A/N: Okay, my first review for this fic, and I must say: Random Fangirl? Thank you! YOU are the reason I write. Your reaction is just so perfect I want to hug you! Please spread the word to your fanfic-reading friends, and check out the other fics I have up, and more to come! Seriously guys, this one anonymous girl somewhere out the in internetverse made me do something I never do: I did the 'oh stop it you' meme OUT LOUD. Like seriously, anyone who knows me will tell you, I have no outward reaction. Like Itachi-senpai. But this one girl made me smile. So again I say, thank you. This chapter is devoted to you Fangirl Number 1! You will forever hold a special place in my authoring heart!
Chapter 2: The Start of School
Three months had passed quickly for Naruto, but conversely they were the longest months of his entire life. Every day dragged on for an eternity, and every week flashed by in a blink. (if you don't know the feeling you have never been to public school) The entire summer had been filled with Naruto trying to adjust to not going out on missions, or standing guard over something every night. To being a 'normal' ten-year-old boy.
The boy was miserable. He had to stay inside the Sarutobi compound at night, because the villagers, ignorant to the fact he could kill them before they could draw breath, still attempted their ritualistic beatings of his person. So he did what any ten-year-old ANBU-turned-civilian would do during the darker hours; he planned his pranks. And then he sprang them the next day. It would get boring otherwise.
But, as Naruto walked to the Academy beside his adopted father, he could hear the whisper of the Shinobi hopefuls about him. Well, the whispers, and then the ungodly shriek of the ultimate bane of sensitive ears; the pink-haired ban- young girl by the name of Haruno Sakura.
"Who's that Ino-pig?!" came the shrill scream, which was apparently supposed to be a whisper.
Naruto was in mere moments, rolling on the ground, clutching his ears, a thin trail of blood flowing between his fingers on both sides, screaming in absolute agony.
"OH KAMI, MAKE IT STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF THE SHINIGAMI SOMEONE MAKE IT END!" echoed throughout the entire Village.
Elsewhere in the Village
A very cold shiver ran down the spine of one very average-looking woman. Well, average except for one trait; her bright bubble-gum pink hair.
"Why do I have a sudden urge to strangle my daughter?" one bemused Haruno Meobiki asked out loud, to which several of her fellow council members snickered quietly.
Back at the academy
"Naru, I think you can let go of your ears now. The prank is over," Asuma sighed as he watched Uzumaki-Sarutobi Naruto slowly rise from the ground, wiggling his pinky in his right ear.
"WHAT?" he shouted, quite obviously unable to hear for the time being.
"THE PRANK IS OVER!" Asuma shouted.
"WHAT PRANK? SOMEONE PLAYED A PRANK?" Asuma facefaulted as he realized his son wasn't joking, he really had been affected like that.
"STOP SHOUTING YOU BAKA!" was quickly punctuated by another scream of agony. Asuma stepped over to the perpetrator, and grabbed her face, lifting her effortlessly by her jaw.
"Either shut up and stop hurting my son, or I swear to Kami-sama, you will never speak again," he growled threateningly as he glowered at the now-terrified banshee. "Do I make myself clear?" all he got was an enthusiastic nod in response. He let her fall out of his grip as he stepped back to Naruto and helped him. When he got the attention of the boy, he mouthed some words.
"Okay, good luck, and remember; class moron." Naruto merely nodded and shot a hateful glare at Sakura, who wilted even further. He stalked past and entered the building, leaving everyone else outside. Class didn't start for another thirty minutes anyway. He also managed to notice the obviously very shy girl shadowing him. He cast a discreet glance at her.
She stood with her knees together, and her feet pointed inward, indicative of extreme timidness. He short indigo hair was cut hime-style, with two bangs framing her face, while the rest barely reached her ears. She wore a beige jacket and matching blue shinobi pants and sandals. Her eyes were a light lavender, and held great gentleness in them.
Hyuuga Hinata, Naruto thought to himself. He had heard from some of the Hyuuga ANBU members her general description, and how she was apparently unfit to be the Hyuuga heiress, simply because she was kind and couldn't perform the Jyuuken properly. She likely doesn't have the same elemental affinity as most Hyuuga. The Jyuuken is made specifically for the Earth affinity, and so is rigid and stiff. Considering all I heard about how she can dodge anything effortlessly just by twitching, I'd guess she has a more flexible body type, likely a Fire or Water affinity.
Naruto shrugged to himself and continued his walk to class. He wasn't there to keep an eye on the Hyuuga girl, though he might anyway, so she wasn't really his concern. He just made it to class when the bell rang, initiating the massive stampede of students to get to class. He sat down in a corner desk at the back of the room, where he could see everything, just as two girls broke through the door, leaning on each other and glaring fiercely. One was that horrible pink-haired monstrosity from outside, but the other was a blonde, like himself.
Long, platinum blonde hair tied into a ponytail, light bluish-green eyes, and unhealthily thin. This must be Yamanaka-sama's daughter Ino. Also not his objective, but interesting nonetheless. One could tell from her halfhearted glare at the Bubble, that she wasn't really interested in their competition, but kept it up for appearances.
"FIRST!" they both shouted at the same time.
Must these insolent whelps be so loud? I was taking a nap!
Kurama, we both know any spawn of that satanic councilwoman is going to be louder and more annoying than a dog whistle. As for the Yamanaka, she wasn't actually all that loud. Her heart doesn't seem to be in this apparent rivalry.
Still, the banshee woke me up, so maybe I could just...
No.
But...
No. Kurama, the terrifying Kyuubi no Kitsune, grumbled unhappily for a moment, before going quiet. Naruto smirked.
"Who're you?" he was snapped out of his reverie to see a boy about his height, wearing a grey jacket with brown fur around the collar. His short brown hair was messy and wild, and his pupils were slits. This, compounded with his red fang tatoos on his cheeks, and the small white ninkin poking it's head out of his jacket, and the boy could only be an Inuzuka.
Naruto immediately fell into his 'idiot routine' and grinned foxlike.
"I'm Uzumaki-Sarutobi Naruto! Nice ta meetcha!" the Inuzuka's face paled considerably and his mouth fell open.
"Sarutobi? As in the Hokage Sarutobi?!" a few heads turned at this, including the one person Naruto actually knew in this class; the lazy-assed pineapple. Nara Shikamaru. An enthusiastic nod on Naruto's part ensued.
"Yeah! He's my Jiji!"
"Oh man, what a drag... Naruto, when did you start at the academy?" came a lazy drawl, followed by the sound of chips crunching.
"Shika! I didn't know you were in this class! I started today! Dattebayo!" Naruto suddenly froze at the last. Oh how he hated that verbal tick. Whenever he got excited, which wasn't often nowadays, he would suddenly shout it out, much to the amusement of everyone in the vicinity. He heard from his dad how it was very much like Uzumaki Kushina's Dattebane, which he found odd, considering they shared a verbal tick and a last name, but he left it alone at the request of his Jiji.
"munch munch munch What was that Shika? Some kind of catchphrase or something?" this was said by a fairly heavy boy who was wearing a green overcoat and a scarf around his neck. He had his hair split by a bandanna and was eating out of a bag of chips. Naruto's brow crinkled. Akimichi Choji as well? Are ALL the clan heirs in this class? He cast a quick look around and saw the icing on the cake; a fairly tall boy wearing a large overcoat that covered most of his face and body. His sunglasses glinted slightly and his hair looked a lot like Asuma's. Aburame Shino...it seems the only clan heir our age that ISN'T here is the Kurama clan heir.
"Troublesome...it's a verbal tick he has. He can't control it." a few ooohhh's of understanding followed from everyone. "You're a year late in joining, Naruto."
"Yeah, Jiji said he wanted me to wait for some reason," was Naruto's reply before the most horrifying sight ever popped into his vision. The Chuunin sensei of the class came in, and seeing all the student's talking without seeming to be close to stopping, blew his head up to demonic proportions and screamed at them loudly.
"SHUT UP YOU BRATS! SIT DOWN NOW!" Naruto shuddered at how effective the technique was. He had heard stories of Umino Iruka's demon head jutsu, but always thought it was hogwash. Now he obviously had other views. Holy Kami...that might be as terrifying as Jiji's KI!
"Now then, class, we have a new student this year!" his eyes zeroed in on Naruto, and a minuscule trace of utter loathing appeared in his face, but quickly disappeared, replaced by a professional attitude. "Why don't you come up and introduce yourself?" Naruto rose, bouncing with excitement, or he appeared to.
"My name is Uzumaki-Sarutobi Naruto Dattebayo! I like Ramen, and my friend Shikamaru! He always gets me thinking!" a few eyes wandered to Shikamaru, who just grumbled quietly and rolled his head in the opposite direction. "I don't like when people are mean to others for something beyond their control, and traitors," at this, the Uchiha scion finally looked up at Naruto, his eyes glinting dangerously, as if to say continue that train of thought, I dare you. A smirk formed on Naruto's face. "And I hope to one day take the title of Hokage for myself! Dattebayo!"
A snort of laughter from the Inuzuka, and a smaller one from the Uchiha, had Naruto develop a tick mark on his forehead, but before he could say anything, Iruka pushed him in the direction of his seat, admittedly with a little more force than was warranted.
"Thank you, Naruto! Now class, since this is a class of second-years, we'll be diving right into the history of Hi no Kuni. I hope everyone is ready." Naruto almost grimaced. He's acting as though I should know the material that was covered last year. He's good at hiding it, but he sees me as Kurama. Great.
Kit, you should pull that prank later today.
You don't mean...
Yes! Oh please? I want to see the look on his face when it happens! Naruto smiled maliciously, causing everyone in the room to suddenly shiver as though the hand of the Shinigami had passed through them.
Deciding to ignore it, Iruka kept teaching. After about five minutes, Naruto decided that he'd had enough and chose to begin acting like an idiot.
"Ugggghhhhhh," he groaned loudly. "Boring! Iruka-sensei, can't we do something outside?"
Iruka opened his mouth, presumably to yell at him, but Naruto cut him off. "Well, I plan to go outside! Later!" he then jumped to the window, opened it, and bolted through it. He heard a few scuffles and sensed people following him.
"GET BACK HERE YOU FOUR!" Iruka yelled after them. Naruto looked back to see Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba running right behind him. Kiba laughed loudly, then whooped.
"Oh man! I like this guy already!"
"Troublesome blonds..." Shika said with a smile. Naruto just laughed.
Maybe being a Genin again with people his age wouldn't be so bad.