Disclaimer: I still haven't found a way to own Naruto, so no, I don't own the series.
Author: Before starting this chapter, I looked at the reviews section. To my surprise, and pleasure, I found that thrice the amount of people I asked as a base had replied. So to thank you, I decided to write a longer chapter. If you notice, I followed some of the tips some of my reviewers gave me, just to prove that I'm open for advice. So enjoy!
And also, to the joy, and disdain, of some of my readers, I plan to make this a NaruHina fic.
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Chapter 2: A new student, an old comrade
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The rising sun shone through the half-shut curtain, hitting Sasuke right in the face. The twelve-year-old boy just glared in pure annoyance at the window for a good two minutes before standing up and opening it properly. He then stretched his body and headed for the small off-white fridge that stood in front of an incredibly bare red wall, opened it, and took out a small bun and a juice bottle. He didn't even bother to sit down at the two-seat table that was sprawled in the middle of the tiny room, and when he was done, threw the litter in the trash while brushing his teeth. After taking a quick shower, he put on a baggy blue turtleneck tee-shirt, white shorts, sandals, tied his headband firmly on his forehead and walked out of the small building in his normal cold demeanor.
That was how Sasuke Uchiha always started off his morning, and he didn't show any signs of changing his ways in the near or distant future. He was one of those cold, distant guys that every girl in class loved and that every guy wanted to be subconsciously. Tall, dark and handsome at a pretty young age, there wasn't a reason to prove otherwise.
"Hey Sasuke-kun! Wait up!"
Sasuke turned around with a half-bored look on his face as he watched a pink-haired girl run towards him.
Sakura Haruno was the brain of the class, having aced all the tests given to her since she entered the Ninja Academy. However, everytime she saw Sasuke, her mind would suddenly drift off of the subject at hand. One very good example was when she had to transform into Iruka-sensei for practice. Yet, the moment she was about to perform the jutsu, the young man caught her attention, so that instead, she transformed into a disproportionate Iruka. Luckily for the girl, the teacher forgave her and gave her a second chance, in which she performed perfectly. But I digress from the story at hand, so let's get back to business.
Sakura blushed slightly when she reached Sasuke. The young man didn't take notice of the change of skin tone of the girl.
"What do you want Sakura?"
"Um, well, I uh, wanted to know if you uh, heard about the news." asked Sakura shyly as she was playing with her fingers.
"I don't particularly follow news; it's a waste of time." replied Sasuke quite bluntly.
The girl would have loved to say to him this particular sentence:
"Well hanging out with you is a waste of time too! You don't even talk that much, and when you do, it's only to brush me off you little-"
But instead opted for this one:
"Well, the Hokage said in his speech the other night that there was going to be a newcomer to the village. Some of us from the Academy wanted to go see at the village gates. I was wondering if you were coming."
"That's all you have to say?" replied Sasuke coldly.
"But I was just asking if you want-"
"I don't do social gatherings Sakura, you should know that by now."
Sasuke walked away, leaving the girl in shock. Oh the wonderful things she would have loved to say:
"Cha! I'll make you eat those words, you fucking idiotic jerk, cha!"
Yet she just turned around cooly and headed to the gates in a small trot.
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There were a handful of students waiting at the premises when she arrived.
"Hey Big Forehead! Where's Sasuke? Don't tell me he rejected you! Though I'm glad he did, because I would be shocked if he went with you, you ugly duckling!" said a blond and blue-eyed girl next to her with bandages all over her thighs.
Sakura just cringed and clutched her hands in a tight fist.
"Shut up, Ino! You're one to talk, seeing that he didn't go with you!"
They started glaring at each other, sparks flying out of their eyes.
"Will you two just give it a rest? I'm trying to take a nap here." said a boy lying on a nearby picnic table as he yawned.
"Shikamaru, you're so lazy." replied a rather chubby boy, who was munching away on a bag of rice crackers next to him.
"Oh yeah Choji? You're one to talk about morals. You're the human incarnation of gluttony." said the pony-tailed boy as he eyed the village gates lazily.
Three shadows popped out of the bushes: a boy with excruciatingly long hair and a dog on his head, another boy with small sunglasses and a turtleneck-like coat covering half of his face and a white-eyed girl with a short bob haircut.
"Did we miss anything?" said the first boy as he petted his dog. The dog barked at a squirrel nearby that quickly fled away.
"Nope, and I woke up half an hour early for this." answered Shikamaru as he let out a long yawn.
"Kiba, maybe you should make Akamaru run a little, he seems to be gaining weight." pointed out the second boy to the one named Kiba.
"Hey, I know how to take care of my dog! So butt out of it Shino!" replied the beast boy angrily while he growled.
"N-now guys, let's not get in a fight, okay?" said the white-eyed girl as she stood in the middle of the two boys.
"We don't want to cause a big fuss, r-right?"
Sakura sighed as she closed her eyes, separating herself from Ino, who seemed to still be fixated in beating her in a staring contest.
"Hinata's right, guys. We're here to see the newcomer arrive, and senseless brawl isn't necessary." said the pink-haired girl as she headed towards her purple-haired comrade. Everyone stood, lay and sat in silence.
"Nice going Hinata." said Sakura with a small smile as she tapped her on her shoulder.
Hinata's face started to glow a bright red. Never once had anyone congratulated her for stopping a small argument…
The ground started to rumble a bit.
"Methinks that we should get out of the way soon." said Shino calmly. Everyone agreed and stepped aside, watching as a dozen chuunin surrounding the Hokage walked past them. The old man eyed them all and turned to face them.
"And to what pleasure to I have to see genin at a time like this? Experience has taught me that not a single individual your age would wake up this early on a weekend unless they had something to do, hmm?"
Sakura stepped in front. After a low bow, she explained how all seven wanted to see the newcomer before anyone else.
"But I have to ask, Hokage-sama, who is this guy, or girl?" asked Kiba eagerly.
The old man chuckled.
"Well, it's someone all of you haven't seen in a long time. The individual in question used to live here, until urgent business made him leave. I was lucky to meet him a few years ago, though under some bizarre circumstances."
"W-what kind of circumstances?" asked Hinata shyly.
Before the Hokage could answer, the gate started to slowly open.
Odd, I was sure it was closed from the inside… thought the old man. He eyed the gate and noticed that the lock seemed to have melted. A chuunin went to pick it up from the ground.
"How could that be? None of the children had anything to melt the lock, and even if they did, we would have caught them right in the act…"
The gates kept on opening. The chuunin were on their guard, ready to pull out their weapons if necessary.
When the gate fully opened, the only thing in front of it was a small figure wrapped in a tattered red cloak with the village insignia on the hood. By the looks of it, whoever he was wasn't armed. The Hokage walked past the chuunin and stood in front of the individual.
"So, you came in time." pointed out the Hokage.
"Maybe so, but your lock isn't that high quality, so I could have arrived during the night, without you knowing, Hokage-sama." replied a high, yet raspy, male voice. He snickered.
The voice itself was enough to send shivers in the genins' spines. It sounded so cold and insolent to them. Never once have they heard such a voice. They all thanked the gods for making him decide to arrive on the scheduled time, instead of being in the village at night, when everyone's guard was down. But what shocked them was when he and the Hokage were walking side by side, as if there wasn't any threat emanating from the traveler. He looked at the seven genin with piercing blue eyes. Hinata's grew wider, as if she had seen a ghost, but she said nothing, although she seemed happy and confused at the same time.
"Your apartment has been kept under lock and key." added the Hokage, to which the small figure just nodded.
Silence ruled over the seven of them until Shikamaru said:
"Well, that was a waste of time. I'm going back to bed now."
And all seven of them separated without another word.
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The Hokage finished signing a mountain of forms before paying his undivided attention to the boy seated in front of him. He looked especially uncomfortable in the short sleeved track suit one of the chuunin brought him after taking a bath.
"You've certainly changed Naruto." said the Hokage calmly.
"Time hasn't been too kind to you either, Hokage-sama." replied Naruto as he pushed back a blond spike from his tattooed face.
The old man put down his pen and held his hands together.
"This time you will stay, is that right?" asked the Hokage inquisitively.
Naruto stretched at that moment.
"Yup, that's about right. We've got some business to attend to, mainly appropriate training, exams and such, before I finally take you place, Hokage-sama. Isn't that right Kyuubi?"
The room fell dead silent as red chakra slowly emanated from the boy, taking the form of the nine-tailed fox.
"That's right kid. We're going to show this village full of fuckers who is the most powerful of them all. With the help you got from me, that should be easy. " replied the spirit in a resonating voice before disappearing into the child.
"Very well then, I see that you haven't let go of your dream Naruto, and that Kyuubi hasn't lost his lack of manners. Go to the reception hall to get the key, garments, food and money we assembled for you. Class officially starts tomorrow for you." said the elder calmly.
After a small bow, Naruto took out a small sphere-shaped object, threw it onto the ground, and disappeared in a puff of grey smoke.
Let's hope that they're all ready for you though…thought the Hokage as he sucked onto his pipe.
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The classroom was bustling with chatter when Sasuke arrived Monday morning.
"Hi Sasuke-kun!" said Ino cheerfully, while Sakura looked in the background angrily at the girl.
Sasuke just ignored her and walked past her.
"Heard the rumors?" said Shikamaru in his lazy tone as the boy took a seat behind him. He just shrugged.
"Turns out the newcomer that just arrived is a new student. From what my dad told me when he came back from the Hokage's Tower last night, the guy's pretty skinny and short, but when he looks at you, bloodlust is written in his sight." added Shikamaru.
"That's creepy." replied Choji as he devoured another bag of cheese puffs.
"Not to mention untrue." added Kiba.
"I mean, when you think murderer, do you think of a scrawny runt? No! you think of a guy who can cream you without a sweat."
"Actually Kiba," said Sakura in a serious tone, "it's written in History books that some of the deadliest assassins in ancient times were small in size and could easily fool everyone, since it was easy for them to infiltrate any given base by dressing up as either a child or a woman."
The door slid open as Iruka-sensei entered the class.
"All right everyone, take your seats, we're going to separate the class into the genin squads. These squads will be made up of three genin, so that your jounin instructor won't go insane, as I have while taking all of you on at the same time." said the teacher with a smirk.
Sakura raised her hands.
"What is it Sakura?" asked Iruka-sensei.
"Iruka-sensei, if you said that the groups are to be made up of three genin, isn't there a problem to that? We're only twenty six students. Does that mean that there are going to be two groups of four? Or maybe one group of five?"
Other students voiced their concern about it as well. Iruka-sensei chuckled.
"Well, if you kids have heard the rumors going around that there's a new student coming to the Academy, and I'm sure you have, then that's not a rumor, but the truth."
Whispers could be heard as the students were wondering how the new kid looked like.
"You can come in now." said Iruka-sensei as he faced the door. It opened, and some of the students were shell shocked at what they saw in front of the class.
He had some pretty strange tattoos on his face and neck, two village insignias tattooed on his cheeks in black and variations of the fire symbol in red all around his neck, but otherwise looked pretty normal, wearing a light black armor shirt and some truly bizarre orange and blue pants that looked like they were three to four sizes too big for him and that were held up by a wide black belt, yet that matched pretty well with his sandals. A brand new genin head band was tied around his forehead tightly, making most of his blond hair spike up, while longer strands flopped downwards, partially covering his face, yet not fully covering his piercing blue eyes.
Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino and Sakura quickly identified him as the stranger from yesterday morning.
Hinata's facial expression was a mix of happiness, confusion and shock, but no one took notice of it.
"Introduce yourself to the rest of the class." said the teacher after the long moment of silence.
The boy put his hands behind his head.
"Hey, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I used to live here before, but then had to leave for… some stuff. Now I'm back to get proper training, so that I can become the greatest Hokage this village ever had. Nice to meet all of you." said the boy with excitement and a huge grin plastered on his face.
The class just watched him, not knowing how to respond.
0.0'
"Good. You may take your seat now." said Iruka-sensei after another moment of silence.
The boy suddenly vanished and reappeared in a seat between Hinata and Sakura, who was sitting next to Sasuke.
"Whoa! That was fast!" said Sakura as she eyed her new classmate with huge eyes.
He's faster then me. This Naruto guy isn't like the rest of the group. This could prove to be interesting…thought Sasuke as he eyed the blond.
Naruto didn't pay too much attention to Sakura's comment and faced Hinata.
"You're Hinata, right?" asked the boy simply.
"What? Oh, y-yes, my name's Hinata. P-pleasure to meet you, Naruto." replied the white-eyed girl shyly while her face was growing a bright red.
"Aw, come on! You can call me Naruto-kun!" said the blond with another big grin.
"A-all right, Naruto-kun." replied Hinata in an even shyer tone before turning around to face the teacher.
"Okay, we're going to proceed to separate the class into the squads. Naruto, since you've never had appropriate training, I'll team you up with the girl on your left, Sakura and Sasuke, the boy on her left. They're two of the best students in the class, and should be able to teach you everything pretty quickly."
"Sure Iruka-sensei." replied Naruto.
Sakura was bubbling with joy. She felt like screaming to the heavens.
"Oh, yeah! I'm with Sasuke-kun! We'll be able to spend all the time in the world together, because of Naruto! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" thought Sakura as she clenched her hands together in happiness.
After that, the separation went pretty smoothly: Hinata, Kiba and Shino were put together, as was Shikamaru, Choji and Ino.
The bell rang for lunch.
"Off you go. In the afternoon, you'll meet your jounin instructors." added Iruka-sensei before he left the room.
"So Naruto, do you like ramen?" asked Sakura.
"Do I like ramen? I love the stuff!" replied Naruto merrily.
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The Hokage's office was pretty dark for this time of day. A folder lay neatly in front of him.
"This should be enough to let you in on how Naruto functions." said the old man calmly to the man sitting in front of his desk.
The silver-haired man took one of the folders and opened it, eyeing its contents.
"You're telling me that this boy was responsible for three of the seven intensive fires in the past five years?" said the slim man after handing the folder back to the Hokage.
"Well it really isn't his fault, considering that in the specific period of time, he was feeling a lot of anger and frustration with himself and the kitsune within him." replied the Hokage in a calm tone.
"That's still no reason to just lash out at the world like that." pointed out the jounin.
"I didn't summon you to judge the lad, but to prepare you in what there is to come. Iruka told me that he put him with Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. They're two of the best in his class, but I don't think that will help them if Naruto were to unleash some of the youkai's chakra. This is why I'm assigning you to them, Kakashi." said the elder as he sucked on his pipe.
"After all, you do have some time to catch up with you godson, seeing that he's been missing all these years." added the old man with a sly grin.
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Author: It's done! Hallelujah! If you notice, this chapter's like, three to four pages longer then the last chapter. And I just dropped another few bombs in this chappy. I'm sure you readers will be able to find them in here, although they're not as big as that huge one from the last chapter. But oh well, don't forget to give constructive reviews, as always. I took the jokes lightly, but if that happens again, let's just say that heads will fall.