Hi so here is the next chapter.

i have a feeling that i didn't properly edit it yet, so if there are any mistake, blame it on my stupid brain. and please point them out so that i could correct it. life is hectic and i am kinda going crazy with everything that's been happening and this is my only way of some stress relief(punching the keyboard that is...).

I do not own Naruto no matter how much I wish I did.

INARI BLESSED

It has been two weeks since Naruto was released from the hospital. He spends most of the time at the compound, reading scrolls. Akemi had forbid him from going to academy saying that he needed more rest. She came daily to check upon him. Jiraya had left the village again, but not before visiting Naruto.

Kakashi came often, but Hiruzen was busier with everything that was going on.

Akemi Hyuga (head of the hospital), Hawk (the anbu commander) and Satoshi Shinji (the head of the banker's association and finance advisor) were appointed as the hokage's new advisors. The removal of the old advisors had shaken the council up. They now knew to tread carefully around the hokage.

The civilian council had bought up a suggestion to name Uchiha Shin as the successor of Namikaze Minato as a reward for the sacrifice that was made and since the yondaime had no heir. Hiruzen was fuming, how can they be so damn ignorant?

He knew they were only trying to get in the Uchiha's good graces and revealing Naruto's heritage was out of the option. So Hiruzen told them that the yondaime had left the Namikaze fortune in the name of Uzumaki Naruto, as a compensation for the sealing. And as the actions of a former hokage cannot be rewritten, even if named the successor, Uchiha Shin will only receive the Namikaze compound.

As expected, this made the civilians and Uchiha happy. As far as they knew, all of the yondaime's prized possessions were left in the compound and since the Uzumaki boy had no legal guardian swindling money from him will be like taking candy from a baby; well we can safely say that they didn't know much.

Even though she could not adopt Naruto, Akemi had officially became Naruto's legal guardian and Satoshi who was one of the few who wanted to make it up to the boy for mistreating him in the past, decided that he will make sure that Naruto's inheritance stay safe.

Then there was the certain fact that the Namikaze compound was sealed shut, and was accessible only to a Namikaze (Which happens to be none other than Naruto himself) and even if they somehow manage to open the compound (Highly unlikely); there is nothing of value left in the compound, as Minato had everything moved to the Uzumaki compound when he moved there.

Since none of them held much attachment to the compound itself, it was considered as collateral damage. If the compound is given to Uchiha Shin, legally, Namikaze Minato will be declared as the last Namikaze, which will make it easier for Naruto to leave. In that meeting itself Naruto was declared as the Uzumaki clan heir and was decided that the boy will become clan head when he become genin.

Akemi had taken it up on herself to teach Naruto the necessary skills for a clan heir. She also taught him how to cook, manage his money, and take care of the house and mainly chakra control.

Unknown to Akemi, Naruto had also taught himself the shadow clone technique, which was an original Uzumaki technique and was using it to up his training regime (The specialty of shadow clones were all mentioned in the scroll he read). Akemi is going to throw a fit when she finds out, but Naruto decided that he will cross that bridge when the time comes. So that two weeks was quite productive in Naruto's opinion.

The first day he returned to the academy, the experience was not something he expected. He clearly predicted the reaction of the adults, some were regretful, some were suspicious, and most chose to ignore him, but there was no hate, which put him at ease. He doubted he could stay sane if he was assaulted with constant hate now that he had his emotion sensing ability.

It was the reaction of the children that hurt him most.

He knew that everyone was aware of him being the ex-jinchuuriki, including the children; everyone knew the new jinchuuriki as well. The kids hated him. They thought he was weak and almost got them killed because of Naruto's stupidity.

They never called him a demon or monster, but they said he was a useless waste, someone not worth the fourth's sacrifice. He thought they would accept him once they knew, but he had been wrong. The adults no longer hated him, but the children now did, for entirely different reasons.

Naruto felt like screaming that it was not his fault that he was almost killed. It was not his fault he was tortured.

Naruto kept his head high and refused to cry as he entered the classroom, almost everyone was hateful towards him; all their emotion was driving him crazy.

He saw the village's current hero smirking at him, arrogantly.

Shin had jet black hair styled just like his father's; in fact he looked just like a mini Fugaku, with a paler complexion. Beside him sat his twin, Sasuke Uchiha.

Before Shin had been proclaimed hero, Sasuke was considered the prince of the academy. Things are different now; it is visible in the way Sasuke glares at Naruto and Shin. At Naruto for being the reason that Shin was made a hero and at Shin for probably taking away the attention he secretly loved.

Shin was always jealous of Sasuke, now he had the upper hand. Fugaku no longer cared for Sasuke, in his narrow minded world only his jinchuuriki son existed now.

It was all part of an elaborate plan. They didn't want to turn him into a demon host at first, but someone had pointed out a little fact that the sharingan was once improved using the Kyubi's chakra (a clan secret passed down from the first Uchiha himself) so why couldn't they do it again?

If they had the Kyubi, it was only a matter of time before the jinchuuriki got enough control to use the chakra to raise the sharingan to a new level. Shin had offered himself to become the demon host so that he could gain some kind of acknowledgment from his father, but he got way more than that. He struck jackpot.

Sasuke and Itachi no longer mattered. It was only their mother that cared for those two now, but his father always told him that, that woman was worthless and weak, so he really didn't care.

Naruto was starting to feel suffocated due to the sheer amount of disgust and hatred. That's when Naruto felt it, a strong wave of some emotion that made him warm, comfortable and safe. There was an undercurrent of love and guilt. He could not pinpoint who the emotions were coming from, but he felt that it was directed towards him. And from another source he felt a great deal of understanding and anger, the latter not directed towards him. He was confused; trying to pinpoint the location of those emotions was like looking for someone from the middle of a crowd.

Naruto saw an empty bench at the back and sat there, he was sure no one would sit next to him. He was broken out of his musings when someone sat on his right side. He glanced up surprised. It was a boy with short spiky red hair. He was taller than Naruto and had mesmerizing golden eyes; his skin was a beautiful shade of ivory and he was very good looking for someone his age, almost ethereal. Naruto was sure that the boy wasn't in this class last year.

"Um, hello." Naruto said nervous for some unknown reason, "I am Naruto Uzumaki." He said shyly.

The boy smirked showing sharp canines, "Kyoshiro Kazama."

Naruto smiled brightly. The boy suddenly put his hand around Naruto's shoulder and leaned close to Naruto and whispered in Naruto's ear, "I am hurt, did you forget me so fast Naru chan…" the words that were almost purred out caused Naruto's eyes to widen. "Kyu?!"

Surprise followed by happiness then excitement. Naruto almost jumped on to the older boy's lap as he hugged him. The kitsune only chuckled as he held him.

"We'll talk later okay?" Kyubi said and Naruto nodded. He felt the same feeling he felt earlier, he knew now what it was, Kyu was always protective of him. He smiled happily.

Just then someone else sat down on Naruto's other side. Naruto and Kyubi (I'm gonna call him Kyoshiro from now on.) turned to look at the newcomer.

Naruto knew the girl. She was Yumiko, an orphan. She was almost anti social, with how she avoids most of the other students, but Naruto knew that it wasn't that she was anti social, but more like she had some kind of distaste towards clan children and most other children that worshipped the clan heirs. She had curled chocolate brown hair that ended at her shoulders, she had milky pale skin, pouty pink lips and wide eyes that were a really light shade of purple and if not for the fact that her eyes had pupils; she would definitely pass for a Hyuga. She was cute and innocent looking, beautiful like a porcelain doll.

Her face had an almost bored expression, and was observing the two boys casually.

"Am Yumiko." She said casually and turned to look at the front of the class. A light smirk lit her face as she said the next words, "You should get out of his lap, the class is about to start."

Naruto blushed at seeing that he was indeed still in Kyoshiro's lap. He moved and properly sat in the middle of them both. Naruto knew that the other person he felt earlier was her. She still had that emotion, as if she understood what he felt, then there was also doubt, she doubted herself.

They kept quiet as their new sensei; Iruka started the class.

As boring as history is, Akemi will kill him if he didn't learn, saying that it was necessary for a clan heir. She even bought him book on the history of other hidden villages, as if Konoha wasn't enough. Sure he liked books more now, but that didn't mean he had to 'love' them (especially history).

Then came the exercises, and everyone was led outside. It was simple, but Naruto became quickly tired and his body hurt all over. He fell to his knees as the pain increased. Yumiko and Kyoshiro were near him in an instant holding him. He didn't know why Yumiko cared, but he knew that she did.

Iruka stood uncertainly; he had no idea what to do with the ex-jinchuuriki, but made up his mind when he thought that the kid was his student. He rushed over to Naruto; the other kids snickered whispering that Naruto was a worthless weakling. All four of them heard it and Naruto's eyes became watery. Bu he refused to cry. He felt the anger oozing from the three that were holding him, not at all directed at him.

Iruka felt guilty that he ignored the boy; he knew how hard it was to deal with bullying. He made up his mind that he will help the boy in any way he can.

"Are you okay, Naruto kun?" Iruka asked. If the suffix didn't surprise him, the compassion he felt from the young chunin surprised Naruto. He nodded numbly.

"Akemi nee chan, had told me to take it slow. The resealing had damaged my muscles quite a bit and that they are still tender from the rapid healing; she said that it will be back to normal within a month." Naruto said with a smile.

The chunin nodded with a gentle smile.

"You should've told me, there is no problem if you need to sit out of the exercise for a month."

"No, nee chan said that the exercise will be good for my muscles." Naruto said.

The chunin nodded and led Naruto to the classroom to rest. The rest of the day went calmly, if you ignore the ridicule.

For some reason, Yumiko didn't sit with them after the incident during exercise. Naruto and Kyoshiro both felt her emotional turmoil and decided to leave her alone for now.

After class, Naruto had to talk with Iruka. The hokage wanted to speak with Kyoshiro, so he had to leave.

Naruto was asking Iruka about being able to use the shinobi library; Iruka set him up a library card happily and told him that he can have access up to the genin level of the library. Naruto was happy, his clan scrolls lacked medical scrolls, which were something that caught his interest, there were a few medical techniques but all of them were too high level for him to understand right away, so he decided that the ninja library was the best place to look for the basics. He didn't want to disturb Akemi now that she was busy with the council as well.

As soon as he stepped out of the academy building, someone pushed him to the ground. Naruto looked up and saw some older kids. They were sneering at him.

He felt that Yumiko was watching him as the kids ridiculed him; she was expecting him to do something, anything. But as always he simply endured what they did, it was a habit he picked up after all the times he got beaten up for talking back. Finally, when they started to beat him up, she grew desperate, he knew she was worried and when she was sure that Naruto had no plan of escaping or fighting back, she acted.

The older kids didn't stand a chance; her taijutsu was flawless (for an academy student) and her style was precise and swift. She gave them a warning to stay away and lifted Naruto of the ground. The older kids soon left. She took him to the pond a little away from the academy.

Naruto gave her a small smile; he was all healed thanks to his bloodline. He was about to thank her when she slapped him in the face, he sat on the ground stunned.

"You idiot! Why didn't you at least try to fight back? Why are you such a coward?" She yelled.

Naruto looked down, feeling her disappointment. She was angry and disappointed, but it all drained away when she heard him speak, "It always gets worse when I fight back."

She understood; she knew he was treated badly when he was the jinchuuriki. She sighed and sat down next to him looking at their reflection in the water.

"You should fight back. At least try. Don't let those scum's put you down."

Naruto knew she was speaking from her own experience. So he nodded silently. She looked at him analytically.

"I know how it feels when others call you worthless for something you can't control…" she mumbled, "But you shouldn't let them get to you. Strive to prove them wrong… That's what I do."

Naruto looked at her sadly, "First they hated me for containing a demon… Now they hate me for not being able to contain it… I feel like they'll never stop hating me."

She nodded, "Hey, let's be friends." She said suddenly, Naruto blinked at her almost not sure what she said. She nodded to her own suggestion without waiting for his reply, "That's decided then. You are going to be my friend from now on. So we should properly introduce to each other… My name is Yumiko, no last name. I live in the orphanage. I like chilled soba; I also like sweet apples and chocolate. My hobbies include trying to develop a new a fighting style and gardening. I hate stuck up clan people. My wish is to become strong and respected."

Naruto nodded smiling, but then frowned, "I, I am from a clan too ya know." He was nervous that he would lose his friend.

She looked startled, and then she saw that he was afraid. She had hated clans for a long time, but seeing the boy in front of her, something forced her to give him a chance, so she smiled stiffly, "It's fine as long as you don't end up as a stuck up bastard." And when she saw the sweet smile he gave her, she was sure that she made the right choice.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like…"

Later, when Kyoshiro came back to find Naruto, he found the boy giggling and talking animatedly with that girl from earlier.

"Yo." He said appearing directly behind Naruto. Naruto screamed and fell on to the pond. Yumiko saw the smirking Kyoshiro and both of them laughed when Naruto came up looking like a wet kitten.

"Name's Kyoshiro." He said to Yumiko, extending a hand for her to shake. She stared at him for a moment and then shook his hand with a slight smile; Naruto waited till they held hands and pulled Kyoshiro's leg causing both him and Yumiko to fall in the water. He laughed like a maniac, which soon turned into a girly shriek as the other two teamed up on him.

Well, as they say, that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship and the birth of Konoha's prankster trio.

Later at the Uzumaki compound,

"So, Kyo what are you doing here?" Naruto asked excited.

"Well, I promised that I'll come see you again, didn't I?" Kyoshiro asked smirking.

"That you did. But I didn't expect to see you like this."

"Well, Inari sama said that he needed someone to be with you when he couldn't. So I volunteered, seeing as it was a perfect opportunity to spend some time with my friend."

Naruto jumped and tackled Kyoshiro into a hug. Kyoshiro chuckled.

"You are going to be living here from now on. I am not going to let you go ya know."

And both of them laughed, happy to be with each other. The hokage knew who Kyoshiro was and he trusted the transformed fox so, Hiruzen had added Kyoshiro to the list of orphans they had saved from Root. Since none of those children had any records, no one suspected Kyoshiro among them. It was explained to the council that he was from the Kazama clan which was essentially, a branch clan of the Uzumaki. Therefore, Kyoshiro had no trouble getting officially added to the Uzumaki clan.

What Kyoshiro didn't mention was the fact that, for a spirit guardian to retain a solid human form, he/she would need to actually inhabit a human body.

Inari had to create a human body for Kyoshiro to use. And by inhabiting the human body, Kyoshiro had lost all his spiritual powers. The only power he retained was his shape shifting and that too needed to be learned again, since his brand new body had no experience. Inari had warned him, but he did it anyway. After all, this bundle of sunshine was worth it.

TIMESKIP

Naruto awoke with a grin. Today was graduation day. He looked at his sleeping companions, he knew Kyoshiro was awake but was too lazy to get out of the bed. He remedied that with a well placed kick.

Kyoshiro, who had not been anticipating this, fell out of bed with a shriek which woke Yumiko. Naruto snickered when Kyoshiro glared at him. Yumiko sat up, blinked then pulled Naruto back into bed before falling asleep cuddling him.

Naruto sighed. This was the daily occurrence at the Uzumaki clan house. Ever since they met six years ago, they had become inseparable (and insufferable too, to some of their prank victims, which often happens to be either Hyuga or Uchiha).

Yumiko liked the Uzumaki clan because of how they treated their clan members; an Uzumaki always protects their family. So two years after they met, when Naruto asked her to legally join his clan she was surprised and delighted. She had agreed eagerly; both of them already considered each other as siblings and technically lived at the compound. They were even happier when Naruto mentioned Blood Adoption.

The Uzumaki seal (the one which Kushina gave him) had deemed him ready at the age of nine and all the knowledge of the Uzumaki was slowly integrating into his system, that's how he knew about the blood adoption. One should be the clan head to approve the adoption, and since the seal had recognized that Naruto was ready, he had no problem doing it.

The academy teachers (especially Iruka) had a fit when Yumiko suddenly became Yumiko Uzumaki, since blood adoption was not that popular even among clans and the fact that there is no Uzumaki old enough to adopt, the teachers thought that they got married or something. They played around with the idea for some time (never wasting an opportunity for a prank), before telling Iruka the truth. The students still didn't know, since the trio was never in class.

It was on Yumiko's tenth birthday, her first birthday after she joined the clan, that they told her everything. They knew she was trustworthy and did not want to keep their friend in the dark any longer.

She had surprised them by instead of being angry or sad, had proclaimed Kyoshiro as the prankster king (because he was a fox and foxes are pranksters). Naruto did not agree, which led to a prank war between Kyoshiro and Naruto to see who the best prankster was. And after the war, when they stood there getting scolded by Akemi, Yumiko had came and proclaimed that she was the best prankster because she could make them prank each other effortlessly. This earned her two sets of adorable pouts from the boys and a whack in the head by Akemi. Then Yumiko had told the boys that she will be coming with them when they leave, whether they like it or not.

Yumiko, when she first met Akemi was skeptical, because she hated the Hyuga clan, but she soon understood that it was hard to hate Akemi when she always fusses over them like a mother hen. Yumiko had later revealed that she used to be a Hyuga and when they found out she wouldn't develop her Byakugan, her own father had asked to banish her from the clan because she was a disgrace to the Hyuga name and she was only four years old when this happened. Her mother had died when she was two.

These incidents only brought them together.

Inari visited whenever he could. All three of them liked to call him tou chan now. Kyoshiro was at first reluctant, since Inari was his lord and all, but Inari, Naruto and Yumiko pranked him till he agreed. Most of the time they came home to find Inari curled up on the sofa, mumbling about paper work, shadow clone and fried tofu. He trained them sometimes and had let all three of them sign the fox contract.

Along the way they had discovered their talents.

Naruto was exceptionally good in sealing. He was currently at level 15 and was sure that he would reach level 18 in a few months. This was amazing considering that 20 was the highest level of Uzumaki sealing and no one ever came even near the 18th level. Jiraya himself was only at the level 17. He also excelled in using the chakra chains.

Jiraya had taught Naruto the resengan on his ninth birthday. He was trying to crack the Hiraishin now. He also developed a new taijutsu style all for himself, with help from Yumiko and Inari. He analyzed the Sora taijutsu style and mixed it with the Uzumaki and Namikaze style to create a fast and deadly style called the Dancing Wind. He had also mastered chakra control. And just like he promised Inari, he had the best chakra control in the academy, it was near jonin level. Akemi had taken it up on herself to teach him medic ninjutsu, while helping Naruto increase his chakra control even more. He had learned many ninjutsu from the clan scrolls as well. Currently he should be high chunin level, if not for the lack of experience.

Naruto while reading about his clan had found out that they have a connection with samurais and most Uzumakis were sword masters. Uzumakis also a tradition in the clan for males to have long hair, so Naruto decided that he would keep his hair long to respect his clan and because of constant persuasion (death threats) from Yumiko and Akemi who just adored his hair. The soft golden strands now reached just above his waist. He also took to learning the Uzumaki kenjutsu style, and uses a katana. It was a family heirloom and was even used by his mother and was named Akaikaze.

Naruto had grown over the years and was no longer fit to be called short; this was something Naruto rejoiced over. He now wore a black tank top underneath a light grey leather jacket and anbu style black pants. He didn't wear any weapon holders or any weapons at all. His long hair was always neatly held together in a high ponytail. He would be considered the top good looking kid, if he ever showed his face often. Most of the times the three were busy training and whenever they pull a prank; they always vanish without a trace. So it's safe to say not many people saw them these days.

Kyoshiro, who had to sacrifice all his powers in order to become human so that he could stay close to Naruto, had to relearn everything he knew from scratch.

He mastered his shape shifting. He was used to his claws when fighting, the lack of that in his new body was also disappointing, well that was before they found the Uzumaki armory. There, Kyoshiro had met his love, a set metal claw gauntlets with retractable claws. It was love at first sight. The entire thing was black, with golden claws and it was made of chakra conducting metal.

He also had a fascination with swords, but he preferred two sword styles. There was a sword style he had once seen used by a young woman when he was still Kyubi, and he wanted to recreate the style. Although he didn't have full knowledge, he developed a style based on that one and named it the Raging Fox style. He uses twin katana, both with midnight black blade and seals engraved all along the blade and its guard. The seals were done by an ancestor of the Uzumaki clan. They were named Senshi and Tamashi. Kyoshiro too had his own taijutsu style, it was named Dancing Flames. He was very tall for his age, and had kept his red hair short and it remained wild. He wore a white tank top under a black hooded jacket and black leather pants with matching boots. He too had no weapons on him. Kyoshiro was to explain it simply; hot.

Yumiko had achieved her dream of developing her own taijutsu style. She was the one who finished her style first and had suggested that all three of them have a style unique to themselves and had helped her friends develop theirs. Her style was the Dancing Mist style. All three of the taijutsu styles were designed so as to perfectly complement each other. Their taijutsu styles made so that they work well together.

She also had started to develop her own genjutsu (the other two absolutely sucked at genjutsu, all they knew was how to break out of one and most genjutsu didn't affect them anyway).

When she joined the Uzumaki clan via blood adoption, there was a huge jump in her chakra capacity (she had cursed Naruto to hell and back for destroying her chakra control and then hugged him for making her family) and so she had to retrain her chakra control, then Naruto had taught her the shadow clones. She could make about 2 hundred clones where as the other two had no limit. But even so, their training had leapt of the record.

She was the same height as Naruto, and had let her brown hair grow long. She kept it in a bun, with curled bangs framing her delicate face. She wore a black battle kimono with golden flames decorating it.

Then they started learning things that they don't usually bother with (The wonders of shadow clone), because Akemi had warned them that over specialization was a weakness. So, all three of them had at least high genin level knowledge in almost everything.

The academy was boring. Since they had clones reading almost every history books available about all shinobi nations and then some. They also studied about ally villages, trade routes and non shinobi villages. Since, they will have to settle down in some other village later.

The hostility between the other students had not changed much. Only that, now all three of them were considered out casts. Naruto was a bit depressed that this was because of himself, but had snapped out of it when Kyoshiro and Yumiko literally threw him down from the academy roof saying that he needs to cheer up. The result was another prank war, but Naruto was never depressed after that.

Shin seems to have some kind of addiction to ridiculing them. It was because 'Mr. Prince' had ordered that the three were often treated poorly.

Kyoshiro hated the way Shin stared at Yumiko and Naruto. He knew that Shin would automatically hate them because Naruto had the divine chakra which was inherently against the chakra that Shin contained, it was just instinct for them to be wary of each other and as both Yumiko and Kyoshiro are close to Naruto, he would hate them as well.

Kyoshiro could tell that Shin hated him, but it wasn't exactly 'hatred' that he felt from Shin whenever he was staring at either of his friends. It was another disgusting emotion that should not be present in a child so young. At first he had thought it was the chakra corrupting him, but Inari had promised that the chakra will not affect the boy's mind what so ever. Kyoshiro was protective of both of them when ever Shin was around. Naruto too felt the emotion radiating off of Shin, and it made his skin crawl.

The trio often skipped class because either they were bored, or Shin was staring at them. Iruka had been worried at first and had scolded them about skipping classes but when the trio scored perfect marks in all the exams despite not attending classes, he decided to let them be. But even though all three scored perfect scores and were often the top three, they never allowed Iruka to announce that fact and the entire class believed that they were useless.

Well those opinions will change soon.

i'll try better on the next chapter.

See ya later...