Chapter 3 ...Hello, New York
Their flight was almost uneventful, save for a fight between Logan and Scott over who should be piloting the X-Jet, causing them to nearly fly right through the Statue of Liberty's torch. Had Jean and the Professor not diverted their flight path, they would've replaced Liberty's torch with the X-Jet.
As they landed at The Institute, the members of the X crew were arguing over whom Naruto would be bunking with. When it looked like the girls had won, they would argue over which of them would be his bunkmate, then the boys would take sides, revitalilzing the argument in favor of the boys. It went on for a good twenty minutes before the Professor jumped in.
"Why don't we let Naruto decide who he should bunk with, after all, he should be in a place that he is most comfortable."
"Well, then is it ok if I stay with Jean? I mean, we already get along really well, don't we?"
"Of course we do," Jean added, gloating a little that Naruto had picked her over even the guys.
"Then it's settled, Naruto and Jean will be staying together. Logan, will you help Scott move the boxes into their room while Jean, Storm and I show Naruto around the campus?"
"Of course, Professor," Logan replied.
"Come on, roomie! Let's get the grand tour out of the way."
For the few hours before dinner, Naruto was led around the campus, beginning with the basement areas. Starting with the X-Jet's landing pad, they worked their way around the sub levels, ending the tour with a view of Cerebro. They maneuvered about the first floor and the courtyard, with all the amenities of a regular campus, plus a few one-ups in the cool department. They even had game room with all the latest video games, systems, multiple computers, a pool table, a hockey table. Naruto, having not had the luxury of even owning a regular toy, was torn between fainting at the sights before him, and simply breaking down at the drastic changes that were occurring in his life overnight. There was so much to take in, and so few hours in the day.
As they continued their tour of the massive main building, Professor X listened in on his thoughts to gauge Naruto's reactions to his various surroundings. 'Amazing, there is so much that he hasn't even experienced yet, having been discarded by his own village. It's a wonder he hasn't been broken yet, that in it's own right is a testament to his good nature. Hmm, or maybe he has cracked, and simply fixed himself up with some kind of goal in mind. We'll soon find out, I hope.'
The marathon tour across the entirety of the main building ended with Naruto being shown into his new room. It was a fairly large room, about as big as his old apartment, with navy blue walls, two king size beds, and a view of the basketball courts. At either end of the room, was a small walk-in closet, just enough for one person's clothing.
It was simple enough, but for Naruto, it was more than he could've asked for. Now, he wouldn't need to worry about angry villagers cutting off his water or electricity, he could go to any place of business and not worry about being turned away. No one here knew of his secret; for the first time in his life, he was free to do whatever he wanted. He held back the tears, trying to keep a hold of his excitement.
He felt someone place their hand on his shoulder. He turned to see that the owner of said hand was Jean, "Welcome home, Naruto."
"Yes, Jean, well said," Professor X added, "welcome home."
This was altogether too much for the young boy, as the tears started to flow in little lines down his smiling face. He turned and grabbed a hold of Jean, letting out a few light sobs. She returned his gesture, holding him til he pulled back. "Thank you Jean, Professor, everyone."
He wiped away the tears, and set about unpacking his stuff, finding places for his few personal belongings, while Jean went to her closet to change after her trip. Professor X informed them that dinner would be in an hour, before setting off down the hall to the nearest elevator. Storm, Logan, and Scott left to go change before dinner, chatting about the new releases at the local theatre.
As Jean was changing, she decided to rib Naruto about his little sob session, "For a kid who showed so much gut earlier, that was kinda weak how you cried and all."
"Not as weak as hugging me back you she-devil."
"Who are you calling a she-devil, you half-pint?"
"I am you crazy ass red-head!"
"Ok, I was gonna wait a while before we started our fight again, but you've just crossed the line you pint-sized pain in the ass!"
They got into their ready stances again, and lunged-
'THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU!' Professor X, then forced them both to sit on their beds, while he mentally berated them until dinner was ready.
As they made their way downstairs, they caught up with Storm, Scott and Logan, who were debating over what movie they wanted to go see this weekend. Naruto and Jean joined in, and they continued arguing about movie choices until they arrived at the kitchen. As they all sat down to a meal of spaghetti and meatballs, a question came to Naruto's mind. "Hey Professor, if this is a school, where are all the other students?"
"To be honest, Naruto," he began, "this school hasn't been open for very long, not quite a year in fact. For now, everyone that you see here, aside from Logan goes to the local high school. They just started their summer break, so we have time to set you up for high school while you work on your disguise."
"But Professor," Storm interjected, "shouldn't he start in elementary like any regular kid? I'm not sure he'd be able to-"
"I assure you Storm, young Naruto here is far brighter than any normal grade school kid. In fact, I'm almost positive that he'd raise the bar in this house if he really tried."
"Are you sure Professor," Scott asked, "I don't want to be the one who has to help him keep his grades up."
"Oh please, Scott," Jean said, "Storm or I are the ones who would help him. You have a hard enough time keeping up in class. You helping him would just bring his grades down, a lot."
"Now, just hold on a minute," Logan said, "why don't we just see how much he knows before you guys start throwing around accusations."
Pleased with his very reasonable request, Professor X added, "Excellent idea, Logan. Why don't you three go get your summer homework, that I know you haven't done yet, and let Naruto see it."
Hurrying off in an attempt to hide their blushing faces, they went to retrieve their summer projects that, like the Professor said, they hadn't even started on yet. When they returned, a light smirk could be seen on all their faces, believing that Naruto had no chance in hell of figuring out how to do their project. Their assignment was to write an essay explaining what they thought the underlying theme of The Lord of the Flies was.
"Soooo," the three of them said simultaneously.
"Yeah, squirt," Logan added, "whaddya think?"
"Well," he began, "personally, I thought that William Golding was describing the workings of government using characters like Ralph and Piggy to represent a form of government, while using the conch as a method of identifying that government as a democracy."
Storm, Jean, and Scott stood there, slack-jawed at the very thought that a five year old was showing them up so easily.
"Furthermore," he continued, "I feel that he describes human nature as a double-edge blade. On the one edge, is all the good mankind has in them, the ability to work cohesively as a single group for the common good. On the flip side, there's all the evil we humans contain, the ability to commit heinous crimes in the name of oneself. It can be easily said that Ralph, Simon and Piggy represent all that is inherently good in mankind, while Jack and Roger epitomise the dark untamed nature in all mankind. How does that compare, Professor?"
"Excellent assessment Naruto."
"Hey now, hold the phone," Jean interjected, "where the hell did that come from? I get it, the Professor must have told you all that, right?"
"No Jean, I did not influence Naruto. It's just as I said, he is far brighter than anyone else his age. He will do fine in high school, won't you Naruto?"
"You know it Professor! Besides, if I had started out in elementary, they would've moved me up to high school anyway. I would think that would be more embarassing than just being shown up behind closed doors right?"
Storm, Jean, and Scott tried to imagine how it would feel to have a five year old show up in their class one day. They all shivered simultaneously.
"Damn, though. Where did you learn all that, pipsqueak," Logan asked.
"Well, the villagers back home hated me so much, the civilian council wrote a few laws that allowed civilian owned shops could deny business to anyone. They were also allowed to price gouge me to the point that those orange jumpsuits I have were all I could afford. There's no way to be a decent ninja when you shine brighter than the sun everywhere you go."
The group sat and listened to him intently, anger slowly building at the harsh world Naruto had to grow up in. "They didn't stop there though, I wasn't allowed to enter many places of business, like movie theatres, and restaurants. They even went so far as to burn my application for the ninja academy in front of me. Naturally, I wasn't allowed to purchase any training scrolls, so whatever jutsu I do know, I learned from Hokage-Jiji. When I couldn't get to see him, I would ask my ANBU to get some basic civilian books that I could learn from. One book led to another and I started to request more and more advanced reading material. I absorbed these books as easily as I did the jutsu Jiji taught me. I started hanging out with the Nara and Aburame ninja clans, who were among the few groups of people who didn't hate me, and learned more from them."
Logan asked, "What did you learn from them that you couldn't learn from books?"
"Yeah," Jean added, "and what were these clans good for that you couldn't go to anyone else?"
"Well, it's one thing to read about how to successfully contribute to a debate, and an entirely different matter to actually participate in a debate. As for these two clans, the Nara clan is infamous for being lazy super geniuses. Their ability to see through their opponent's defenses is so legendary, it's been said that they have the gift of foresight. In actuality, they just have very good deductive skills and keen eyes, able to pick out even the smallest break in their opponent's defense. The Aburame clan is infamous in their own right for being cold calculating individuals with little to no emotional range. They say only the Nara clan is capable of figuring out what a member of the Aburame clan is feeling. I figured that with that to compete against, I could refine my skills with wordplay well enough to one day overturn the council's laws that effectively purged me from their day-to-day lives."
"Dude, my head hurts," Scott said, "so you're saying that at the age of five, you have the mentality of a cold, calculating super genius?"
"That about sums it up, yeah."
"That's so cool Naruto," Storm added, "not the reasons that led up to this, but how you turned out after the fact. I bet you could easily lead our school's debate team to nationals."
"Why would he do something as nerdy as that," Jean said.
"Why wouldn't I, Jean?"
"Yeah, Jean," Logan added, "he might as well do something he'd be good at, right?"
"If he just did what he'd be good at," Scott interjected, "would he improve in P.E.?"
"He can worry about that later," Professor X said, "why don't we get him used to living in New York first? We can show him the sights, and work on his disguise. Once he's got that down, he can take a look at the course handbook. Does that sound good to you Naruto?"
"Sounds great, we can start tomorrow."
To be continued…
Author's Note – I'm gonna skip these next few weeks, but I will use some events from them as flashbacks later. I'm taking a poll to see how Kushina and Kana left the village, so make sure to cast your vote. As always, R&R!