Disclaimer: I only own the original character mentioned in the story.
A/N: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favorites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.
"That is a waste of a wonderful Quirk."
"What the hell is a Quirk?" Kiba asked, knitting his eyebrows together. He darted his eyes between them and Naruto took a deep breath before glancing at Midoriya. Right, we didn't tell them that we are shinobi. The whiskered teen took a deep breath and exhaled as everyone furrowed their eyebrows together.
The blonde leaned back against the couch and yawned. "It is basically another term for Kekkei Genkei."
"Why is there another term for Kekkei Genkei?" Sakura asked. She furrowed her eyebrows together and glanced at Sasuke, who only frowned and shrugged, before looking back at her. The whiskered teen raised a single eyebrow while everyone twisted their heads at her. Their eyes shone with curiosity and the whiskered teen scowled.
She exhaled. "Are you actually asking me? I thought you are supposed to be the smart one."
"Naruto, I can't read minds and you are apparently living there!" Sakura reminded her. Her eyebrows twitched and her hands were balled into a fist while the whiskered teen closed her eyes. Several eyes stared at her. Only Hinata-chan stared at her with lips twitching into a smile. I forgot Hinata-chan never really liked Sakura-chan. She slumped her shoulders.
The whiskered teen shook her head. "What? Didn't you always say that you have better grades than me? Why don't you figure it out if you are such a smarty-pants?"
"Naruto, you know that you don't mean—"
"Oh I mean that," Naruto shrugged and offered a wide smile at Kakashi as everyone shifted their gaze at her. "Why wouldn't I mean it? Sakura-chan always talked about how much smarter she is from me, so if she is such a smarty-pants like you praise her then she can fucking figure it out for herself."
Kiba frowned. "I know I call you a bitch but that is harsh even for you. You are supposed to be the cheerful one here, not the emo one here! That is Sasuke's job!"
"And I call you a mutt but that doesn't mean you have the role of being a mutt," Naruto retorted.
Iida glanced at them. "Can the both of you control—"
"Let Whiskers act like this!" Bakugou retorted from across the room. His red eyes gleamed with amusement as Mitsuki and Masaru shook their heads at them. "I always wanted Whiskers to explode with actual rage and now I'm actually witnessing her get angry for once. Do you know how fucking hard it is to get her angry?"
Naruto rolled her eyes. "And you know how hard it is to get you to stop swearing?"
"Not even scrubbing his mouth with soap is enough to stop him from swearing," Mitsuki admitted, lightly whacking her son on his hair. Narumi sighed and bobbed her head while Masaru groaned. "I have tried every technique in the book and even had my mother use her Quirk to get him to stop swearing like a sailor."
Narumi sighed. "I told you that it wears off after a day! If I thought it was enough to stop him swearing then I would have done it to you!"
Bakugou snorted while Masaru shook his head.
Naruto slid her orange hoodie over her head as her neighbour marvelled over the Villain.
The television roared to life and it was not long before the screen revealed a slightly younger version of Naruto. The chunins, Sasuke and their teachers as well as the Third Hokage blinked. I guess they are surprised that I'm not jumping up and downwards with excitement. The large villain would have made her pretend to smile and act happier.
"When you mentioned Villains, what do you mean?" Ino asked, furrowing her eyebrows together. "Are we talking about Villains like those in books or are we talking about something else entirely?"
Naruto sighed. "We are talking about people who break the law and use their abilities without the permission of the government. It is actually quite a bigger deal then it should be."
Aizawa glanced at them for the longest time and curled his lips into a frown. Curiosity shone through his eyes as his eyes lingered on the Hitai-ate that could be seen on various parts of the Konoha and Suna shinobi. He probably knows that there is something up. She exhaled and slumped against the couch as mismatched-eyes stared at her with furrowed eyebrows.
"You come from a place where Villains don't exist," Aizawa replied.
The whiskered teen poked her tongue against her cheek and glanced at Gaara. Her friend frowned and rubbed the back of his neck while his siblings frowned at Aizawa. He will be considered a Villain if I really thought about it. The older boy had done horrible things but it was hard for her not to blame him.
"Villains are more complicated in our part of the world," Naruto admitted. "We see the world in shades of grey instead of black and white like heroes and villains do."
She watched as the Villain wreaked havoc in the train station. The building cracked, sliding down till it crashed hard on the streets. The civilians gawked and whispered to each other, their eyes never straying from the Villain in front of them. There were a couple of girls in the front, cheering and giggling as a couple of heroes stopped the next block of broken building from crashing down on the ground.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't yell at them about having some dignity?"
"And have them scream you don't understand anything and you will do the same thing if you love someone!" The black-haired boy snorted and glanced at Sakura and Ino. The two older teens threw a glare at the whiskered blond while Narumi's eyebrows twitched. "I already lost some hearing from my ear because of fangirls. I want to save my ears…not destroy it!"
"May I ask what the fuck does love have to do with showing that kind of behaviour?" Narumi swirled her head at the two females and Naruto snorted while Bakugou snickered. The Hokage coughed while Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck. "And that isn't love! That is blind hero-worship! Did your mothers never teach you that you shouldn't be—"
"Old lady, don't bother," Naruto yawned. "You will awaken the monster inside of them. Fangirls are after all a dangerous species and one that we should always treat with caution."
Ashido, Hagakure, Temari and Jirou snorted at her words while Mitsuki roared with laughter. Bakugou covered his mouth and held his stomach while Todoroki coughed and chuckled. Is it really that funny? This was my nightmare during my time in school. She wrinkled her nose while the other boys just eyed Sakura and Ino with weariness.
Ino growled. "Naruto, you make us seem like animals."
"Well animals go crazy when they see something they like or dislike," Naruto said, bobbing her head. Ino's eyebrows twitched while Sakura narrowed her eyes at her. "Exhibit A: you pushed away Shikamaru when he forgot that the seat next to Sasuke is the seat that will get him killed and exhibit B: Sakura-chan pummelled me because Shikamaru accidently caused me and Sasuke to kiss me."
Mineta glared at Sasuke. "I hate guys like you! You get good looks and got a hot girl to kiss you!"
Sasuke only looked away and his cheeks flushed a light shade of red. If anyone should be annoyed or embarrassed then it would be me. She had to deal with the nightmare of kissing her brother-figure. Not even using a toothbrush or gargling soap was enough for her to forget the vile feeling of kissing her brother-figure.
"You pummelled her for an accident," Narumi stated. Sakura opened her mouth and the white-haired woman narrowed her eyes at Sakura, who gulped and inched closer to Sasuke. The black-haired boy only shifted away from Sakura. "I have only one question to ask you and Ino: did your parents ever smacked you for throwing a temper-tantrum?"
Sakura blinked. "Why the hell—"
"Because you couldn't control your rage that your crush or idiol had his first kiss with someone that wasn't you, even though it was not consensual," Narumi stated dryly. Mitsuki bobbed her head while Kurenai rubbed the back of her neck as Naruto bobbed her head. "I presume from your nice clothes that your parents probably treated you well, so mind explaining me why you hit her for something that was not her fault?"
Sakura blinked. "She stole Sasuke's first kiss?"
"And Shikamaru caused Uzumaki to lose her first kiss," Narumi said slowly as her eyes fixated on the screen. "Now Shikamaru, did Uzumaki hit you for making her kiss someone that she clearly has no feelings for?"
Shikamaru shook his head. "She spat and grumbled about the nightmare of having her first kiss stolen but Naruto didn't hit me."
"If I ever see your parents then I'm going to advise them that you take anger management classes," Narumi informed Sakura. Tsunade grimaced and bobbed her head in agreement while Naruto coughed. Only someone from Japan would think Sakura-chan has problems. The white-haired woman shook her head. "And maybe have your head examined if you only blame her."
Two years ago, a sight like this would have caused her to jump in glee and clapped her hands in excitement. A part of her felt the urge to do it but Naruto held herself back. It was already bad enough she was late for class, if she spent anymore time marvelling about these Quirks then that homeroom teacher was going to scold her so badly.
Sero frowned and knitted his eyebrows together. "What do you mean that it would have caused you to jump in glee? Don't you find it cool when heroes do these kind of things?"
"Well it was probably cool in the first year but I have been living in Japan for a whole two years now," Naruto pointed out. Kakashi and Sasuke blinked at this piece of information while the other members in Konoha jerked their heads at her. Hirzuen frowned and paled slightly as he flickered his eyes from Naruto to Narumi. "It kinda gets boring because it is happening a lot these days."
The Third Hokage cleared his throat. "Why are you in Japan and not Konoha? And how did you even know about it?"
"You should ask Tsunade-sama about the reason I'm not there," Naruto yawned and closed her eyes while everyone blinked and knitted their eyebrows together. Sasuke frowned and stared at her while Hinata threw a glare at Sasuke and Sakura. "And the book is probably going to reveal the truth 'cause it is written in my point of view. I'm sure I'm going to think about it at one point."
Choji frowned. "I'm more curious to know…why do you care about being late? You were always late in the Academy."
"I was late 95% of the time," Naruto corrected.
Hinata sighed. "You know that it is close enough, Naruto-chan."
"But if we were looking at the context of the sentence then we know that I'm right, Hinata-chan," she observed. The other members of Team Eight alongside Team Ten and the Suna siblings blinked while Kakashi sighed and the Third Hokage shook his head. Tsunade only frowned and rubbed her jaws together. "But well I don't like being called out by the teacher."
Bakugou eyed her. "I knew you were a delinquent."
"I'm innocent until the book proved I'm guilty," Naruto retorted. "And if I was a delinquent then I do it well, unlike you."
Her classmate's eyebrows twitched. "I never said I was a delinquent or act like one!"
"Yeah but you call Midoriya a nerd when you are an even bigger nerd than him," Naruto pointed out. Mitsuki coughed while Narumi nodded as everyone else only knitted their eyebrows together. It will make sense later. They were playing that scene from 10 months ago, which meant it was around that time when that teacher of hers convinced her to do the entrance exam.
Kiba eyed her. "That guy…a nerd?"
"He might have a mouth that could put your mother to shame but Bakugou has more brains then you," Naruto said sweetly. Bakugou coughed while Shikamaru and Choji stared at her with wide-eyes. Hinata sighed and pressed her lips into a thin line while Narumi frowned. "I think he might give Sasuke a run for his money."
Still, she couldn't help but asked:
"What happened?"
Her neighbour still had his eyes locked on the criminal. "He tried to steal someone's bag and went out of control when the police cornered him."
"Isn't that the day when made her debut?" Izuku asked, leaning his body forward as the screen revealed Kamui trying to stop the Villain. His green eyes flickered to Naruto and the older boy blinked before offering her a tiny squeak. The whiskered teen sighed. "I remember how Kamui got really upset with what she did."
Ashido sighed. "He might have been upset but the gossip columns claim that they might be dating now!'
"They are never going to reveal whether or not they are dating," Naruto shook her head as Hagakure bobbed her head in agreement. Ino and Sakura blinked and blinked while Hinata quirked her lips slightly. "No one has ever seen Kamui without his mask and he knows that his ranking depends on his popularity and those fangirls will leave him, the moment he reveals that he is taken."
Kakashi blinked. "Why would it—"
"It is almost a popularity contest," Naruto pointed out. Several people bobbed their heads and the whiskered teen didn't miss the way that the boy beside her stiffened slightly or the little scowl on his face, before reverting to a stoic expression. Maybe he doesn't want to be a hero? She sighed and shook her head. "A stupid popularity contest because there are certain heroes that shouldn't be heroes."
Gaara frowned. "What do you mean?"
"There are some heroes who just give you bad vibes," Naruto answered. "Or they swear and throw temper tantrums like a certain someone I know. Y'know they are the type of people who will scare little kids…exhibit A: Bakugou."
"I don't throw temper tantrums!" Bakugou growled.
Narumi sighed. "And you were an angel growing up."
"Wow your own grandmother thinks you are the devil."
Mitsuki sighed. "Not just my Mom."
That's all? Naruto glanced at her watch, eyebrows scrunched together as the watch revealed she had only twenty minutes to get to class on time. Was it really worth it? The man was going to be furious over the fact Naruto dared to bring a hoodie to school even though he told her not to do it. Besides, it wasn't like she made it a habit to be late every day and compared to some of her classmates, she was an angel.
Sakura stared at her for the longest time. "You? An angel?"
"Oh yeah I'm the perfect, little obedient student," Naruto answered, shrugging her shoulders. She curled her lips into a very thin smile as her blue eyes stared at the pink-haired girl. "I learnt from the best teacher's pet: you."
Midoriya leaned closer to Bakugou and whispered. "What did she do to make Uzumaki angry?"
"Don't know but I'm loving this," Bakugou grunted back.
You know I can hear you from here. Naruto bit her tongue and took in several deep breaths before rubbing her knuckles. If they wanted to know the reason she was furious and upset with Sakura then they were going to find out in the book. There wasn't a day or night where she didn't remember what Sakura had said to her.
"You can do it, Kamui!" The fangirls cheered as the wooden hero dashed through the water rope made by the other hero. He looked almost kind of cool, not as cool as her but Naruto would admit the suit was amazing. A quick glance to her side and Naruto was taken back by the sight of one of her classmates.
Kirishima glanced at her. "What can you do that is even more cool than him?"
"You will find out," Naruto answered, shrugging her shoulders.
Sakura eyed her. "You still have an ego, Naruto! How can you think that you are even cooler?"
"And you are still a bitch who thinks she is better than me because of some stupid exam," Naruto retorted. Sakura blinked and blinked before growling at her. Sasuke and Shikamaru exchanged glances and it was not long before the black-haired teen pulled the pink-haired girl back. Oh come on, I wanted to punch her. She was already having one of those bad days anyway. "Oh and I've an ego? The King of Egos is Sasuke but you are too blind to see that."
Sakura growled. "Naruto! What the hell—"
Iida must have sensed that a fight was about to take place because he quickly moved the story along.
Green hair? Who did she know have green hair? Naruto would be a liar if she said that she knew all of her classmates. She made it a point not to socialize too much with them. They were nice people, don't get her wrong but Naruto could see they had a habit of discriminating one of her classmates because of his lack of Quirk.
"Wait, why the hell would they discriminate someone for not lacking a Quirk?" Kiba asked, knitting his eyebrows together. He darted his eyes to the blond-haired girl, who only stared at the screen with blank eyes. "It is really rare to find someone that has a Kekkei Genkei! I mean the only people from Konoha that have Kekkei Genkei are only Sasuke and Hinata."
Bakugou froze and then twisted his head at Naruto. "You don't have a Quirk?"
"Well technically I don't really have a Quirk if we think in our terms," Naruto explained. She rubbed her eyes and wished not for the first time that she was back at work. For once I actually wish I was at work. She took a deep breath and then stared up at the sky. "But yeah I'm Quirkless and so is a lot of people in this room. However if we go to your definition of a Quirk then yeah, I have a Quirk."
Midoriya frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well I was born with another system in my body besides the circulatory system," Naruto explained. The Hokage looked at her carefully with eyes that gleamed with conflict and the whiskered teen ignored it. Kakashi eyed them while Tsunade blinked at her. "The Chakra Pathway system is what allows me and the others from my part of the world to do the things that they could do."
Narumi eyed her. "Would it show up in an X-ray?"
"Probably," Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't know because I haven't broken any bones during my time here."
The white-haired woman nodded and then pressed her lips into a thin line as Mitsuki and Masaru exchanged glances. I wonder why she brought up x-rays. She exhaled and looked at the others, who stared at her with curious eyes. Their eyes locked on her before moving towards the other members in Konoha.
Blue eyes widened when she realized who the bouncing classmate.
Everyone blinked as the screen zoomed in to show a younger Midoriya. It could be seen by everyone that the boy was bouncing up and down with hearts in his eyes. The younger version of herself just stared at Midoriya like she wanted to be anywhere but near him. Sometimes I admired him and sometimes I just really want to smack some sense into him. Naruto sighed.
"Wait, you are also Quirkless?" Uraraka asked, knitting her eyebrows together. "Are you really Quirkless or are you like Uzumaki and the other people here?"
Midoriya slumped his shoulders. "I'm actually Quirkless."
"Y'know it is kind of weird," Naruto commented. Everyone blinked and twisted their heads around to stare at her while the blond-haired girl looked up at the ceiling. "If you go to Konoha then you get bullied for having a visible Kekkei Genkei, but if you go to Japan then you are practically treated normally and vice versa."
Hinata nodded while Sasuke inspected her, but the blonde only turned away from him. Blue eyes widened slightly when Todoroki flickered his eyes from her to Sasuke before looking back at her. What does the asshole want? Tell me to suck it up or be an even bigger ass and asked me about why I'm treating a former friend like this. The boy exhaled.
"Do you want to switch seats with me?" Todoroki asked. She blinked and raised a single eyebrow as the 15-year-old boy fixated his eyes on the screen, not really looking at her. "You seem uncomfortable."
Naruto grunted. "Uncomfortable is an understatement."
With those words, the two teens switched places.
"Your punishment is…"
The tense atmosphere changed to a comedic atmosphere as a giant blond-haired heroine smashed her leg onto the villain's chin. Silence reined throughout the street as both pedestrian and heroes tried to understand what just happened. Blue eyes just turned completely blank, not revealing to the world about the humour she found in this situation.
Everyone from Konoha chuckled and Naruto allowed her lips to twitch slightly. It was kinda funny. Even now, she did have the urge to chuckle especially when the screen did a close up on Kamui. The hero had his shoulders slouched as if there were dark storm clouds floating above them. She could only sighed and the Hokage cleared his throat.
"Naruto, do you want to tell us why you are being like this?"
Again. The word might not have been said but the whiskered teen could practically hear it coming out of his mouth. She only shoved her hands into her skirt pocket and grunted while Sasuke and Sakura exchanged furrowed eyebrows. Kakashi only knitted his eyebrows together and the blonde exhaled.
"If you want to know what my problem is then I'm sure that the book will talk about it," Naruto declared. "But if you really want to know the root cause then ask Sasuke or Hinata-chan. He knows very well what is my problem."
The Third Hokage darted his eyes to Hinata. "Hinata?"
"I can't talk about it w-without getting angry, Hokage-sama," Hinata declared, pale lavender eyes narrowing slightly at Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke only winced slightly while the pink-haired girl clenched her jaws together. "But I can tell you that Uchiha-san is a cruel little boy, who is no better than his brother."
"Hyuga," Sasuke growled.
Hinata stared at him with eyes radiating with coldness. "You think you are better than Itachi? That you are different from him? You are no better than him because just like he hurt you! You hurt Naruto-chan! If you want me to take those words back then I won't do it."
"Kakashi?" The Third Hokage asked. The silver-haired man blinked and looked away from the television screen to focus on the deceased man. His single eye leaked with guilt and the whiskered teen grunted. "What happened after I died? How did Naruto end up reverting back to this state? And would someone explain why Naruto went to Japan?"
Narumi inspected her and then looked at Sasuke. "I don't know what happened but judging by your words, this isn't Uzumaki's natural state is it? If that is the case then it has been known that a sudden trauma could make someone change their personality greatly."
"Kakashi?" The Third growled.
Her former teacher sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "You aren't going to like what happened but you have to understand that I can only do so much when it comes to Sasuke. If anyone here is at fault then it should be Sakura."
"What?" Sakura yelled. "Me? Why?"
Kakashi shrugged. "You were the one that knew Orochimaru bit his neck and you are the one that spends the most time with Sasuke. Naruto has her own problems to deal with, but if she knew Sasuke had problems then she would have told me. You did not. You were also the one that visited Naruto while I was out doing missions."
Sakura stared at him for the longest time in disbelief while Naruto raised a single eyebrow. You expect me to believe that Sakura of all people would tell you that Sasuke has a problem if Sasuke didn't tell her not to tell? She so badly wanted to say those words to her former teacher but it would be terribly wrong of her.
She still had to control herself after all and people were going to judge her even more if she spoke like this.
She did feel sorry that someone took away his spotlight.
"Gigantification, huh? She looks like she will be popular, and it is an amazing Quirk," Naruto blinked and robotically turned her head to her mumbling classmates. Blond eyebrows scrunched together as the boy jolted down a couple of notes. "But thinking about the damage to the city that will go hand in hand with that, its use might be limited."
Aizawa nodded. "That's a very good analysis."
"That is only the beginning," Naruto and Bakugou said in unison. The two teens exchanged glances before crossing their arms together and then scowled before looking away from each other. The future students of Yuuei alongside the other members of the Rookie Nine exchanged glances. Mitsuki, Masaru and Narumi only stared at them.
Hinata tilted her head. "The two of you have the same mannerism and Bakugou-kun, you almost look like Naruto-chan for a moment there."
"Don't compare me with him/her!" The two teens barked.
Hinata and Midoriya exchanged glances before looking back at Naruto and Bakugou. That didn't help your case. That was what Hinata's eyes told her and the whiskered teen only scowled. It was bad enough that there had been some boys, who whispered about the strange resemblance between them, and at one point a junior asked her if she was related to the asshole.
Words began appearing out of her classmate's mouth as he continued to deeply analyse what just happened. The more and more Naruto heard, the larger her headache became. For a brief moment she contemplated about leaving her classmate to himself and just start heading back to their classroom.
The television screen played the audio of Midoriya mumbling his analysis to them. I think he does this so much that I have now the ability to tune out his analysis. Naruto closed her eyes and let out a little yawn. She flickered her eyes to Midoriya, who covered his face and sunk even lower in his seat as more and more eyes turned to look at him.
"Don't you ever feel thirsty?" Kaminari asked, gawking at him. "And how can you analysis that quickly?"
Naruto snorted. "Don't underestimate the power of a Hero Otaku."
"My oldest son had the same habit," Narumi agreed, smiling bitterly. The Third Hokage looked away from the white-haired woman while Mitsuki patted the older woman in the back. Bakugou only looked away from his grandmother while Tsunade rubbed her jaws at this piece of information. Kakashi only flickered his eyes at the red-eyed boy and her.
It would be wrong of her not to remind him that they had a class to go to.
"Midoriya, snap out of it! We have to go to class." She waited for a minute to see if Midoriya made any indication that he heard her. He didn't even move his head. Naruto's eyebrows twitched but the girl held herself back. "Midoriya! Class!"
"Why the hell didn't you hit him, Whiskers?" Bakugou asked, raising a single eyebrow at her. Naruto blinked and kept her expression completely blank as everyone turned around to look at her. "You know he would never move whenever he is in his nerd mode! Smacking him would get him to move!"
Naruto nodded. "It would get him to move but I have manners…unlike a certain someone."
"I have manners!" Sakura protested.
The blonde raised her eyebrow. "I never said your name."
"You implied it."
"I could have been implying Bakugou," Naruto retorted. Bakugou snorted while Sakura stared at her with doubtful eyes. The blonde looked upwards before looking back at her gawking former teammate. "You really have such a big ego if you think everything is about you, Sakura-chan. I mean…can't I be talking about Bakugou or even Midoriya? Hell I could have been talking about Ino."
Hagakure leaned closer to Ashido and whispered. "It feels like we are in the middle of a cold war."
"I think we are actually in war," Ashido whispered back.
If we were actually in war then I would punch Sakura-chan for every cruel word that she told me. Naruto took a deep breath and threw one last glare at her teammate before relaxing her shoulders. She disliked her behavior but there was something about the room that made it difficult for her to control her more rude thoughts.
No movement.
She shook her head and snatched the book from Midoriya's hands. With his bright green eyes growing large, Izuku jumped up and flushed a light shade of red at the sight of her. She almost felt apologetic for her rude behaviour but Naruto didn't like being ignored. No one paid much attention to her when she was child, not when she carried a monster inside her stomach.
Everyone blinked and twisted their whole bodies around to stare at her, but the whiskered teen only pressed her lips into a thin line. What is a good but reasonable lie? The Kyuubi was not something she wanted to reveal to them, but then again it would be revealed eventually. Knowing her terrible luck, they were going to figure out.
"Naruto, are you like—"
"Yeah," Naruto grunted to Temari. Her fellow blonde froze and then knitted her eyebrows before glancing at Gaara. The red-haired teen only nodded as if to confirm whatever question that his sister might have for him. She rubbed her jaws together while Narumi flickered her eyes from her to the Hokage.
The Third Hokage grimaced. "Naruto, I paid attention—"
"For what? An hour every Wednesday?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. Aizawa frowned while the other members of Rookie Nine became deathly silent at her words. The blonde clenched her jaws together and exhaled. "Or whenever I threw a prank because I couldn't stand having so many cold eyes directed at me? Even when we have that one hour, that was never enough but you are the Hokage so I couldn't be selfish and ask more of your time."
Mitsuki frowned. "What about your parents? Your parents must have paid some—"
"Her parents are dead," Bakugou answered. Naruto swirled her head at the red-eyed boy, who only stared at the screen, and then looked down at her hands. Tension filled the room as everyone else processed the news that she had no parents to talk about. "Whiskers never brought anyone to school whenever parents were needed, and when it came to report day…well the teacher only talks to her."
Aizawa frowned. "Don't you have a Guardian?"
"Technically yes," Naruto answered with a scowl. "The stupid landlord wouldn't rent me the apartment unless he saw that I have a guardian and luckily for me, Jiraiya agreed to be my guardian in paper. But I don't need a guardian! I have been living on my own since I was six—"
"You let a 6-year-old rent by herself?" Narumi and Mitsuki yelled. The Third Hokage inched away as the two females threw dirty looks at the old man. Naruto blinked and knitted her eyebrows before tilting her head. Oh, right I shouldn't have mentioned that. It was just so easy for her to forget that these people lived by a different set of rules.
The Third Hokage cleared his throat. "I had a good reason—"
"You better have a good reason," Narumi growled with eyebrows twitching and flared nostrils. Hinata froze and threw a glance at Naruto and the blonde blinked, raising a single eyebrow at her best friend. The blue-haired girl wildly shook her head and Naruto only shrugged. If her best friend didn't want to explain then that was fine. "You don't give a 6-year-old an apartment! They aren't mature enough to live by themselves! That kind of life will make her grow up way too fast!"
"Akimoto-san—"
"Don't Akimoto-san, me!" Narumi balled her hands into a fist and smashed her hand onto the ground. The ground cracked slightly and the couch shook and yelped before reverting back to their original position. Naruto blinked as her head hit something hard but oddly warm. "Do you know the kind of risks that you put her in? She could be traumatized! You made her believe she had to be strong!"
Sarutobi cleared his throat. "I had my—"
"You will shut the fuck up until I'm done talking!" Narumi screeched. Naruto blinked and then gawked as the old Hokage tried to open his mouth but no words came out of his mouth. "You made her have this belief that she had to do everything by herself! You made it difficult for her not to recognize her own needs! Oh and don't get me started on: self-esteem issues, people-pleasing and anxiety!"
"Mom, I don't think it is a good idea that you silenced a leader with a Quirk."
Narumi grunted. "It will wear off in a couple of minutes and once the chapter is done, I'm going to request Cronus to bring one of my documentary videos! I have a good reason, my ass!"
Tsunade blinked and blinked before twisting her head around to stare at Naruto before glancing at Narumi. Why the hell does everyone stare at us? First, it was Hinata-chan and now it was Tsunade. Who was going to be the next person to stare at them? Kakashi. She shook her head and then blinked as her head continued to rub against the hard planes of what only could be a male chest.
"Uzumaki, you know you can get off my chest right?" Todoroki asked.
Naruto blinked and quickly jerked her head. "Sorry!"
The only person that seemed to have paid any attention to her was Hinata-chan.
Naruto nodded while Sasuke only raised a single eyebrow. If you paid attention to me then we wouldn't be in this mess, would we? She chewed her tongue while Todoroki furrowed his eyebrows together. He glanced at the two of them and then rubbed his jaws like he was trying to figure something out.
"Did you and your boyfriend—"
"—The day I date that asshole is the day Bakugou can last three weeks without uttering the words: fuck and die," Naruto said curtly. Todoroki blinked and then twisted his head at the blond-haired boy before glancing at Sasuke. I bet Sasuke looks offended. He always did get upset whenever she talked like that but then again, she used to say that she would never date him because he was like a brother to her.
He still was like a brother to her but even sisters could get terribly upset with their brothers.
"Naruto-san, I didn't see you."
Naruto bobbed and tossed the book to her classmate. "I noticed. We need to start heading to class before Sensei becomes angry that his two prized students are late for school."
"Prized student? Has the world ended for that to be a term to describe you?" Ino asked. Naruto's eyebrows twitched while Mitsuki narrowed her eyes at the girl. Hinata clenched her jaws together while Sakura quickly shook her head. You are better than this, Naruto. If she repeated those words again and again then maybe she could control her temper.
The Hokage regarded her. "You are taking your studies seriously this time?"
"I want a future unlike bimbo over there, and I actually have a chance over there," Naruto replied. She blinked and blinked before smacking her hand against her face. That Akane definitely did something to make me say things that I really would never say. The platinum-blond haired girl growled and jumped up from her seat, only for Shikamaru to pull her back down.
Ino growled. "Shikamaru! Let me go and teach—"
"Don't bother fighting a fight that we all know you are going to lose," Shikamaru yawned. Aizawa raised a single eyebrow while Asuma bobbed his head in agreement. "Naruto will have you smashed against that wall before you can even punch her. There is a reason that Naruto had the best score when it came to taijutsu for the girls."
Sero frowned. "Why is that important about fighting Uzumaki?"
"You will end up going to the hospital," Hinata answered. "Naruto-chan is well-known for her strength and her treatment to any boy that tries to perv on her, so if anyone of you boys want to live…I advise you to take that into account."
Her friend had her eyes fixated on Mineta when she said those exact words.
Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck, redness crept up from his neck to his cheeks. Naruto just blinked and almost wanted to ask him if he was starting to get sick. If Midoriya was actually sick then his mother probably wouldn't have forced him to come to school; maybe he was just some kind of weirdo.
"Weirdo?" Izuku muttered.
Naruto shrugged. "I like weirdos. Hinata-chan can be a weirdo too and I love her; I don't like assholes. So really I'm giving you a compliment."
"I'm a weirdo!" Mineta declared, raising his hand up in the air. He leaned forward slightly and his beady black eyes seemed to be rather fixated on her chest. "So would you be—"
"Finish that sentence and I will rip away the one thing that will grant you the ability to become a father," Naruto growled.
Mineta paled and inched closer to Kaminari.
She focused her attention on the notebook in his hands. The cover seemed to be worn down and the number 13 stood out to her as well as the large letters called Hero Analysis For The Future. Now, Naruto was not a genius when it came to books but she was observant. It was a side effect of being isolated as a child.
Sakura frowned and then narrowed her eyes at her. "You weren't isolated as a child! You played with Sasuke, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba! How the hell does that make you isolated?"
"Playing with someone doesn't mean that I'm not isolated," Naruto said slowly. Narumi opened her mouth but Mitsuki only shook her head and whispered something that must have made the elder woman realized that she should let her say her piece. "I can be playing with someone and still feel lonely! Hinata is the only one I can call a friend because she connected to me! Shikamaru and the others only hanged out with me when it suited them."
Choji frowned. "Naruto, you know that isn't true—"
"Do you even know what I like to read or do in my free time?" Naruto asked slowly. Choji and Shikamaru blinked while Kiba knitted his eyebrows together. Aizawa looked at her for the longest time and the blonde exhaled. "Do you know what my apartment looks like? Do you even know why I would skip class? Or why I hate teachers? You only hanged out with me when I am doing something that you like but are too scared to do."
They blinked and opened their mouth to argue but the whiskered teen waved her hand at Iida.
"How many weeks have you been working on that book?" Naruto swung her bag over her shoulder and stared out at the train station. He blinked and the girl turned her blank eyes at him.
"It took me two months to finish this notebook," Izuku admitted.
Naruto raised her eyebrows. "This notebook? How many notebooks do you have on these guys?"
"T-Thirteen."
Iida paused and swirled his head at Midoriya. "You have a lot of passion, Midoriya! A good hero should always—"
"—Iida can you please continue the chapter?" Naruto asked, letting out a sigh. "There are people here with actual jobs that they actually care about."
The older boy quickly apologized.
She jerked her head at those words. Thirteen notebooks? If it took him just two months to finish one notebook then he must have spent two years and two months on making all those notebooks. It took a lot of enthusiasm to do something like that. The level of enthusiasm he had could almost rival the enthusiasm she had for pranking. God, the only time she would ever go to the same levels as him was when it came to jutsu.
Kakashi stared at her for the longest time and offered her a half-smile. "If you can admit that much then why didn't you direct that energy to your teamwork with your teammates?"
"Should you really be the one to lecture me?" Naruto retorted. "You are the lazy teacher that is always three hours late."
Aizawa looked at Kakashi. "Does time mean nothing to you?"
"He says that he got lost on the road of life," Naruto replied.
"…That must be one very, long road for you to spend three whole hours walking on," Aizawa said dryly. "I wish I can use that excuse to Principal Nedzu but I would lose my job."
Naruto used to have joy when it came to being a ninja but after what happened in Konoha, Naruto didn't have the same pride about her job. She furiously shook her head. Think of the positive. Japan was her new start. It was a new beginning for her, one she must never waste.
"What? You people are shinobi but you look like the same age as us!" Kirishima yelled. Everyone else blinked and bobbed their heads. Midoriya and Bakugou exchanged glances before gawking at Naruto. What? I didn't think I would have to mention that I'm a shinobi. He scratched his head. "How? What? I just can't wrap—"
"Different culture," Naruto said curtly.
Narumi eyed them. "You make children soldiers? Are you people fucking sane?"
"We are perfectly sane," Tsunade said.
Well Akimoto doesn't seem to think that we are sane. The older woman flickered her eyes from her to Sasuke and then to her fellow shinobi with blue eyes that screamed of disbelief. Naruto sighed. It was easy for people not to consider that life here was different from life over there.
"If you are perfectly sane then I'm going to quit my job," Narumi declared, shaking her head. "Child soldiers are always the most messed up cases. They have too much trauma from the losses that their brains aren't capable of handling just yet. Dear god, I'm going to have to request for more documentary videos for you people."
Even if her nightmares and the voices didn't let her forget.
Narumi eyed Tsunade. "Perfectly sane?"
"I didn't say we were perfect," Tsunade defended.
"Why do you have so many notebooks?" Naruto asked as they crossed the street leading them to their middle school.
"I-It is going to sound stupid but I want to become a Hero." Izuku flinched and began to babble. "I know it sounds stupid for a Quirkless person like me to want to become a Hero…but I can't help it."
"What about the fear of dying?" Mineta asked. "If I was Quirkless then I would take that into account! You can't become a hero if you have no Quirk!"
Naruto stared at him. "You know if we looked at comics then Batman would be considered Quirkless."
"He had money!" Bakugou pointed out. "Deku doesn't have that kind of money."
"…He is smart."
The blond-haired boy's eyebrows twitched. "No fucking way, he is going to be a hero! He is a Deku and once a Deku, always a Deku!"
"And once an ass, always an ass," Naruto retorted. "You should be supportive! He is your best friend!"
Bakugou growled. "I'm not going to be supportive for someone that has no regard for his life!"
My dream? My dream is to become Hokage so that everyone can stop disrespecting me and see me as somebody!
Everyone kept quiet and twisted their whole body around to look at her. Is that still your dream? That was what their eyes seemed to be asking her but Naruto wasn't certain of the answer. The answer had been clear as a 12-year-old girl but right now it was a question that she could no longer answer.
"You wanted to be Hokage so you can have people treat you nicely," Aizawa stated.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, pathetic right?"
"It is more admirable than what I saw from those two," Narumi said dryly, jerking her finger at Ino and Sakura. "It is nice to have an ambition that does not revolve around men, but you need to consider whether or not if you are doing a job for the right reason. There are people out there that gets their dream job, only to realize that their dream job doesn't make them happy."
The blonde only bobbed her head.
Naruto furiously shook her head and focused all her energy on her classmate, pushing back the nostalgia memory that threatened to consume her. "I think you can become a Hero as long as you work your butt off. People might tell you that you are an idiot, might bring you down but you should ignore it. If you really want it so badly then you should be willing to do anything to get it."
"You believe that with the power of hard work then anything is possible?" Bakugou snorted and narrowed his eyes at her while a couple of people turned to look at her. "Just because you work hard, doesn't mean that you can be a hero? You think being a hero is some child game?"
Naruto stared at him. "Having a Quirk might help but if he trained his ass off and used some heavy weights then he can become a hero! Lee had no chance of becoming a shinobi because of his disability and yet he did the impossible? Why should Midoriya be any different?"
"Naruto-chan, Lee-san had Gai-sensei training him," Hinata said gently. "And there were teachers that vouched for him that said that his taijutsu and theoretical knowledge is enough reason for him to pass. I don't know about Midoriya but if he hasn't been through the Academy then he would find it difficult."
The whiskered teen nodded. "I know but if someone has the drive then they should work for it. Just because you lacked a certain ability, doesn't mean you can't be something…it just means that you have to work even harder. I respect Bushy Brows because of that drive of his."
"If you respect him then why do you call him, Bushy Brows?" Sakura asked.
"If you are such a model student then why do you call me Naruto and not Uzumaki-san?" Naruto retorted. "You are the last person to talk to me about respect."
Sakura clenched her jaws together and Iida quickly returned back to reading the chapter.
She felt her smile wobbled but Naruto pushed through it. It was hypocritical of her to say those words to him. There was a time when she dreamt so badly of becoming Hokage. A ninja like her could never become a Hokage.
"Naruto-chan, you can become Hokage." Warm brown eyes stared at her and the whiskered teen stared at him for the longest time before flickering her eyes at Sasuke and Sakura. Really? I can't become Hokage if I couldn't even bring back my own best friend. She clenched her jaws together. "You only need the Will Of Fire."
Naruto stared at him. "The Will Of Fire? How the fuck can I become Hokage with that bullshit? It doesn't matter how hard I work or trained to protect the village because no one wants to acknowledge my effort! That bullshit? That bullshit works for someone like Sasuke or Sakura? Me? No one wants me to even become Hokage."
"I don't know what happened but I can reassure you that—"
"—That there are people out there that believes I can become Hokage?" Naruto snorted as the Third Hokage gawked at her. "We all know that the villagers would rather see me dead then become Hokage. After that mission, I had people blaming me for what happened! Me! They don't blame Kakashi-sensei and they sure felt fucking sorry for Sakura-chan, but me? I got called a failure!"
She clenched her jaws together while Hinata clenched her jaws together. Tears threatened to come out and the whiskered teen blinked when Todoroki gestured for her to turn away. What the hell? How the hell did he know I want to cry? Dear god, was her mask cracking again? It seemed like it if a stranger could see it.
"Kakashi, we are going to need a talk," The Third Hokage said curtly.
The council made sure that she could never accomplish her dreams. It was terrible that they forced her hand but Naruto didn't want Izuku to give up on his dreams. It would break his heart when he gave up on his dreams, all because no one was willing to look past his lack of a Quirk.
"Naruto, what do you mean?" Hiruzen asked as everyone twisted their head around. Tsunade furrowed her eyebrows together and furiously shook her head as if to tell her that she was wrong. I'm not wrong…you exiled me because I failed to bring back Sasuke. She clenched her jaws together as Sasuke frowned.
She exhaled. "Tsunade exiled me because of my last mission."
"Tsunade—"
"It wasn't because of your mission and it is not a permanent exile," Tsunade declared. "I did that because of your emotional state after your mission! You were reaching a state that I haven't seen since my childhood and the last person I wanted you to become was my grandfather!"
Hiruzen blinked before swirling his head at Naruto. "Naruto, did you have another one—"
"I didn't have one and if I did have one of those strange episodes then it wasn't that bad! I was more than capable of doing my job!" Naruto grunted.
Hinata frowned. "Naruto, it was that bad! You wouldn't get out of bed and you weren't eating anything! You didn't talk and the moment someone brings up Uchiha then you will go into an even deeper shell! I'm sorry Naruto but you had a problem! A problem that Tsunade didn't know how to heal and a problem that Sakura made worse!"
"How did I make the problem worse?" Sakura asked, furrowing her eyebrows together. "Naruto was the one that was annoying me! I was trying to cheer her up but she wouldn't respond to anything so I said the words that she expected me to say to her! I thought that would get her out of whatever the hell was wrong with her!"
The Hyuga Heiress growled. "You think calling her useless would get her to snap out of it? It's funny but when Naruto told me when Sasuke told you bluntly that you were worse then her, you got upset and acted like you had a cloud over her shoulders!"
"I got over it," Sakura retorted.
Naruto stared at her. "Only because Sasuke told you that you were better at analysing and genjutsu detection then us."
"You got upset because your crush told you the truth?" Narumi asked Sakura with twitching eyebrows. The pink-haired teen gulped as blue eyes glinted with irritation. "You need the validation of your crush to have some esteem? Either you have a huge ego or you have so low self-esteem that you need a man to reassure you that you mean something. Girls like you…dear god, how the hell are you ever going to have a healthy relationship?"
Sakura inched further away from the direction of Narumi while Naruto only knitted her eyebrows at the woman.
She would know just how heart-breaking it could be to give up on a dream.
The words hovered in the air and everyone shifted their gaze to look at Naruto. The blonde only raised a single eyebrow at them and ignored the wide black eyes of Sasuke. I wish I can hate you because you deserve it. She wanted so badly to blame him but there was something in her heart that made it difficult.
"Did you actually give up on your dream of becoming Hokage?" Kiba asked, shaking his head. "You used to scream about how you were going to make us—"
"And I wanted to be a writer when I was six," Naruto retorted. "C'mon I can change too? What do you think I am? A one dimensional character that can't ever change? Jeez, I can be a lawyer too if I want to be too or even a fucking engineer. Just because I screamed it when I was 12, doesn't mean I am actually going to end up becoming Hokage."
Hinata stared at her. "Then what is your dream?"
"No clue," Naruto admitted. "Maybe if I read these books then I can find a dream that makes me satisfied."
Not happy because she doubt that she would ever be happy.
Naruto slid into her seat, laid her head on the table and listened passively as her classmates chat to each other about their plans for the weekend. Blue eyes flickered to Bakugou, his lips pressed into a thin line when the boy glared at her. From the moment she came to this middle school, he always gave her those looks.
The television screen revealed a slightly younger version of Bakugou, who had his eyes fixated on the sleeping Naruto. His red eyes gleamed with irritation as it kept darting from a couple of boys, who kept glancing at Naruto. The whiskered teen on the screen only had her head resting on the table like she didn't give a damn about the world.
"You irritate the hell out of me," Bakugou growled. Naruto raised a single eyebrow at her fellow blonde, who glared at the screen. "How the hell can you just sit there like you are some kind of robot?"
"Do you want me to bounce and clap my hands together and cry out: Katsuki-kun!" Naruto asked, raising her voice at the tone and clapping her hands together before fluttering her eyelashes at Bakugou. The blond-haired boy stared at her for a good couple of seconds before turning green. "Thought so."
"Never ever do that!" Bakugou growled.
Naruto hummed. "You don't want me to flutter my eyelashes like a bimbo and cry out: oh Katsuki-kun, I adore your shitty behaviour and I just wanted to ask…will you go out with me?"
"Go back to being a robot!" Bakugou growled. "And for the love of god: please don't ever do that!"
"I thought you wanted that from me," Naruto retorted.
Sometimes it felt like he was looking at her very soul.
"Kacchan does seem to have a habit of looking at you," Midoriya commented. "But he doesn't seem to like you in that way."
Kaminari frowned. "I don't understand why! If I had you in my middle-school then I would totally ask a hot babe like you out!"
Sakura and Ino gawked at the blond-haired boy while Shikamaru and Choji exchanged glances. He has no idea of what she is like and how terrible she would be to date. That was what their eyes told her and the whiskered teen bit back the growl that threatened to consume her.
"I would have turned you down if you called me hot babe," Naruto declared.
Shikamaru sighed. "Yeah and I doubt that you two would even last. You wouldn't be able to handle or even tame her."
"Repeat that again, Shikamaru," Naruto growled. "Tame? Are you implying that I'm some kind of animal that needs—"
"—Iida, please continue before Naruto gives me a rant about how not all girls need to be docile outside of work!"
The homeroom door slid open and their homeroom teacher stepped in, carrying a huge stack of papers. Naruto lowered her hoodie, watching the teacher separate the stacks of papers into piles. Were those more forms for them to do? Or was it that piece of paper about their plans for their future school? The fact the old man kept glancing at her made her believe it was the latter.
"I don't even know why he even bothered giving it to us," Bakugou grumbled. He folded his arms against his chest and kicked his feet onto the table as everyone raised their eyebrows at him. "Everyone already had their first choice as Yuuei High and almost everyone wants to become heroes."
Naruto nodded. "Well not everyone wanted to be a hero."
"Name me one person from that useless middle school who didn't want to be a hero?" The blonde blinked and opened her mouth, only to closed it when he held up his hand at her. "And you don't count either! You are the weirdo who already has a job that requires you to fight."
The whiskered teen scowled. "You really want me to say the words: you are right, don't you?"
"I will definitely going to put it on the noticeboard that I got you to admit that I'm right," Bakugou retorted.
Definitely once an ass, always an ass. She rubbed the sides of her head and darted her eyes to Mitsuki. The blond-haired woman kept glancing at her and Bakugou with furrowed eyebrows. If the whiskered teen had to guess from her expression, the woman seemed to be having a conflict about something.
It probably didn't help that his eyes flared with disappointment at the sight of her.
"Naruto-chan, what did you do? I thought you were trying to do well in school." Hinata frowned and furrowed her eyebrows together while everyone else knitted their eyebrows at her. Pale lavender eyes pleaded for her to explain things and the blonde took a deep breath.
"I might have handed in a blank form," Naruto admitted. "To be fair, I don't have much motivation on what to become if I'm not Hokage. You know I kinda wish that I'm like Ino or Sakura-chan."
Sakura blinked. "Why do I feel like that is an insult?"
"Depends on how you see it," Naruto said sweetly. "I mean my dream was to become the leader of our village while your dream is to marry Sasuke and have many babies with him."
Mitsuki stared at Sakura. "Did your mother brainwash you into thinking that you should dream so low?"
"Why are you a shinobi?" Yaoyorozu asked, knitting her eyebrows together. Everyone blinked and turned to the black-haired girl, who had been quiet throughout the whole exchange. The other girls bobbed their heads while the girl continued to stare at Sakura. "While I find that there is nothing wrong with wanting to marry your crush, but isn't that kind of dream empty? Shouldn't you dream for something higher?"
The pink-haired girl opened and closed her mouth as her green eyes widened at the question being thrown at her. Damn, Yaoyorozu worded what I thought throughout my time as a kunoichi better than me. She occasionally had this thought in her mind but she never had the courage to ask that question.
"No good man is ever going to take you seriously if you don't have ambition," Mitsuki commented as she squeezed Masaru's arm. The brown-haired man flushed a light shade of red before nodding his head in agreement.
"Quit the ruckus and go back to your seats." Their teacher yelled, slamming his hands on the table. The chatter died down and the students straightened their backs, their eyes growing wide with excitement and weariness. "It has been two weeks since school started and most of you are still acting like little kids. It is time for all of you to start thinking seriously about your future."
"I don't know why they keep giving us those talks!" Hagakure pouted. "We all know what we wanted to be since we were kids."
Jirou shook her head and stared at Naruto. "Well most of us do but Uzumaki-san had changed her mind when it came to her dream, while I changed my dream because I realized that I wanted to help people."
"Oh? What was your dream?" Kurenai asked, tilting her head.
The girl rubbed the back of her neck. "I thought I wanted to work in the music industry like my parents but well I quickly found out that while I love music as a hobby, I didn't want to make it as a career."
"That is an interesting way to think about your career," Kakashi commented.
I don't even remember why I wanted to be a shinobi. Naruto looked up at the ceiling and let out a little sigh. Did she become a shinobi because she wanted to be one or for another reason? She didn't know but she did know that she thought when she reached the first step of being a shinobi…she thought she would be happy.
That definitely did not happen.
Naruto slid down her seat when the man focused his eyes on her as he stressed out the words thinking seriously. Okay it confirmed he read all the forms they gave him. This whole time she thought he was too busy drinking himself silly that he didn't actually care or read the forms they gave.
"He did have a drinking problem," Midoriya admitted, bobbing his head. "He once slurred during homeroom."
Naruto nodded. "He stank of alcohol."
"But he was kind of good when it came to teaching," Bakugou pointed out. "He made the most difficult topic seem like even a kindergartener could understand it."
The two other teens bobbed their head in agreement.
"I should hand all of you the career forms but I guess from your school selections that almost all of you want to be heroes," their teacher levitated the papers towards them. Naruto covered her ears as her classmates cheered at his words. Did these people not realize some people were sensitive to sound? She sighed. "Yes, yes, you all have wonderful Quirks! But using your powers at school is against the rules!"
"Is it?" Naruto asked, raising a single eyebrow. "There is certain someone that seems to have no problem with using their Quirk to threaten another certain someone."
Bakugou's eyebrows twitched. "And there is a certain someone that is being a hypocrite because that certain someone used their ability to skip school."
"That certain someone never bullied anyone," Naruto retorted. "If anything, that certain someone used their ability to protect a person's life and is a becon—"
"—Really who or what did you protect?" Bakugou challenged.
The whiskered teen smiled. "My sanity and ears."
You say this every time but you never do anything about it. Blue eyes stole a glance at her classmate. Midoriya didn't look bother about the fact everyone kept using their Quirks and when Naruto thought about it, she never saw him stare at these people with jealously or resentment. It really gave something for her to think about. Why didn't he ever resent them for showing off?
"You get used to it," Midoriya admitted as several people turned to look at him with interest. "I only got the bad draw of not being born with a Quirk but that doesn't mean I should resent a whole group of people."
Kirishima whistled. "You really are something, Midoriya."
"Sensei! Don't lump us all in the same group," Naruto groaned as Bakugou leaned against his chair, not bothering to sound polite to their classmates. Sometimes she considered it a miracle that he had friends with the way he opened his mouth. "I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects."
"I think I know why Uzumaki and Bakugou have such a very strange relationship," Todoroki commented.
Everyone blinked and twisted their head around to look at the mismatch-haired boy. "Why?"
"They must be twins separated at birth."
Bakugou and Naruto exchanged glances before snorting at the idea. Mitsuki laughed while Masaru only snorted at the strange theory that Todoroki presented. Twins! If I'm related to Bakugou then the Fourth Hokage is my Father. She shook her head and allowed a little laugh to escape her lips at the thought.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
Roars of outrage burst out of her classmate's mouths.
"That was uncalled for, Katsuki!"
"Yeah! Yeah!"
Naruto just snorted, pink lips almost curled into a tiny smile at the level of confidence that her classmate had. It almost reminded her of the times when she shouted to the world that she was going to become Hokage. There was a time when she would say the exact same thing in the Academy, except Bakugou had the skill to back up his claims. Those muscles and the fact she caught him jogging near her workplace made it clear to her that he wasn't talking shit.
"Are you and Bakugou a thing then?" Ashido asked, knitting her eyebrows together. Ino and Sakura exchanged glances before swirling their heads at her. Naruto? Dating? Impossible. That was what that little exchange told Naruto and the blonde found her eyebrows twitching at their behaviour.
She might actually accept one of those so-called love notes because of those two.
"The day Bakugou and me date is the day hell freezes over," Naruto replied. "I only watch Bakugou because he is the only one besides Midoriya that I can somewhat get along with. He doesn't pretend that he wants to get to know me which is why I like watching him while Midoriya is…well weird."
Midoriya slumped his shoulders.
"Oh if I remember correctly, you want to go to Yuuei High, right Bakugou?"
"Yuuei? As in the school with that famous Sports Festival?" Kakashi asked, swirling his head at Bakugou. His single black-eye widened while every single shinobi turned to look at them. The red-eyed boy blinked and furrowed his eyebrow before curling his lips into a smirk before bobbing his head.
"If I wanna be the best then I deserve to go to the best school."
Naruto sighed. "You know no one loves a hero with a big ego; we don't need another Endeavor."
"And we don't need another Midnight," Bakugou retorted.
Her blond eyebrow twitched. "Did you just compare me to that hero? What the hell did I do to provoke—"
"Midnight has a lot of male fans and you had half of the boys in school panting over you," Bakugou retorted.
Naruto blinked.
Everyone became silent for just a few seconds before all hell break loose. Yells and screams of surprise echoed throughout the classroom with the only exception being Naruto. She could only knit her eyebrows. What was the big deal? It was just some fancy high school, wasn't it? She didn't see why they were making such a big fuss over it.
"Do you not know about the prestige of Yuuei High?" Iida asked, swirling his head at Naruto.
The blonde groaned. "Don't give me another lecture and read the damn chapter! I already got the damn lecture that day so read it, so that everyone from my part of the world can understand!"
"It isn't just some high school, Uzumaki!"
Naruto jerked her head up and flushed a light shade of red when everyone turned their attention at her. Was this right time to laugh and pretend that she knew this? They would believe her bullshit, wouldn't they? Well judging from the looks given by both students and teacher, they probably wouldn't believe the crap forming inside of her mind.
"Not even your fanboys will believe the bullshit coming out from your lips!"
Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "I don't have any fanboys!"
"Why the hell would they like Naruto?" Ino demanded.
Bakugou stared at her. "Other then the fact that she is athletic, looks kind of hot and has good grades? How about the fact that she doesn't seem desperate? Men are turned off by girls like that."
Every single male bobbed their heads in agreement.
"Yuuei High School was in the top 0.2% this year, you know!"
Everyone from Konoha blinked and then whistled.
No, she didn't know that because Naruto had no plans of going to high school.
"Then what do you plan to do?" Hagakure asked.
Naruto hummed. "Oh I'm going to high school but at that time, I had no plans."
"Their acceptance rate is always really low, too!"
"Dear god, don't remind us!" Ashido cried. "We have the entrance exam in a couple of days time! I'm still not ready for the written portion of the exam."
Kirishima groaned. "Don't remind me! I haven't gotten any sleep!"
"Students generally struggle more with the written portion," Aizawa acknowledged. "But you can't do well if you don't sleep."
Every student groaned at the typical answer given by a teacher.
She could guess that from the values that they just gave her. Wow, people were right to call her sassy at times because her own thoughts were starting to sound sassy even to herself.
"Better than being a doormat."
Hinata coughed and darted her eyes at Sakura and Ino. I didn't mean to give off that impression. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and hummed a small tune as the two girls threw dirty looks at her.
"It is the best high school for heroes," Midoriya spoke up. Naruto swirled her head at him, blond eyebrows knitted together at those words. Oh now that explained the reason for her classmates acting like this. Everyone in this class kept talking about becoming heroes, which sounds awesome in paper.
Aoyama frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well I thought being a shinobi was awesome until I was hit with the reality that shinobis are nothing but tools for the government," Naruto explained. Aizawa stared at her for the longest time while Kakashi nodded. "We are nothing but tools and that makes the job so much less awesome."
Kirishima stared at her. "That's kind of depressing."
"That's reality."
If anyone asked Naruto her opinion about the job, she would say that you didn't need to go to a school to learn it. They could just practise it every day by helping other people and putting someone else's needs over theirs. Wasn't that the definition of being a hero? Not that she had any experience when it came to the job.
"You did save Konoha," Gaara commented.
Naruto shrugged. "I did but it was also my job so you have to wonder if that makes me a hero? Besides I never got any credit for saving Konoha because someone spread a rumor that it was Sasuke that did it."
"Shouldn't you have gotten credit?" Kaminari asked.
"Yeah but I don't care about it anymore."
She couldn't waste a lifetime hating them.
She was a foreigner after all.
"Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to Yuuei too, right?" Everybody whipped their heads at the green-haired boy; their eyes growing wide with shock. Izuku's response? He flinched and slid down under the table as if hoping it would be enough for everyone to stop looking at him.
If anything, it just made everyone laughed even harder.
"That is really cruel of them!" Ino called out.
"You did the same thing when I declared I want to be Hokage," Naruto reminded Ino. The blond-haired girl froze while blue eyes stared at her with irritation. "You once told me that I would never be Hokage because I'm an idiot, yet when someone else goes through it then you find it cruel."
Ino frowned. "You are different, Naruto. You are not exactly smart or well-known for being able to charm a crowd."
"Not smart?" Bakugou snorted. "Whiskers is really smart. You should have seen Sensei when he realized that Whiskers could solve the most difficult physics problem with her eyes shut."
Sakura jerked her head at him. "Are we talking about the same Naruto?"
"Naruto-chan was the one that tutored me in physics," Hinata admitted. Everyone blinked and swirled their head at the blue-haired girl who had her eyes fixated on Naruto. Are you really going to be backing them up? There is no point. No one seemed to actually believe that she was smart. "And if you actually pay attention to Naruto-chan then you know she has been messing with everyone."
Ino snorted. "If Naruto was that smart then why bother be dead-last?"
"Because why the hell bother trying in the Academy?" Naruto retorted. "I wasn't hiding my brains because of some idea of revealing it later…'cause that is fucking stupid, but you guys refused to acknowledge I was smart. If anything you guys made my life even more like hell whenever I showed I had a brain."
Everyone blinked and then gawked at her.
"Did your teachers ever notice—"
"—For them to notice would mean they give a shit," Naruto informed Narumi. She grunted and looked up at the ceiling before flickering her eyes to the screen. "And teachers don't give a shit if I get hurt because apparently, I'm incapable of getting hurt emotionally. The world is fucking cruel place and you have to accept it."
Narumi eyed her. "Young lady, do you want to tell us why—"
"I'm not talking about my life story and bitching about how wonderful it was," Naruto declared. "No one needs to know about how I was raised and no one gives a shit about how I was raised."
"Why the hell are you laughing? Izuku can get into Yuuei High!" Naruto declared. She straightened her back as everyone swirled their head at her. Anger flared in her eyes and her classmates gulped. It was understandable why when she considered that this was probably the first time they saw her angry.
She never found a reason to be furious.
"Naruto, you get set off by the littlest of things," Shikamaru pointed out. "Remembered what happened with Ami?"
"She was asking for it."
Ino narrowed her eyes at her. "What about what happened with me! You told everyone about my crush on Sasuke and that ruined my friendship with Sakura."
"And you ruined my hopes about my parents but you don't see me bitching and moaning about it!" Naruto retorted. Everyone froze as Ino stared at her with wide-eyes. Stupid Akane has really done something for me to say that. She clenched her jaws together and stared at her. "You want me to apologize? No chance in hell. You told me that my dead parents abandoned me because I was a bitch."
Kaminari looked at Ino. "Sorry but what you did was way more shittier."
"Maybe you should learn some empathy," Mitsuki commented with a frown. "Because even if Uzumaki talked about your crush, which was wrong…what you did to her was so much worse. If I was your mother, I would have given you a smacking of a lifetime for that comment. You don't bring up parents with orphans…that is only something a heartless person would do."
Ino frowned.
"He's Quirkless." Bakugou snarled at her. "There is no such thing as a Quirkless Hero, Whiskers! He won't ever become a damn Hero!"
"Katsuki," Mitsuki warned. "What did I say about how you should warn Izuku-kun or protect him?"
The blond-haired boy rolled his eyes. "If you fucking want me to talk like how Uncle Minato would talk then fat chance! The kind way won't get it through his thick, impulsive head."
"He loves you so much, Midoriya," Naruto commented. "When should I write up the wedding invitation? And shall I put myself as the maid of honor or the best woman?"
Bakugou's eyebrow twitched. "Whiskers, if you want to keep your ears then take back those words!"
"But your mother just said that you were trying to protect Midoriya," Naruto smiled. "And since you love him so much, I thought the best way for you to protect him and his honour is through marriage."
The blond-haired boy growled and launched himself at the blonde. A huge wall of ice shot up from the ground and Naruto blinked at the sudden action. Who the hell did that? It was definitely someone from Japan because no one else in the room had that capability.
Is that really what you should say to your best friend? Naruto narrowed her blue eyes and chewed the inner corner of her cheek to stop herself from lashing out at him. Her hot temper was the reason she always get into trouble. Hinata always used to scold her for releasing her temper on someone. Sakura used to yell at her whenever she used to unleash it on Sasuke.
"He didn't deserve to be yelled at," Sakura retorted. "He was going through a tough time, Naruto!"
The whiskered teen stared at her. "You think he is the only one going through shit? We all go through shit but you yell at me when I'm going through the very same shit! You have no fucking right to call me out on my behaviour when you do the same fucking thing to me! Was I wrong? Hell yes but he wasn't innocent at any point either!"
"You yelled at him and slapped him when he demanded that you fight him!"
"He just recovered from whatever Itachi did to him!" Naruto snarled. "I wanted to know what the hell did that son of a bitch did to him but instead of opening up, he asks me to fight him! Everything was always about him! He didn't think that I went through the trouble of finding Tsunade and listening to Jiraiya have sex because of him! I wanted to save him and what did he do? He tells me I shouldn't have gotten Tsunade!"
Sakura frowned. "You could have worded—"
"What? Be like you and be docile?" Naruto snorted as green eyes flared up with irritation. "I'm not you! And I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to be gentle with him, not when he drew the line that day! Oh Sasuke-kun, do you want another apple? Oh Sasuke-kun, let me show you how much I love you by peeling those apples—"
"—What do you know about love?" Sakura yelled. "You never loved anyone before!"
Naruto stared at her. "And I thank god every fucking day because I'm still myself! At least I still have my pride and my drive because you and Ino are the reasons I hate the idea of being in love with someone!"
She was definitely going to find that Akane and demand to know why she was making her spill every dark thought in her head.
He deserved it.
Naruto stared hard at the older boy. "He might be Quirkless but he works hard and he is smart. I think he has a chance of entering Yuuei High! If you can get in then so can Izuku!"
"You are delusional if you think he can get in."
Kaminari cleared his throat. "Are we going to find out?"
"I think we will," Naruto answered as she tried to loosen her tightened jaw. "There has to be a reason that Midoriya is here."
There was a storm of emotions inside of her. A part of her wanted to punch him for making that comment, not only because it hurt Midoriya's feelings. Those words reminded her of the Academy. Those words mocked her and her old dream of becoming Hokage.
The members of Rookie Nine winced and Naruto only rolled her eyes at them. I'm not going to become Hokage anyway. She was probably going to become a hero anyway. Heroes was good enough for her and she would be able to do her work without people giving her cold eyes.
The Third Hokage grimaced. "Naruto, what is your dream now?"
"I have no clue but Hokage is a definite no."
They always tried to bring her down but Naruto would always push herself back up. If she gave up on a dream then she wasn't Naruto Uzumaki.
"Really because it sounds like you are giving up on being Hokage!" Kiba commented.
Naruto rolled her eyes. "No, it means I found a better dream."
"Delusional? All of you are fucking assholes for not believing in him!" Naruto yelled. "If he works his ass off and if someone just believes in him then he can do anything."
"You were the first person to believe in my dreams, Naruto." Midoriya admitted. The whiskered teen blinked and blinked before swirling her head at the smiling green-haired boy. He looked down at his hands before looking back at her. "Not even my own Mom believed in me like you did."
Naruto rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah well you have a decent chance because you are smart."
Everyone looked at her like she was an idiot but Naruto wasn't going to back down. She had seen the rewards of hard work, of having someone that believed in them. How many times did someone look down on her? Too many times for her to count. It hurt like hell for her friends and teammates to only see one side of her.
"We can definitely see that now," Choji observed. Naruto grunted and folded her arms against her chest as brown eyes looked at her with alarm. "You never went off on Sakura before and then suddenly out of nowhere you are throwing all of your anger at her. I know what she did was terrible but this isn't like you, Naruto."
"Choji, I have been torn away from my work and Sakura acts like she has done nothing wrong," Naruto retorted. "If I did have an episode like Hinata claimed I did then Sakura made things worse. Sakura-chan also had been acting like she knows me when really she knows nothing about me. She acts like Sasuke can do no wrong while I'm the demon that corrupted him! You tell me how would you feel?"
"Pretty pissed off," Todoroki commented from right beside her.
The whiskered teen gestured to Todoroki. "See he gets it!"
She was so much more than just the prankster.
It was just too bad that no one wanted to see that side of hers.
"But hiding aspects of yourself isn't healthy for you," Narumi declared. The blue-eyed woman frowned and rubbed the back of her neck before looking at everyone. "That puts a lot of strain to your mind and you will eventually forget where you start and the mask end. Have you ever talked to a therapist about your problems? About these strange episodes?"
Naruto stared at Narumi. "I'm not weak! And I know it isn't healthy but no one accepts me for who I am! Hinata-chan does but everyone else? The moment I want to be selfish, I'm denied the fucking right because my problems seem supraficial! So tell me what the hell should I do?"
"Not give a fuck?" Bakugou retorted.
Iida cleared his throat. "Can you refrain from your language until I'm done with the final part of the chapter?"
"You asked for me?" Naruto took a seat on the empty chair, eyebrows knitted together in confusion as the man pulled out the empty form. He raised his eyebrow at her, waiting for the answers that Naruto didn't want to provide.
"Why did you hand me an empty blank form when it comes to your future high school?" He finally asked, eyes flaring with irritation. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and forced herself to smile at him. It wouldn't be wrong for her to act dumb since she actually had no idea what to do with her future.
Bakugou swirled his head at her. "With your grades and athletic abilities, you were planning not to go to any high school?"
"I didn't know what I wanted to be and I had a job in the café," Naruto retorted. "So I kinda thought well school has never been fun and I don't have any ambitions…so why not continue working in a café? I mean if I want to be a writer then I don't need school. If I want to be an artist then I don't need high school either."
Doctors didn't seem to suit her and being an engineer sounded fun, but Naruto doubted she would have free license to be creative. A job as a writer was also good for her. Iruka-sensei used to say she had too much imagination for her own good…of course he was talking about her skill in the art of lying.
Hinata nodded. "Your excuses were brilliant but the way you hide your evidence was even better."
"My excuses made everyone laughed and you know how difficult it was to make everyone laugh!"
"Too many options."
Her homeroom teacher snorted at her response, not looking like he believed one bit about her bullshit. Her smile didn't waver one bit even though those judging eyes made her want to stop smiling. There was always something about those eyes that made her want to admit future.
"I can't believe that he talked me into applying for high school."
Midoriya frowned. "Uzumaki-san, you are smart and for you not to go to high school…well that pisses me off too."
"I mean if you were the dead last then I wouldn't give a shit!" Bakugou grumbled. "But you and Deku gave me a run for my money when it came to the exams!"
"Really now?" She smiled sheepishly and her teacher sighed. "Uzumaki, why don't you start taking things seriously? You are a bright girl that clearly has a bright future ahead of herself. It will be a shame for you to decide just to continue working full time in a café."
Sasuke blinked. "Is that why you are wearing a—"
"You think I would be wearing this if I didn't work or have school?" Naruto retorted. "Skirts are my enemies!"
But what do I want to do? Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and stared out at the window. The bright blue skies and white clouds didn't reflect the confusion she felt. At the age of six, she decided she wanted to become a kunoichi. I will become Hokage! I will be the strongest kunoichi this world has ever seen! She yelled out those words so everyone knew what she wanted to be.
Naruto sighed and closed her eyes. It will be so difficult for me to become the latter if I don't have any shinobi opponent. She was definitely certain that she could become the Number One Hero if she wanted, but it was kinda seemed pointless. Even if she did become a hero then what kind of hero would she even be?
She didn't know but what she did know that she was going to read the book to find out what type of person she would become.
How could she accomplish this dream now?
"I like our art classes but I can't see myself an artist," Naruto lied. "It is too artsy if you ask me; it doesn't have enough action. Doctors are cool and I respect them but I am just too hot-tempered for the job. So I have got no idea what to do."
Narumi hummed. "Have you ever thought of studying psychology?"
"What about modelling?" Mitsuki eyed Naruto and bobbed her head. "You have got the right look for it and your height is almost ideal for it."
Masaru hummed. "She does have similar facial features to you and that means the camera would love her."
"Wouldn't I have to watch my weight?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. "I read a lot of articles about models starving themselves and I really love my ramen."
Mitsuki hummed. "I always missed the occasional burger."
"Then no thank you!"
Her teacher tilted his head, his eyes regarded her for a good couple of minutes. He nodded, looking as if he had one of those eureka moments that Naruto heard her classmates talked about. What could he have figure out from her words? Even for her standards, she sounded like an idiot.
God, had she always sounded like an idiot?
Kiba nodded. "Yup!"
"Then what about becoming a Hero? Or a policewoman?" Her teacher suggested lightly. A small smile played on his lips and the sincerity shone through those eyes made her throat clogged up. A part of her was grateful for the sincerity but a huge part of her felt doubt about the man's kindness and need to make her choose a better future.
No one could be this nice without any reason.
"Uzumaki-san, may I ask…were you abused as a little girl?" Narumi asked softly. The words hovered between them as everyone swirled their bodies to look at the blonde Naruto stiffened and the blue-eyed woman frowned before stepping away from the couch that her family took. She knelt down till they were at eye level. "You have nothing to be ashamed about, Uzumaki. I know you pride yourself for being strong from your words but you aren't weak to admit it."
Naruto shook her head. "I ran away after the first smack so no, I wasn't abused."
The old woman frowned and then narrowed her eyes at the two Hokages.
"Think about it, Uzumaki." Their teacher took a deep breath. "You want adventure and I know you have a desire to help even the underdogs. Isn't that enough reason for you to become a hero? You will just be protecting more kids and people like Midoriya from cruel Villains. You might be busy with work but you make the time and effort to protect the weak. I think you have just as a good shot of getting into Yuuei as Bakugou…so think about it."
"That should be your signal that you need to change…even he thinks that you are crap." Naruto declared to Bakugou.
Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Don't look into thinks."
Naruto stared at her hands, clenching and unclenching it as her teacher slid the piece of paper to her. A hero? If she couldn't become Hokage and if she couldn't be a kunoichi, then it only made sense for her to be a hero.
She couldn't keep living in the past because that wasn't her.
Uzumaki Naruto was and will always be the girl that always looked forward to the future.
"And that's the end of chapter 1!" Iida declared. "Who wants to read the next chapter?"
Uraraka raised her hand. "Me!"
Author Note: Please review and tell me what you think about the chapter. How did you feel about this version of Naruto reacting compared to the younger version? And what do you think of the reactions?
