Chapter: 2

Warning: This chapter contains passing mentions of abuse. Here be dragons.

Also A/N: I realize that in this chapter I may have made Naruto's transition into acting like a Viltrumite, but don't worry, he's still not fully there yet, there is a minor time skip, and also Naruto's grooming process did get a big start in the first chapter so don't kill me please. Please leave a review as I think that a good way to get the story to a place that we both like would be very satisfying for both of us. So please leave a review and give me some opinions and suggestions. I promise I do read them, I love reading them and seeing what you have to say. Anyway on with the reading!

A few weeks had passed since Naruto met James and his education was coming along very well as were his fighting skills. He had seemed to have a knack for coming up with very good strategies on the fly. He was also an adept fighter as a Viltrumite even by Viltrumite standards for his age. That wasn't the only thing coming along nicely, in James' opinion. He was starting to act like a Viltrumite. He had been getting more and more distant these two weeks and tended to only socialize with James himself. His teammates hadn't noticed at all, not that it surprised Naruto. It's not like it actually mattered to him anymore. They were just humans. He was a Viltrumite, being trained by a Viltrumite. He also decided that he didn't really need the village's approval anymore either. What have they ever done for him? Besides he already had his jiji, he simply didn't care about the villagers or being Hokage anymore. Kakashi had called them for a team meeting today, he said that he was going to make a team announcement today. Naruto was standing there with his teammates, waiting for their sensei to arrive. Sakura was pestering Sasuke for attention, Sasuke was boring holes into his head thinking about how Naruto had found a member of his family, and Naruto was ignoring both of them. Sasuke hated to admit it but, he wasn't happy for Naruto. He was jealous of him. To him it just wasn't fair that Naruto had a family and he didn't. He didn't care that he was being a jerk and he didn't care that he was being irrational. To him it just wasn't fair. Sasuke had started to try and start more and more fights with Naruto to no avail. What really grated on his nerves was that nothing he said seemed to faze Naruto anymore. It's like he didn't care about their rivalry anymore.

Kakashi had finally arrived two hours later with three papers in his hand and Sakura started to say "You're late!" while pointing at him. But they noticed that Naruto didn't do anything. Naruto saw the odd looks they were giving him and said, "Stop staring at me." Kakashi narrowed his eyes and thought, 'He's not acting normal, I'll ask him how things are going at home.' "Anyway, the Chunin Exams are coming up and I nominated you for for joining! Here are the papers you need to get in. They have the directions on them to tell you where to go and at what time." Sakura looked worried at this, "Now, I want all of you to know that this is optional. If you feel that you don't want to go, then you don't have to go. If you want to go through the Chunin Exams, remember, people die in this test." They all three looked at each other and then down at their papers. Kakashi then poofed away and was gone. Sasuke turned around to say something insulting to Naruto to rile him up, but he was already walking away. Then Sakura opened her mouth to ask Sasuke on a date and Sasuke had enough, "Just shut up! No I will not go on a date with you so just leave me alone!" He then stomped off to go train. Sakura looked hurt for a second then turned to Naruto walking away. She got a dark look on her face and stomped her way over to him, "Naruto! What did you do to Sasuke-kun!" Then she grabbed him by the shoulder and he immediately turned around and yelled at her, "I didn't do anything, and frankly, I don't give a shit either! Now shut up and leave me alone!" Sakura was left gaping like a fish in shock. In all her years of knowing him, she had never heard him speak so disrespectfully towards anyone. Not even Sasuke, let alone herself. She started to feel worried. Not for him, more for fear of him. She had never seen this side to him before so him suddenly lashing out at her like that was kind of scary.

Kakashi was following Naruto to his home without him noticing. He had seen that interaction with him and his two teammates and he was starting to get worried. He might have thought that he was getting frustrated by being abused but he quickly scrapped that idea. Knowing Naruto he would have already told someone by now. Or at least he thought he knew Naruto. Despite him preaching about looking underneath the underneath, he rarely did that with this particular student of his. He thought he had Naruto all figured out and that he had already seen everything there was to be seen about him. Not that he was being abused or anything. He just didn't know Naruto the way he thought he did. Because all those years of Naruto being 'alone', being raised by no-one wasn't exactly true. Normal orphans are raised either in an orphanage or on the streets. In that case then they are truly alone. Naruto was not a normal orphan. He was raised by the villagers. Each time they called him a monster, or demon, beat him, or bullied him, he was tought that he was a monster. Be it consciously or subconsciously, he was taught he didn't deserve things like love or compassion. Only when he met his jiji and was taught about the Viltrumites did he learn that he did belong somewhere. That he did deserve those things. He hated the villagers for that.

He finally arrived at his new house and after he spent a minute in there conversing with his jiji about the Chunin Exams did James make a promise to Naruto, "So you're going to be in the Chunin Exams? That's great. I promise I'll be there for the final section of the exam." Naruto just smiled brightly at him. They both heard a knock on the door and James told Naruto to go answer it, so Naruto went to the door and opened it. Standing there was Kakashi, "Yo!" Naruto frowned, "What do you want Sensei?" He said in a cold tone. Kakashi responded, "What? A Sensei can't come to check on his student?" Naruto didn't look amused. Kakashi continued, "Are you okay Naruto? Is everything alright at home? You seem to be acting different." Naruto responded sarcastically, "Oh, now you want to check up on me? That's a first." He remembered all those lonely birthdays he had sitting in his room. Eating a terrible cake he made himself. Times Kakashi could have been there. Kakashi got a funny look, "What do you mean Naruto?" It was then that James came up behind Naruto and frowned deeply at Kakashi, "Is there a problem here?" Naruto looked behind him and up at his jiji, then back at Kakashi, "No. He was just saying goodbye." Kakashi sighed, said goodbye, and then walked off. 'I had better go talk to the Hokage about this. He'll want to know about Naruto's sudden changes.'

When he arrived at the Hokage's office, and he had finished telling the Hokage of what he saw and heard from Naruto and James, the Hokage was getting a migraine and smoking his pipe. He was thinking on what to do and had decided to have Kakashi spy on Naruto while training and on missions, while he would send ANBU to spy on James, "You'll have to maintain the upmost secrecy. Or risk losing Naruto's trust completely." Kakashi gave his two cents, "With all due respect Lord Hokage, I think that risking this is a really bad idea. There is always a chance of one of us getting caught, and if that happens Naruto might become a flight risk." Hiruzen made his point, "That is why you must not let him find out. As for James, I'll have Jiraiya come back to Konoha to see what he's up to and spy on him. He may be Minato-boy's father, but I don't trust him. You have your mission, dismissed." Just like that Kakashi left and Hiruzen was sending a secret message to Jiraiya.

The next morning Naruto is in his room getting ready for the Chunin Exams. He was not going to be late for this. This was an opportunity to show everyone that he had improved. He got ready and went downstairs where breakfast was made and James was reading the morning paper that he got from the market in the village. "Hey Naruto! Sleep well?" Naruto was still a little groggy but he looked fine, he made his way towards the kitchen where his jiji was eating and got himself some food, "*Yawn* Yeah, I slept well. After I eat I'm going to go to the Academy for the Chunin Exams." After he finished eating James said good luck and some encouraging words before Naruto left out the door. Just before he got to the Academy he heard, "I'm gonna teach you some manners kid!" and the sounds of someone struggling. He was about to walk past when he saw it was Konohamaru. Despite his feelings towards most other people in the village, he still thought of Konohamaru as a little brother. Even if he was a bit annoying. He walked up to two Sand Ninja. One with blond hair and a giant fan on her back, and the one holding up the kid by the scruff of his shirt with purple war paint, some big ball of bandages on his back and he was wearing a black cat suit. He looked ridiculous. Naruto looked mad and said, "Bullying the Hokage's grandson. Bold move. Or stupid, one of the two." At this, the one in the cat suit looked very nervous, "U-uh..I uh." Then suddenly a rock was thrown at his hand and made him drop Konohamaru who ran away.

Sasuke then appeared on a tree branch, causing Sakura to cry out about how cool he was. Naruto lost interest and walked away. He heard something about a kid named Gaara and Kankuro, who he assumed was the kid in the cat suit. It didn't matter, what mattered was his goal. Winning the Chunin Exams. He waited at the entrance for the rest of his team to arrive and when Sasuke and Sakura finally did, Kakashi showed up and said that because they all arrived on time, that they passed the first test. When they entered the building they saw two kids being shoved back out of the room they were trying to enter and one kid on the side watching. Two older kids seemed to be blocking the entrance. Naruto was about to go and bust his way through when Sasuke spoke, "Stop with the Genjutsu, I'm sure you fooled some other people here but I'm sure at least Sakura figured out that we're on the wrong floor." Sakura looked up at the sign that said what floor they were on as the Genjutsu on it disappeared. Sakura looked a little embarrassed but 'recovered' quickly, "Y-yeah, It's obvious that was a Genjutsu. Right Sasuke-kun?" All the other kids seemed to have noticed and went to the right floor. There they had another encounter with the green clad kid named Rock Lee. Naruto watched the fight with glee as he watched Sasuke get pummeled. After that ordeal, they went up to the testing room where they met up with the rest of the Rookie 12. Kiba was there making fun of Naruto. Naruto felt his anger rise but mostly ignored him. Kiba got bored and tried to talk loudly with the rest of the others while Naruto sat quietly in the corner. Naruto noticed the other contestants in the room glaring daggers at the Konoha 12. He was about to say something on it when another, older looking Konoha Genin came up to them and warned them about it. Then he pulled out some cards that apparently had information about everyone in that room with them. Sasuke asked about the kid named Gaara they met earlier. They learned that this Gaara kid was extremely dangerous. He had never been injured on a mission before, and he had completed multiple A-Rank missions before with his siblings Temari and Kankuro.

He was talking about Otogakure and had apparently offended some Genin from there because they came up and tried to hit him. He missed Kabuto by a few centimeters but this guy used a sound gauntlet, Naruto had deduced, that didn't need to hit it's target to do damage to them. That was when the first proctor of the exams showed up out of nowhere and threatened to disqualify any Genin that started an unsanctioned fight. This made them back off and they went to Ibiki to get their seat numbers. Naruto got his seat number next to Hinata and sat down next to her. After getting his test and looking at the questions, Naruto got suspicious, 'All these questions are way too hard for even a normal Chunin to answer. Not only that but if we get caught cheating we don't get disqualified, we get points redacted. That makes no sense unless... I see what this is.' Naruto quickly came up with a plan. But before he could execute Hinata slid her paper over to him and whispered "Naruto-kun, do you want to copy off my paper?" What? Didn't she know that if she gets caught her entire team could be disqualified? Well, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He gave his thanks and copied every answer off her paper. By the time he was done he looked at the clock and waited for time to be up. Ibiki said, "Alright, time is up. Now for the tenth question." When the other Genin heard that some shouted, "What!", "You never said anything about a tenth question!", "This is bullshit!" Ibiki quickly had enough with this, "Quiet down maggots! Before I give you the tenth question, I will let you know that you don't have to take it. If you don't then you and your team will be disqualified. If you do and you get the answer wrong you and your team will be disqualified. However, if you answer the question correctly then you will be allowed to move on to the next test." Some rose their hand much to the indignation of their teammates. When it was over, the room's population was cut in half. That was when Ibiki gave the tenth question, "You all pass." He then went into a speech about what this test represented and why it mattered.

However, he was interrupted towards the end of his speech by a banner pinned to the wall by two kunai and a purple blur crashing through the window. Standing in front of the banner was a woman in a suggestive outfit, "Alright maggots, my name is Anko Mitarashi and I am the proctor of the second exam! Meet me at training ground forty-four.