Chapter 4 - Let The Pranks Begin!

Pairing: Self Insert x Mikoto Uchiha

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

A/N: Just a quick mention, since there have been some questions and comments about specific things over the span of the first chapters. Yami is an unreliable narrator, which means that what he says or does may not always be the right or correct thing. The story is told from, primarily, his point of view, so the way he observes things, and understands them, is just his point of view. Just keep in mind that Yami isn't always correct or spot on. Ja ne.

Also, I apologize for the delays, school has kept me insanely busy lately. Tons of assignments and stuff I have to read and memorize, along with final assignments. I try my best to squeeze some chapters out, but I primarily apologize to readers of "The Spiraling Empress" Since I promised a chapter at least every other week, but in the end was unable to keep that promise. My apologies.

Question: Would anyone be interested in a potential self-insert Pokemon story in the future? I've mostly been writing stories about Naruto, and thought that once I get more time, it could be fun to try out. Well, if you'd like to see that, let me know.

The Academy

When the bell rang, signaling that it was finally lunchtime, Yami lifted his head from his table and wiped the drool away from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. He had just woken up from an A-Rank nap, bordering S-Rank, because he had been so deep within his slumber that he had barely heard the bell ring in the first place.

Rubbing his eyes to clear his vision, the dark-haired boy looked up at the clock and sighed as they had just reached the halfway mark of the day. Meaning there were still many more hours of, yay, torture. That may be an exaggeration, but then again, he had never been too fond of school in his past existence either.

At least he could now devour, eh, eat the food his mother had so kindly had packed for him. So without further ado, he reached into his bag and grabbed his lunchbox in the form of a paper bag, and placed it on the table as he closed the notebook that he had, over the past few hours, filled with various sketches of whatever he could find.

Kiriko-sensei had already started nagging him slightly, he had fallen asleep in the first history class, and even if he had been able to answer it, thank god for past life knowledge, she had still given him the 'I'm watching you' signal. Which was just amusing at this point, considering he had been asleep for the past three hours without her noticing.

Chuckling at the thought, Yami reached over and pushed the window up to open it. Feeling the afternoon breeze flow through his clothing, before he climbed out and onto the wall, making his way up to the roof.

He wasn't just going to the roof for cloud watching, on the contrary, this was one of the places that he just had to see in person. Some may question what could be so interesting about the roof, but those people had probably forgotten where this place had started from, at least from Yami's point of view.

Because the railing and seats that he was looking at now, they were the place that Kakashi's Team Seven had their first meeting. Well, first proper meeting outside of the classroom. Yami couldn't help but smile as he imagined himself looking at the faint figure of Kakashi leaning against the railing.

Waltzing over the seats, he placed his lunch down and gazed out over the village. The sight was almost identical, there were of course some things that were slightly different considering how many years back they were compared to the start of canon, but all of this was still nostalgic to look at.

He had been so deep down the memory lane of his past self that he barely managed to hear someone behind him.

"Nara-san?"

Blinking to himself, Yami hummed before making an 'o' shape with his mouth as realization hit him. Right, right, that was probably him the person was referring to.

With a short, "Hai?" Yami turned around, raising a curious brow with a tilt of his head as he came face to face with none other than Namikaze Minato. Had his trolling introduction caused the blond to seek him out? That was quite interesting.

Minato gave him an odd look in return and lifted a neatly wrapped lunchbox in his hand, "I was asking if I could join you for lunch, but you seemed quite far gone."

With a humored snort, Yami chuckled slightly and gave the blond a nod, "Sure thing, and well, let's just say the view caught my attention." Not like he was going to tell Minato that he had been in the middle of imagining his future son giving his future student an introduction in the place he had just sat down.

At first, the atmosphere was a tiny bit awkward. Neither of the two had much of an idea about what to say, but the expression on their faces made it clear that both were looking to make some kind of conversation.

"I don't think Sensei is happy with you."

Yami paused the motion of bringing one of his onigiris up to his mouth, and lowered it to give the blond boy a sheepish look, "Really now? It's not like I'm sleeping in her class or anything troublesome like that."

"It looked like a vein was about to pop on her forehead when you started snoring." Minato snickered with a small smile.

Yami on the other hand started laughing so hard that he choked on some rice he had been chewing on, and rolled down on the seat. "That's priceless… So she did notice it, but gave up on trying to correct me." He managed to croak out as he kept laying there, the crown of a tree shielding his eyes from the sun so he could peacefully watch the clouds.

The other boy looked interested, remembering that Yami had mentioned something about cloud watching when he had done his introduction earlier. It made Minato curious, so after finishing the last bit of his lunchbox, the blond laid down on the ground a couple of feet from where Yami had taken his spot on the seats.

Gazing up at the clouds from the shade of the tree, Minato changed his gaze to look over at the dark-haired boy that looked ready to fall asleep again. "Neh, Nara-san?"

"Call me Yami, formalities are a pain in the ass." Yami chuckled, waving Minato off with a smile.

Giving a quick nod, Minato coughed into his head, "Oh, alright then. I must insist that you call me Minato then. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Yami mumbled, looking down at Minato from the corner of his eyes, not bothering with turning his head.

After a couple of seconds of thought, Minato sat halfway up by probing himself on his elbows, "Why is it that you do it?"

Blinking a couple of times, Yami rolled onto his side and rested his cheek on his palm, "Do what? Sleep in class?"

"Yeah."

That got Yami thoughtful, it wasn't like he was purposely trying to annoy the teacher. He just liked sleeping, it was comfortable to do so. And normally, he'd use all of the time he could to train for… private reasons. Academy time just felt like the time of the day, where he could actually enjoy napping.

"No reason, in particular, I guess I just like sleeping a bit too much for my own good. It's all good though, I'm able to answer whatever she asks of me anyway, so I doubt sensei minds that much." The Nara mused, scratching his cheek.

Seeming to accept the answer, Minato laid down again with his hands folded beneath his head, "So… what's your goal?"

Yami had been about to lay down again, so he was now stuck in some halfway position between sitting and laying, "Goal?" He questioned and decided upon laying down instead of sitting up, closing his eyes as the gentle rays of sunlight hit his eyelids through the leaves above him.

Minato nodded, "Yeah, I want to be the Hokage and an even greater one than the ones before me. I think having a goal will help me keep going. What about you? What keeps you going?"

At that mention, Yami slowly opened his eyes as a frown settled on his face. He really wished that Minato would have asked that some other time… why? Because he had no answer for him. He didn't know, ever since he realized where he was, he had been terrified of what he knew of this world's future.

All he had wanted was to get strong enough to live, but earlier today he had been faced with the realization that living and surviving were different, and he needed to figure out if he was fine with the latter.

It did make him a little sad. It reminded him of his past existence. He hadn't had a goal set in stone there either, it was more like, he wanted to have enough money to live comfortably, that was it. Maybe travel a bit and see some stuff, other than that, he had been content with just playing video games and watching anime.

He had felt bored back then too like he woke up to do the previous day on repeat. Even in school he had felt that it was all pointless, he didn't like going to the school he did, he just wanted the education so he could get money. Most of the stuff taught there didn't interest him that much, but if wanted to be able to come home, eat, sleep, play video games, whatever, then he needed the money.

It made him feel a bit out of place when Minato asked that question like he was supposed to have a goal. Reminded him of Team Seven's introduction once again. Each of them had either a goal or an ambition to do something with their career. What about him? Not really, right?

Not like he could tell Minato, 'Yo, I want to get crazy strong to whoop Madara because this world is about to turn to shit. Not that you'd know, because in eighteen years or so, you're gonna get screwed by the Kyuubi which will get released by your very own student! Merry Christmas!'He couldn't say that, even if he wanted to. Which he didn't, he would much rather prefer that Minato actually lived.

The blond boy had been almost exactly like he had imagined, there was this calm and enjoyable side to him that made conversation seem easy enough after a bit, but there was also the jokester somewhere within him. At least from what he could gather from today's experiences anyway. Maybe Naruto had gotten that from both his mom and dad. Who knew.

Maybe he could ensure that Minato lived if he became strong enough. Could he perhaps change things?

"I don't know…" Yami sighed in the end. "I guess I never really thought about it, it just seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time. Tou-san is a Shinobi, I think Kaa-san is too, but maybe she is retired. Seemed easy enough to follow in their footsteps and do something useful with my life."

Minato gave a quiet nod at Yami's explanation, "That's too bad. Doesn't it feel pointless then? Like you're just doing this for someone else's sake?"

Being this wise at such a young age should be illegal, no wonder Minato turned out to be some kind of monster genius. "Not really, it feels right enough to be here, I just don't know why yet. I guess it'll come to me sooner than later, but it feels like I'm supposed to be here."

Minato started chuckling after a bit, "I guess your goal could always be to become one of my Shinobi, that way I could specifically order you against cloud watching."

Yami scowled at that and glared down at Minato, a look promising pain, "Keep dreaming blondie, I'd rather go, rogue, than obey such a lame order. What a drag…"

Snorting at the comment, Minato frowned, "I didn't mean it like that, I wouldn't give people an order they didn't want…"

So naive…' Yami couldn't help but smile at that. Even if Minato had his time to shine even as a kid, there was still some innocence over him. "I don't want to ruin your dream, but… The reason the previous and the current Hokage were and are so great is that they know when to make the hard decision that serves the greater good. You can't please everyone, but you've got to do what's best for the village."

Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Yami threw the empty paper bag he had carried his lunch in, into the trash can. During this time, Minato had just looked deep in thought. It wasn't his intention to ruin his dream of becoming Hokage… But it was naive to think that you could just give people the orders that they wanted, and not expect them to do what the village needed from them, especially when it was to their direct detriment... For a moment, Yami shivered, for what if he had just ruined the future causing Minato to change his goal and never become Hokage? Nah, no way. Minato had too much of a spine for that, despite tomato-head's early belief, and he'd find another way to fulfill his dream.

Speaking of the devil, "I just want to keep the village safe, this place gave me a home when I had nothing else. The Hokage looks out for everyone, so to repay everyone, I'll become Hokage." Minato spoke with determination, his blue eyes still staring up at the passing clouds. Perhaps there really was something about this cloud-watching thing that Yami seemed so fond of.

With his chin resting in his palm, Yami couldn't help but smile to himself. Seems like he had worried for nothing, just like he thought. Listening to Minato made him feel grateful because since he was mentally older than almost everyone aside from the academy tutors, the words Minato spoke hit just a bit harder.

Any other kid may have made fun of a dream like that. Even if Minato already had gotten a handful of demonic fangirls. It just made Yami feel nostalgic, the gratefulness came from being able to hear where it all started. Because he couldn't remember the exact reason Minato wanted to become Hokage, or if it was ever revealed, but the blond had just told it to him.

With a sigh, Yami stretched his back. This conversation had been a bit too deep for a break time talk, maybe that was just what happened. Anyhow, he felt like lighting up the mood a little bit. And he knew just how...

"Hey… Minato?"

"Mhm?"

"Do you know how to do the tree walking exercise?"

"Uhm yeah, what about it?"

"...Excellent!"

I sighed as I returned home from the academy. Today was Yami's academy debut, and it was… interesting to put it lightly. Not to say that anything had happened, specifically, but rather the accumulation of events leading up to it.

Ever since he was four, Yami was an… interesting Nara. While he was always an inquisitive child, he seemed to gain a single-minded determination that seemed unnatural for one born in a time of peace. Once he had found out that I was a shinobi, he seemed to set that as his only career path, ignoring the plethora of options that were both available, and more common for our clan, from working in the Intelligence force to becoming a medic and working with the deer. Instead, his questions and focus centered around becoming a ninja. Not becoming like me, but rather, it seemed like he had his own goal in mind.

So, once he became five years old, I began his basic training, with the keynote being basic. Mostly, I had wanted to both scare him out of becoming a ninja, but also to test his resolve. And in the off chance that he followed through, he'd at least be safe.

The scary thing was… He took to the training like a deer to foliage. If we didn't stop him, he'd find something to train… Hell, even when I went out of my way to make the training more painful than it needed to be, like giving him somewhat sharp weapons to practice throwing with, he didn't stop or even slow down, but rather sped up, almost like his life depended on it, and he didn't stop with just his physical attributes, but even focused a lot of time on his monstrous chakra, for a five-year-old.

Speaking of his chakra, that was truly a surprise, as not only did he access it almost immediately, but the quantity, even from the start, would shame most ten-year-olds. And from the feel of it, the Yin ratio was extremely high. And as he constantly trained his body, his chakra drastically increased as the ratio slowly became more balanced.

Honestly, his skill with chakra was also becoming monstrous. He was reaching chuunin levels of control, and he had only trained for a year. But the interesting thing was how on the days where I had a mission in the morning, he would always be close to chakra exhaustion. Hell, on some days, he was passed out from training…

And now, the little monster of a kid had joined the academy. Truly, it was a scary notion. It almost feels like he's scared of something, for him to act like a Nara that has already experienced a mission gone wrong, and is now focusing on training, to prevent it from happening ever again…

But really, the weirdest thing about the kid is his… intuition, or maybe knowledge. He seems to know way too much about things that he shouldn't be aware of, or hadn't the opportunity to learn yet. From the specifics of chakra, to various exercises in manipulating it, to even the reality of what a shinobi is. While he asks the occasional questions, even the questions are too specific. Like he has part of the puzzle, but is missing a piece or two…

And that's not to mention his general behavior. If I hadn't seen him born with my own eyes, I almost wouldn't believe that he was a kid, as he never acts like one. At most, I'd guess that he had a disease of being a lazy midget. His manner of speaking had advanced faster than normal, but even the way he carries himself, specifically from how he has trouble interacting with other children, to how he is always one step ahead of whatever thing that Azumi would want him to do… It screams maturity, and if it wasn't for his occasional bouts of immaturity and empathy, I'd truly be worried about him being a psychopath, or maybe something else.

Regardless, despite odd behavior regarding the pursuit of strength, at least he'd be safe when he went out and became a shinobi. But really, I just hope that he doesn't blaze through the academy. No matter how much he focuses on training, he's still just a six-year-old, and that's going to show in his physicial capabilities to some extent, and the last thing I want is for him to become a shinobi faster than normal.

Honestly though… I just hope that the next little brat isn't as confusing as Yami, though he should at least be a pretty good older brother within the next few years. Oh yeah, It's almost been three months, should be about time to tell the menace of a cloud watcher. It'll be fun to watch his reaction… Good revenge for when I was caught with my pants down.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Yami raised a brow at Minato, as he finished the last trap under one of the tables. "Of course it is! If we can't be sneaky, then how good are we going to be at Shinobi duties? Just imagine this as… uhm… as practice! Definitely practice."

"If you say so." Minato mused with an amused tilt of his head.

The two had just finished one of their first pranks out of many. Yes, pranks. Why pranks some may ask, but the answer was quite simple. "In order to be a good Shinobi, you had to be able to sneak around and utilize stealth. Traps were also a key factor in large-scale battles where you could decrease the number of enemy units by a great amount by ensnaring, creating decoys, bait, or through ambushes and other lethal means in the battlefield." The Nara swiftly explained to his blond counterpart that just gave a brief nod.

The blond couldn't help but look a bit impressed, "You put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"

Yami snorted before scratching the back of his head, "Not really, I don't particularly like school and this seems to be the best way to mess with people." Even if his first reason was the correct one, he didn't want to stand too much out yet. Speaking of wartime strategies before the declaration of the actual war was most likely not the best idea.

A minute later, Yami waved his hand at Minato, signaling for him to follow. The reason being that there were footsteps outside of the teacher's planning room. Oh yeah, they were pranking the teachers, go big or go home, right?

So with a quiet chuckle from the, soon to be, chaotic duo, Yami pushed the window open and looked down. That was a long way to the ground. Shaking his head, he stood up in the windowsill before putting a foot on the outer wall, and slowly climbed up the wall with Minato in tow, who shut the window after them.

Now all that was left was to get back in the classroom and wait for the fireworks.

By the time they arrived, the others had yet to come back from lunch, so they were able to casually return to their seats with ease, with the only change being Minato now sitting with Yami at the back. The best spots for watching the S-Ranks show about to unfold any minute now, and probably many more times in the future…

And just as intended, by the second the other students had taken their place, a loud explosion echoed throughout the hallways of the academy, followed by the bellowing screams of furious academy teachers now covered in pink paint and feathers that were frantically running around like headless chickens… Heh, chickens… feathers.

Soon, the entire academy looked like it was under military inspection. All classes were standing in a row up against the walls as their very pink teacher, Kiriko for them, inspected them from head to toe to find any clues about who the culprit was. It was kind of extreme though, all they had done was rig a small bucket of paint and a bag of feathers. Why was there such a big fuss about this?

The dark-haired boy had thought that they were safe from suspicion, but his eyes were about to pop out of his skull along with his jaw when it dropped to the floor as he saw a spot of dried pink paint on Minato's sandal. Well, that wasn't good. And Kiriko-sensei was only a few students away from inspecting them, we wouldn't be able to do anything to remove it.

Yami sighed slightly, running a hand through his hair. 'Oh well… Will of fire and all of that other stuff.' He thought dryly to himself as he reached over grabbed Minato's wrist to get the blonde's attention.

Minato, as this happened, raised a brow as this was also the first time he had noticed the evidence of their earlier shenanigan. "What are you-" He didn't get to finish his question, because Yami put a finger up to his mouth, shushing the blond to be quiet with a smirk.

After motioning him to come closer, Yami quickly whispered to the blond, "Hey, can we swap shoes for a second?" Minato leveled a slight eyebrow at the request, before shaking his head and acceding. With nary a movement, the two quickly swapped sandals, one show at a time.

Stepping out of the row, Yami couldn't help but chuckle as everyone stared at him and he felt like doing another bad joke. "Guess I'm caught…" He raised his hand, "Pink handed." To say all of them face palmed was an understatement.

Yami soon found himself in quite a pickle. He was now seated in an empty classroom after class, and Kiriko-sensei was staring quite unimpressed down at him. The young Nara had just used the remaining hours of the day cleaning up his mess. Oh well, at least it had been fun.

"So why did you do it?" Was her last question as the afternoon-evening sun shined through the room to his left.

Not that he could tell her his real reasons for doing it.

So with a straight face, Yami stood up and spoke in the most serious tone he could muster. "To test the limit of my abilities!" Yeah, he had stolen that line. It was just too good not to. Plus, the look on sensei's face was hilarious. He should have brought a camera to capture this beautiful moment.

Kiriko-sensei sat down on the opposite side of the desk with a sigh. She had to admit it was impressive to get past so many experienced chunin instructors without being caught, hell, first-day academy students shouldn't even have been able to get in and out of that room without being noticed in the first place.

There was however one thing she had noticed doing the… inspections she had done earlier. "Why did you cover for Namikaze Minato?"

Yami blinked at her with a tilt of his head, so she had noticed that? "I have no idea what you're talking about."

With her forehead slamming down into the table, Kiriko mentally gave up on this kid. She had heard stories about the Nara, but this was nowhere near what she had thought she had to endure. Was this kid insane?

"How did you get in and out of the teacher's room without being noticed? There are constant teachers in those hallways, it seems highly unlikely that you just waltzed right in through the front door."

Shrugging his shoulder, the Nara responded simply, "I just used the tree walking exercise to enter through the window, no big deal. Could just as well have entered through the roof, but that was too boring."

Unable to decide whether or not she should be impressed with the intelligence of a six-year-old, Kiriko shook her head. "In any case, I hope you learned your lesson. Next time we'll have to bring your parents in for a talk."

"That's if I get caught," Yami mumbled with a smirk. Sure they could have a suspicion if something like this happened again, but if he was just more careful next time, then they would have nothing to pin on him.

Kiriko felt a vein about to pop on her forehead as she clenched her hand tightly, "What?"

"What?" Yami repeated innocently and had to dodge a piece of chalk thrown at his forehead as the sensei murmured a tired, 'Go home.' with a very tired voice. Yet, he decided to obey this time, he had training and napping to do. He couldn't get behind schedule.

So after swinging his back over his shoulder, he ran over and opened up the window, and jumped out while sticking to the wall with chakra as he walked down the wall casually. Looking back one last time to see Kiriko-sensei's head sticking out of the empty window, eyeing him curiously. Hadn't she believed him when he said he did this to get into the teacher's room in the first place?

Maybe not, perhaps first-day academy students weren't supposed to know this already. Oh well, that had to be some plus point somewhere.

Upon reaching the ground, Yami stuck his hands into his pockets and smiled approvingly to himself as he walked out of the academy ground. That had been a successful first day. Annoy the teachers; check. Nap in the middle of class; check.

"Yami-san?"

Humming out loud, Yami turned around to the voice calling out to him, spotting a now-familiar blond boy walk out from behind a tree. "Hm? Didn't I tell you to stop with the honorifics mister soon to be Hokage-sama?" Yami joked.

"Hah, hah, very funny. Why did you do that?" Minato snorted and jogged up beside Yami, the two of them walking through the still busy streets of Konoha.

Knowing where Minato was going with this, Yami sighed and scratched the back of his head, "Because it was a drag, and your hair was too blond. It was ruining my nap time."

"Hey, that's just mean…"

Chuckling with a grin, Yami patted Minato on the shoulder, "Gomen, gomen, I just thought that the future Hokage shouldn't get a bad rep on his first day in the academy."

"What about your reputation?"

Raising a confused brow, Yami dug his hands back into his pockets, "What about it?"

Minato frowned slightly, "Doesn't it bother you that you had to take all of the blame?"

Shaking his head, the Nara reasoned, "I dragged you into it, only fair for me to take the blame."

Minato shook his head in reply to that, "Nah, I decided to go along with it on my own. I thought it would be fun, and it was."

"Still it was my idea, just go along with it if they ask you. Anything else would be a drag." Yami smiled, much to Minato's amusement.

Deciding to let the Nara have his way, for now, Minato hummed a bit at the awkward silence that gathered around them, "So what are you going to do now?"

Thinking about the question briefly, Yami responded with, "Not much, probably go train a bit. Then nap. Then train a bit more. Watch some clouds, and then it should be time for dinner."

"Want a sparring partner? I've wanted to improve a bit on my katas lately, but the usual training dummies don't hit back." Minato smiled.

Yami, however, felt a bit annoyed. "Are you calling me a training dummy?"

"No idea what you're talking about."

Yami sighed. 'I guess I deserve that one.'

Thank you for reading, again, I apologize for the delay. Procrastination and school apparently steal all my time. I'll try to do better. Until next time, Ja ne!

Questions of the day:

Did you like the Sukehiro interlude? We thought it'd give more perspective on Yami's character if there were more points of view to look at it from. Was it too heavy, or too focused on just his training? Or did it feel… fitting. And I wonder what surprise he has in store for our little nara.

Kenjutsu is likely going to be a thing, however, we have yet to decide completely on elements. We are tempted to say earth and lightning since both can support the use of shadows in their respective ways. Do you guys want to have a single of the elements, or both? Maybe a lack of element, with his entire focus being on shadows, instead of using elemental abilities to also support the shadows?

Last question, but what do you think of the interactions between Yami and Minato? DId you enjoy the prank, do you think that a certain somebody watched a bit too much of Gintama or Durarara? Or maybe its a rite of passage and a motion of respect towards Naruto?