A/N: Been a while since my last update. Sorry about that.

Well, I got a new phone now. My old one was so broken. Power button not working and not holding a charge. Enjoying the upgrade so far. Also back from vacation, which was fun, but it's nice to be home too.

I don't own Naruto. It'd be different than it is, and probably less popular.

Chapter 7

Ninja Academy, November 1st, Naruko age 8

Naruko was excited. She had finally applied the chakra suppression seal successfully, so the Hokage was finally allowing her to start attending the academy with her friends. She was on her way to her assigned classroom now.

Meanwhile

Umino Iruka was not excited at all. In fact, he was worried about how he was going to deal with the new student. It was unusual for a student to join partway through the semester, but that wasn't his main concern. He remembered back to when Hokage-sama had first spoken to him about it.

Flashback, Hokage office

The young chūnin walked nervously to the Hokage's office. He was new to his post as an Academy instructor, so he was worried that he was going to be reprimanded for his performance or something. It was surprisingly difficult to deal with so many kids, but he did his best. As he was thinking this, he reached the door to the Hokage's office and knocked on it, albeit hesitantly.

"Enter!" said the Sandaime Hokage.

"You requested me, Hokage-sama?" asked Iruka.

"Ah yes, Iruka-kun. I thought it best to discuss with you beforehand about the new student I will be assigning to your class in a few days," Sarutobi Hiruzen declared.

"A new student, sir? This late into the year? Will they be able to keep up?" Iruka asked, somewhat concerned that the student would have missed so much. However, the Hokage simply nodded before replying, "Oh yes, she will be able to keep up as I have been giving her instruction up until this point. However, I think it would be good for her to spend more time with her peers, rather than just me, therefore I am enrolling her now."

Iruka nodded, knowing that if the Hokage had overseen this mystery girl's instruction up to this point, then she would not be behind at all. She would probably be ahead of the class, if anything. "May I ask as to why now, and not earlier in the year, Hokage-sama?" Iruka asked curiously.

Hiruzen sighed, knowing that this would be the difficult part of this conversation. "She has some... special circumstances. And these circumstances are why I needed to speak to you personally. You must not treat her unfairly, even though it may be difficult." Iruka was shocked, and a little bit upset that the Hokage thought he would do such a thing as being unfair towards a student. "What in the world would make you think I would do such a thing as that, Hokage-sama? I am always fair with my students," the instructor said, irritated.

"I know you are, under normal circumstances. I just want to forewarn you so that you continue to do so. What I am about to show you is usually classified to a higher rank than you hold, but it is necessary for you to know," the Hokage said, pushing a folder towards Iruka.

Iruka curiously picked up the folder and opened it. He instantly saw a picture of Naruko, and his expression turned serious. "THAT girl..? She's a Kitsune.." Iruka said as he read the document. His eyes widened and his face paled as he read through the document. "This is...! She's the daughter of the previous Kyūbi...!? She's the successor of that... of that...!" Iruka started to say angrily, unable to find the words. The previous Kyūbi had killed his parents on that fateful night when it attacked the village.

The Hokage held up his hand to stop Iruka from saying any more. "Kurama, the previous Kyūbi, was under the influence of a powerful genjutsu. I knew him well enough to know he would not have attacked the village normally. He was not the evil being that many believe," he told Iruka. "Even if it was not the Kyūbi's fault, it still killed my parents. I-it was so hard after I lost them," Iruka said, still upset.

"Which is why I think you will get along with Naruko... if you can look past who her father was. She's an orphan too, after all. She needs people who understand her, and I don't think any of the other instructors would even try to do that," Hiruzen said solemnly. Iruka nodded slowly, thinking that the Hokage was right about the other instructors. 'The last thing we need is to give the new Kyūbi any more reason to hate Konoha than she already has, based on what has happened to her, according to this file,' Iruka thought to himself, resolving to do his best to follow the Hokage's request, if only to prevent another tragedy like the Day of the Kyūbi.

Flashback end

"Students, we have a new person joining our class today. Please treat her kindly," Iruka announced.

The class broke out into a loud chatter in their confusion. All except for Naruko's friends, as they had a pretty good guess as to who it was.

"A new student?"

"This late into the year? Won't she be behind?"

"QUIET!" Iruka yelled as his head seemed to grow to a massive size, as he attempted to bring the class to order. The class fell silent, surprised by the loud shout from their normally kind and patient teacher. 'I'll have to remember that. It seemed to work,' Iruka thought

At that moment, Naruko dramatically flung the door open and pranced into the room, completely ignoring that she was supposed to knock first and allow the instructor to introduce her. The Sandaime had told her this several times, but she was too excited to think about such things at the moment.

"Uzumaki Naruko has arrived!" the kitsune princess announced dramatically, turning to point at her new classmates. Her tails were waving around excitedly and she smiled brightly as she raised a hand in greetings.

After a moment of shock, Shikamaru face-palmed and muttered, "and there she goes, doing more troublesome things." Chōji smiled at seeing Naruko as he munched on his chips. Kiba yelled back, "Hey, Naruko! About time you joined the Academy!" as Akamaru barked in agreement. Hinata giggled quietly to herself, amused by Naruko's enthusiasm and dramatic entry. Ino sweat-dropped and thought to herself, 'She doesn't do things halfway, huh?'

But those were the only positive reactions. Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino looked at her curiously, but neutrally. Most of the other students, however, reacted negatively.

Haruno Sakura's eye simply twitched in annoyance, seeing that Sasuke was curious about her. 'No! She's taking away Sasuke's attention, damn it! Shannaro!' raged inner Sakura.

"It's that demon girl! She killed my cousin, Kenchi! Keep her away from me! MURDERER, MURDERER!" screamed one of the civilian-born female students by the name of Airi, as she stood and pointed dramatically at Naruko. Airi's friends screamed and huddled together defensively, even going so far as to draw their kunai. Several random male students cringed away from Naruko, looking warily at the demoness.

When she saw this reaction, Naruko's face froze. Her tails drooped and her eyes got sad, but only for a moment. She forced a fake smile on her face, doing her best to pretend to be happy. She tried her best to follow Anko-nee's words of not letting them get to her, but it was really hard not to be discouraged. She was really hoping she would be accepted here, but it looked like most people still hated her.

Iruka saw through her facade, though. Her eyes showed a deep hurt and she was trembling slightly, even despite the smile on her face. Well, he would just have to snap her out of it before she had a meltdown.

"Baka! You're supposed to knock before you barge in! I know Hokage-sama told you that!" Iruka told the girl in an exasperated voice as he gently smacked the back of her head.

Naruko smiled sheepishly at Iruka and said, "Sorry sensei, I got a little excited so I forgot." Iruka just shook his head and smiled at her, "I noticed. Well today the only free seat is next to Uchiha Sasuke, but we don't have assigned seating. If you want to sit somewhere in particular, make sure to get here promptly every day, got it? Oh, and before I forget, I'm Umino Iruka, but you can just call me Iruka-sensei." Iruka pointed out Sasuke to Naruko as he spoke to her.

"R-right! Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruko said as she hurried off to her seat, much to the displeasure of all the girls in class except Hinata, who was just sad that she wasn't the one sitting beside Naruko.

'Damn it, and now she's sitting next to him! I'll get her for this! Shannaro!' Inner Sakura yelled in fury.

'This might be even more difficult than I thought it would be...' Iruka thought to himself as he began his lecture.

A/N: Only a short update, but I've kept you all waiting long enough. Plus I felt this was a good ending point.

For those who haven't guessed, this story is going to be a bit darker at points than the original. The whole "try to forgive everyone for world peace" thing won't happen, because some actions can't be forgiven. Understood, yes, but not forgiven. To my eyes, the world exists in shades of grey, not black and white. This won't be a good versus evil story (because things are never that simple), but rather people versus people, and the struggle to realize who you are.

Also, finally to academy age! This is when I need to really start making some decisions that will have big impacts on the direction this story will take.

Responses to Reviews:

PinkiePieParty122894: Now I'm curious to read your writing sometime. :P

Shinigami-No-Kaze: I thought so, but I second guessed myself. Damn twins with similar names are a pain. It is now fixed. Thanks for pointing that out for me; I really do want to make as few mistakes in my writing as possible.

Abondoned Acc: To be fair, it is hard to be creative nowadays because so many ideas are already done. I'm glad you're liking it so far, though. Much love for your support.

ThunderClaw03: I'll do my best, but my plot bunnies love to run way ahead of the actual story. Just today I was imagining what would happen at the Five Kage Summit! That's so far away that it isn't even funny. Hopefully my brain will focus back on where the story actually is right now. XD

Otaku of Anime: I've 3 main ideas for possible team combos. 1) Keep the originals. Kind of boring, also I think somewhat unlikely. I'd have to add something of a twist of a reason why if I did this. Sakura and Naruko are going to be pretty hostile with what I have currently planned (at least for a while), and the Hokage would know this. 2) Swap Naruko and Kiba. They have similar sensory specialities, smell and sound. Also, Naruko would work better with Hinata than Sakura, methinks. Kurenai, being good at genjutsu, would also probably be very good at chakra control and help Naruko massively in said area. 3) Put Naruko in Ino's slot, put Ino in Kiba's slot, and put Kiba in Naruko's slot. Naruko already gets along with Shikamaru and Choji. Kiba would be sensor for team 7. Ino onto Hinata and Shino's team because they're probably better at lockdown than team 7, allowing her to use her mind transfer jutsu. Plus it would be an awful idea to have Sakura, Ino, and Sasuke on the same team. Nothing would get done. Most leaning towards option 2, though I have to really consider how much that will change the story from just using original teams. All in all, I haven't decided yet, though I need to soon-ish.

night-fang223: Thanks for your kind words. 3 I'll do my best to write the best story that I can.

DschingisKhan: That is true, but it is a sad truth Naruko will have to face if she chooses a human mate. Which, I guess, isn't a guarantee. It is likely though that her mate as she grows up around humans. But the lifespan difference is definitely something she will have to face... but not yet. Naruko's seeming maturity is partly intentional and partly not. I'll admit, I don't feel that I'm good at writing children. But Naruko isn't intended to have the frame of mind of a normal child. She's a fox demon that survived on her own in the forest for over a year. Far different than growing up with parents who look after all your needs.