Naruto joined the shinobi academy a few months later with ambition in his mind that flared like the will of fire. He didn't do so well in the academy though, the instructors complained about his chakra control or rather his lack of it, but he didn't really know what chakra was in the first place so he didn't mind. His concentration was shot to pieces and he found himself daydreaming in almost every history lesson. He got it, there were wars, people fought and they died, why did he need to know how many ninja there were in Kumo's ranks during the second great ninja war. Why were they even called 'great', it didn't sound like there was anything great about them?
While he tended to fall behind in most subjects there were two areas where Naruto excelled or at least did well enough. In taijutsu he was a monster, capable of taking hit after hit while still managing to stand and he would have to take hit after hit because he didn't want to hurt his classmates and they didn't exactly feel the same way about him. His ability to dish out the damage was mostly abysmal however. His instructors would constantly berate him about drawing out the fight for so long when he could finish it in seconds. They were right of course, but Naruto preferred to wear out his opponent before needing to hit them. He figured that if he could hurt enough for both of them then it would be alright.
The other place he excelled was in fuuinjutsu if only because he didn't have anyone to compare to. In truth sealing wasn't a subject taught in the academy and while they were forced to learn calligraphy that had more to do with being able to write legibly than anything to do with the art of sealing. However he still managed to have a sealing lesson once a week almost every week, only the lesson was with a ghost, or with someone who didn't exist. He was merely told to show up in a specific classroom every week and there would be instructions left for him on the board. He would do the work, hand it in to either Iruka or Mizuki and would receive his marks the next week on his desk in whichever classroom his lesson was in that week.
He had a few theories about who his teacher could be, the theories varied from the Sandaime himself to Ayame at Ichiraku's, none of them were very likely and after making a few halfhearted attempts to learn the identity of his instructor, he gave up. If they wanted to remain a secret they could do it for all he cared.
Sealing was difficult though and if not for the fact that there wasn't a teacher droning on and on in front of him he probably wouldn't have made it past the first week. As it happened the method used by the invisible man worked much better than any of the teachers had conceived of if a little time consuming. All it took was a few written instructions and the urging to act on his own. For those first few months Naruto wouldn't leave the classroom with his instructions until he had at least copied down all the information on the board exactly and had at least some semblance of understanding and that would generally keep him there until the late evening. He wouldn't hand his work in until he was sure that he had answered everything he could, and being the only person in the room when it came to doing the work, he didn't bother with cutting corners as the only person it would hurt was himself. Still the work was slow and his brain was even slower. Trying to understand math was a problem in general for him, now he was trying to understand a level that wasn't even touched on in the academy. Half of the time the instructions were contradictory and he had to sit and think about them for a good long while until they made sense. If even. Sometimes he just tried his best, regardless. It was slow going but it was worth it. It was after all, the only reason he was in the academy.
Being so unmotivated in the academy had left him with few friends. Shikamaru was a pleasant enough companion but he simply didn't have the energy to keep up with Naruto, preferring to lie down in any free time he had and stare at the sky. Choji was cool and they shared a love of eating, but Choji liked spending time with Shikamaru which meant that for the most part they didn't spend much time together. Shino didn't like talking much and he didn't have many interests save for insects. Kiba managed to keep up with Naruto in terms of his energy but all he wanted to do was spar or hang out with his dog and Akamaru hated Naruto. Sasuke was a cool clan kid who had far too many responsibilities to spend time with those as lowly as his classmates. In fact he was on a fast track to graduating earlier than everyone else so he probably didn't bother making connections that weren't going to last.
None of the girls had much interest talking to Naruto and even when they tried he probably turned them off with his desire to talk about sealing arrays and speculate on how the Yondaime used seals to move himself. Of all the girls that didn't blanche at trying to talk to him, Hinata was the only one that didn't mind, but after spending some time with her he noticed that she wasn't really listening to him and was instead watching Kiba act boisterously while swooning. If the behavior was odd for a six year old girl nobody mentioned it.
All in all he didn't have friends, but that wasn't such a problem because he wasn't in the academy to make friends, he was there to learn sealing. Besides, he had a friend in the form of an invisible man or woman that helped him learn sealing. After all what were friends for if not helping each other out.
More than a year at the academy and Naruto had landed himself a position in the lower echelon of the class average but passable. Iruka and Mizuki had worked out an effective way to force him to concentrate and prevent him from skipping lessons by telling him that if he didn't get at least a passing mark on all of his tests they would stop his sealing lessons with the excuse that it was distracting him too much. Naruto wasn't sure whether they would be able to do such a thing but wasn't willing to risk it and used his motivation for sealing to fuel a steady average. Sure he could have been better, but he could have been much worse, besides, if he exceeded expectations Iruka promised to treat him to Ichiraku's. Sasuke and Sakura were constantly tying for the top position while Shikamaru managed to keep himself just below the two of them while still not putting much effort in. Naruto wondered sometimes how good Shikamaru would be at sealing and he guessed that he would be much better than himself.
Sasuke was undoubtedly the best in all places that mattered. He had already learned an elemental jutsu while all the rest of the class had only started learning to enhance their muscles with chakra. He was fast enough to take out most of the class in taijutsu and could dish out enough pain for Naruto to give up. He could throw anything accurately, whether kunai or shuriken. Coupled with an almost perfect memory and it was a wonder that he hadn't graduated already.
A few months after Naruto turned seven and the academy changed. Class was cancelled for a few days, leaving Naruto with nothing to do but go over his work on sealing theory. It was the third day when Sasuke Uchiha, carrying a small backpack walked into the orphanage followed by a Jonin. He was to room with Naruto until better accommodations could be found for him.
The way Sasuke moved, Naruto observed, was completely different to the Sasuke he used to know. Sasuke used to be light on his feet, able to move silently even through the rockiest of terrain, this Sasuke however dragged his feet, making more noise than the average civilian. He kept his head down, not even looking where he was going, although he still managed to find his way to the bed parallel to Naruto's own.
Naruto didn't say anything, realizing that he didn't know what had happened and knowing that if anything he would just make things worse. He ignored the sound of sniffling that came from his new roommate in the middle of the night and the occasional bursts of anger when Sasuke bumped into something when he didn't look where he was going. Naruto wanted to help but realized that there probably wasn't anything he could do and instead sat on his side of the room trying to work out the mathematics behind creating a three dimensional space in a two dimensional plane.
Classes started up again a day afterwards and the lessons were harsher than normal in some sorry attempt to make up for the work missed and the laziness accumulated. Naruto returned that evening and saw that Sasuke was still in the same position that he had left him, lying on his bed with his head turned away.
The next day lessons were cancelled again for a mass funeral. The traitor Itachi Uchiha in a fit of madness had murdered his entire clan save one and had fled the village, becoming a missing nin. The one spared was obviously Sasuke, his younger brother, now the sole surviving Uchiha for anything that mattered. It was the first time Naruto saw Sasuke leave his bed since arriving in the orphanage and watching him kneel in front of his parents' graves, Naruto felt something. A connection.
Making a decision, Naruto waited with Sasuke, watching him even as everyone else left, watching as Sasuke cried. Watching as he eventually fell asleep in between his two parents' graves. When he was sure that Sasuke wasn't going to wake up anytime soon Naruto moved to pick him up, his chakra enhanced muscles being just enough to carry the sleeping boy.
Sasuke did wake once that night, but only to the loud snores of his roommate. Sniffling once he turned over and went back to sleep.
