Sealing Salientia - Chapter 46: Fifth - Author: PenSmoke

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

Previously on Sealing Salientia: He peered at the image, watching intently for any details that he could pick up. "Alrighty boy. Let's see your secrets."

Konoha
Monday, November 13th, Year 74

Monday morning came along, and Naruto was up and out of bed early. He had spent the previous night meditating in his mental sanctuary, listening to Kurama's grumbling about the Academy. While the canid energy being certainly had some very vocal thoughts about how his education was going, Naruto was still getting plenty of learning on the side through various sources. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kurama all gave him new ideas that helped him.

Just the past couple of days, Jiraiya and he had been working on a breakthrough on modular seals using Sai's ink technique. They had been testing storage seals, changing variables on the seals to try and make it so a single storage seal could access multiple different items that were sealed at different times, thereby condensing the amount that needed to be carried.

Pops had started the seemingly develop a real fascination with the boy, asking Naruto to spend more time with him and see if he could learn anything new.

Which brought his mind back around to today. It was the start of the new Academy year. Not just any year either, this was the beginning of 5th year. There were only 15 students left, and they were going to start doing D-rank missions in teams of 3 now.

He idly wondered who his primary 5th year instructor was going to be. While there were side classes with specialized teachers who were experts in a particular field, there was still a general education classes that focused on honing basic skills and training in standard combat procedures and techniques. Each year, they seemed to be spending less and less time with the one primary instructor, instead branching out into specialties.

While he had been wanting to go into a sealing specialty, he had been disappointed to learn that no such branch existed within the Konoha ranks. They were organized into: Research and Development led by Orochimaru, Interrogation led by Ibiki Morino, Sensory led by Tsume Inuzuka, Frontline led by Maito Gai, Medical led by Tsunade, and ANBU led by the unnamed ANBU Commander. There were also sub-specialties and other classifications that didn't exactly fall into these nice groupings. With the exception of the ANBU, students were encouraged to pick one sub-type ad take extra classes in it.

Naruto had been keen on taking medical classes, since he lived with Tsunade, but his control was not high enough to perform the techniques easily. Jiraiya mentioned something about his Yin and Yang still needing to balance out. With that avenue closed to him, he decided that he would go with Sensory, as he already seemed to have enhanced senses, with Frontline as a secondary.

The Sensory classes were usually pretty fun, he got to hang with Shino and Kiba and Neji. They only annoying part was that Ino and Ami were also there as well. The two girls still often glared at him when the teachers weren't looking. However, he ignored them for the most part.

Neji had been an interesting case. Ever since Naruto had rescued him from the Uchiha bullies in that alleyway, the feminine boy had developed something of a fascination with the white-haired child. While it wasn't as bad as when Sakiko followed him around, it seemed very similar in behavior. It was as if Neji had a hero complex about Naruto and wanted to constantly prove himself. Spars and duels had been a commonplace occurrence for the two of them, with Neji slowly gaining ground on Naruto.

Naruto shook his head, as he was getting distracted from what was happening today. He grabbed his new favorite clothes and popped them on, spending a second to admire the modifications that he had put on them.

Pops had agreed that he needed to have mission-ready gear for 5th year, as he would start going on missions, even if they were just D-Rank. Naruto had been so excited to get the new gear, that he spent all night coming up with ideas on how to add sealing structures to them.

He ran his fingers over the first seal that was embedded into the edge of the collar, it was his own personal creation. With a simple activation of chakra, it would start his own personal jutsu that formed a thin film of warm air over his skin, providing warmth even in cold environments. With additional chakra, it even worked as a light defense, deflecting minor debris and indirect blows. He was still working on getting it concentrated and contained enough to deflect senbon or kunai while not ripping his skin to shreds.

Just underneath was another seal that he had learned from Jiraiya, a simple earth manipulation. By sending a pulse of chakra through it, a think film of earth that was smeared in between the layers of fabric would turn to stone, providing extra defense against damage.

And lastly, his personal favorite. Pushing a little chakra to it, he made the ninja mesh fiber shirt turn from its normal coloration of a camouflage pattern of greys and blacks to a solid bright orange color. He wasn't sure why he loved the color so much, but it certainly made his smile bigger and brighter whenever he had it on.

Leaving the bright 'kill-me-orange' (as Pops had called it) coloration in place, he slid on his similarly upgraded ninja mesh pants and changed their color to match. He strapped on a basic survival pouch that contained the essentials for any mission, such as kunai, rope, a lantern, dry rations, a waterskin, and utensils, all sealed away in scrolls to make it compact. He knew it was unlikely to get a mission on his first day as a 5th year student, but Ma and Pa had instilled in him a mindset to be prepared.

He never felt the chill the echoed through the village on that late fall morning as he walked past the buildings on his way to the Academy, buffered as he was against the elements. He noticed the activity of ANBU bouncing along the rooftops, making their morning patrols, disturbing newly fallen leaves as they flit throughout the brisk air.

The autumn leaves had begun turning, casting the town is various hues of vibrant red, orange and yellow as the chlorophyll within struggled valiantly to hang on to the last shreds of life, before finally giving way to nature and falling to the ground. He supposed there was something poetic about how the leaf fought so hard to not be separated from the tree that spawned it. Even though it fought so, it always lost the battle eventually. However, without that leaf falling, a new leaf could never take its' place amongst the canopy of the sky.

As a leaf drifted down past his face, it temporarily blocked his vision for a moment, when it was suddenly blasted away by a whoosh of displacing air. The wind sent it spiraling away while Naruto jumped to a defensive position.

He quickly ducked and jumped to the side to avoid an armbar from one and a tripping attack from the other, as both of his assailants attempted to flip him heels over head. Abruptly bouncing backwards to avoid a follow-up attack, he looked at the smirks that faced him.

This happened on many adventures to the school. Between Neji and Sasuke, sneak attacks were commonplace to him. Sometimes, as was happening now, they would both even team up to overwhelm him and claim another point in the ever-ongoing tally that marked their respective rivalries. While Sasuke and Neji had vastly different personalities, they had bonded over their shared desire to prove to the village that they were, in fact, different than their fathers. One wanting to be recognized for his own abilities and not just being the son of the Hokage, and the other wanting to prove that he was loyal and dedicated to the village and shake the constant degradation of the villagers.

Naruto had gotten the short end of that stick, as they ganged up on him more and more often as their own bond increased. And since they were both training to be frontline, with specialized classes from Maito Gai, their strength and speed had increased dramatically. His only saving grace was that his sensory abilities could usually pick them up, and his reaction speed was still close enough that he could keep one of them at bay. However, when it was both, he typically lost those skirmishes.

As he finished bouncing out of their immediate range, he started to smile. Evading the first sneak attack was typically enough to gain the upper hand for a moment. Until a hand slammed down on his right shoulder in a hammer blow, courtesy of their last conspirator.

Rock Lee landed beside him as he crumpled in a pile, white hair now turned dirty brown from the mud puddle he had landed in. "I am sorry Naruto! But the youthful fires of combat must be stoked!"

"You too, Lee?" Naruto raised his mouth out of the quagmire long enough to speak, before looking at the victorious smiles on the other two boys. They were giving each other a high-five and smirking in his general direction.

"Really, you guys? Three on one, how is that fair?"

Sasuke replied tritely, "Ninja's don't play fair." To which Neji and Lee nodded. The concept of fair fighting had been drilled out of them by Shikaku Nara through dozens of demonstrations of what would happen if you didn't go for the win because of an advantage.

"You are used to us jumping you but wouldn't have thought of there being a third person involved."

Another swirl of leaves blinded all their visions for a second time in as many minutes, a loud "Eep!" sounded out. Naruto blinked rapidly as the leaves let gravity take hold once again. Where two had stood previously, now one hung upside down from a tree branch about fifteen feet in the air.

A new figure stood upside down from the tree branch where Sasuke now hung trussed by his feet, dangling from a rope. A whisper floated down to Naruto's ears.

"Foolish little brother."

"Itachi!" Sasuke couldn't have been louder, and Naruto was sure his voice had cracked up about four octaves. The raven-haired child struggled to free himself from the restraints, but found himself unable to escape, much to Naruto's amusement. Neji and Lee also seemed to be looking up at the son of the Hokage with a grin.

With a swing of his left arm, Itachi sliced the rope that bound his younger brother, as well as the bindings that had held him in place, letting the boy drop to the pavement. Showing control of his descent, Sasuke flipped in mid-air to land on his feet, rocketing to his brother's side and engulfing him in a hug.

"When did you get back? You have been gone for so long. What were you doing at the Daimyo's? What is the capital like?" The questions came flooding out like an Uchiha spits a fireball, but Itachi just smiled and answered them as best as he could.

"I got back a few minutes ago, I was on my way back to the Tower to report. You should know that I was picked to be a part of the Twelve Guardians." He gestured to a small white cloth sash that hung from his waist that had the symbol of the Fire Country on it. "I'll tell you all about it later, after I debrief and settle back at home. Don't you have an Academy to be getting to?"

Naruto piped up. "Yeah, we better get going if we don't want to be late! Nice to see you again Itachi! Come on guys, let's move!" He took off, noting that Lee and Neji moved quickly to follow him. Sasuke seemed to be lagging behind, talking with his brother for a moment. After one more hug between the two, the younger Uchiha jogged to catch up, a huge smile on his face.

Naruto was happy for his brother-in-arms. Ever since Sasuke's older sibling had left on his extended mission, the raven-haired boy was seemingly constantly upset and even more uptight than before. This was one of the very few true smiles he had seen on his rival's face in quite some time.

"I can not believe my big bro is back! Hopefully he does not have to leave again anytime soon." Sasuke exclaimed breathlessly.

Naruto wanted to poke some fun at Sasuke, so he quipped, "Man, I thought Shino was the one who used bugs. You looked like a leech, hugging him like that."

The sour expression on his friends face was worth the punch in the shoulder. "Shut up, loser."

As Naruto laughed, Neji and Lee chuckled at their antics. The four of them made it to the Academy a short while and several insults later.

As per normal for the first day of each year, Sarutobi and the teachers were ushering everyone in to the main meeting room, where the various kids were taking a seat along the bleachers that ran the length of the room.

Unlike the previous years, Naruto was now taller than most of the other students, with only a couple of the same years and a few more of the 6th years reaching his height. The tufts of his white hair, slightly tainted with the brown of mud still, stood inches above most of the rest of the children.

He sent a mental thanks to his fluffy internal companion that he wasn't short. He had found out through multiple conversations with Kurama that the kitsune had been bosting his internal biology in order to augment his strength and size and stamina to be as close to maximal as possible. As the beast often said, "If my container is weak, some may think of me as weak, and that will not stand." He wasn't necessarily sure that he totally believed this to be the whole truth, though it seemed a moot point. He couldn't control what the nine-tailed beast in his belly did anyway.

As he stood near the back of the room amongst his friends, he waited for the announcement. Spotting a familiar head of pineapple-shaped black hair, he waved down Shikamaru. The boy genius lazily waved back and walked over to the small gathering.

"Hey Shika. Whaddya think? Who is gonna be the teacher this year?"

"So long as it isn't my dad again, it doesn't matter much."

At this, Naruto laughed heartily. Ever since 2nd year, when Shikaku had been their teacher, Shikamaru hadn't been able to get away with his preferred lazy demeanor in class. Outside of class, he still slouched everywhere and walked as slowly as possible. Inside class, however, he was a perfect student now. All of the teachers now knew to report any sleeping or laziness to his father, and as such, he hadn't been able to get away with anything since.

"I hope it is someone who can teach us some cool new jutsu." Naruto replied, eagerly looking into this crowd of people gathering, to watch for the assembly to start.

As if responding to his desires, the main doors opened and Hiruzen Sarutobi entered with a long procession of teachers behind him. Some well-known faces were amongst them, others looked slightly familiar and still others were completely new.

As the headmaster stepped forward to recite his short speech, Naruto synchronized his mouth to the former Hokage's words, as the speech was the same every year.

"Good morning children. Welcome to the beginning of the school year at the Academy. We are looking forward to another great year of learning and producing the finest shinobi in the ninja world. Classroom assignments will be announced shortly and regardless of whether you advanced or are a repeating student, we are all very much proud that you have come here to carry forward the 'Will of Fire' and make Konoha the best it can be! Every great shinobi that you have ever read about or heard of was at one point just a student like you, and we all believe that amongst those in this room right now could be the next great shinobi."

As expected, Mikoto Uchiha followed him and announced her position as the first-year teacher, a spot she seemed to hold every year. After her came several other people, announcing their classrooms. As the 4th year students assembled and headed out, a younger man with a prominent scar over his nose stepped forward.

"Hello students. My name is Iruka Umino, and I have been assigned to be the primary teacher for the 5th years. Those who will be in that class please follow me to your classroom."

AN: Well, here we go. Why is Iruka here? I suppose you'll just have to see. More to come soon. Things are about to get very interesting.

Constructive criticism welcome.