A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourite s and follows.

Naruto always hated the rain.

As a little girl, the rain reminded her of the fact that she was alone. The rain and the thunder storms always reminded her that there was no one, who she could go to comfort. When the other kids could claim that their parents gave them comfort, Naruto could only claim that she comforts herself. Jiraiya might try to comfort her but the man was just too late.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto pulled out her bright orange umbrella from her bag. I might have only Hinata when I was in Konoha but I have my classmates…and maybe Jiraiya. Her life was no longer sad or miserable. She had loving classmates, friends that seemed to give a shit about her.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto, aren't you? You look so different from the television screen! I swear that your hair was longer."

The blonde stopped walking and twisted her head to look at the person, who called out her name. She blinked her eyes when she realized that it was a redhead girl. She was a pretty girl with hazel eyes, which twinkled with so much joy, innocence and mischief that Naruto couldn't help but remember her past self. In fact, it felt like that she was looking at a mirror.

If it weren't for the hazel eyes and red hair, Naruto swore that they could be related.

"Yes, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

The girl grinned before grabbing her hands. Her eyes glittered with so much hero worship that Naruto recalled Konohamaru. Her surrogate brother used to look at her with such bright eyes. He used to annoy her, begging her to play with him. Her throat dried up as memories of her past flooded into her mind. I hope he understand why I left…I hope he can forgive me for leaving him alone.

"You were so cool in the Sports Festival!" The girl gushed. "My friends didn't think you were anything special since you lost in the Cavalry Battle but I thought you were so badass with your clones. You know I think I want to join U.A High instead of going to my brother's high school especially if it means that they give me a chance to get close to you."

Naruto could only blink her eyes, trying to process what the girl confessed to her. Her heart soared at the compliment and for a moment, she felt tempted to give the girl a huge smile.

"Thank you."

"I should be thanking you since you are taking your time to talk to me, instead of going to class." The girl glanced at her watch and sighed. "I should get to class before my teacher threaten to call my parents in, again. "

The blonde nodded her head and watched as the girl run the other direction. The strands of red hair flying in the wind brought a pang in her heart. Just for a brief moment, a red head woman flashed through her mind. Naruto felt bile rising up in her throat as the picture in her head become clearer. The red-head woman was smiling at her despite the fact that there was blood coming out of her mouth.

Why is my mind conjuring such an image?

"Naru-chan, I want you to know that Mummy and Daddy love you."

Naruto felt tears building up behind her eyes. She bit her lips, praying and hoping that the pain would be enough to stop her tears. She was fifteen years old. There was no reason for her to cry her heart out. There was no point for her to wonder if her parents loved her, to wonder if they actually hated her like the other adults claimed. She was living the good life now. She had friends that adored her.

She was going to live her life in the way that she wanted.

"Naru-chan…are you okay?"

Naruto's head swung around, blond hair slapping her cheeks loudly across the face. Tsuyu stared at her with concern. Her classmate only stood a couple of meters away from her eyes. Her usual blank eyes shone with concern as she took in the sight of her. The blonde sniffed, rubbed her face and silently cursed when she realized that tears were already pouring down her face.

Just those twelve words could reduce her to a sobbing mess.

"I'm fine, Tsuyu-chan."

Tsuyu frowned but made no attempts to ask her about what was wrong. Instead, the girl closed the difference between them, linking their arms together and offered a small smile. "The rain can make anyone sad, can't it?"

"Y-Yeah, I fucking hate the rain." Naruto stared blankly at the rain, which seemed to be hitting the ground even harder than before. She felt her heart winced as the memories of the hospital flooded into her mind. The demon brat failed in her mission to bring the young Uchiha back. Those had been the words that she first heard when she woke up from the hospital bed. "I really hate the fucking rain."

"You cut your hair." Tsuyu's eyes lingered on the blond hair, which barely touched her shoulder. "I didn't think Bakugou's attack would be enough for you to cut your hair so much."

"I wanted to experience a change." The blond girl smiled softly. "It feels weird to have my hair this short but I like it more, than my long hair. It makes fighting easier if you ask me."

Her classmate fixed her eyes on her, those blank eyes searching as if they doubted her words. It unnerved her that Tsuyu could make her feel so uncomfortable. How can I tell her that I wanted to show everyone that Sasuke, no longer had any hold on me? She shook her head. For her to admit this would be telling everyone about her past.

She was not ready to tell her classmates and friends about her past.

"Naruto!"

"Naru-chan, you cut your hair!"

"Don't tell us that you were bothered about the attention that you decided to cut your hair!"

Naruto felt her head throbbing as the questions kept pouring in from every direction. She rubbed the sides of her head, trying to squish her displeasure from the collisions of voices.

Mina was hovering about her, hands playing with the blond hair that barely touched her shoulder. Ochako just stood there with concern eyes while Hagakure made comments about how cute she looked with short hair. Bakugou sat in his seat, an ugly scowl on his face as he yelled to everyone that his explosions did not cause her to cut her hair. Shouto stood in the corner, eyes showing no emotions and a careful blank expression in his face.

She felt her lips twitched upwards.

Some things would never change.

"I just wanted to see what it would be like to have short hair," Naruto combed her hair with her hands. "I have never done anything drastic with my hair before."

Everyone stared at her in shock and a sense of dread washed over her when she saw the scheming looks in Mina's face. Shaking her head, Naruto took her seat beside Shouto. Was it strange that I cut my hair? Maybe, they couldn't picture me with short hair. She stared out at the window, where she could see that the rain continued to pour like there was no tomorrow.

She blinked her eyes when she saw that Shouto was still staring at her. His bicoloured eyes seemed to linger on her hair, which barely tickled her shoulder. He twisted his head away from her before looking back at her.

"It suits you." Naruto blinked at those words. "You look pretty with your short hair, but you are always pretty."

Pretty?

Naruto felt her heart swell at those words as her friend stared at her with honest eyes. She toyed with her hair as memories of her childhood flooded into her mind. Sasuke used to tell her that she looked prettier with long hair, which was why she kept her hair long. She had never felt like she would be pretty with long hair. She stared at her friend for a good couple of minutes before giving him a large smile.

"Thank you."

Shouto's eyes lingered on her hair before focusing on her eyes. "I am only telling the truth."

The sincerity in his eyes and his voice was enough to make Naruto turn her head away from him. The truth? She placed her hand on her chest, feeling her racing heart. Maybe in his eyes that she looked pretty, but she could count the number of people that was prettier than her. Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Momo, Mina and so many other girls were prettier than her. Compared to them, she was just ordinary.

Yet when Shouto looked at her, she could think that maybe he was right.

The door to their classroom slid open and Aizawa stepped through, no longer sporting bandages of any kind. "Morning."

Their teacher scanned the room, eyes lingering on each of his students. Aizawa's eyes lingered the most on her. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her hair. Why did everyone keep looking at me like that? Her teacher nodded his head before continuing with his scan of the classroom.

"It is nice to see that your bandages are off, Aizawa-sensei." Tsuyu commented.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive," Aizawa explained. "But that isn't important. Today, we've got Hero Informatics class and a special one at that."

The atmosphere around her quickly began to change, her classmates leaning forward warily as they waited for the news to finally drop. Naruto scratched the back of her neck, wishing for the first time in two days that her hair was long enough for her to make a braid out of it. She never liked tension.

Shouto leaned towards her, flashing her a side glance. "You don't seem to be nervous."

Naruto turned to him, blue eyes glinting with amusement. "I just won the Sports Festival so I am so happy that he could ask me to go to the principal's office and I won't throw a fuss."

Aizawa swept his eyes over them once and blinked. "Code names. You will be coming up with your hero names."

"How awesome! It is our time to shine!" Chairs clattered as most of her classmates erupted into cheers of joy. Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheeks.

Aizawa silenced her classmates with a sharp glare. "But before we talk about code names, we need to discuss the pro draft picks I mentioned the other day. This is based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after another two or three years of experience. So you could say that it is a way for them to show interest in your futures.:

Naruto never really thought about what the professionals would think about her during their two days off. For the last two days, Jiriaya had been training her like a madman. It also didn't help that she had been focusing on how to move on with her life. She had been thinking about how to be a better hero, about being a better friend to her classmates but not once did it cross her mind about the internship.

She grimaced when she felt a sharp pain in her cheek.

"There is ample time for their interest to die down before you graduate," Aizawa added. "And any or all offers can be arbitrarily revoked. It happens quite often so don't panic if it happens to you."

Naruto chewed her bottom lip as her classmates began to whisper about the pressure that they were facing. Did I impress these people? I hope so because it will be a pain in the neck to win the whole thing and not have anyone interested. She glanced at Shouto, who had a thoughtful look on his face as Momo made several comments about the pressure.

"Here are the totals for those with offers." Aizawa took out a remote from his pocket and clicked on it. The board came to life as graphs began to shoot across the board, numbers spinning before they settled below the names. "Usually, the numbers are more spread out, however, our top three stole most of the spotlight."

4,500

Naruto rubbed her eyes, wondering and hoping that the number on her name was not a joke. She pinched herself and smiled when she saw that the numbers had not changed. There were so many people, who wanted her to do their internship with them. I wasn't unwanted. If she had been in Konoha then no one would have given her this many offers. In fact, she would have been lucky to get an offer.

"Well I can understand why Naru-chan got most of the offers but it is weird that Todoroki is second and Bakugou is third," Jirou commented.

Naruto frowned and glanced at Shouto, who had his eyebrows scrunched together and a blank expression on his face. She felt her heart grow heavy at the sight of his uncomfortable expression. He probably thinks that it is because of his name. No one was looking at them, instead, everyone seemed to be focusing on the fact that there was a huge difference between the offers.

"You know you deserved those offers." She whispered.

Shouto grimaced. "Most of the offers must have come because of my father's influence and not just because of my performance."

Aizawa swept on, explaining that regardless of getting an offer or not, they would be interning with a pro hero within the area to receive the necessary experience. Naruto frowned to herself, twirling her fingers around her hair strand. If I have to do an internship then it means I will have to cut down my training with Ero-Sennin. It isn't fair, he is going to teach me to find my elemental jutsu.

Her eyes drifted to the person sitting beside her, Shouto had his eyes fixed on their teacher but every few seconds, he would flicker his eyes at her. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was concerned for her.

"They are only temporary, but you still want to pick something appropriate," Aizawa said meaningfully. "But if you're not serious about it—"

"You'll know true hell later."

The door to their room slip open with a clatter and Naruto twisted her head to look at the side. Midnight strutted proudly into the classroom with a wink, hands placed behind her head as she made her way to the front of the class. "The name you pick now may be what the world will end up calling you."

"Yes, that is very true," Aizawa said flatly. "Midnight here will be assessing the sensibility of the names that you pick since I'm no good at that."

Yeah, I already had an idea from your name. Naruto glanced out at the window, where she could see that the rain had stopped. Her lips curled into a tiny smile at the sight of the birds on the ground as well as the sounds of their chirping, indicating that the storm had passed.

Aizawa tugged out his sleeping bag, pausing briefly to fix them with a quiet look. "What future do you see for yourself? The name you choose will bring you closer to cementing a certain image because names are capable of reflecting one's true character."

Naruto soaked in Aizawa's words, Koji handing her back a board and marker with a nervous smile, and she numbly handed one back to Satou behind her. A name. It made sense to make a name. If she was here to learn how to properly be a hero like her class—if she wanted to be a hero, wanted to move on with her life then she needed a name. She was here today because Jiraiya gave her the chance to be free because her teachers believed in her. She was here because Midoriya made her realize that she couldn't live like before.

Naruto tightened her grip on the marker and stared blankly at the whiteboard in front of her.

She had never thought about being a hero until she passed the entrance exam. She had been living life like a ghost, never really being a part of anything. Everything had been like a haze because she couldn't let go of her past. She had been the girl that couldn't really live her life.

"We can start when the first person is ready."

Naruto felt sweat building up on her eyebrow. What the hell do I write? My whole life, I wanted to become Hokage but I don't want to be associated with the position that hurt me. She chewed the inner corner of her cheek as her classmates declared his hero name. Her eyes widened when she saw that Aoyama wrote a whole sentence.

"You got to be fucking kidding me! I need to write a whole sentence!" Naruto complained, letting go of her marker.

"I think it is just him," Shouto reassured her.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief before flickering her eyes at Shouto's board, which was still blank. Maybe I should do something flashy? She shook her head. Wrapping her hands around the marker, the blonde tapped her marker against her face., waiting for some inspiration to come.

What kind of hero did she want to represent?

"I promise that I'm always going to be there for you."

She felt her throat dried up as the memory of Kakashi's words flooded into her mind. He promised her that he would protect her from the people, who kept chasing after her. She tightened her grip on her marker. He broke that promise to her, making her believe that adults actually did give a shit about her.

If he actually gave a shit about her then why didn't he focus on her when it came to her training.

If Naruto was going to become a hero then she was going to strive to be a hero that kept their promise. She would be a hero that would protect everyone because it was her job.

"Having trouble?" Ochako asked, glancing at her empty whiteboard.

"I'm not feeling very creative," Naruto admitted.

Her classmate tilted her head and snapped her fingers. "How about Vixen? Your whisker marks make you look like a female fox."

Vixen? Naruto tilted her head and stared out at the window. Vixen reminded her of the fox that was sealed inside of her. It reminded her about the days when no one could look past the marks which decorated her cheeks. Could she actually write it down? She shook her head. If she wanted to move on with her life then anything to do with the Kyuubi must be erased from her mind.

She was going to live her life to the fullest.

"You know Naru-chan, I think you are my guardian angel with how you always protect me from the bullies."

Hinata's words rung through her head and the blonde felt her eyes widened as she found a code name to use. Even though they had been separated for the last three years, her friend could still give her a good idea. She might not be an angel but she could be the protector that the people deserved. She was going to be the hero, who protected the people that had no one to protect.

"You need to learn how to use the power inside of you."

"Let's see, we still have Iida and Bakugou, who needs to change his. Midoriya and—ah, Uzumaki, would you like to go next?"

Naruto nodded, quietly rising to her feet before making her way to the podium. She could feel the eyes of her classmates on her and surprisingly enough, she found herself drawing strength from the way Todoroki's mismatched eyes watched her, as though having expected her to have known a name before any of them. I hope that she won't reject that name.

"You're not the monster, Naruto. You're its jailor."

Her classmates waited and Naruto shifted most of her weight onto her right leg, forcing them to steady despite the nerves that she felt. She took a deep breath, staring at her classmates as the memories of the past flooded her.

I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm not the Kyuubi.

I'm not the jailor for the Kyuubi.

"Oh, what are you then?"

She ignored the Kyuubi, who seemed to have decided to make itself known just because of her thoughts. Jiraiya told her that the Akatsuki were going to be after people like her. They were going to try and capture her because of the demon inside of her. She might hate the Kyuubi, might hate him because of what he represented but she was going to be the better person.

"When I was a little girl, I didn't have a lot of people protecting me." Everyone blinked their eyes at her words and Naruto took a deep breath. "I want to be a hero that protects the people. I want to be a hero that when people look at me, they know that they are safe and protected. I wanted to be a hero that the orphan in me, never had. I would like to think with my quirk that I can do it."

'The Hokage protects everyone in the village.'

Naruto gripped her board tight and flipped it up for the people to see.

The Hero of Protection: Guardian.

She smiled widely at everyone. "I would like to be the kind of hero that protects the people."

"I'm your guardian, Kyuubi…that is what I am."

(in Konoha)

Kakashi scratched his head as he looked at the previous tests that his student had done. Sitting across him was Iruka, who also had his eyebrows knitted together as they stared at the first year tests that Naruto did as well as the other students of the same year group. Several stacks of papers were scattered across the table, along with several notes.

"Her papers were different from everyone else," Kakashi said finally, putting down the math paper that his student did in her first year. He picked up the test paper that Sasuke did and put it besides Naruto's paper. Iruka grimaced. "The papers that they were giving her wasn't some paper that any kid could do in their first year of schooling. It was a paper that she should have known in her third year of schooling."

"I knew that her former teacher didn't like her," Iruka rubbed the back of his neck. "And I wasn't the friendliest teacher in her second year of school, but I had never given her any hard papers to do. It is actually a miracle that she did as well as she did when you know this."

The silver-haired man grimaced at the reminder and picked up the strategy paper that Naruto did in her first year. Naruto was not joking when she said that the teachers were against her. He knew as a little girl that his student worked very hard, but the fact that these papers were the reason that she stopped studying was enough to throttle anyone. If the girl had been given normal papers then she probably would have been the top kunoichi.

"She is very smart if you consider the fact that she was the year representative for the Sports Festival." Kakashi drawled, putting down the paper. He picked up the second year math paper that Naruto did. Most of it is correct. He frowned when he noticed that there were some slight errors. The science paper was nearly perfect too. How did she go from being a bright student to being the worse one? He rubbed his chin. "In fact, her grades in your subject are amazing."

"They were amazing until the last semester of her second year." Iruka sighed. "I remembered that she went from being an amazing student to being the student, that played too many pranks and skipped classes."

"Do you know why?"

"I had a theory but I never had it confirmed." Kakashi raised his eyebrow and Iruka took a deep breath. "Naruto will never tell anyone that she was being bullied, but I heard one of the girls telling Naruto that it was pointless for her to study so hard. They told her that she was never going to become a ninja and that Sasuke was meant to get the highest grades. I think she might have faced more problems, but I could never get confirmed since their families funded the school."

"Did you try to confirm it?"

"Even if I confirm it, there is nothing that I can do." Iruka grimaced. "The principal would have taken those girl's sides over Naruto since their family did the funding. The Hokage would have helped but only if Naruto admitted that she was being bullied. Naruto has too much pride to admit that she was being bullied or that she is hurt."

If Naruto had been bullied before then it would make sense on the speed that she broke down. Kakashi tapped his chin and stared at the test papers scattered on the table. His student had been bullied before, which meant that she must have depressive episodes before this. It must mean that her match with Sasuke brought out the depressive episode, but the question was what was her trigger? What triggered her to leave? Sasuke was not enough to do this to her.

"Iruka, can you name me all the girls that bullied Naruto?"

Kakashi noted down the names as Iruka recalled the girls, who seemed to be aggressive to his student. His lips turned downwards as he realized that most of the girls had been girls, who had been apart of Sasuke's fan club. He thinned his lips when Iruka called out Sakura and Ino's names.

Maybe, it was time to talk to them about their behaviour with Naruto.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially about Naruto's hero name. I thought about going for Maelstorm or Vixen but I felt like they weren't original enough.