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Without a Fox: Senju Style
Chapter 4: A Day at the Academy
By Jamnaz79
Beta: ?
Notice: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in the story. I only write for the hell of it and for a bit of fun and hopefully to have others enjoy. I take no profit or anything from this story.
"Before you go Naruto-kun, did you remember to feed Fluffy-kun?" Danzo asked with a pleasant smile.
"Yes Grandfather, I made certain to feed him. Tomorrow is one year that I have been raising him. Do rabbits have birthday parties?" Naruto asked excited.
"No, they do not. After school I want for you to come find me in the training yard with Fluffy-kun. I think it is time for you to learn an important lesson." Danzo requested of the boy as they walked to the front gate. "Now off with you."
The Elder watched the boy run off to meet his little friend, then let out a sigh and shake of the head. He was becoming too soft. Perhaps the afternoon will change that a bit, no matter what it was needed for the boy.
~~~ WaFSS ~~~
Naruto hurried from his home towards the Sarutobi Clan Estate. He had to hurry since he had delayed his departure with his talk with his grandfather. He couldn't help but wonder why the old man wanted him to see him with Fluffy-kun. It most likely wasn't anything important; the old man loved that rabbit too.
The boy quickly made his way through the crowds for the early morning of Konohagakure to arrive at the gates of the Sarutobi Compound. There standing in the early morning crowds was the Hokage and his own granddaughter. The girl standing next to her grandfather looked to be around nine years old; she was tall for her age at around four and a half foot tall in height. But, the most dramatic features of the girl were her bright green hair and orange eyes that sparkled with interest and curiosity of all of the people around her. She stood in the shadow of her grandfather fiddling with the hem of her white blouse that was untucked from her loose black Shinobi pants. Naruto ran over to the girl with a smile, "Fu! How are you? Are you excited?"
The girl lit up with a mischievous smile towards Naruto and leaped forward to give a quick friendly hug to the boy, then darted back to the side of her grandfather, "I am good Naruto. But, there are too many people here. I can't believe you get to go to the Academy today with me. Do you think your grandfather would let you come every day if you liked it?"
"I…. I doubt it. Danzo-sama is very against me going there. He always says…." Naruto shrugged his shoulders with a smile, "Let's just see what it is like."
"You will like it. Even though the others in my class are younger I really like the class. Iruka-sensei is great." Fu smiled brightly as she bounced up and down. She was always a bundle of energy. She leaned in close to Naruto and whispered, "Plus you can help scope out the place. Remember your plan to prank the teacher."
"What are you two talking about?" The aged voice of the Hokage interrupted the two youngsters. He looked over both of the youngsters. While Naruto was the picture perfect vision of calm and poise just like his father had been, Fu couldn't hide the blush on her cheeks. She never could hide from him when she was up to something. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to hear about it later on.
The girl smiles brightly then rubs her hands together as a little bit of evil glee gathered into her sparkling orange eyes. "Let's go see the classroom!"
The Hokage blinked and opened his mouth to speak up to stop them. But by the time he tried the girl had grabbed hold of the blonde's hand and started to run off dragging him away from the Hokage. The old man hears a cheerful yell back towards them, "Jiji we are going to go look at our classroom! See you tonight!"
The old Hokage chuckled brightly as the children ran away. He couldn't help but feel happy seeing the next generation growing up so fast.
~~~ WaFSS ~~~
The classroom was a large chamber with stadium style seating in rows that can seat ten students per row. The rows are split down the middle with a stairway up to each row. When Naruto and Fu got into the classroom they could see a large number of kids already present. Some of them immediately were recognizable for their clan insignia on their outfits. Others though were obviously from civilian families or even orphans. The place seemed to be a mad house of chatter as the kids mixed together. Naruto glanced around the room before spotting a sleeping black pineapple haired boy and headed right to him. "Hello Shikamaru, how are you doing?"
The pineapple haired boy let out a snore, while Naruto took a seat next to him. Noticing on the other side of the boy a chubby boy from the Akimichi clan Naruto gave him a friendly way, "Hello Choji. I see Shikamaru is excited as always. I wonder if I can wake him up with a game of Shogi later on."
The two were some of the few members of this class that Naruto knew. His adopted grandfather had made certain to introduce the Uzumaki to the future heads of the Nara and Akimichi clans. It was important to take any chance to get to know the future leaders that Konoha would need to lean on. If these two became like their fathers they would become great shinobi someday. The fact that Naruto was two years older and wouldn't be in the Academy except this one day meant that it was important for the boy to get to know a few important children at least if he was to someday reach his dream of becoming Hokage.
In fact Naruto had received a document with basic facts on all of the important clan children in this classroom. He felt Fu taking a set next to him talking animatedly about the class and everyone in it. While Naruto didn't mean to do so he tuned her out as his eyes glanced about the room. He could see from a glance silent brooding Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was the second son of the clan head and younger brother of the ANBU prodigy Uchiha Itachi. His grandfather had told him about the boy's older brother. The boy's chakra was disturbing in feel, there was an underlying sickness almost an unfelt rage.
A row behind the boy was a familiar purple haired girl with a hime cut. Her lilac eyes were staring at him with open surprise as there was a splash of crimson on her cheeks. Naruto remembered her as the girl he had saved from the ruffians. He gave her a friendly smile which promptly caused the girl to pass out. The Uzumaki boy gave a small shrug then glanced at the boy next to her. He was silent, hidden behind a pair of dark glasses and trench coat. The boy if he remembered from the file was an Aburame, the famous bug users of Konohagakure. They were an amazing intelligence gathering clan. This boy, Aburame Shino, was the son of the current Clan Head. This boy's chakra felt calm, smooth and inquisitive.
A sharp elbow to the gut brought Naruto out of his thoughts and back towards his now glaring purple haired friend, "Why are you ignoring me? I am trying to tell you all about the Academy!"
An easy smile slipped over the lips of the boy as he brightly answered, "I am just looking around Fu. You have a lot of classmates. It is very different then my own learning."
"You never talk about your own training. Why?" Fu asked with a frown.
The boy gave a shrug in return, "Family training methods from my grandfather Fu. I wouldn't ask you about your Sarutobi methods."
The unspoken statement that Naruto didn't want to really talk about some of the methods that his godfather put him through was present. He could hide that behind the fact that someone shouldn't ask about clan training methods. In Konohagakure the clans had the power, prestige, and choice to keep their training methods secret. The penalties were rather dangerous to those that tried to supersede them. Of course Naruto wouldn't ever get Fu into trouble, she was his best friend. But, that didn't mean he wanted to betray his grandfather's wises either.
Before either could continue a poke in the shoulder stole Naruto's attention. The older boy turned to glare at the offending person to find a boy with wild dark brown hair. His cheeks had red downwards triangles almost in the form of fangs. His eyes were dark black narrowed towards slits. His chakra had the feel of wild abandon, lack of restraint and determination. He was clearly an Inuzuka. "Why are you here?"
To be truthful, Naruto was a little surprise at the directness of the other boy. But that changed immediately as his eyes narrowed. He reached forward and poked the other boy back in the shoulder, "I am Uzumaki Naruto, as for why I was here. Fu asked me to come see her class today."
"Well I am Inuzuka Kiba and I don't see why Fu would want worthless like you here!" The boy seemed to shout as he placed his hands down onto Naruto's desk and leaned forward.
Immediately when Kiba did that he went flying backwards. An angry short green haired girl's fist slammed into the boy's chin sending him backwards. Fu's yell sounded possessive as she screamed, "Don't insult my friend!"
Luckily the boy only flipped over the desk behind him and fell not damaging anything too much. The nine year olds strength was far more than any other child in the room but far less than enough to seriously damage someone. The boy actually jumped right back up and grumbled to himself shooting Naruto an angry glare instead of the girl that actually harmed him.
It had been about thirty minutes since they had entered and finally a pair of Chunin walked into the room. Naruto let a small sigh come from his lips hoping that he will not always be stuck with Sensei that will be late. The pair in the front of the classroom both wore Chunin vests. One of the men stood about five foot eight with white shoulder length hair that was covered by a bandana. He wore a standard uniform with the Chunin flak jacket and a blue mesh shirt underneath. The second Chunin had brown hair tied back into a pony tail with a forehead protector visible. The man with dark eyes and a scar across his nose stepped forward before all of the children.
"As some of you might have noticed, today we have a guest joining us. The Hokage has requested that Naruto-san join us so he can see what the Academy is like. He is the student of the Elder Shimura-sama. I expect you all to treat him politely. Despite out visitor, today will be like any other day in class." Iruka spoke firmly staring about the class, making certain to have eye contact with each of the students.
Iruka gave a bright smile to everyone in the classroom, "Now let's all take out our Chakra control scrolls and turn to chapter twelve to get started on your lessons."
It had been a few hours in the new school and already Naruto sat bored senseless. Iruka-Sensei continued to drone on about the basics of chakra control. He had literately spent over an hour explaining how to access their chakra. Naruto knew these students were two years behind him but he never expected some of the students here to not even be able to access their chakra yet! How was a way to strengthen Konoha? It seemed that they hold back a whole class till they all learned at the same slow pace. Civilian students may be slower but they still should be able to learn at a steady pace.
At the moment the boy had invented a new game of trying to rotate a pencil over his hand just by using chakra. The pencil would be stuck with chakra to his hand then pushed with his will to circle around slowly on his hand. Sometimes the boy would incorporate rolling the pencil up his arm to his shoulder then back down to his hand. All of this turned into an elaborate chakra control exercise that was very useful to the boy but still a game for his boredom in the classroom. At this very moment Naruto had his eyes closed concentrating on spinning two pencils on each of his shoulders. Unfortunately Iruka, who did not notice the spinning pencils, thought the boy was sleeping in the middle of his class. So sneaking up the young man carefully he used the Big Head Jutsu, "WAKE UP NARUTO!"
Both of the pencils went flying from the shoulders of the concentrating boy as Naruto leapt into the air in shock. The first pencil slamming into the wall just a few inches behind the pink haired student causing a few strands of her hair to fall to the ground. The second pencil flew straight down towards Mizuki who leapt out of the way in surprise.
"What the hell was that?" The Boy turned to look at the Chunin with a fierce anger in his eyes, for a brief moment staring down the scarred instructor as the legendary Uzumaki anger was overtaking him. A look of shock came over the face of multiple of the class, including the instructor at the anger and killing intent leaking off of the boy. Then in a blink of an eye Naruto regained his control, the anger disappeared and the boy took a deep breath. "I am sorry Iruka-Sensei for my disrespect I was concentrating on applying a chakra control lesson in a practical form."
The instructor frowned at the perceived arrogant clan student, folding his arms over his chest as he looked down at the boy. The man gave the child a fierce glare, "Indeed, you can access your chakra then Naruto? Let us see you do a demonstration since obviously you do not need to listen to my lesson on the subject."
The boy smiled at his teacher, seeming to miss or ignore the anger reflected in his gaze. Naruto lowers down to sit in his chair once more making the rat seal. The eyes of the boy close tightly as he folded his hand together, after a few moments Naruto started to glow faintly with blue light surrounding his body.
"Good Naruto, wonderfully done." The Chunin praised the boy; even despite his ignoring the lesson he had seemed to easily best the lesson. But, Naruto was not finished, as the instructor started to take his eyes off of the boy he turned to motion towards the rest of the classroom and explain the example that the boy provided he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Naruto had not stopped the exercise. Instead the glow was becoming brighter and fiercer by the moment. The light now reflecting from Naruto was actually brighter than the lights in the ceiling. A few more moments and Naruto was shining fully contained with a blue radiance that hurt to even look on. Some of the students gasped and shielded their eyes by turning their heads away from the child. Finally the streaky red haired boy lowered his hands to his sides letting the seal drop and the glow recede into his flesh. He looked up at the teacher with fierce, determined cerulean eyes that boiled like a raging sea in a storm, "Was that acceptable Iruka-Sensei?"
The Chunin barley nodded his head to the boy, a stunned expression not leaving his face, "Very good Naruto, but I am surprised you did not pass out the amount of chakra you just put off had to be far above your level. " A hint of concern touches the face of the man, "Perhaps we should get you to the nurse?"
The boy wipes a little bit of sweat from his forehead then rubs the back of his head with a cheerful smile, "Well I am an Uzumaki. We have a lot of chakra Iruka-sensei. I can feel that I have more then everyone here but my friend Fu."
The Chunin simply nodded at the boy having little else he could say then moved back to the front of the class where Mizuki was at. The two Chunin started to test each of the students quickly one by one after assigning a reading on chakra studies.
Naruto picked up two more pencils from the stack of his desk and placed them back on his shoulders. With a bit of concentration they were held fast in place then started to slowly spin at the insistence of the boy. Naruto glanced at Fu next to him studying her over carefully as she kept her own eyes closed trying to grasp her vast amounts of chakra. The boy reached over and gave a squeeze to the shoulders of the girl, "Keep your eyes closed but listen to my voice Fu. You just need to relax and feel the flow inside of you. It swirls in your stomach and slowly rotates outwards through your whole body. It is like water inside of you, if you try to grab it then it will slip through your fingers, but if you let it flow into your hand you will be able to quench your thirst."
The girl kept holding the rat sign as she concentrated on the voice of her friend. Following his instructions she was finally able to have it click. A burst of Chakra erupted from the girl swirling about her as bright as Naruto's was. The strength of her chakra was so rich that Fu's green hair stood up straight from the pressure surrounding her. Finally she released the rush of chakra then smiled brightly at her best friend," Yes, I did it!"
Naruto gave her shoulder a squeeze then a wink, "Yes Fu. You did it perfectly!"
~~~ WaFSS ~~~
If he was honest Naruto was exhausted when he said goodbye to his friend Fu. It wasn't that he had been forced to do anything especially hard while at the Academy. It was more that he had to be polite and hide his frustration. Perhaps if he had been with students closer to his age and level it wouldn't be so bad. But, from what Naruto had seen of the Academy it had been boring and wasteful in time. Overall they spent more time learning book smarts than they did becoming shinobi. Don't misunderstand a shinobi needed to learn things like numbers, letters, and his history. He needed to understand the ideas behind science and the world around him. Hell, a shinobi that didn't learn of the culture and geography of his enemies would be a failure on a mission. But, to spend seven out of the nine hours of the day on just that while in the academy? That seemed to just be a waste.
The boy had toughed it out with a forced smile and firm politeness but he was determined never to have to go to the academy again! He rushed home through the gate and quickly into his room. He pulled Mr. Fluffy out of the cage, which was always kept clean. The rabbit didn't seem to mind as he walked with him carefully bundled into the boy's arms out to meet his grandfather.
Danzo was seated on a stump in the middle of the yard. He was reading through a pile of scrolls seeming to enjoy the afternoon sun. When he saw his young charge approaching he placed down the latest scroll into the pile and smiled for the boy. "Hello Naruto-kun, how was your day?"
"It was horrible. Please don't send me back to that school. It was soooooo boring!" The boy complained as a large pout filled his face.
A rare chuckle escaped the lips of the scarred man. He reached down and scratched behind the ears of Mr. Fluffy as he studied the boy, "Why was it so boring Naruto-kun?"
"Because they learn things so slow. I know they need to move at the pace of the group but doesn't that just mean everyone won't be as strong as possible?" The youth grumbled as he flopped down to sit before his grandfather. The white rabbit leapt from his hands and started to hop around the pair of them.
"Indeed you are correct Naruto-kun. When you move at the learning pace of all, those that are special are slowed down in their studies." The man paused as he studied the boy. His grandson had truly grown over the years and he had to admit the boy would soon become a young man. Today would be a major step towards his future. "The question Naruto-kun, is do you have what it takes to become a shinobi?"
The boy looked up at his grandfather his eyes going very wide, "Of course I do. I can do anything that is needed to become a Shinobi! I am going to become the greatest Hokage ever!"
"What are the duties of a shinobi Naruto-kun?" The voice of the old man had lost his happiness and instead become stern as he questioned the boy.
The exuberance left the boy as he reacted to the sound of the man's voice. The boy's eyes narrowed as he studied the face of the old man before he stated, "A shinobi is the protector of the village. They are the warriors that along with the fire Daimyo's samurai fight against other nations. We do jobs for others to bring income into the village. We help and support the people of the Fire Nation."
A frown crossed the lips of the old man at the answer. He slowly shook his head back and forth at the type of answer, "That is partially true Naruto. What type of missions might you get sent on?"
"The missions range from D to S in rank. D rank are the lowest given to new genin which is helping around the village. C rank missions are commonly missions where a shinobi will not expect to have to encounter a resistance from other nations. These are commonly done by new genin teams, single Jonin or a pair of Chunin. B rank and A rank are higher level of danger. This could be from escorting powerful nobles or documents. Assassination and protection missions could be included in those. S rank mission can be applied to any number possible issues that the Hokage deems necessary including capturing important missing-nin." The boy stated firmly meeting the gaze of his grandfather.
The old man considered the boys words staring at him silently before finally nodding his head once, "Very good Naruto-kun. On those missions you will have to fight samurai, shinobi and even bandits. There are many dangers in the world around us and you must be killing to do anything necessary to complete the mission and see the safe return of yourself and your comrades."
The Village Elder paused in his words as he reached to his hip and pulled out a kunai. He dropped that do to the ground before the boy and his pet, "A shinobi must be willing to kill anyone even a former friend who has betrayed the leaf."
The eyes of the child started to grow wide as he looked down at the kunai. He understood where this was going and he didn't like it. He swallowed slowly as he watched his pet hop around before him.
The old man stood up and started to walk off, "You have fifteen minutes to kill Mr. Fluffy Naruto-kun. Do this and prove to me that you are different then the boys and girls at the Academy. That you have what it takes to be the legacy that this village needs to protect it after the Hokage and I are gone."
The boy slowly reached forward and grabbed the kunai. He sat there for the next ten minutes staring at his little pet. But before the fifteen minutes he would be back to the house, his cheeks covered in tear stains and blood on his hands. But, Naruto would do what was required of him.
Author Note: Most folks figured out what was going to happen to Mr. Fluffy. I hope folks enjoyed the chapter. This will be the only time that Naruto will attend the Academy. He will be educated differently. I hope folks are enjoying it so far. Thank you for all of the reviews and favorites for this story so far.