A/N: HALFWAY THERE! WOOHOO! But seriously, for the number of people that have followed/ favorited this story, there is a pitiful amount of votes. Seriously, I mention the poll in every chapter, but it's got no more than fifteen votes cast! If you want to see the blondie boy with your favorite lady on the ballot, cast a vote! Anyway, this time through, I only have one review to address, and I have gotten several PM's of a similar jaunt.

: if you read my other stories, you'll notice I have a certain writing style. I start off slow, with short chapters, sometimes choppy but still well written. I begin making them longer as the story picks up and more pertinent things happen. A prime example is my longest-running story to date "A Dark Path to Tread" which is a Teen Titans fic. (cough cough hint hint) in this case that will happen around the time of the Wave Arc. Stay tuned.

Now that's out of the way, let's get right into Naruto's antics with his friends, and maybe a few guest characters coming!

Chapter 10: Joining the Fold

Naruto walked into class with a laugh. Sasuke had just told a joke about two weasels and a bean -bag chair, which Naruto found hilarious. He felt every gaze in the room snap to him as he approached his seat. He also saw Iruka back at the front of class.

"Naruto, I trust you are well rested for class?"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said in a bored tone. Iruka nodded and turned to the board, finalizing his diagrams for today's lesson. Naruto sat, with Sasuke on his right and Shika on his left. Kiba and Chouji sat on the row in front of them.

"A-ano... umm, m-may I sit there?" he heard from behind him. He cast a mostly disinterested eye behind him to see Hinata standing in her way, timidly poking her index fingers together and pointing at a seat right behind him. He look further and noticed that Sakura was sitting in the adjacent seat, right behind Sasuke. Naruto nudged his friend with a discreet elbow and nodded slightly at the interaction. Sasuke turned also and frowned seeing a fangirl sitting behind him.

"Why? Trying to get close to Sasuke-kun?!" the pink-haired Kunoichi hopeful said in, surprisingly, a normal voice. Naruto cocked one eyebrow at the change in her volume level.

Hinata has shown no interest at all in Sasuke. Why would Bubblegum be so suspicious? Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a confused look, then one of annoyance as Sakura continued.

"No, that seat is saved anyway!"

"Hey, Shikamaru, you mind moving down a tier? You can sit next to Chouji." Shika caught on and gave an affirming grunt, then rose and took his new seat. Nary a 'troublesome' was said.

"Here, Hinata, you can have this seat. It's open," Naruto said with a gesture and a cold glare at Sakura. The girl wilted a little, while Hinata gave a small eep and turned crimson as she took the offered seat. She steadily turned redder as the seconds ticked by. Naruto smirked at Sasuke and leaned over to the girl.

"Hinata-chan, I know you like me," he said in a low voice so only she heard him. She went totally stiff and turned so red, Naruto was sure her heart was about to fail from lack of blood to pump.

"I'm sorry, but we can't be more than friends. My reputation as a prankster has made most people wary of me, and there are other issues that your elders will have with me. I'll be happy to be your friend, but that's all I can be. Maybe you should try Kiba? He's been looking at you a lot lately."

The girl slowly turned very pale and dejected as Naruto went on. He felt bad about that, but he had to be upfront so as to not give her false hope. She finally gave a small, sad nod and rested her chin dejectedly on the desk in front of her, her eyes glazing over.

He was about to turn and talk with Sasuke again, when he heard a fwump behind him.

"Ino-pig, that seat is reserved! Move!" Naruto and Sasuke broke into large grins and turned to watch the show. Despite how annoying it got, they loved watching the two rivals for the Uchiha's affections fight. Hell, if they could find the pattern and sell tickets, they'd make a killing. Naruto was currently working on finding the pattern, both of their meet-ups and their fights, and Sasuke was planning the business approach. This was the final recon for the blonde.

"Who's it saved for, forehead?! Your imaginary chance with Sasuke-kun?!" Naruto had to snort at that one, and cast a look at his best friend, holding a silent conversation.

"As if she's one to talk, eh?"

"Well, Sasuke, she doesn't really like you all that much," a confused look on the Uchiha's face.

"What? She's just as bad as Sakura,"

"No, not really. If you watch her closely, but discreetly, you'll notice she has no heart in the rivalry. She's mainly doing it for some connection to her friend, who ended the friendship." Sasuke nodded in understanding and continued watching.

It still amazed Naruto that in seven months since actually becoming friends, the two had gotten to know each other so well, they could understand each other and hold entire conversations just through facial expressions. But it certainly made things interesting when they picked up each others sentences to mess with people.

He focused his attention back on the two girls, who were pushing shoulders and glaring at each other, sparks flashing in their eyes. Even Iruka was watching in amusement. Finally, Shino walked in, saw the atmosphere and turned to Naruto.

"Naruto-san," he said calmly. "May I sit with your group today? Seeing as my usual seat is within range of an extremely volatile explosion waiting to happen." Naruto snerked in laughter and nodded, indicating the empty seat in the row in front of him, right next to Kiba.

"Welcome to the club, Shino. We look forward to being friends with you," Naruto said with a smile, to which Shino crinkled his eyebrows in confusion.

"Here's how it works, Buggy," said Kiba with a snicker. "Once you sit around Naruto, you start talking to Naruto. Once you start talking to Naruto, you never stop. Eventually you'll feel as comfortable in the group as you do with those bugs in your jacket."

"Um, Kiba?" the Inuzuka turned to the blond with a grunt. "Those bugs aren't in his jacket. They're in his body," Kiba's eyes grew wide and he snapped his gaze to the Aburame.

"Didn't you pay attention when you're Kaa-san taught you about the other Konoha clans?" a very, very sheepish look appeared on Kiba's face. Naruto sighed.

"The Aburame host Kikachu beetles inside their bodies, as a hive, and in exchange they are allowed to direct them, feed them Chakra, and thus are not easily susceptible to Genjutsu, on account of the constant fluctuations in their Chakra, and and gain various other benefits." Shino looked impressed, as much as he could with most of his face covered, and Sasuke scowled.

"I never got the clans' lesson..." he muttered under his breath. He looked back when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Sasuke, I'll give it to you. Come with me to my house today, and I'll help you out. THAT caught the quarreling girls' attention. Ino perked up with a confused look.

"Clans' lesson? Daddy never taught me anything about the other clans. He just said all I need to know about is Akimichi and Nara."

"Yeah, my dad said the same," Chouji said, lowering his bag of chips.

"My dad said it was too troublesome to teach me anything, really, so we just played Shogi," Shikamaru said with a frown. Kiba muttered something and scratched behind Akamaru's ear. Naruto crinkled his brows.

"What about you, Shino?"

"Father was always busy. So, no I have also not received any instruction on our fellow clans, unfortunately."

"Hinata, please me tell you..."

"Ummm... f-father w-was more f-f-focused on the G-gentle Fist." a loud whap followed as Naruto drove his forehead violently into the desk.

"Of course I'm the only one with knowledge of my classmates clans. And people say I'm the dobe."

"I know about the clans!" Sakura said haughtily, puffing her chest out and smiling proudly at Sasuke.

"That's great, Sakura. Now how about you shut up and let the clan kids talk, ne?" Sasuke said with a dismissive flap of his hand. The girl deflated instantly.

"Okay, how about this. All of you come over to my house today, after letting your parents know," he said quickly, with a pointed look at Kiba. "And I can give all of you the information you'll need to deal with other clans. Then, we might try to train a little," he said with a smirk, making Sasuke, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru grimace. They'd tried training with Naruto once. They'd been dying of thirst and lack of oxygen by the time he was mildly winded. A stamina freak doing ANBU level training? Oh kami.

"What? We get training at home," Ino said a little snobbily.

"Yes, Miss Yamanka, I can clearly see that you put every effort to improving your shinobi skills," Naruto responded with no small amount of sarcasm. "Sasuke, would you assess Miss Yamanaka and give your honest report?" Sasuke nodded then gestured for Ino to stand and move to the aisle. She did so with some trepidation, feeling a large fear growing in her gut. He studied her critically for moment, then twirled his finger slightly. Ino spun slowly.

"Well," he said slowly. The entire class, Iruka included, leaned in to hear the verdict of the last Uchiha, upon whom everyone placed their hopes for the village. "You're weak. You wouldn't last in a real fight. You put to much stock in your appearance, and I could see you depending on your teammates instead of trying to carry your weight. There's potential for you to improve, but right now, you'd get in everyone's way." Ino seemed to deflate, even more so when she saw the disapproving look Naruto was giving her. Since when was Naruto's opinion important? He was not only an idiot, he was new to the class, yet he somehow seemed to hold the respect of everyone just by entering the room.

Suddenly, Sakura let out a loud cheer of 'Yatta!' and began dancing a small jig.

"Why are you happy?" Sasuke sent her a small glare as Naruto spoke. "You're worse than Ino is. At least she, coming from a Shinobi Clan, has a few useful Jutsu that make her not completely deadweight. You're a civilian, and only unlocked your chakra at the lesson last week. You focus so much on gaining Sasuke's attention, and preventing others from having it, you threw a friendship down the drain. You've been too absorbed with yourself and your fantasies of Sasuke that you didn't even notice Ino only puts effort into your supposed 'Rivalry' to have some sort of connection to her old friend. You're a disgusting excuse for a Kunoichi." Naruto said coldly. Sakura seemed to shrivel for a moment, but bounced back.

"What you say doesn't matter Naruto-baka, who are you to..."

"He's right," Sasuke said curtly, cutting her off. "And I'd say his opinion holds more weight than anyone else in this room. He was raised and trained by the Hokage. He probably helped out when he could and saw plenty of Shinobi and Kunoichi. And saw the aftermath of people who didn't take the career seriously." that made Sakura fall listlessly, her face falling to despair to hear her precious Sasuke-kun criticizing her so viciously.

Naruto nodded and stood. "This goes for all of you!" he bellowed to the room, looking at every fangirl and young boy who, at this moment were seriously doubting their abilities. "This is not a job, it's a career! If you don't put everything you have into it, all your time and heart, then you will die! This is not something you do to win the attention of someone, or to be cool! If those are your reasons, leave now!" he growled finally before striding to the front of the class, stalking quickly with a predatory stance.

"Iruka-sensei, I'm leaving. I need to get away from all these... wannabe's," he snarled, before he slammed the door shut, making everyone jump. Sasuke rose, casting his cool gaze at everyone in the room.

"I'm going with him, Sensei. He, at least knows the value of trying." his words drove it home for everyone. Naruto, even though he was the worst in the class, was always trying. He never gave up, and always gave his best.

Everyone had a difficult choice to make.

Do they risk the chance?

Or do they throw their futures away?