This is the next chapter of my story, once again updated quickly. I decided to write a few chapters early before I posted the story initially. I have this chapter and one more but I need to double-check the fourth one before I post it.

To one of my reviewers, Saotome Kyuubi, I'd like to address something you spoke about me. Thank you for the criticism. As I've said I like contructive criticism and will take it when needed. I do regret that I wrote some things into that chapter that may seem unimportant but you would be surprised how much I refer back to these early chapters when I get into the later ones. Almost everything in the first three or four chapters, I will be referring back to in later chapters. So while it may seem like mindless ramblings from an inexperienced writer on the website (which is proven by the fact I accidentally deleted my second chapter after I posted it...P ), it is somewhat necessary for future references.

And now, without further ado, I present the first day of school for our little Naruto-kun.

Chapter 3 - The Academy

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

'Ugh...that damn noise...the bane of my existence.' With a loud smack, Naruto punched his alarm clock, effectively hitting all the buttons, and by coincidence turning off the alarm. Sitting up in his bed, he breathed in the morning air, as it flew into his room from the window on the far side of his room. Naruto could feel the autumn winds and it sent shivers down him but he shrugged it off, not wanting to be late. Naruto needed to be out of the house and be at the Hyuuga manor by 7:30 am and it was already 7 o'clock even. Kicking out his legs over the side of the bed, he slipped his feet into his warm morning slippers, grabbing a change of clothes and making his way to the shower room down the hall. He turned on the water to let it get warm as he undid the bandages on his hand. They were still sore from his attempting of the technique Jiraiya taught him before his birthday and he had still been practicing it even while trying to learn the Kage Bunshin. His father's advice on not using so much chakra helped reduce the negative results but with the increase of the spin's velocity, it still ended up burning his palms. He went back to his room while the water was still running and grabbed the medicinal salve from his nightstand. He opened the jar and stuck in a couple fingers at a time, applying it to one hand at a time, and carefully rubbed it into his raw hands. After doing that, he resealed the jar, placed it back on the nightstand, and went back to the shower room, and taking off the rest of his clothes, took a quick shower.

After getting out of the water, the cool air attacking his skin and making the moisture that remained on him feel like it was frozen to him. He was thankful that the medicinal cream worked as fast as it did, for he was very sure the water in the shower, no matter what temperature, would have made him see stars. And despite the fact that he did clean his wounded hands, they still smelled of the peppermint in the cream. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he quickly dressed himself in a plain black t-shirt and orange windbreaker pants with black stripes going down the outer sides of the legs. He wore black shoes/boots that he tightened to him with the laces on his shins. After putting on his windbreaker jacket, which was also orange, with black stripes and lines around the edges of the sleeves and body and red counterclockwise rotational designs on his shoulders and on the back, he grabbed his backpack and put in on, making the contents rattle around inside. He made his way to the kitchen, which had a familiar odor radiating from it. The heavenly scent could only be coming from one thing, the instant ramen cups he had fallen in love with for the easy on-the-go meal.

"Well good morning, my son. Are you already prepared to leave for the Academy?" His mother's voice was light and dainty, nothing like his father's obnoxious vocals that echoed across the entire house. Once again dressed in a morning robe, her hair hanging down to her midback and her face held a warmth in it that never seemed to dissipate, no matter the circumstances. How can she be so happy this early in the morning? It's unnatural. His mother walked to the table with two rather large cups that looked like they were made for sipping herbal teas and broths, but instead were filled with ramen noodles and the boiled water to make the broth. He reached for the chopsticks on the table, held in a little wooden cup, broke them apart, chanted the ceremonial "Itadakimasu" and dove into the ramen noodles. His extravagant eating habits would probably be considered a world-class sin if he were in any of the other noble families, bring shame to their ancestors with the horrendous slurping noises he made as he hungrily swallowed his first whole cup of ramen in a span of two minutes. The next cup was gone in a slightly longer time frame - two and a half minutes.

He smiled contently at his mother, said his goodbye to her and made his way to the front door to leave, when a yellow blur appeared in front of him. "And just where do you think you are going in such a hurry? Hmm?" There was a thin line between teasing and annoying when it came to Naruto's father, and right now, while his father would think he was teasing him, Naruto thought that his father was being annoying.

"You know damn well where I'm going. I need to go to the Academy alright?" His father didn't move or didn't show any sign that he acknowledged what had been said.

"Hmmm...yes I recall me saying you could go today. The thing is, I thought it came with a stipulation? If I'm correct, you are supposed to do something before going to the Academy. Am I right or have you forgotten?" Naruto now understood. His father was making sure he didn't forget to go to the Hyuuga's house first to be accompanied by that Kurenai lady and Hinata.

"Yes, yes, I know, but I won't make it in time if you don't move your ass father."

"Such language is unfitting from you, my boy; especially, since those words may fall upon such innocent ears as your new friend, Hinata. Be respectful of your manners and be respectful of those around you. Your teacher is your sensei from now on, understand? Do everything he says, no matter what, and behave. Now go on, Naruto, before you are late." With that he ruffled his son's hair and walked away out of the greeting area and made his way towards the kitchen where his wife surely was. I'm proud of you Naruto. Now go and become stronger.

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Naruto ran as fast as he could, pumping chakra into his legs to assist in his progress. His house was somewhat close to the Hyuuga's mansion, but he wasn't fast like the adults were, so it still took a bit of time to get there. As he approached the entrance, he saw a lady with long, wavy hair and red eyes making her way into the complex. She might be the escort since her eyes aren't that of the Hyuuga clan. I wonder if she is related to Itachi by any chance? When he reached the main gate, the guards looked at him questioningly until the person who they just let in turned around, hearing the guards ask someone of their business. When she saw that it was a young blonde boy with a backpack on and raggedy blonde hair, she knew who it was. "Don't worry guys, he was told to meet me and Hinata-sama here. I am his escort too. If you need to check, you can go get Hiashi, but he'd be mad at you for not letting Uzumaki Naruto in here to begin with." They instantly tensed upon hearing the boy's name, being given instructions to allow him in when he arrived. They opened the gates and he walked in a little apprehensively at first, shuffling uncomfortably towards the escort.

"Thanks, those guys' eyes always creep me out and I just couldn't say anything. Are you Yuuhi Kurenai?" She turned to him and nodded with a smile on her face that was very sweet and welcoming. "Um...if you don't mind me asking, your eyes are red I noticed. Are you related to Itachi-san in anyway?"

Kurenai thought she was going to fall flat on her face when she heard that question. She instead laughed whole-heartedly, amused by the boy's innocent question. "No, Naruto, I am not related to him. My eyes are like this because they run in my family." Naruto gave her a curious glance and quickly took in her appearance. She appeared to be quite young, he thought, since her skin showed no signs of age whatsoever. Her cheeks held a rosy hue to them and her hair was long, going down to her mid-back and was black. Her shirt was sleeveless with straps that came over her shoulders and tucked into her skirt, which came to about mid thigh on her long legs. She was taller than him, obviously, since the top of his head came to her to the middle of her upper body. They walked through the compound and came upon a bench in the clearing. She motioned for him to sit there and wait while she went and retrieved Hinata and spoke very quickly with Hinata's father. He nodded, sat down, and looked up at the sky. After a few moments of waiting, he heard footsteps approaching him and thought it was them returning. "About time, we might be late if..." but he stopped when he saw who was actually there. A boy who looked to be roughly around the same age as him but had the white eyes of the Hyuugas. What was more unnerving about him was the scowl that seemed to be etched on his face.

"What are you doing on our premises?" His voice was laced with malice and Naruto wondered if this boy had some sort of problem with him. Another thing Naruto noticed was that it wasn't a question the boy had asked, it was a demand.

"I was invited to be here. I'm waiting on my and Hinata's escort to come back with Hinata so that we can go to the academy. So I will ask you to back away before I make you do so." With that the boy's face went from anger to amusement as he put on a smug smirk and looked at him.

"You...are the son of the Hokage, aren't you?" Once again, not a question, but an observation. "Hmm...fine, I can afford to be late." he then took off his backpack and tossed it to the side, stepped back a few paces, and got into a fighting stance. "Come on, you will be a great morning warm-up." Naruto had had it with the smug attitude. This guy is just itching to get his ass kicked, isn't he?

"Fine, you asked for it. Just remember, you initiated the confrontation. So don't go crying to Hiashi-sama when I defeat you." Naruto took his backpack off and set it on the ground and got into his own stance. The boy in front of him tightened up his form and was probably about to come after him when a sudden gasp came from the main house of the compound. Naruto's opponent calmed down and loosened up his stance and chuckled smugly.

"Be thankful for my cousin's interruption. If not for her...you would be dead." The last words rang through his mind as he noticed Hinata staring at him and this boy, who said he was her cousin. He shuddered as the the last four words continued to ring through his head. Why do I feel that...he would've been right? The boy walked to pick back up his bag, threw a spiteful look at Naruto and ran towards the gate, jumping over it instead of waiting for the guards to open it. Naruto now looked towards Hinata to see her jogging over to him while looking worried.

"Naruto, are you okay? Why were you and my brother about to fight?"

"Brother? He said you were his cousin." He was confused and wasn't trying to hide it. Did I miss something here or did my brain just decide to hear something else?

"He...He is my cousin...but I think of him as a brother and so...yeah." she said softly, trailing off at the end.

"Ahhhh, okay. I'm surprised he's related to you in any way. He looks a lot more aggressive than you do. He seems mean as hell." Hinata giggled at his words.

"He...is a little bitter sometimes. Why were you two about to fight each other?" Naruto then told her everything real quickly and finished precisely as Kurenai approached them. Hinata was horrified by the fact that her brother, who Naruto had learned was Neji, had told Naruto he would have died if they fought each other.

"Is he that strong, Hinata?"

"Neji-nii-san is very strong Naruto-kun, despite his age. He's considered the clan's prodigy." Naruto gulped audibly as a bead of sweat came down his face. Kurenai patted him on the shoulders to get his attention and told them they had only 8 minutes to make it to the academy on time.

They were going to have to hustle to make it and she thought that that would be uncouth of her to do that to them. Asking them to gather around her, she performed a few quick hand seals and everything seemed to twist around them. One minute they were at the Hyuuga compound, and the next minute they were in front of a rather large looking building, with many kids gathered all around, talking to each other and laughing. A number of them stopped whatever it was they were doing and looked at them. Naruto found himself to be rather uncomfortable under their gaze. He wondered if Hinata was as uncomfortable as he was. By the way she was poking her fingers together, then yes she was. Kurenai cleared her throat to get both of her attendants to focus and she walked towards the doors of the building, Naruto and Hinata following closely behind her. He heard whispers come from the other young kids around him, some snickering, others looking at them and trying to judge them. He and Hinata weren't just some pieces of meat to be viewed and judged as inferior or superior. He swore he heard some of the kids mumble something about "Hyuuga heir" and "blonde haired boy" and he just couldn't wait for the inevitable introduction. If they felt that they had stuff to gossip about now, just wait till that glorious moment when they could be seen as who they actually were.

Kurenai giggled at the reaction of Hinata and Naruto to the gazes of their fellow classmates. If they think this is bad, then they haven't seen anything yet. They continued to walk down a large hall with lockers along the walls. The premises of the academy appeared to be huge, but the building wasn't all that large, being only one floor, and with a few doors that probably led into classrooms. Kurenai stopped at one of the doors, knocking on it, and moving her hand to the doorknob to await opening it. When they heard someone from the inside say 'Come in', she opened the door, and led Naruto and Hinata into the room.

It was rather large, much bigger than Naruto's room, and was quite spacious, despite the numerous desks. On one side was a large board, probably for writing notes and the such, with a desk that looked much the same as his father's desk in the Hokage's Tower. It had a small desk lamp, numerous papers, a few folders, a notepad, and a tray for holding pencils and pens, all strewn across the desk in an orderly manner. Seated behind this desk was a man with a cross-shaped scar on his face, with dark skin complexion, a Konoha headband, what looked to be a dark shirt of some kind with a heavy looking green vest over it, which Naruto noticed was the vest awarded to Chuunins. The man's hair was also dark, probably black, but Naruto didn't pay that much attention to that little detail. He was more interested in the fact that the man wasn't even looking at them and was, instead, scribbling something down on the notepad. When he finally finished, he put the pencil down enthusiastically, breathed out "Finally" out of satisfaction, and then looked at them while smiling.

"I'm sorry about that, I was just finishing up some quick notes on today's curriculum. So, you must be Yuuhi Kurenai, which means these young ones are the new students I was told I would be teaching. Hyuuga Hinata," she nodded at him with a faint blush appearing on her cheeks, "and Uzumaki Naruto," which earned him a slight nod from the boy. "My name is Umino Iruka and I will be your teacher for your duration in the academy. I must say that I am rather happy that your fathers decided to put you into the academy at this point. You can now join my most recent class and not be too far behind the rest of the students. The students will be coming into the building any moment now and going to their seats, so if you would, just stay here by my desk until they fill in completely. Then I will ask you to introduce yourselves to the others. Nothing spectacular, just a simple introduction, and then we will begin." He smiled at them but they did not return it.

Naruto's early premonition was correct and he hated it when he was right. He saw out of the corner of his eyes that Hinata looked to be mortified. Her head was lowered so that she appeared to be looking at the ground and she was fidgeting with her clothing. He hadn't taken the time to really pay attention to it, probably since it seemed so plain on her. A tannish-brown colored jacket covering her entire upper body and baggy dark pants with ordinary sandals. It was as though she were trying to look as unimportant as possible. Naruto thought to himself that it might have worked if it weren't for her eyes. His concentration was broken by Kurenai, who patted them on the shoulders, startling the poor girl, and telling them she would see them tomorrow. "Have fun, kids." she spoke in a mocking voice, with a hint of amusement, as she disappeared in a burst of red petals. It left an oddly soothing scent of fragrant flowers in the aftermath. They were then interrupted, once again, by kids entering the classroom, some not paying any attention to them, some giving them odd glances and looks, as they all went to the previously unoccupied desks on the other side of the room. There were five rows, each with around eight desks, and all fourty or so desks seemed to fill up with the exception of two, which were probably added to the row at the front just for them. Iruka, their teacher, stood up while clearing his throat. The commotion from the talking and laughing ceased shortly after and they all paid attention to him.

"Good morning, class" and the students responded in unison, "Ohayo, sensei" which surprised Naruto and made Hinata jump slightly. "We have two new students joining us today." He then looked at them and said in a slightly lower voice, "Go ahead, you two." Naruto grumbled and stepped forward a little bit, gazing around the class. Some of them were already whispering and snickering, as they pointed fingers at him or Hinata.

"Um, hey. Hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto" and the commotion built up again. Some didn't react until others whispered into their ears, probably telling them that he was the Hokage's son. His father's last name was not a very well known thing, since everyone seemed to just refer to him as Hokage or Yondaime. Naruto never said his name properly like that and always called him dad or father. Even his mother called him 'dear' or 'honey.'

Iruka punched the desk and shouted at the class to be respectful of their fellow classmates and not interrupt their introduction. He motioned for Naruto to continue. "What! You want me to give them a biography of my life or something?" he asked him in a lower voice, spilling with sarcasm. "Just tell them a little bit about you, that's all. Just a little." Naruto groaned but complied.

"Yes, if you haven't figured it out yet, I am the Hokage's son but I'm gonna go ahead and ask that nobody...PLEASE...treat me any differently you would anyone else here. I enjoy ramen, love to train and spar, and meditate in peaceful surroundings. You're up, Hinata" he said to the girl, nudging her in the side, making her jump slightly again, and walking to a seat at the front of the class. More whispers and some giggling came from the kids as he took his seat and looked upon Hinata, as she struggled to speak to the class.

"U-um...hello, my name i-is Hyuuga Hinata. I-I like to see those around me happy and dislike meaningless confrontations...and..." but she just sort of cut herself off and shuffled to take the seat next to him. He smiled at her, hoping to perk her up but she just continued to look out of it. Iruka walked up to them, handing both of them thick textbook and gave everyone orders to turn to page 37 in the book, where they learned about the benefits of meditation and how it can amplify the effectiveness of a shinobi in certain situations. After an hour of that, he called for them to exit the room via the doors at the back of the rooms at the top of the stairs. They walked into an open area, filled with logs that had targets painted on them or had training mats put on them for practicing striking. He told them to just choose a spot on the ground but give each other enough space so that no one is bumping against one another or feeling uncomfortable. Naruto took a spot on the grass close to a boy with big hair, a plain white shirt, a brown jacket that was unzipped, and brown pants. Naruto noticed that Hinata had come by as well and joined him. I admit she's cool and all and I consider her one of my friends, but that doesn't mean I want to be joined to her at the hip. Is she really that uncomfortable around others that she needs me for familiarity. She took a seat, sitting in indian-style, as was everyone else, including him, and all awaited instructions.

"Alright everyone, we're going to practice meditation. I want you all to envision a comfortable place in your mind, close your eyes, and think you are in that very place. Once you are there, I want you to concentrate and tell yourself that you will improve today. Okay? Good, now open your eyes." Everyone did and looked around, some slightly amused at the fact that they were doing meditation, others just bored. "Okay then, everyone find a partner, we're going to be practicing taijutsu." Naruto knew who he was going to pair up with, not because he didn't want to upset her, but because he was interested to see how good Hinata was. She looked like she might be a little fragile when she wore her kimonos but with this simple attire on her, she looked like she was a fighter, even though she did have those nervous habits of hers.

"You wanna partner up, Hinata?" She looked at him innocently and Naruto didn't know whether or not he could possibly spar with her at full power. He'd feel like a bully.

"U-um...okay, Naruto-kun." She was slightly happy that she didn't have to ask him, because she didn't want to ask anyone else that she didn't know. She was now very thankful her father asked for Naruto to accompany her on their first day. She would have been mortified if she didn't know him or anyone else at the academy. Iruka, after seeing that everyone had a partner, not at all surprised to see Naruto and Hinata paired up, assigned each group to a log and let them work on their taijutsu basics with either the training logs or each other.

Naruto could see that all the other kids were performing simple moves: quick palm thrusts or punches, sweeps and midbody kicks, and palm-handed blocks. He and Hinata did the same things, just simple taijutsu, but gradually increased the speed and force. Iruka watched them carefully and noted that they both seemed to have benefitted from their families training methods. After another hour of this, he told them to practice their aiming for when they throw kunais and shurikens. Naruto's aim wasn't bad but it wasn't all that great either. Same went for Hinata but she did better than he did. Naruto saw that everyone seemed to be paying a bit more attention to a boy with black hair, a blue shirt with a red fan on the back, and whitish khaki shorts. His accuracy was a lot better than anyone elses, hitting inside of the target zone everytime. He never hit a bulls-eye but he came close a couple of times. Naruto recognized the design on the back of the shirt as belonging to the Uchiha's and put two and two together. He must be Itachi's little brother, Sasuke.

After a while of doing this, Iruka called for lunch and told them all to be back in class in an hour exactly. Naruto took this chance to find out some things. He figured the boy he had sat close to when meditating would do fine. He expected Hinata to follow him, but she was instead stopped by a thin girl with long blonde hair and calm blue eyes. Naruto figured that hanging around with the other students and not hanging around with him all the time would do her some good to overcome her nervousness. He felt bad for the girl during her introduction, she seemed so horrified about introducing herself. He hoped that she will be able to defeat that weakness of hers since it is not a rather good trait with the shinobi lifestyle.

As he followed the kids to the lunch area, he saw them all eating lunches that they had brought and cursed himself for not asking about that himself. Now he was gonna starve for the next few hours or so until he could go home and devour the rest of the instant ramen supply. Naruto shrugged off the fact he had no lunch and instead hunted down that boy he had targeted. He saw him sitting underneath a tree, munching on a rice ball and staring up at the sky. Walking over to the boy, he got a couple more odd looks and snickers and was becoming more and more perturbed by the behavior of his fellow peers.

"Hey there, mind if I join ya?" he asked the boy. The said boy peered at him with one eye, giving him a quick look over.

"Sure, if you want. I don't really care." the boy answered lazily. His voice was very dull and boring. Naruto accepted the half-hearted reply and sat down in the tree's shade.

"Soooooo...what's your name?"

"Ugh...introductions are so troublesome. Nara Shikamaru. Just call me Shikamaru, alright?" Naruto couldn't help but find how agitated Shikamaru was to be humerous. Introductions are so troublesome? I think I like this guy already.

"So...you just started too? You look like, despite your lackedazical manner, to be rather experienced and so I was just hoping you might be able to help me out with a couple of things."

"You know, kid, that's what instructors are for, right?" Naruto chuckled at his response again.

"Yeah, I know that, but now I'm having fun agitating you. The name's Naruto, by the way. I'm guessing you were the one who was snoring in the classroom, right?" Shikamaru smiled at that, amused by how astute Naruto was.

"Class can just be boring sometimes and sleep is a more acceptable waste of my time than book study. To answer your first question, yes I recently started, as did everyone else. If you want to know anything else-"

"Ask somebody besides him." finished a chubby little boy, who walked from behind the tree. "Right, Shikamaru?"

"Hey there, Chouji. Naruto, this is probably my only friend, Chouji. Akamichi Chouji." Chouji looked from Shikamaru to the other boy, who must be Naruto, and gave him a friendly smile.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto."

"Yeah, same here. Chouji, right?" The boy nodded. "And you are Shikamaru." he said looking back at Shikamaru, who gave him a weird look. "Good, I'll probably be able to remember that." It was just then that the boy he had thought of to be Itachi's younger brother, Sasuke, came stalking by, followed closely by a number of young girls giving him googily eyes. Naruto recognized that the blonde haired girl was in the crowd and wondered what happened to Hinata. As if on cue, she walked into the tree's shade, and sat down next to Naruto, hugging her knees, not looking as nervous as she had.

"Hey Hinata, these are some guys I just became acquainted with. Nara Shikamaru," who he pointed to the lazy boy laying on his back, "and Akamichi Chouji." Chouji smiled at her and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "You can just call me Chouji if you like." Shikamaru grunted at that, "Likewise, just call me Shikamaru." He then gave an annoyed look at Naruto before continuing. "You know, you are becoming troublesome with all these introductions." Hinata giggled at him.

"So Hinata, who was that girl you became acquainted with?"

"Her name is Yamanaka Ino. She's nice and said her family owns a flower shop in town and said I'm welcome to drop by if I want" she said enthusiastically. Naruto only guessed that Hinata loved flowers.

"Cool. Do you happen to know why all those people were chasing that boy there? I think he's Sasuke but I'm not sure." he asked her, who only shook her head to signify she didn't. Shikamaru grunted again, probably his way of alerting people that he was about to talk.

"Yeah, he's Sasuke. Lots of things are expected out of him. The talk is that he is supposed to have a good bit of talent, not as much as his brother, of course. As for the girls, well, I don't understand women all that well so I don't know. I guess they find him attractive but I wouldn't really know. Those things are just too troublesome to even consider this early in my life." Naruto almost doubled over in laughter at Shikamaru's words. Chouji joined in at laughing at his friend's expense.

As they sat there, amused by each other, Naruto's stomach made a beastly groan as it's hunger was announced to all around him. Chouji, consequently, laughed at Naruto and the embarrassed look plastered on his face. Hinata, however, felt bad for Naruto for not having anything to eat, something she didn't notice before they split up for lunch. The irony of this was that the lunch that she had brought for herself was more than she could eat and could share it with him.

"U-um...Naruto-kun, i-if you want, you can have s-some of my lunch." she said to him as she scooted a package wrapped in a large towel towards him, her eyes averted towards her right foot.

"You sure, Hinata?" he asked politely, resisting the urge, with great difficulty, to just take the food without proper consideration.

When she responded with a quiet "Mmhmm," he unwrapped the package, undoing the snap on the quaint lunchbox and opening the top of it to see a few rice balls, a couple celery sticks, and some noodles. The noodles were apparently cooked in a buttery-lemon sauce, from what Hinata told him after he asked, and the rest of the food tasted just like it looked. Naruto wasn't a big fan of celery, but beggars couldn't be choosers in these situations. After he finished that, he thanked Hinata, who responded in her quiet voice, "you're welcome, Naruto-kun." Shikamaru had finished his rice ball and was chewing on some bacon strips, still looking up at the clouds. Chouji was eating yet another bag of chips with no regard for how the consequences of such actions might have on him in the future. A few minutes after Naruto had finished Hinata's lunch, a whistle was blown by Iruka, signaling everyone to return to the classroom for more bookwork.

When the day finally ended, they received an assignment for homework for when they returned to school in a couple of days. Naruto stayed behind to speak with Iruka about how things were gonna end up working out. Apparently, the Academy's term for the students included an 8-9 month curriculum, for four years in all. The months that you didn't attend were the students' break from the school. Naruto's father, with the assistance of the elders, had the Ninja Academy changed to resemble more of a regular school for those who did not aspire to be ninjas. The first year students were to attend the academy 2-3 days a week since they did not want to overload students early. The second year for students was a 3-4 day a week schedule and more of a workload. The third year students and the fourth year students both attended the academy for 5 days a week with increasing workloads. Each year, the students would be given a test based on what the teacher for the class thinks would best test the instructor's students. The test for the first year class, Naruto was reassured by Iruka, wouldn't be terribly difficult but as each year goes by, the more demanding the finals would become, until the last year, where the students, no matter what, would have to perform a genin rank jutsu. Naruto thought how amusing it was that he was trying to master a technique that Jiraiya told him was a Jounin rank jutsu.

After getting all of the complexities that clouded his mind about the school cleared out, he said his good-bye to Iruka and went to go catch up with Hinata, who was waiting for him with Kurenai.

"So, Naruto-san, what did you and Iruka talk about?" Kurenai asked him with a curious look.

"Just asked him some things about the academy and how things were run. He reassured me on some of my earlier doubts." he responded, giving a satisfied smile to her and Hinata.

"That's good. Now, can we get you two home? I'm pretty sure you are all tired from your first day and to be honest, I'm hungry." Naruto laughed at Kurenai while Hinata giggled quietly, as always. After they reached his house, he said good-bye to Kurenai and Hinata, smiling as he did so. Naruto also reassured them that he would be there earlier tomorrow for their pick-up time when Kurenai gave him another curious gaze.

"Naruto, you know, you don't have to do that every day. I was to assume that it would be a one time thing since you didn't know where the Academy was." Naruto gave a slight pout, which resulted in a giggle from the woman who decided to let him come along. "But if you want to, then you can meet with us. I have no problems with it. Tomorrow, I don't want to be in such a rush like we had to this morning. So be early."

"Yes ma'am. See you tomorrow, Hinata-chan. Bye, Kurenai-san." and Naruto went into his house, where he had to go through the 'troublesome' process of telling his mom, dad, and Jiraiya about his day and what it would be like for the next four years.

After dinner, he went to the garden to meditate and practice his targeting for an hour before he tackled the chakra swirling exercise. He told himself that he would spend the whole of tomorrow on his homework and exercises. The Academy was definitely what he needed, he thought to himself as he crawled into bed. The change in his routine was definitely welcome and breath of new life for him. New people, new activities, new customs, and different routines, every day he would be there. He fell asleep, excited about the prospect of becoming a true shinobi of his village, excited over the thought that in four years, he might be one step closer to his goal.

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Now that that chapter is done, I'd like to go ahead and say that the next chapter will NOT be about the second day of school. If I were to write like that then it would be like chapter 100 or so till I got to a real plot. No, instead I have opted for a time skip. A big one. The next chapter will in fact take place on the day of the genin exams. After that chapter though, I will be through with already prepared chapters and will go back to having a chapter ready within a week or two's time. Just an early warning.

A preview, if you want one. Naruto and other's reminisce on the past four years of their life with the Academy, getting ready to become full fledged Genins. Who passes, who doesn't? Find out in the next thrilling update from me, The Gemini Project.