Sealing Salientia - Chapter 25: Class- Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia: He laid his head back on the rocky surface as Jiraiya sat with him. This town that he had arrived in, they were celebrating his birthday and the sacrifice of his father in such a way. It was loud and blinding and terrifying and full of explosions. In other words, it was glorious.

Konoha
Monday, October 12th, Year 71

Naruto walked up to the building of the Konoha Academy, accompanied by Jiraiya on one side and Hiruzen Sarutobi on the other. He had only been in town for about 48 hours and had used that time to try and acclimate to the bustle of the village. He was thankful for the interim period as he didn't feel completely overwhelmed to the point of breaking down anymore. The sights, sounds and smells were still vibrant and constant, but he had managed to put a damper on them. The building in front of him He could hear the children running around in the green yard surrounding the school, the creak of the swings as kids were pushed and gathered speed, the jungle gym where ninja-in-training chased and caught each other through the obstacles, laughter abounding everywhere. The smells of grass and trees and pollen drifted through his nostrils, mixed with the earthy scent of post-rainfall, the recently fallen drops forming puddles that were being splashed in. Dozens of different scents from the children wafted in the air listlessly, neither having a destination or any hurry to get there, colliding with each other and creating a hodge-podge of human aroma.

He felt a hand ruffle through his hair and he quickly pushed the white locks out of his face. It was odd to think that he had white hair. But, they didn't really have too much for mirrors during his time in the toad summoning realm, so his mental image of himself was rather hazy anyway. Hiruzen had reacted noticeably to it, but that was only because he knew that Naruto was actually a blonde. The most that anyone else had done was give a curious glance.

The former Third Hokage turned school headmaster, spoke up. "Alright, Naruto, are you ready to go in? I've got you assigned to the first-year class. Not because I think you need the work on the skills portion, as Jiraiya assures me that you're well advanced in that area. Just because I believe it'd be best to associate with kids your own age. If you follow me, I'll show you to your class."

Naruto nodded along, a mix of sadness and excitement. He didn't really want to be there, but it was part of his promise with Jiraiya. He had tried walking back the deal over the weekend. However, Jiraiya made it quite clear that there was no rescinding that agreement. "A ninja's word is his bond. If you can't follow through on your word, don't give it in the first place," had been repeated many times over. On the other hand, there were untold possibilities to learn and discover. He had no idea what he might uncover while attending the Academy with other potential ninjas. He stepped forward to cross the threshold of the school entrance, preparing himself for what may come ahead.

Hiruzen led him down the hallways of the first floor pointing out several things along the way, Jiraiya trailing along behind. "This first door here by the entrance is the main office. If you have any issues, come here after class." He pointed into the office. Sitting there, looking down at the paperwork in front of her, a woman sat. A single bang of dirty blonde hair fell between her green eyes. While she looked harsh at first, as the woman rose her face to meet theirs, she smiled. "That nice lady is Mebuki. She'll let me know that you're here. I'll come out and see you as soon as I can." Naruto waved politely at the woman who smiled and waved back before resuming her work.

"Over here are the stairs. Older students have their classrooms upstairs. And downstairs you'll find several training rooms that the teachers will bring you to from time to time." Hiruzen pointed to the other side of the hallway. "Bathrooms are over there, just ask if you need to go." A light push on the back guided him to a wooden door with a small glass window set in. A metal plaque next to the door read off '101'. The door had a large slab of thin steel with the word 'Push' written on it instead of a handle. Taking the invitation, Naruto pressed against the wooden barrier, causing it to open silently.

The inside of the classroom was currently quiet. The room was taller than he expected, reaching almost 15 feet into the air. Seating was arranged with rows of elevated areas, slowly rising towards the back, with the last row being about 8 feet higher than the floor. Naruto assumed that this was so all children could see the teacher clearly. Surveying the room, he saw that while it was quiet, it was not empty. There was a girl in the first row with pink hair who was staring off into a window on the opposite wall, ignoring them as they entered. And a boy with black hair that appeared to be sleeping on a desk in the back row.

Naruto entered with the help of a light push from the grandfatherly figure behind him, who then spoke up. "Your teacher should arrive in a couple minutes and class will get started shortly after that." At the sound of the voice, the girl with pink hair immediately whipped around to see who else was there, the strands of cherry blossoms coursing through the air. She was wearing a light green dress and had a red hairband with what looked like animal ears tied out of it. Her bright green emerald eyes focused first on him, and then just to his side, where she obviously recognized the Sarutobi. Then her eyes flickered to the other form that was behind both of them, and the mouth dropped open a little in what looked like shock. Did she recognize Jiraiya as well?

Quickly standing and giving a bow to the men, she greeted them with, "Good morning Sarutobi-sama! Good morning Jiraiya-sama!" At the noise, the boy who had appeared to be sleeping raised his head and looked down, giving a sleepy wave for a second before lowering his face to rest on his arms again.

While Jiraiya just responded with a slightly uncomfortable wave, the headmaster responded, "Good morning to you as well Sakura. And I've told you, just like with the rest of the students and teachers, there is no need for the honorific. I'm not Hokage anymore. Hiruzen is fine."

Sakura replied with a quick "Yes, Sarutobi-sama, I remember."

Hiruzen shook his head with a wistful smile, obviously simultaneously somewhat amused and slightly frustrated by the continued title usage. "Anyway Naruto. You know where to find me if you really need to. I'll make sure to find you at the end of the day, okay?" The man changed into a whisper for a moment as he leaned down next to the whisker markings on his cheek. "And remember, as far as anyone is to know, you are Jiraiya's biological son. Got it?"

Naruto looked at the man with a serious expression and nodded solemnly. While he wouldn't say that he respected the older ninja yet, he certainly was on the way. Pops held the man in the utmost respect and that certainly meant a lot. He already believed that he could trust Hiruzen with nearly anything, due to the personality. It felt friendly and open and warm. Basically, like a more comforting Jiraiya. He didn't want to ruin the rapport that was already blooming with such a powerful ninja by betraying the man's trust in him to keep a secret. Besides, keeping secrets was part of a ninja's basic job description.

Hiruzen Sarutobi straightened up and turned around, letting the door start to close behind him. "Good luck Naruto, not that you'll need it." As the last words left, the door swung past the closed state to open slightly on the other direction, before reversing course a second later and coming to a rest in the closed position. Interesting, he had never seen a door like that before. Wondering why it was built that way, he pondered it for a moment before realizing that Jiraiya was gone as well, probably following his former sensei. The only thing left of the man was the lingering presence of his words "Bye son!" drifting through the air and the weight of an unfamiliar scroll that was now placed in his hands.

It took him a second before noticing that the girl was still staring in his direction. After a moment, the girl hesitantly got up from her chair and walked towards him.

"You're Naruto, right? That's what I thought I heard Sarutobi-sama say." The pinkette was now about a foot away, shuffling slightly uncomfortably in front of him.

Naruto wasn't really sure how to respond, as he hadn't ever really interacted with kids his own age before. He understood how words worked, but couldn't get any to form from his mouth right now. After a couple of failed attempts at speaking, he settled on a noncommittal grunt that sounded like an affirmative, "Mhmm".

Sakura looked at him strangely for a moment and he felt like there was cotton in his mouth. She then smiled at him brightly, though he could tell it was a forced smile. Now that she was closer and looking at him directly, he could see the remnants of tears in the corners of her eyes. "I'm Sakura. Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you."

Naruto managed to drag out actual speech this time, "Hi." It seemed that monosyllabic responses were his specialty when he felt off-kilter.

"Was that actually Jiraiya? Of the Sannin? And did he call you son? I didn't know that Jiraiya even had any kids!" Sakura started pouring out the questions a mile a minute, seeming to capitalize on the chance for information.

Naruto felt supremely uncomfortable at the interaction so far and was only able to get out a stuttering "Uh… Uhm…" before he was rescued from having to answer any more question when the door behind him crashed open. Unfortunately for him, he had never really moved very far into the room and had actually taken a step back when approached by the pink-haired girl.

'CRACK!' The sound of the door slamming into the back of his head reverberated throughout the room as he went flying forward into Sakura. The girl let out a yelp of surprise before the momentum that had been imparted on the back of his skull continued through the both of them, sending them sprawling on the floor. Naruto started to scramble up as best he could, but that resulted in him setting his hand on her hair, which slid as he put weight on his, causing his head to dive towards her face.

A split-second passed and he heard the resultant cry of "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean… Ewwwww. Sakura! Why are you kissing him? And who is that?"

Naruto cleared his head from the bells of getting his clock cleaned. Thankfully, Jiraiya often had whacked him in the back of the head during ninja training, and those were much harder than the door had been. That meant that the door had really only surprised him, not really hurt too much. He managed to untangle himself from the pink haired girl who was staring at him in surprise. After pushing himself back to sitting, he popped back into a standing position using the kip-up that the toads had taught him. He brushed himself off and then turned to look at the girl who had apparently opened the door into him.

She had shoulder-length platinum blonde hair with two small green clips holding it back from her face. Bright turquoise eyes set in a face that currently had the jaw dropped in an amazed expression. She was wearing a simple orange shirt with what looked to be the symbol for Konoha embroidered on the sleeves in a darker red material. The same darker red color appeared on her pants. She was also wearing bracelets and anklets on each appendage except her left arm which had a small amount of ninja wire fabric instead.

Naruto brought out the eloquence again, this time with a "Uhm…"

After shutting her mouth quickly, she started towards him. Unlike Sakura, who had walked with indecision prevalent, this girl marched right up to him confidently and directly. Sakura had left at least a foot between them, but this girl pushed her face right up to his, so close he could feel her breath against his skin. He could smell flowers, dozens of different types, all invading his nose. It was suddenly potent and the smell aggravated his olfactory sense to the point where it was the equivalent of being blinded, except with his nose. A minute part of his brain wondered if there was a word for that. Nose-blindness? He didn't have time to dwell on it though, as the natural reaction was already taking hold. He closed his eyes instinctively from the sensation and knew exactly what was about to happen.

"ACHOO!" He loudly sneezed, trying to politely turn away from her so that she didn't receive a face full of snot.

The high-pitched voice shrieked indignantly, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Uh…"

"Are you trying to say that I stink?" The girls' voice rose higher.

"No..."

"Who are you and why are you here?" The girl was bordering on a screeching noise and it was hurting his ears. Thankfully he was interrupted yet again by the opening of the doors.

Unlike the previous time, nobody walked in. Instead, mechanical clicking preceded the entrance of two seated legs carried by wheels. A moment later, an adult female face appeared in the entryway. It was soft-featured, framed by black-hair falling on either side. She was wearing the same green vest that Naruto had seen on dozens of villagers, which was sitting on top of a simple full-length black dress. There was a red and white fan pattern on each sleeve and nothing else. She spoke up in a soft, kind voice. "Now Ino, that is no way to treat our newest student. Please go to your seat. I will explain all in a moment."

Naruto looked at his savior with a sort of reverential awe. She had defused the short-tempered girl, apparently named Ino, in a mere moment, whereas he had been terrified of her. He wasn't used to people getting up in his face and demanding answers like that. Jiraiya had been right, this school would definitely get him exposed to other people. He wasn't so sure that he'd ever get used to it as Pops had implied though.

The melodic voice came through his sense again, tickling his ears like a gentle breeze. "Are you alright Sakura? Why are you on the floor like that?"

Naruto turned to the pinkette that was still on the ground. She still had her mouth agape like that Ino girl had when he first made eye-contact. And similarly, as soon as she saw him looking at her, she snapped it shut. He reached out to offer her a hand up, after all he had knocked her to the floor, even if unintentionally. She looked at him for a moment and then took the proffered digits in her own, using them to pull herself up off the ground. After righting herself, she looked at him for a moment. Her cheeks changed color to more resemble her hair, lowered her head, whispered "Thanks," and walked off back to the seat where she had started in without looking at him again.

"I suppose that she is not injured then. Now, you must be Naruto. It is very nice to meet you. I am Mikoto Uchiha. You can call me Mikoto. I will be your teacher for now." She waved towards the seating, continuing, "We do not have any assigned seating, though most of the children tend to sit in the same seat over and over again. If you want to take whatever open seat you want, that is perfectly fine."

Naruto nodded at her, finally finding his voice. An adult was what he was used to dealing with. Calm, measured, collected. Not at all like the other kids. And she seemed so kind. Her voice soothed him where he stood and seemed to have that effect on the entire classroom, according to the earlier display.

The door started to swing open again, this time three boys walking through it, not even stopping to look at him or their teacher. A larger boy animatedly talking while grabbing something from a bag in his off-hand, a boy holding a dog that were both chatting right back at him using words and yips respectively, and a quieter boy with glasses that was just looking on and listening to his two companions. They all sat down in the middle row, continuing their conversation, oblivious to the newcomer.

Behind them, more students started to pour in. Some stopping to look at the new kid that stood front and center in the classroom, others completely ignoring the sight and walking to their desks. Torn by indecision, he didn't move from the spot for the next couple of moments. Realizing that the available seats were getting filled up, he started towards the back row. He didn't want new, unknown people sitting behind him where he couldn't see them. That would drive the ninja training already instilled within him absolutely crazy. Sadly, every chair in the farthest back row was already taken. There were only two seats that he could see available. One in the dead center of the middle row, though it had the pink haired girl on one side and the blonde girl on the other side. The other one looked like it had been put in recently, judging by how out of alignment it seemed with the rest.

Naruto walked up towards the middle row chair, trying to have as few people behind him as possible. Going the direction that he would have to walk past the pink haired girl, rather than the blonde, he climbed the steps up to the row with the available seat. He started to push his way past the couple of kids in the way between him and the chair, which caused a slight commotion. While he was looking down to try not to trip over Sakura's feet, lest he fall on top of her a second time, he reached out to the chair. What he wasn't expected was for his hand to land on top of another hand that was grabbing the seat to sit down himself. The figure stopped immediately upon the hand on top of his own and looked up to meet Naruto's eyes.

It was another boy, this one had pure black hair, dark as the night sky. The eyes were also pitch black, no light reflecting from the iris, making the pupil inside impossible to distinguish. The boy had on a dark blue shirt, emblazoned on the front with the same red and white fan shape as the teacher had on her dress. The boy opened his mouth to speak. "Oh, I am sorry. I normally sit here, but you can have the seat if you would like." His hearing picked up an audible groan from the blonde girl sitting behind the new boy, as well as a hitching of the breath of the pink-haired girl who sat behind where he stood. "You must be the new student that we were going to receive today." The boy spoke in a somewhat clipped tone, but Naruto didn't perceive anything false or insincere about it. It simply appeared to be genuine polite manners from the boy talking to him.

Being that this one wasn't yelling in his ear or asking uncomfortable questions, he found his voice actually rising to the occasion, for the first time since Jiraiya walked out a few minutes' prior. "I didn't know this was your seat. Sorry."

The boy spoke again, "That is perfectly fine, you are new, you would not have known. You may have the seat if you wish." And with that, said raven-haired boy scooped up the books that he just been set down and jumped into the air. With a practiced muscle flex and perfect co-ordination, the child landed right next to the other as of yet unclaimed seat. He called back over his shoulder. "See? There is another seat right here. My name is Sasuke, by the way. Sasuke Uchiha."

The way that Sasuke spoke his name, especially his last name felt like he was wearing it as a badge of honor. Something about the tone screamed that 'You should know who I am.' He didn't seem condescending about it, which was nice, but it definitely appeared to be part of the way that he identified himself. He decided to not make too much for immediate judgments and let the boys' actions speak for themselves. He sat down, ignoring the continued grumbling sourced from the blonde to his right.

A moment later, the teacher's gentle voice danced around the room. "Class, you should remember that I told you last week that we would have a new student today. As most of you have already noticed, he has arrived. Would you care to stand up and introduce yourself?"

Naruto took a moment to think about it. He didn't really want to stand up, all the eyes already turning to him was too much attention. But, he had made the promise to Jiraiya that he'd give his all and try it. So, against his better judgment, he straightened his knees and rose to his full height.

"Uh…" His voice clashed against the silence that had descended upon the room, all the hushed conversations that had been occurring before Mikoto spoke having faded into nothing after she gained their attention. "I'm… uhh… Naruto?" He really wasn't sure what it meant to introduce himself. He looked around the classroom, watching every face directly staring at him. Well aside from the kid in the back row who still appeared to be asleep. Naruto turned his gaze back to Mikoto with a pleading look to save him.

"Just Naruto?" Came the voice from his left. Sakura had spoken, now gaining a large amount of the attention. "Don't you have a surname?" The girl shrunk into herself with each word spoken, the last practically being a whisper.

In what was becoming his most used word, he replied with "Uhhhhh…" He didn't ever think about it before. Jiraiya was just Jiraiya, Ma was just Ma, Pa was just Pa. While many of the toads had separate names, like Bunta or Ken, they all just used Gama in front as a way of family name. It wasn't so much of a surname as it was just their name. The first person he ever remembered meeting with two names was Hiruzen Sarutobi. He realized that each person that he had met today had been introduced with two names. But he didn't have two names. He was always just Naruto. Maybe he should ask Pops about that.

Quickly becoming aware that everyone was just staring at him again while he drifted into thought, he delivered his catchphrase again. "Uh…" Though this time is was followed by actual words as his thoughts coalesced behind it. "No. I'm just… Naruto."

The voice of the teacher rang out again "Why don't you tell us something about you? What is it that you like? What don't you like? Why do you want to be a ninja? That sort of thing."

Naruto was thankful for the prompt, though he still didn't want to speak anymore than he had to. He'd quickly spout off a few things and hopefully be done with everyone staring at him. "I like sealing and ramen and toads. I don't like having to eat bugs. I want to be a ninja because…"

He trailed off again, trying to think about the question. Likes and dislikes, that was easy. But, nobody had ever asked him why he wanted to be a ninja. Jiraiya and Ma and Pa and all the toads had always just pushed him to be a ninja. He had been living through ninja training for almost as long as he could remember. He didn't even really know what else people could be other than a ninja.

"I… uh… I don't know why." He responded quietly, a coating of red dusting his whiskered cheeks, sitting down after a second of silence.

"That's okay." Mikoto pressed on quickly, obviously sensing the discomfort that Naruto was displaying in relation to the question. "Now that that is out of the way, we'll get started on today's lesson. Today we are covering kunai and shuriken." A loud groan came from most of the other students, though Sakura and Sasuke seemed to light up. "We'll be heading down to Practice Room Delta after a quick lecture by me. You'll get a special guest instructor later today during practice too." At this, everyone cheered. Aside from Naruto, who didn't make a sound at either, because none of what was said meant anything to him.

Mikoto quickly launched into her speech, drawing on a chalkboard up front in curved lines and using words that Naruto didn't understand like trajectory and velocity and momentum. He was completely and utterly lost. He quickly sank inside himself as the world became a blur around him. Words and concepts flew around him like the shuriken that they were discussing. He had a notebook and a pencil in hand, but he didn't know anything about what was happening to write down anything coherent.

Instead of attempting to keep up with the nonsense that was being talked about, something about sine versus cosine, he decided to retreat to his meditation mindspace. He idly practiced throwing an imaginary kunai, hitting the target in his mind each time. He knew how it worked and could do it in real life too, having practiced throwing techniques with Jiraiya often.

What was all of this stuff that they were doing? It was useless! Why learn all of the formulas behind it all when he could just throw and hit the target? He sat down and started to work on his most recent sealing project mentally, still trying to cover his body with a thin sheet of chakra.

A few moments later, he was rewarded for his efforts by a sudden pain between the eyes. Stirred from his meditative state, he reached a hand up and rubbed the spot that had been impacted. Pulling his hand away, he found there to be a fine, white powdery substance on his fingertips. Looking down in front of him, there was a small object covered in the same white powder lying on his previously spotless notebook.

"Naruto, I do not know how you learned before coming here, but there will be no sleeping in my class." Mikoto said from in front of the chalkboard.

Naruto stared at her for a second. He couldn't fault her for that logic, but there was an obvious flaw in his mind. He could hear that the boy directly behind him was asleep, probably still with his head down. "Uhm. What about him?" He asked, crooking his thumb at the boy behind him, brushing up against the hair tied back in a single spiky ponytail that stuck out over the curved desk.

Mikoto re-focused her eyes for a second behind him, then smiled. "Shikamaru, answer the question on the board." The wording on the chalkboard behind her read out: 'What is the minimum speed required to hit a target ten feet off the ground, starting from three feet off the ground?'

The boy behind him didn't even raise his head before lazily waving his hand and answering, "A fraction faster than thirty feet per second."

"How much of a fraction?"

A tiny pause. "About two hundredths."

Mikoto replied, "Thank you, Shikamaru. That is correct."

Naruto's eyes bulged. The boy was sleeping not a minute ago. He could hear the snores. How was that even possible?

"Are you satisfied now?" Mikoto asked from down below, a small amount of edge in her voice. Naruto just nodded. He had to figure out the sleeping boys' secret.

He was again deluged by concepts and terms that he had no clue about, but he did his best at keeping up with the things verbally flying at him, lest he have more physical things flying at him. He looked at the other students in the classroom. Many of them were writing as fast as they could, perking their head up when called on to answer a question.

His bewildered state must have been rather obvious as he heard a voice from next to him. "Are you okay, Naruto? You seem lost." Sakura had spoken up and was sliding her notebook to an angle so he could read it easier. "If you don't get it, I can help you. That is, if you'd like?"

He heaved a sigh of relief. Perhaps some good could come of this after all. "Uhm… Yeah. Thanks." He watched as her cheeks got the tinge of pink again, but this time she didn't lower her face. Sakura began explaining the concepts, but when he was still lost, she backtracked back down to the beginning so that she could see where he was at.

He realized how much he didn't know that they were already taking for granted. He knew basic math, addition and subtraction. That made sense to him as to why a ninja needed to know it. If he had 15 shuriken in a pouch packed for a mission, and had thrown 13 of them, he only had 2 left so he would need to be careful. But the concepts that they were already covering, he didn't understand at all. They used weird numbers and squiggly signs that made no sense to him.

Sakura was patient with him though, far more patient than he was with himself. An hour passed as if no time had gone by. That was when Mikoto called for a break. She wheeled herself around to start clearing the chalkboard off for the next subject. A couple of kids trickled outside but the majority crowded around Naruto. Questions started getting fired off left and right.

"Are you from a clan?" "Why don't you have a last name?" "Are you from Konoha?" "Who are your parents?" The multitude of questions burst at him from all sides.

The boy with the dog loudly asked, "Why is your hair white? Are you old or something? And what's with the whiskers? Do you like cats?"

Sasuke spoke up, "What did you mean you like sealing?"

The blonde girl still sitting next to him disgustedly said, "Do you really like toads? They're gross and slimy!"

Naruto shrank back in again. It was too much. Too many smells, too much noise, too much attention. He didn't like it. He just wanted to go sit in a quiet room and learn on his own, like back at Mount Myoboku. He wished he could summon himself back there.

Summon… Hmmm. That was a thought. That little blonde girl hadn't really been very nice to him yet. He could hear her mumbling about how he stole her 'Sasuke-kun's precious seat' and was keeping them apart. Combining that with her comment towards toads being gross and the whole shrieking incident and a horrible idea popped into his head. He hated trying to talk to them, but perhaps he could show them something that he loved to do. Pranking.

He put his hands together and flipped through the required handseals. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that everyone but Sasuke tensed up immediately, whereas the Uchiha got into a relaxed defensive position while taking a step back. Good for him, he was clearly above the rest when it came to practical ninja skills. He slammed his hands down on the table, releasing the chakra that he had gathered.

"Summoning Technique, Toad Summon" he called out, a split second before the puff of smoke exploded forth.

Cutting through the smoke quickly sailed another eraser, again thwacking Naruto right dead center in the head. "No ninja techniques in the classroom!" Mikoto yelled, seemingly out of habit. Too late to stop what had already happened though, the eraser bounced harmlessly off to the floor.

Standing on the desk was a small toad, no bigger than a few inches across. It looked around, spotted Naruto and raised a webbed hand. "Heya boss!" A second later, he could see the questioning look in the toads' eyes. "Uh, boss what happened to your h…"

He cut the toad off, not wanting to let him finish, knowing exactly that the little toad was questioning the hair color change. "Hiya Gamakichi! You know what I just heard? I heard that this girl here doesn't like toads!" He said that part while gesturing to the blonde with a hand. "She thinks they're gross. And slimy!" Sure enough, Ino had a hand over her mouth, already looking slightly green. He knew that the slimy comment would set the toad off. All of the toads seemed to have a particular hatred for being confused with frogs by the humans, it was the surest way to get them riled up.

Gamakichi hopped towards her, saying "We're not gross!" Another hop. "And we're NOT SLIMY!" Gamakichi yelled indignantly. With one final hop, he jumped directly on her notebook in front of her and pointing one finger up, he finished with, "That's rude!"

Ino shrieked and bolted from her chair, the sound painfully vibrating Naruto's eardrums even after the screaming faded down the hallway.

The boy with the puppy started cackling loudly from the floor, having been shoved down in Ino's mad dash to escape. "Oh man! That was awesome! You got her good!" The boy had large triangle markings on his face, somewhat reminiscent of Jiraiya's. The puppy was carefully placed back in the top of the oversized, fur-lined hoodie that the youth wore. He held out a hand to be helped up in Naruto's direction, which he offered. The boy had a strong grip and the yank almost brought Naruto down with him, though not quite. "Nice. I'm Kiba. Kiba Inuzuka." A small series of yips from behind him. "And that's Akamaru. He says you smell of toads and foxes. Odd combo, but cool!"

Naruto froze for just a second when foxes were mentioned, but nothing further came of it, so he relaxed a moment later.

Sasuke spoke up next, "So, you can summon huh? That's cool. What else can you do? You said you liked sealing?"

Naruto's eyes lit up for a second. Sealing was the one thing he loved more than pranks. He was about to start in on making a seal, preferring to show things rather than talking. He pulled out a scroll from his bag before ducking, this time narrowly dodging the thrown eraser. She had to be running out of those soon, right? "I said NO NINJA TECHNIQUES IN THE CLASSROOM. Take it outside." Mikoto yelled up at the gathered crowd. He noted a slightly stunned look from Sasuke at the moment, but he shook it off quickly.

Naruto sullenly put the scroll away and started to try to walk down to get outside, but his path was blocked by everyone. Noticing his attempt to leave, the crowd somewhat dispersed and started to meander outside.

Sasuke fell in step beside him. "Toads, huh? Are you of any relation to Jiraiya? He is the only living toad summoner I know of."

Naruto, glad to be on a topic that wasn't as uncomfortable to be talking about, was actually able to find some words. "Yeah… Pops is my… I mean… Jiriaya… he's my dad." While he spoke, he ushered Gamakichi back to him, and let the toad rest of his head, in a similar manner to the puppy.

The Uchiha's eyes widened a small amount, but he didn't break eye contact or stride. "That is very interesting. Who is your mother?"

And straight back to the monosyllabic, guttural answer. "Uh…" He wondered what everyone was thinking of him, being so unable to even hold a conversation for more than a sentence. After a few awkward seconds, he squeaked out "I never knew my mom."

Sasuke nodded along, "I see. That is..." He seemed to be searching for a word as they cross the door that led outside. "Unfortunate." He settled on the larger word, seemingly thinking heavily about it.

Naruto felt like he should participate in the conversation more, otherwise he was going to look like a fool constantly. "Who are your parents, Sasuke?"

The boy next to him laughed. "You've already met my mom." He pointed a finger back inside. "She hit you with an eraser twice. Though I must say, I am impressed you ducked the third one. She has not missed a target yet that I have seen."

Naruto blanched, Sasuke's mom was Mikoto. That did explain the crest on their clothing matching.

The raven-haired boy continued, "And I'm surprised you don't know who my dad is. You can see him from here." This time the boy pointed away from the building, towards the large tower in the distance and the giant rock wall behind it. At Naruto's confused look, Sasuke elaborated. "My dad is the Fifth Hokage."

Naruto blanched even more. To borrow a phrase that he had heard from Jiraiya before, 'Well, shit.'

Sasuke seemed to take some deep satisfaction from his reaction for some reason. He wasn't really sure why, but he did know that he wanted to wipe the somewhat smug look off of the boys' face right then and there.

"So, you said you liked seals. What did you mean?" The conversation apparently was being picked back up where it left off inside, though with fewer onlookers this time. Back then he had practically the entire class of nearly 30 kids surrounding him. The numbers had gone down drastically. Kiba was there too, talking to the same two others from this morning that he didn't know their names yet. He could see Shikamaru laying on his back with his eyes closed a few feet away, but he would place money that the boy was paying attention. And Sakura had practically clung to his side since he had accepted her offer of help, even laughing when he pranked Ino. Speaking of, he could see the blonde-haired girl in the corner talking with several other girls and shooting heated glares over at him occasionally.

Naruto took out a scroll from his waist pack and laid it on the ground. He concentrated his chakra for a moment and activated the release mechanism on the matrix of one part, causing his sealing supplies to burst forth. While he got a couple of "Oooh's" from the others, Sasuke seemed unimpressed. "That's just a sealing scroll, every ninja knows how to use them. I keep my kunai at home in one."

Naruto didn't bother stopping. He had already unraveled one of the practice blank pieces of paper. Started the sigil pattern he already knew by heart, he created a brand-new seal in front of their eyes. It only took about a minute, and he could tell that they were all still there looking at him. Aside from Shikamaru, the lazy kid. He looked up at the Uchiha, mischief present in his eyes. "Oh yeah? Have you seen one that can do this? Seal!"

Slapping it on the nearest tree, which was a medium sized fir about forty feet tall, he activated it and waited for the action. With a faint 'pop' and a sizzling sound, the tree disappeared from existence. The paper fell to the ground, drifting slowly from side-to-side until coming to rest of the grass below. It rested next to decent size hole in the ground where the root system of the tree had been, dirt slowly crumbling into the crevices where plant matter had previously been.

He watched their faces the entire way, reveling in the surprised look that all of them had. Even Shikamaru had opened his eyes and was staring at him. The boy didn't have the mouth dropped open in shock like the rest of them, but had one eyebrow quirked upward at a severe angle. Naruto could hear a faint word breathed from his lips of "Troublesome."

That made Naruto realize that he didn't hear much of anything. Looking around, everyone had stopped to stare in his direction. 'Perhaps that was too far,' he thought to himself. A moment later, a couple of adults walked out of the building, an animated Mebuki pulling along an exasperated Hiruzen. They both looked over at him, and he saw the eyes of the old man change from annoyance to realization as he noticed what had happened.

While the rest of the children were looking at him slack-jawed and silent, the headmaster walked up to him. "Naruto, would you kindly mind putting my tree back where I put it? Thank you."

Naruto sheepishly bowed his head and muttered "Sure." He picked up the piece of paper, set it back where the tree had been, and activated it again, this time ashamedly saying "Release." Naruto quickly jumped back as the tree popped into existence.

There was only one problem though. Being embarrassed, he hadn't thought about the orientation of the seal. He had applied it vertically, but released it horizontally. Instead of the tree appearing back in its' original place, it popped into existence in the material plane sideways. The resulting appearance of matter slammed into him, sending him flying for the second time that day. His vision was filled with pink for the second time as well, as he was blasted into Sakura, causing them to tumble across the dirt and ground. Ending in a tangle of limbs and hair, he sighed as laughter chorused in from all the different voices across the yard. This just really wasn't his day.

AN: Four thousand words to cover about fifteen minutes of in story time at the start of the chapter. Well then. I honestly didn't think that it would need that many words, but it just kept flowing. And I honestly thought about cutting it off there for the chapter, but I wanted to cover more in here anyway, so you get extra-long reading this time. Yay! Plus, you get to see some of the cast starting to make their returns.

Sasuke is obviously nowhere near as melodramatic, but he is still slightly stuck-up. Not overly so, but enough to have an attitude. He also tries to be a bit of an elitist, imitating the speaking patterns of his father and trying to be formal. Sakura is a little less confident than before, acting a bit more like canon Hinata. Her mom is the secretary of the school, so she has added pressure. Plus, I'm calling that Naruto showed up the week after the fight between her and Ino about Sasuke. The rest are basically the exact same as I would have pictured them as kids. Similar to canon genin, just a bit more immature.

15,000+ views, 50+ reviews and 100+ followers! Yay!

Finally, I'm actually getting ahead of my self-imposed deadlines! I have two chapters written in advance already. I gotta say, it's so hard not to just put them in and hit submit. But it's also really nice to not HAVE to work on it, and know I can still put out a chapter next week.