Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Posted: 1/6/13

Chapter 7: Back to the Academy

"Naruto! Wake up!" Kushina's shouts echoed through the house as Naruto was jolted awake. At this time, Kushina came barging through the door. "Get up! You're going to be late for your first day at the academy!"

"What?!" shouted Naruto as the panic began to set in and Naruto frantically began searching for something to wear. Five minutes of panicked dressing later, Naruto had probably won the award for the worst dressed kid in Konoha. Somehow, he managed to have his orange shorts on backwards, his shirt inside out, mismatched shoes and his socks…let's not get started on that. In fact, the only thing that would be considered neat would be his hair, and even that was still shaggy and spiked. Minato got a good laugh out of his son's antics while Kushina rushed him back upstairs to change his clothes.

When Naruto came back down, his orange shorts were on the proper way, his blue t-shirt was right side out and he had an orange vest on the outside. He had the correct pair of blue ninja sandals on, eliminating the mismatched sock, and his hair was still a mess. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the hair. He had managed to inherit his father's genes when it came to hair and Kushina realized soon in their relationship that spiky and messy was the best it was going to get.

Giving Kushina a quick kiss, Minato grabbed Naruto and proceeded to take his son to the academy for the very first time. "I can't believe it's already time for you to go to the academy" Minato said to Naruto. "It felt like just yesterday that you were riding on my shoulders and sitting in a cradle in my office."

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at his dad with a confused look and Minato just laughed.

"Don't worry, son. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun in the academy. You'll have all your friends, Sasuke, Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru, Shino, and even Neji. And I'm sure you'll make tons of other friends" said Minato. "And besides, you'll learn how to become a true shinobi there, not just through our lame training sessions."

"But I like our little training sessions. I'd rather be doing that than sitting through those reading classes and stuff that Neji keeps complaining about" said Naruto. "I swear, if I hear him say 'no matter how much we dislike them, we were fated to take them' again, I'm going to go crazy!"

Naruto had failed to prevent Neji from turning into his fate-obsessed future self, but a fate-obsessed Neji with a father had to be better than a fate-obsessed Neji without a father, right? At least he wouldn't hold that grudge against the main branch.

Minato laughed at Naruto's complaints. "I'm sorry to say, Naruto, But you have to take them. If you want to be a good ninja then you need to be able to read, write, count, and know about our village's history."

"Well, the history class won't be too bad, you said they talk about the Hokages, right?" asked Naruto.

"Yep. And seeing as you keep saying you want to be a Hokage, you're going to have to know all about them" said Minato.

"But that's why I have you!" shouted Naruto. "Who better to learn about the Hokages then from the Hokage himself!"

"Well, here we are. Now at least try to enjoy your first day and don't worry, you'll be doing a few ninja-classes in the afternoon" said Minato, leaving Naruto at the academy gate. "Here's some money. You'll have an hour for lunch and Ichiraku's isn't far from here so you should be able to get some ramen."

"Awesome! Thanks dad!" said Naruto, giving his dad a hug.

"Now, your mother will be here to pick you up afterwards. Have fun, son" said Minato as Naruto turned and ran off through the courtyard of the academy into the building to his classroom. Minato felt a tear come to his face. "They grow up so fast."

"I can't believe I'm back in the academy again. This is going to be great! No more being the 'dead-last'!" thought Naruto. "And what makes it even better is that I've got parents to greet me each day. No more sitting alone on that swing. And I'm actually going to have friends because their parents aren't going to hate me!"

Naruto arrived at his room and entered. The class was a little bigger than he remembered, but he knew that there would be a few kids who dropped out of the ninja program. However, the important people were here: Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. Everyone that was in his class before and that had become his friends in the previous timeline were here. Naruto found his seat next to Sasuke, the same place it had been the last time he was here. Things certainly were nostalgic.

In fact, the only person who wasn't there was Iruka-sensei. While Naruto desperately wished it had been Iruka teaching the class, he also knew that Iruka wouldn't become a teacher for three more years. When Nauto's teacher came in, he couldn't believe his eyes and nearly face planted out of his seat. "It's the Closet Perv, Ebisu. He's really my teacher? Oh this is going to be good."

"Welcome class, to the first day of your time here at the academy studying to be great ninja of this great village. I'm Ebisu and I'll be your sensei for the next few years. Now, why don't we go around introducing ourselves. How about telling your name and any aspirations you may have."

The introductions started near the front of the room with a few kids that Naruto did not recognize and went around until it reached Ino. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. Someday I'm going to succeed my dad as the head of the Yamanaka clan."

"Ah yes, Ino. Daughter of Inoichi, the interrogation expert" said Ebisu. The next person happened to be Sakura.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. Umm…I want to be the first shinobi of my family" Sakura said in a shy and quiet voice.

"That's right, Sakura was pretty shy at first until Ino helped her out of her shell. It was a shame they had to end their friendship in the academy due to Sasuke. Perhaps I can fix that" thought Naruto. The introductions came to Kiba.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba and this is my buddy Akamaru and I'm going to become the best hunter-nin in the village one day!" declared Kiba.

Next up was Shino. "Aburame Shino…" Nothing else was really said.

"Heh, Shino was always never much of a talker" thought Naruto.

It then came around to Shikamaru. "…zzz…" Everyone's sweat dropped upon seeing the Nara napping within the first five minutes of class.

"Looks like I win Sasuke" said Naruto, turning to Sasuke. The two had made a bet with Naruto betting Shikamaru would fall asleep within the first hour of class. Shikamaru was suddenly awakened when an eraser was thrown at him by Ebisu, apparently the Closet Perv didn't appreciate sleeping in class.

"Troublesome…Nara Shikamaru…can I go back to sleep now?" Most of the people's faces faulted and Naruto couldn't help but laughing at his friend.

Chouji was next. As Naruto had also expected, Chouji was munching on a bag of snacks. "Akamichi Chouji…munch…I want to be a strong ninja…munch…like my Pa."

Hinata was next. "H-hyuga H-hinata. I w-want to b-be a s-strong n-ninja like m-my father, y-yet kind l-like my m-mother" stuttered Hinata.

"Still stutters…We're going to have to do something about that at some point in time" thought Naruto.

After Hinata was someone Naruto did not expect but still remembered from the old timeline. "I'm Kurama Yakumo and I want to become a strong ninja to make my clan proud."

"Hmm…Yakumo. I remember now, she was that genjutsu genius who had a mental demon manifest in her head. Although if I remember correctly, dad sealed away that thing for good last year" thought Naruto. "Hmm, speaking of Kurama, I wonder how the old Furball's doing?"

The introductions got around to Sasuke. "Uchiha Sasuke. I want to become a strong and skilled shinobi like my Niisan, Itachi." Naruto looked around and sure enough some of the female population of the class already had their eyes set on the Uchiha.

"Yep, he's definitely going to have the fan girls still" thought Naruto, who was finally next. "I'm Namikaze Naruto and I'm going to take my dad's hat as the Hokage! –ttebayo!" When Naruto had first said that in the previous time line, he had been laughed at and ridiculed by the class; however, there was none of that this time around.

"Ah yes, the son of our great Hokage. Well, if you want to become Hokage, I can show you the right way" said Ebisu. "In fact, it sounds like all of you want to become great ninja. Well, just stick with me and I'll show you the shortcuts you need to accomplish your goals!"

"Great…and I had enough of the Closet Perv in the previous timeline. So when's the first Henge no Jutsu test? That'll be good" Naruto let out a slight laugh. Unbeknownst to him, when he turned away from examining Sasuke's future fangirls and introduced himself, he failed to notice that a good portion of feminine eyes locked onto him as well.

Time skip (6 months)

"Like Shikamaru would say, this is starting to get troublesome. I've had enough of these basic academic classes. I'm ready for the actual ninja classes!" thought Naruto. The past six months had in fact been mostly academic classes with a few physical conditioning and introductory weapon and taijutsu classes. Unfortunately for Naruto, the taijutsu classes didn't help him all that much as the academy forms no longer applied to him since he had his mother teaching him the Uzumaki taijutsu forms.

Naruto looked around the class and noticed the expressions on the faces of most of his friends. Kiba, Sasuke, Ino, and Chouji all looked extremely bored, Shikamaru was obviously napping, Shino…well no one really knew. The only people paying attention out of the 10 of them (including Yakumo) were Hinata, Sakura, and Yakumo, but Naruto suspected that those were only masks and they were secretly bored as well. Most of the clans in Konoha already taught their children reading, writing, and math before the academy and these first two years were irrelevant to them. Not only was Naruto from the future and he already knew the stuff, but his mom had taught him what they were learning now.

Naruto got that look on his face, the one the village would soon come to fear. "Looks like it's time for Naruto, Prank Genius of Konoha, to make a comeback. Oh this is going to be so good."

The next day, Naruto showed up a little early to rig the ceiling. At this point in time, only Sasuke and Kiba had shown up to the academy and were wondering what he was up to. Naruto briefly explained to them what he was doing and both gave him a smirk and 'this is going to be good' look. Now Kiba, Naruto could understand as the two of them had pulled a series of pranks back in the old timeline together. However Sasuke? He couldn't remember the Uchiha boy ever being into his pranks before, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to turn Sasuke into one of his accomplices.

About 30minutes later, Ebisu walked in to begin the class. He started off as normal and everything was going fine, which was the problem. Naruto had rigged everything so that when the top drawer of the teacher's desk was opened, the prank would activate. But Ebisu hadn't even touched any drawer on the teacher's desk.

"Umm Sensei?"Kiba raised his hand, getting tired of waiting as well. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't suppose you have a few extra pieces of paper. My dog ate my notebook last night." This earned a whine from the puppy on his head.

"Ah certainly Kiba. Just make sure to keep these away from Akamaru" said Ebisu as he reached for the top drawer where the papers and supplies were kept.

Naruto, Kiba, and Sasuke waited in suspense as Ebisu's hand slowly crept closer.

"Boom!" an explosion of powder and confetti was heard from the front of the room as Naruto's prank went off. When the dust cleared, there stood Ebisu, completely stunned and looking more clown-like.

The class burst out in laughter and Sasuke managed to snap a picture. Naruto would be holding onto these as kind of a scrap book and there would be many more to come.

"Alright! Who was the little punk that did this?!" demanded Ebisu.

"Oh come on Ebisu-sensei, quit clowning around. Why would any of us do this?" joked Naruto, trying to play innocent, while at the same time giving his teacher the 'I did it' look.

Sadly, Ebisu didn't get it. Either it was that Naruto had not built up his reputation as a prankster yet, or it was the fact that he was the Hokage's son and no one suspected the Hokage's son of being a mischievous little devil.

"Damn clueless Closet Perv. Oh well, that just means I'll be able to get away with plenty of more pranks on him in the future" thought Naruto.

After class for the day, Naruto returned home. He still couldn't get used to the feeling that there was usually someone waiting for him after the academy. There were some days where he was left on his own or Kakashi-niisan had to get him, but those were the day that both Minato and Kushina were stuck with their own work. Still Naruto couldn't quite get used to it, actually having parents there for him. It was funny just how different his life had been up until this point.

"So how was your day, Naruto?" Minato asked.

"It was good. Usual boring lectures" replied Naruto.

"That's not what I heard" said Minato, shooting his son a knowing look. "From what I saw your class seems to have some sort of prankster."

"Shit, how did he find out when the Closet Perv was completely clueless?" thought Naruto.

"There you are! How's my little boy today!" said a way too happy Kushina.

"Honey, you do know we shouldn't be encouraging him" replied Minato.

"I know dear, but I can't help it. My son just pulled his first ever prank!" cheered Kushina. "After all, someone's got to take up my mantle as Konoha's Prank Master."

"Umm…" Naruto looked up at his mom, very confused. "Wait what?"

"Now come on Naruto, let mommy tell you some of her secrets." With that Kushina grabbed Naruto and whisked him away into another room in the house. Minato was left in the kitchen with his sweat dropping.

"I'd better make sure she doesn't overdo it" said Minato before following Kushina.

"Naruto!"

Naruto found himself running away from the academy, being chased by a soaked Ebisu. It had taken two weeks worth of pranks for Naruto to get the fact that he was the one pulling them through his sensei's perverted skull.

So far, Naruto had been successful in evading his sensei. "Hmm, one perveted chunin won't be able to catch me. Now let's see, what was my record from the previous timeline? Oh yeah. The time I painted the monument I had 6 ANBU, 3 jonin, and most of the school teachers chasing me" thought Naruto. He was too busy in thought to see the yellow flash that appeared in front of him as he crashed into his father's legs.

"Ah, Hokage-sama. Thank you" said Ebisu, finally catching up to Naruto.

"Ebisu, I'll deal with Naruto later. Why don't you take him back to class now" said Minato.

"Hai, Hokage-sama" said Ebisu as he grabbed Naruto by his shirt collar. "Alright you little brat, let's go."

When class was let out a few hours later, there was Minato, waiting for Naruto outside the academy. Naruto gulped. This was the one thing he missed about being an orphan was that there would be no parents to be scolded by.

"Let's go get some ramen, Naruto" said Minato, giving his son a smile. Naruto was even more worried now.

At Ichiraku, Minato and Naruto had just finished their first bowls. "So Naruto, what did you do this time?" asked Minato.

"It was nothing harmful, just a bucket of water when Ebisu-sensei went to open the closet door" said Naruto. Minato sighed.

"That makes what? The 15th prank you've pulled since your mother had that little 'exchanging notes' talk with you?" asked Minato.

"Err, 16th. You missed the look on Ebisu-sensei's face when I came in as you and told him that the ANBU were looking for him. It makes me wonder if he really did do something" said Naruto.

"You impersonated me…?" said a slightly irritated Minato. "At least that explains why Ebisu was running from any ANBU, especially when I had Kakashi pick Naruto up from the academy the other day."

"Umm, yeah…funny, huh?" said Naruto.

"Naruto…you've got to stop" said Minato.

"But what else am I supposed to do?" asked Naruto.

"I don't know…pay attention in class?" responded Minato.

"But I'm already top in the class, acing all the tests so far. Kaasan's already taught me more than I need to know for the academics" said Naruto. "Well there's something I wasn't expecting to say any time soon."

Minato sighed. "Just promise me you'll tone down a lot on the pranks, okay? And make sure you apologize to your teacher tomorrow."

"I…understand. I'm sorry dad" said Naruto.

"Good. Now how about another bowl of ramen?" asked Minato.

The next morning, Naruto offered his apology to Ebisu, who was a little skeptical at first, but accepted the apology. Needless to say, most of the class was a little disappointed that Naruto wouldn't be pulling the pranks, but everyone had to agree that perhaps he did go a little overboard.

"Don't worry. I'm not done for yet. I'll just give it some time to cool down and then Naruto, Prank Master of Konoha, will return" thought Naruto as he sat down next to Sasuke.

"You're not done yet, are you?" Sasuke whispered to his friend.

"Nope. I just need to take a break and let things cool down a bit. Besides, it'll give me time to plan for the big stuff" responded Naruto, making sure no one else heard.

"Now class, Next week, we will begin our Konoha history unit. As a result, I want each of you to prepare a small report that you'll present at the beginning of next week. Now, you are to write this report on a well-known shinobi of Konoha. They can either be living or deceased, but they have to be distinguishable" explained Ebisu.

"Awesome! This will be easy!" declared Naruto.

"And no, Naruto, you may not use your dad as the subject of the report. In fact, no one here may use a person that is in their family" said Ebisu as Naruto's head dropped.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Hey, you think I could use your dad for the report?" whispered Sasuke.

"Sure, knock yourself out" replied a depressed Naruto.

"Hmm…who should I write my report on? I can't use my dad. I could use Jiji, but I think I overheard a few people talking about using him. I could also do Ero-Sennin or Baachan, but I think I overheard Sakura or Ino talking about Baachan, and besides, there's enough pervertedness in the class without giving a report on Ero-sennin" thought Naruto as he was walking home. Suddenly, his attention was drawn away from his thoughts as he noticed three rather large boys dragging a small girl away. "That can't be…can it?" Naruto began to tail the three boys and what appeared to be their captive.

"Who do you think you are, running into me like that?" shouted one of the boys.

"I-I'm s-sorry. I-it was an a-accident" replied the small girl who had been thrown to the ground.

"Hey Boss, look. She has those eyes" said one of the other boys.

"Yeah, you're right. She must be that Neji's cousin" said the third boy.

"A Hyuga huh? So think you're above us that you can go around hitting us all the time?" scolded the first boy. "Think you are above us just because of your name?"

"N-no…I'm n-not like that…ahh!" Hinata said as the main boy started to shove her head into the ground.

"Now say you're sorry!" demanded the first boy.

"I-I'm s-sorry" responded Hinata.

"I didn't hear you. Say it again and say it louder!" shouted the boy.

"She said she was sorry. Now let her go!" shouted Naruto, arriving on the scene.

"Well…well, if it isn't the 'Great Son of the Hokage'. Think you can just tell me what to do just because your dad's the Hokage?" mocked the boy.

"No, but I won't let you torment an innocent girl when it was just an accident and she already apologized before you dragged her of" responded Naruto.

"Phft. Your dad may be Hokage, but he's not here to save you now and you're just a newbie, where as I'll be graduating from the academy at the end of the year. Take this!" The boy lashed a punch out at Naruto, who merely ducked underneath the blow and took out the boys legs with a sweeping kick. The boy landed flat on his back with Naruto standing over him.

The second boy, wanting to take revenge for his friend tried to knock Naruto upside the back of his head, but Naruto simply bent forward and threw his foot back into the boy's gut, sending him back as well.

All three boys scrambled back away from Naruto. "Now are you three going to apologize for being big jerks?" said Naruto.

"W-were sorry" said the first boy as the three of them hightailed it out of there. Naruto turned to Hinata, who was still on the ground and offered her a hand.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry those three had to be like that" said Naruto.

"N-no, i-it's not y-your fault" stuttered Hinata. "I j-just…"

"Hey, don't do that" said Naruto.

"D-do w-what?" replied Hinata.

"Doubt yourself. You're not weak and you can be strong if you just believe in yourself. Be who you want to be, not what other's are trying to make you out as" replied Naruto. Hinata looked up at her savior and the first thing she noticed was his eyes. She had seen those eyes before, a few years ago on the night when she was nearly kidnapped. At first glance, they looked cheerful and happy, thankful that she was okay, but a closer examination revealed there to be a sadness and pain underneath the mask, the type that was inflicted through some sort of tragic event and the type that would never go away, no matter how much it was nursed…the type of pain that was engraved into the soul itself.

"Hinata-sama!" shouted a voice running towards her and Naruto. Their attention was diverted to see another Hyuga running towards her. "Hinata-sama, what happened? You're a mess."

Naruto explained the whole situation to the Hyuga. "Thank you, Namikaze-san. If you'll excuse me, I should get Hinata home. By the way, my name's Ko."

"No worries, Ko. I was happy to help" replied Naruto as Ko took Hinata away. "Well that was better than last time. At least I didn't get beat up as well and Ko didn't scold Hinata for being near me."

Hinata turned around to get one last glimpse at her savior before he disappeared from view. "You always seem so happy, Naruto. What happened to you? What caused you that pain?"

"…and so that concludes my report on Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang of Konoha. He was a true hero who understood that the value of a comrade's and friend's life was much greater than that of a mission. It's just a shame the village didn't recognize his sacrifice until it was too late" said Naruto as he finished giving his report on a renown shinobi of Konoha.

A few tears came to Kakashi's eyes as he was hidden in the back of the room observing what Naruto had said about his father. Last week, Naruto had come to him and asked him for some information on his father, Hatake Sakumo, for a report that he was to give in school to start off the Konoha history course.

The rest of the class gave their reports with some of the more notable reports being Sasuke, who covered Namikaze Minato, Sakura, who had chosen to do her report on Tsunade of the Sanin, and some other kid who did Ero-Sennin and also referred to him as a great writer of romance novels. Ebisu completely agreed with the kid and Naruto foresaw a future super-pervert in his class.

Later that night, Naruto was sitting in his room reflecting. One of the reports in the class that really got his attention was from Ino, who had done hers on the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Harishima. She mentioned the battle between him and Uchiha Madara, which most kids just took as something of the past. However, for Naruto, that instantly focused his mind on something else, something that might be coming up and one thing he was hoping to change.

"Hmm…Okay, I've got a little more than a year and a half until the Uchiha incident is supposed to happen. I should probably start looking into a few things to see if it is going to happen this time around or not. Hmm…my shadow clones should be able to handle the task while I'm off at school, dad's at work, and mom's away on missions. Dad's gotta have some files in his study that could prove useful" thought Naruto.

Author Notes

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

So the prankster Naruto has begun to return. He ended up going a little overboard at first and has had to stop for a little to let things cool off. Don't worry; he will still be pulling pranks, but probably not for a few months. Besides, as I mentioned, this gives him time to plan something bigger than just a simple bucket of water on a door.

Regarding the character's development in the past chapters, I have always believed that the kids in Naruto do develop at a slightly faster rate than kids normally do, but not unreasonably. Not entirely sure why, perhaps it's the presence of chakra or something. One place I see this is where Hiashi had already begun training Hinata at the age of three.

Also, regarding Hinata's analysis of Naruto, the Hyuga's are excellent at reading people, probably second only to the Yamanakas.

Anyways, for reference, it has now been almost 7 years now since Naruto has come back. For the purposes of the story, the Uchiha Massacre (in the previous timeline) happened when Naruto was just older than 8. Like with Orochimaru's defection, I was not able to find a definitive date on when Itachi committed the massacre, but I believe it to be around the time when Sasuke was about 8 or 9.

Please review/comment.