Chapter 12: Ninja Academy

Kakashi didn't touch his tea. While Jiraiya was already drinking his ninth cup, like it was some kind of new sake, the ANBU couldn't. He was too mesmerized by the little boy sitting in front of him. The boy was his sensei's son, Minato's kid. He was the one Kakashi wanted to see grow up, to help him walk and teach him jutsus.

Naruto was the one he thought dead.

"Ehm. I know you are in shock, but could you please stop looking at me so awkward?" The boy said while still drinking his first cup of tea.

"You are really alive," Kakashi only said. He couldn't say much else. The boy looked like a Minato clone with different hair! And if he really dyed it, maybe it actually was his sensei's color.

"Yes. Kura-chan told me what happened, but I can assure you, I am quite alive," Naruto tried to put his father's student at ease with a smile, but it seemed to have a negative effect.

"I am not going crazy, am I?" The ANBU asked the Sannin without really realizing the kid had spoken to him.

"Did you try the tea yet?"Jiraiya replied without even looking up.

"No?"

"Then you are not even beginning to go crazy. And you can trust me on that one!" The Toad Eremite laughed about his own joke, only to get bitten in the leg from an annoyed TonTon, who quickly hid behind Naruto before the Sannin could lay a finger on her, "You little-"

"Stop it," Naruto said with all authority, he could master, "Back to topic please. You," he pointed at his godfather, "want him," he moved his finger at Kakashi, "to play babysitter for me, while you are out of the village. Don't you think I learned enough about how to take care of myself while you and kaa-chan got drunk?"

Before answering, Jiraiya gave the heaviest sigh he could master and poured himself another cup of tea. Damn, he hated it when his godson was a smart ass.

"Listen up, Gaki. It's not about you not being able to take care of yourself, but about you not being discovered. I mean choose what others could discover about you! If it's your heritage, it does not even take an hour for the first marriage proposal and all that political stuff. If it's your kekkei genkai, it does not even take a minute for the CRA to be enforced. And if it's about your status… Let's just say, you will have even less time, got it?"

"Okay, okay, I got it," but that didn't mean he had to like it, Naruto added in his thoughts, only to hear Kurama laughing.

"You look so much like him," the ANBU said and his eye seemed to smile for the first time, "Would you like to hear some stories about your old man?"

Jiraiya could only tell stories about his dad in the war time and back when the man had still been a mere student. His Kaa-chan tried to not speak about the fastest Hokage ever. And his onee-chan knew nearly nothing about him.

Naruto gave a bright smile, "I'd like to hear them."

The four sat together until the first rays of the sun looked through Naruto's window, before they finally decided to call it a night. Kakashi promised happily to Jiraiya to have his eye on Naruto and to make sure, he would be safe. Of course they had to tell him everything about Kurama and Naruto's mokuton, but that was worth it.

Now, after only a couple hours of sleep, Naruto was on his way to the academy. For his very first day of normal school, he was just way too excited. TonTon nearly had to run to keep up with the boy. Also, the Senju nearly forgot his signed academy application, hadn't the pig reminded him.

From time to time he looked up to the Stone Faces, smiling at the father, he never met and promising him to give his best.

He also tried to ignore the Uchiha Corps standing in nearly every alley, watching the daily routines at the streets and helping out here and there. But wherever he went, they seemed to give him special attention. And Naruto just knew that if he had founded the Shi no Mononoke here, they wouldn't have survived long…

As he arrived at the academy, the Senju was really surprised, how many children came to become shinobis. He wondered, how big his class would be and how many friends he would make. Would he do well?

Noticing Naruto's discomfort TonTon oinked and looked straight into the boy's eyes. He just smiled back.

"Will you move inside already? That gets so annoying, you know?" Kura-chan yelled.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered silently. TonTon leaded him to the chunin office and Naruto did not even want to ask, how the pig knew.

Knocking on the door three times, he waited and wondered what his teacher would be like. Would he be a war veteran, like his mother and godfather? Or would he be more like a newbie? Male or female? Bookworm or-

His thoughts were interrupted by the door, which wasn't just being opened, but nearly slammed into Naruto's face.

"What is it?" A silver haired chunin asked, no, yelled at the mokuton user.

"Excuse me, but I was told to come here," the Senju tried to reply in a even voice and not let his anger be seen, "My name is Naruto and I am here to be put in class 6-B"

The chunin looked him over once, before snatching the papers out of the mokuton user's hands, which he had nearly forgotten. Looking them over, he absently pointed at the pig.

"What about the pet? Does it want to become the meal of any Inuzuka hounds or what is it doing here?"

"TonTon," Naruto stated and nearly had to laugh with the memory of TonTon defeating Mukuro, his imouto's tiger on more than one occasion, "is going to be fine. I don't think any dog would want to eat her"

Grunting, like he had an annoyance standing in front of him, the chunin leaned back into the office, calling for somebody. Not a second later another chunin with a scar across his nose appeared behind him.

"Iruka, you think you can take care of Mister Shinobi-wannabe?" He asked without looking at his fellow instructor or Naruto's twitching eyebrow.

"Sure. Leave it to me, Mizuki"

Grunting, Mizuki left and wouldn't it have been for the other chunin, he might have slammed the door again.

"Please, don't take to heart, what Mizuki said. He has his times, when he can be a real annoyance, but he is a nice guy and good teacher, ehm," he looked at the papers, "Naruto"

"That's me," the boy smiled.

"Okay. You are in my class, so just follow me and introduce yourself to the class when I tell you. Also," he skimmed through the papers while walking down the stairs, "may I ask if you are sure, you will keep up? The graduation exam is in three weeks, I need to know if you are able to handle it. Your papers only say you were trained by a family member?"

"Don't worry, I will score every point. Just you wait and see!" TonTon oinked and it seemed as if she tried to emphasize Naruto's point. The boy just hoped the chunin wouldn't keep up the questioning. What if he would answer something different, than he did before? People would notice it sooner or later.

"That's right give it your best," the man laughed happily and came to a sudden halt in front of a wooden door, "So, here we are. Wait here until I call your name, okay?"

The Senju just nodded, while he watched the chunin open the door. From one second to another yelling and screaming filled his ears. He heard some girls crying about their "Sasuke-kun", barking, the destruction of some wooden furniture, chairs if he had to guess, even a soft snoring could be heard from the room of chaos.

"SILENCE!" Iruka shouted and the mokuton user noticed that it wasn't even half as loud and angry as his kaa-chan normally was. The chunin defiantly missed some Killing Intent there, even if his head became somewhat big…

"GET TO YOUR SEATS AT ONCE, OR THERE WILL BE DETENTION AND WOULD SOMEBODY WAKE UP SHIKAMARU?!"

The room became quiet, with exception of a muttered "Mendokusei".

"We have a new student," Iruka sighed, before turning back to the Senju "Please introduce yourself"

With TonTon leading him again, he entered the room and closed the door before turning fully to the class. He bowed once slightly, before speaking up to all the other students his age, who looked like a bunch of weirdos to him.

"Good morning, my name is Naruto and this is TonTon," he pointed at the pig and smiled brightly at the class, "I hope we get along well"

"Is that a pig?" A boy from the last row called out, he looked somewhat canine-like, with those large and pointy teeth of his.

Iruka said nothing, just looking through the papers on his desk, so Naruto felt save to answer.

"Yeah, but you shouldn't underestimate her," As if she got the clue, TonTon growled evilly at the boy and he couldn't help but shrink a little into his seat.

"Naruto, please take your seat next to Shino-kun," he pointed at a boy in the third row hidden in his own trench coat wearing sunglasses.

The Senju just nodded and went up to the seat, now noticing that the blond haired and pink haired girls in the second row, tried to look like they were sitting on chairs. Only, that there were none. They lay destroyed on the floor not seen by the chunin, because the table hid them quiet well.

"Well, what do you say, the chairs were destroyed!" He thought and explained his right guess with the destruction-hobby of his Kaa-chan.

The boy sitting between the girls with a duck butt haircut seemed not to care about it at all. In a matter of fact, he tried to lean away from them trying to escape, but it was with no avail.

To Naruto's left sat a fairly big student eating chips and a boy who seemed to sleep, even when the teacher yelled at him again. But after answering a question correctly, he went straight back to sleep without a care in the world.

Naruto let his eyes wander over the other students, before finally sitting down and looking at the boy next to him. He felt many different chakra signatures from him, but didn't know what to do, when he smiled and the boy just looked away. Maybe he was shy to people?

TonTon oinked silently, telling Naruto to at least try to look, like he was paying attention and Naruto obliged. He listened to the summary of the last week and the new topic, the alliances with Suna, Kumo, Iwa and Kiri.

Not even two minutes later, he asked himself if he really wanted to be in that lesson…

Scratch that. He wondered if he really wanted to be in that class.

As soon as the first period was over, he was showered with questions from nearly every student. Normally he only had contact to adults and animals, his sister being an exception. But he wasn't used to the chaos children his age produced.

One question was asked about three times over and then over again, leaving him no space to breathe. The questions varied from, where he came from and who trained him to what his favorite color was or what kind of boxers he wore.

TonTon growled at everybody and nearly bit of a hand of a boy named Kiba, who had asked again, if she really was a pig. Too say it was totally not helping, was an underestimation.

Ninja academy was a Horror, with a capital H, if you would.

Just as he was about to lose his cool to the fifth person asking, where he came from, the boy with the duck butt haircut came up to him, looking him straight into the eye.

"Are you strong?" He asked and everybody fell silent. A pink haired girl even covered the mouth of one of the boys to keep him quiet.

"Strength is relative. You could compare it to the Hokage and be a total weakling and you could compare it to a baby and be its God."

The boy smiled and stretched his hand out, "Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke"

Naruto took it, smiling while the little pig just stared at the newcomer angrily: "Just Naruto"

"So, wanna fight in the next lesson? We can choose our matches today on our own," the Uchiha elaborated and Naruto could see from the looks that he got, that the kid was normally the best in class and wanted to keep that title.

"Sure, why not," if his family would have been there, each one of them would have punched him on the head. He wanted to stay undercover. To beat one of the best students in the academy would not really help. It would just complicate everything.

And because they weren't there, TonTon had a new job to do.

"Ouch! Damn it!" She had bit him in his free hand. After all, pigs could not easily reach the top of a genin's head.

"All right, class. A match ends if we have to interfere, one of the participants admits defeat or in the worst case, somebody is knocked out cold. You all were told yesterday to choose your own sparring partner, so I hope, you do well and found somebody with nearly your strength," Iruka advised them.

They were standing outside of the academy building at an open training space. Some of the students chatted quietly with their partners and some others argued. The chunin instructor Mizuki had joined up with them and seemed a lot happier than before. Why? Nobody was able to say.

"So, who of you wants to start?" The silver haired chunin asked as happy as Tsunade in a casino with some million Ryo lying next to her.

Before he hadn't even finished the question Sasuke stepped up to the fighting area and threw an expecting look in Naruto's direction.

"If we may?" The Senju politely asked while following the Uchiha.

Iruka seemed a little confused by this and even the other chunin awoke from his happy daydream or whatever it was, he was thinking about. But they shrugged it off pretty fast.

"Sure," Iruka stepped next to both of them and put his arm between the boys' faces. He looked them both over once, before stepping away, "HAJIME!"

Sasuke was the first to move. He ran up to Naruto and tried to punch him in the face, but the Senju just side stepped it with ease. So, the Uchiha tried to go after his opponents' body with a kick, but again he was gone.

Not showing the frustration on his face, he tried to hit Naruto again and again, but it was just like trying to catch a leave in the wind. He was side stepping every attack with ease and-

Sasuke blinked. The boy was gone. He shook his head and looked left and right, but the other boy remained vanished.

No, this couldn't be. He had to be here. In the background he heard the soft chuckling from another student, which he just professionally ignored.

The Uchiha looked above him and under him, before he noticed, from the corner of his eye, his opponent was behind him. There was his shadow! And each movement he made, the other one evaded his eyes by coping them partly.

Angry with himself for falling for such a low trick, he jumped backwards over Naruto and threw already a punch at him, but the other one expected it again and just side stepped it!

"Damn it! Fight me seriously here!" Sasuke yelled at him. He knew the other had had plenty of opportunities to knock him out, so why didn't he?

"But we are fighting to improve. And you might be strong, but what good is your strength if you do not reach your enemy?"

Sasuke glared at him. Why did he- Wait. That actually made sense. And this Naruto person was being honest about it. He seemed to just want to help him get better. He was not toying with him, like his older brother did or beating him to a pup like his own father had done on several training sessions.

That was really a new one for the proud Uchiha.

"So, you want to admit defeat if I can throw a punch at you?"

"Sure," the dark haired boy replied with a smile.

Sasuke charged again. Right punch, left punch, right kick, hand-stand, two quick kicks, landing on his legs, right punch…

It went on for several minutes and Iruka was watching the fight with huge eyes. The whole class tried to provide support with different exclamations, some girls even started to fight about who of the two fighters would be a better mate.

Silently Iruka was wondering, what kind of kid that Naruto was. He was faster than the average genin and even if they had some little geniuses in the academy sometimes, the chunin felt, like the boy was still holding back.

"You break of the furies. I will keep an eye on the match?" Mizuki asked him, without even turning around.

Iruka could only nod. The kids nowadays were so surreal…

"Ino! Sakura!" He cried, before even turning around. If the girls were fighting, you knew for sure, those two had to be involved.

"What is it Iruka-sensei?" They asked, perfectly synchronized, while lying on the floor with some other girls and holding onto each others hair with the left hand, the right one ready to give a decent punch.

"No fighting if you haven't started the match yet, got it?" He tried to glare evilly at them, but the two could make so cute puppy eyes and then he would feel sorry again or be ashamed of himself for- NO! He had to be strong!

"Resist the eyes, Resist the eyes," he quietly chanted, confusing some other students who were still too focused on the fight to notice their teacher coming back to them.

"Yatta! He did it!" Another girl screamed and Iruka turned around just in time to see Naruto standing up from the floor, rubbing his right shoulder.

"That was a good one, Sasuke," he admitted laughing.

The Uchiha seemed to stare at him, before also giving a soft smile.

"If I hadn't made you trip, I would still be trying to hit you like a maniac. Thanks for the good fight"

They both smiled and shook hands, before they went back to the other students. Some of them watched in disbelieve. That had been so surreal.

Sasuke met somebody, who was faster than him. They both fought. Sasuke still won. But they shook hands afterwards. The proud-and-normally-not-even-in-the-slightest-talka tive student of their class spoke more than three sentences in a day with a different person.

For Kami's sake, he smiled!

"What are you waiting for! We don't have all day!" Mizuki yelled at the class expecting the next couple and everything was normal again – for a moment.

Itachi waited in front of the academy for his younger brother. Sure, Sasuke was too old to be picked up from school, but Itachi had been rarely in the village in the last couple of months and he wanted to spend some time with his innocent little brother.

His brother normally was one of the lonely students if you did not count his enormous fan club. All Uchiha seemed to be loners. It was part of their nature you could say. His mother being already really social with having a friend outside the clan named Kushina. A weird and scary woman, Itachi thought, even thought she had been his mentor for a time.

"Back from your mission?" A soft voiced asked.

Even without turning around, he recognized his comrade's voice. She had been in a chunin team with him and he had heard about her getting a job here at the academy, to teach the younger generation, even if she already became a Special Jonin.

"Since two hours."

"The ANBU is going to get you all tired out, not to mention killed, Itachi!" Kurenai stepped in front of him, pointing her finger into his chest, "Sensei is really worried about you. You should go and visit her, when you have the time to stroll around!"

Itachi smiled. Yes, the people you were in a team together would always worry about you and be totally outspoken about it. But their chunin team had been a weird one…

Kurenai and Maito Gai had been Kushina Uzumaki's genin students, the only two that survived the war. And as they made chunin, Itachi became part of their little group, because the rest of his team either died or dropped out of the shinobi program.

"I will get it all worked out, don't you worry," he replied and looked straight into her eyes.

"Whatever," she gave a heavy sigh, clearly remembering that you could in fact not win an argument with an Uchiha.

"The Kids will be out in a moment and I still have to correct papers."

"So, you just got out to speak with me? I feel honored," Itachi teased her.

"Well, I never see you and you don't stop by at our old meeting spot!" Her red eyes pierced into his and if Itachi wouldn't have seen it before, he would have stepped back.

"Knowing you, you just talk to me to keep your relationship with A-"

"Don't."

The Uchiha just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. In the background rang the school bell and, with a quick bye bye, Kurenai ran back to the building.

Itachi just shook his head. His chunin team had literary been crazy. Gai had been… Gai. He deserved an adjective for his own. As well as his sensei Kushina. That woman might have killed them on more than just one occasion. And Kurenai? Well, she was better now. Back then she had the unhealthy habit of turning each male into her boyfriend for 24 hours max. She had argued that it had to do with her family tactics, but nobody really believed her… save for Gai and Kushina!

He was so happy for being in ANBU right now…

Itachi looked at the gate in front of the academy. He blinked. He closed his eyes, counted to ten and opened them again. Was he going nuts?

There came his little brother. But not alone, like the Uchiha expected him to. He had another boy his age with him. That, Itachi would still have come to terms with, but – they talked. They talked to each other. And he did not mean the foreign kid doing all the speaking and Sasuke throwing in one word or another.

No.

They were both doing the talking thing, meaning: opening your mouth, moving the stuff inside there, lips and tongue and-

That sounded so wrong in his thoughts.

"Hey, nii-chan! May I introduce to you Naruto? He got into our class today," his little otouto said, before turning to the boy, "Naruto, this is my brother Itachi. He is already in ANBU!"

Something oinked up from the hard concrete of the street and the Uchiha had to blink. Was there a pig looking up at him? No it was glaring at his brother. A pig… and it wore a jacket and… necklace?

"I am sorry," his brother smiled down, "So this is our glamorous TonTon, nii-chan," Sasuke added

"Nice to meet you," the dark haired kid smiled at the older Uchiha while the pig oinked a greeting and the ANBU wondered, where he saw that smile before.

"Hello," Itachi tried to keep it simple. He did not really want to interact with them, but more likely observe his brother…

"I gotta go that way," Naruto pointed to his left, "Where do you need to go?"

"The other way," Sasuke replied and Itachi was not quite sure, but he thought, he heard some sadness in the voice, while he also swore at his delayed project 'What-the-hell-is-wrong?!'

"Okay, well, I will see you tomorrow again. Have a good day!" Smiling the boy ran off the street, followed by the pig.

The older Uchiha stared at his brother. Was that really his otouto?

"Tou-san said yesterday I should get to know him. But now… I like him. He is my friend."

Itachi still stared at him.

"I know he is a little weird, but he is strong!"

Itachi still stared at him.

"And he is not even half as annoying as the other kids"

Itachi still kept staring at him.

"Look, he knows what he is talking about and not once were his intentions not sincere"

"Don't misunderstand my silence for you to explain your relationships. I am just, to be bluntly, really surprised"

Naruto went to his new apartment, just to have two people already waiting there for him. Jiraiya and Kakashi both had tried to cook something for their little one's first day in the academy!

But both forgot one important thing. None of them could actually cook.

After setting the kitchen on fire for the sixth time and nearly blowing up the oven for the fourth time, they just got some to-go food and set the table.

Naruto decided to not comment on the matter and just be happy about the day. His godfather would leave on the next day early in the morning. Afterwards he would be nearly alone in a village for months, where he only really knew a pig. And let's face it TonTon could not be that talkative.

"Thank you, guys," the Senju happily replied to a pack of ramen from a restaurant called Ichiraku.

"You are welcome, Gaki. So. How was your first day?" His godfather asked with a bright smile.

"At first it was very boring and lonely. But now… I think it will be fun!"

Jiraiya laughed and spilled some of his own ramen on TonTon, for which the pig attacked him fiercely. It was a nice sight, a Sannin trying to get away from a furious little animal.

Naruto giggled softly and tried to save his food from the rambling couple. But Kakashi ignored their antics and smiled softly at his sensei's son. He would be protecting him, while Jiraiya was away. That he swore on his life!

Joaps. So, this is the new chapter.

I am in university since October last year and it was all soooo amazing! I could hardly focus on writing XD And now I only got some time, because I didn't want to write my homework yet ^^°

But that is no real excuse for taking so long. I will try to upload faster now that I am done with most of the character introdutions. I already hae lots of plans in my head and can't wait to get them on my comp! ^O^

I hope you have a nice day and please:
READ AND REVIEW!