found that Naruto would be in his class. However, Naruto couldn't be switched to another class. Iruka was the only teacher Sarutobi could think of that would at least treat the child fairly and give him the grades he deserved, he might even grow to like the boy. The chunin was the best, and the best didn't just outright fail a student for no reason. The old man was confident that if Iruka didn't help Naruto to grow, he wouldn't hinder him either.

"I've told everyone multiple times and I'm telling you now, Naruto is not the Kyuubi. The two are separate creatures and should be treated as such. Naruto has been training hard to become a genin of Konohagakure, he's trained the past four years to enter the academy and pass. I trust that you will treat him like a human being and give him the grades he earns. Even if you never see him as more then the Kyuubi reborn, then you should give him the chance to become a genin like every other child." The tone in the Hokage's voice left no room for argument.

Iruka knew when he received and order, and he was being ordered to treat the demon brat like every other student and at least not sabotage the child's future. I may not like it, but it'll only be for one year. After that I can wash my hand of him, he might fail but I can just transfer him to another class. With a resigned air about him, the chunin said, "Fine, I swear I'll teach him and judge him accordingly. I won't fail him if he doesn't deserve it."

"That's all I can ask for." Sarutobi replied with a slight smile. Secretly he thought That's all I can hope for. Then the old man added. "Try to keep an open mind. Who knows, you might grow to like the boy."

I doubt that, Iruka thought. All he said was, "I'll take my leave now." With that the man turned and walked out of the Hokage's office, he only had a few more days to prepare himself for his class and the unwanted new arrival. Both the chunin and the Hokage knew one thing for certain, when the parent's of Iruka's class found out about this they'd throw a fit and come demanding an explanation from Iruka. The chunin in turn, would field the questions to the Hokage and the old man would deal with the future angry mob.

(TBC)


A/N: Ryuuza, according an online English to Japanese dictionary, is the Dragon Constellation Draco. It sounds cool and I have my reasons for naming them that. Details about them (history, abilities, how and why they came to Konoha) will be reveled in later chapters.

Next time, Naruto will go through school and get in trouble along the way. What is a bored student to do except make as much trouble as possible.