A Voice in My Head

The Opening Chapter

By I.K.A. Valian

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up in his bed. He was back in his messy room inside of his half rundown apartment. Outside, the sun was just about to peek over the horizon and the sky was a brilliant mix of pink, red, and blue. Some stars could still be seen twinkling in the morning sky, striving against the harsh light pollution originating from the sun.

Naruto blinked a couple of times and then said, "That was a really weird dream. And I just woke up like I said I would. Eh, whatever, today is going to be a good day. I can just feel it!"

Naruto hopped out of his bed, deftly avoiding the empty ramen cups and piles of clothes. He shucked his sleep wear, tossed his sleeping cap onto the post of his bed, and began pulling on his pants. After his black shirt was on, he left his room and entered his living room/kitchen. He quickly set a kettle of water to boil and started going about the room. He gathered all of his practice kunai up from the night before when he'd been practicing throwing them at imaginary targets while he tried to save 'Sakura' from some enemy ninja.

Once all his practice kunai were safely stored inside of his leg pouch, he inhaled his cup ramen, let off a window-pane shaking belch for good measure, grabbed his orange jacket, and left. He didn't bother locking his door, it didn't have one to begin with, and started walking down the street grinning like he'd just won the lottery, gotten a date with Sakura, and beat Sasuke into admitting he wasn't as awesome.

"You do realize that you're going to be two hours early for class, right?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he spun around. He fumbled with his pouch for a kunai and took several seconds to get his shaking hands to grab one. The blunted tool was no good for doing more than practicing throwing, it didn't even stick into the target, but it was all he had.

"W-who's there?!" Naruto called out to the empty street. After several seconds of silence, the shaking of his arms lessened and a more antagonistic bravado entered his posture and voice. "I heard you before, so I know you're there! So stop hiding and come out to face me, coward!"

Naruto jerked when something crashed in the alley. His body tensed and his heart thumped loudly in his chest as he waited for whoever it was to appear. Just as he felt like the silence was going to eat him whole, a cat screeched as it raced from the alley and down the street.

"A cat!" Naruto growled. "Yeah, you better run, you stupid cat!"

Naruto sighed and grimaced in the direction that the cat ran. He quickly put his practice kunai away and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his orange jacket. As he resumed his way back toward the academy, the words that he'd heard filtered into his head and he stopped cold in the street.

"Aw, crap, I am two hours early!" Naruto beat his hand on the side of his head a few times. "Damn it! How could you do this to me, body? I never wake up early! I always sleep in!" Grumbling to himself, Naruto could swear he heard laughter being muffled somewhere. "Figures someone would be laughing at me." Smirking, Naruto ignored whoever was laughing at his misfortune and continued on down the street.

"No point going back to sleep now. I'll just go practice throwing kunai until class starts." Naruto's smirk turned into a full blown grin as he tried to imaging Iruka-sensei's face when he saw Naruto show up early for class for the first time ever. It'd be like a prank and he'd just be doing what he was supposed to do all along. "Oh yeah, this prank is gonna be awesome!"

With a fist pump, Naruto sprinted down the street toward the Academy. He really did want to get some practice in before class started. As he ran, he couldn't help but smile at how awesome this day was turning out. Already, one prank was in the works and he had no doubt he'd come up with another dozen or two before the day was out.

Iruka was indeed shocked when he walked into the classroom a little under one hour ahead of start time to find Naruto sitting there, patiently waiting. None of the other kids had arrived at all, not even the punctual ones. That Uzumaki Naruto, a habitually tardy student, was this early meant something. Something big.

"Naruto," Iruka said, half choking on his surprise. "What on earth are you doing here this early?"

"What do you mean, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked innocently. He grinned the most winning smile he had in his arsenal at his teacher.

Iruka scowled. "Naruto, I know for a fact that you've never been early, let alone on time, for class in your entire life. If you're here early, then that means you're up to something. Now out with it. What have you done?"

Naruto grimaced and bit back a growl. Why couldn't this prank have worked out? He opened his mouth to retort, loudly.

"Don't get angry. You've almost sealed the deal. Instead, point out that he doesn't think you should come to class on time."

"Iruka sensei," Naruto said slowly, as if his mind was slowly catching up with his body. He frowned, winced, frowned, and then just looked completely confused. Finally, he settled on pouting and asked, "Are you saying you don't want me to show up on time? What kind of teacher are you? I thought you'd be happy that I'd showed up so early."

"I-that is-wha-I-wha-Naruto!" Iruka pointed accusingly at Naruto and his head enlarged. "I know what you're doing!"

Naruto blinked, quite unlike his normal behavior, and asked, "You do?"

"Gah! Don't change the subject!" Iruka fumed and then he stormed out of the class room.

Naruto managed to hold out for five whole seconds. He counted. Then the dams burst and he started laughing at his successful prank. He was still laughing fifteen minutes later, on the floor now, when the first of the kids started arriving. The look on Iruka's face was that funny.

Satisfied with a plan completed, Naruto settled in for another boring lesson. No doubt, Iruka-sensei would be sending him glares throughout the day, especially if Iruka was the unlucky teacher to find the explosive water balloon in the teacher's lounge. Or the stink bomb in the bathroom. Or the smoke grenade in the water fountain. Or any other number of pranks he'd set up in just one hour.

Naruto had gotten so many pranks in place in one hour that he wasn't sure why he'd never done this before now. Every time he finished and found that he still had more time, another idea popped into his head and he rushed off to set it up, giggling like a mad genius.

And if he was honest with himself, he was just keeping these teachers on their toes. They're supposed to be ninja, after all. If little pranks like his can get to them, then he'd know where to start making changes when he became Hokage.

It was sparring time. Oh, how Naruto hated sparring time! It never failed that every day that sparring time occurred, Naruto eventually ended up pitted against Uchiha Sasuke. That boy right there is ninety percent of the reason he hated sparring time.

Uchiha Sasuke, last of the Uchiha clan, thought he was so cool. He acted like he was better than everyone around him. He spent all day glaring at anyone and no one. And worst of all, he had fan girls coming out the wazoo, one of which was Haruno Sakura.

Naruto groaned. That Sakura liked the stuck up Bastard was the final ten percent of why he hated sparring time. It never failed that when he was manhandled by the Uchiha Bastard, Sakura would cheer for stuck up prick along with all the other girls. It was bad enough to that the Bastard beat him up so easily, no matter how hard he trained, but to add Sakura (a girl he thought was cute and nice and he kind of liked) cheering for the Bastard on top of that, and it just made the whole affair unbearable.

Naruto would win one day. He'd prove that he was better than Sasuke. And somehow, he'd get Sakura's affections too!

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Iruka called. Naruto grumbled internally, while on the outside he wore a feral grin like he was sure of his win, as he stood from the class and moved into the clearing. "Uchiha Sasuke!"

"Sasuke-kun! You're going to win!" shouted one of the girls in the class.

"Kick his ass, Sasuke-kun!" shouted Sakura. Naruto winced internally and adopted his victorious grin as he stared down the imperiously smirking Uchiha. That Bastard was just so sure of himself.

"Kick his ass, Naruto!"

"Shut up, Kiba!" Ino shouted.

"You shut up! That bastard has it coming to him!"

"Bark, bark!"

"See! Akamaru agrees!"

"Troublesome…"

"Ready to eat dirt, Bastard?" Naruto asked.

If anything the smirk on the Bastard's face got more prominent, without getting larger, somehow. Naruto snarled. Bastard.

"The only one who will be eating dirt, is you, Dead Last," Sasuke said.

"Make the sign of combat," Iruka said.

Naruto grumbled as he held his hand up in the sign of combat. Across from him, Sasuke did the same. Iruka observed them both and nodded. He took a step back to clear the space between them.

"Ready," Iruka said. He raised his hand up and sliced downward. "Begin."

Naruto bolted forward. Sasuke did the same. And much like every other time the two of them fought, Naruto quickly found himself on the ground, with Sasuke's fist poised right above his face.

"Winner…" Iruka said.

"Quick, grab the arm and push up with chakra in your legs. Toss him off of you!"

"Sasu-" Iruka was cut off when Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm and threw him off. The fan girls were screaming at Naruto, but he ignored them as he pushed himself back to his feet and glared at Sasuke, who was also getting back to his feet.

Naruto grimaced. Just for a moment there, he saw that look. The look that the villagers looked at him with. Only Sasuke wasn't looking at him. Who could Sasuke be looking at with such hatred in his eyes? Naruto shook his head and decided to figure that out later, he had a battle to win.

Sasuke snarled and charged again. Naruto's eyes widened at the speed and barely had a chance to block the punch aimed at his face and completely missed the flying kick to his gut that sent him flying and knocked the wind out of him. Naruto gasped and felt tears stinging his eyes as he tried to suppress the pain and breath at the same time.

"Force yourself up! You'll never become Hokage if you stay on the ground!"

With a grunt, Naruto pushed himself up. His whole body was shaking from the exertion, but it was like his body was physically refusing to be defeated. The fact that he could push himself, and by now he was clearly way beyond any other attempts at sparring with Sasuke, shot a bolt of exhilaration through him.

Up until this point, he never thought he could fight this hard. That he was now finding himself capable of doing so was nothing short of amazing for Naruto. Already he could see ways to use this to become even stronger, if he could keep training past being just tired and out of breath. Why hadn't discovered this sooner?!

Back on his feet, Naruto glared at Sasuke. The Uchiha glared back. They rushed at each other again, and this time, Sasuke spared no effort to totally beat Naruto into the ground. Punch, punch, punch, kick, kick, kick. Naruto grunted as he felt like he was being used as a training dummy. His body hurt more than it ever hurt before. Pain, like nothing he had ever experienced, lanced from his lower back up into his skull, making it hard to think or see straight. It seemed like the beating would never end.

Sasuke felt his arms and legs growing tired. This was the most work he'd ever put into a spar with another academy student, ever. No one lasted this long before and he doubted Naruto would try anything this stupid again. The dead last was fated to lose this spar the moment he'd gotten up. No, this wasn't a spar, this was a beating.

"Hmph," Sasuke grunted, as with a final heave of his leg, Sasuke kicked the bloodied Naruto away. "Had enough? Pathetic. Just stay down, Loser, where you belong."

He was kind of surprised that Iruka-sensei hadn't called the match, but he supposed that even the teacher wanted to see the Dead Last put in his place. Sasuke was only too happy to oblige.

Sasuke huffed and puffed as he calmed down from the violent beating he'd given Naruto. There was no way the dead last was getting up from that one. With one final look at the bloody body he'd dropped onto the ground, Sasuke sneered, shoved his hands into his pockets, and turned to walk away.

"W-winner, Sa-" Iruka once again froze, his mouth hanging open comically.

Sasuke noticed Iruka and stopped walking away. Confusion overwhelmed him when he heard several gasps from the class. A shiver ran up his spine.

"He couldn't have gotten back up," Sasuke said, mostly to himself. He had just beaten the ever living shit out of Naruto. There was just no way that idiot dead last was standing again, not after Sasuke had put everything he had into putting him down. Just, simply, no way.

Anger bubbled up inside of him as he turned to see what was so shocking to the rest of the class.

'I will not lose!' Naruto roared inside his head as he pushed himself to stand on shaking legs. He then took one step. And then another. He was now simply running on whatever this force was that just refused to let him stay down. Hell, he welcomed it.

'I'll never give up!'

He hated falling and never getting back up. He hated it more than losing to the Bastard. He hated it more than the glares he got from the villagers.

'I'm going to be Hokage, Dattebayo!'

The fact that his body now seemed to share his hatred of being beaten, was just plain awesome. It hurt like nothing he'd ever experienced before. It was like fire was burning him from the inside out, like his very soul was exploding with pain so intense that he could only imagine death would be a welcome reprieve. However, he wasn't going to let something like excruciating pain take away from the awesomeness of this moment.

'I won't let anything stop me!'

Naruto watched as Sasuke turned around. He grinned as the Uchiha Bastard stood there, frozen, with his hands in his pockets. With his grin that felt more like he was grimacing in pain, Naruto stumbled into a sprint and threw his fist forward.

'Not even this stuck up Bastard! Dattebayo!'

For the first time in his young life, Uzumaki Naruto laid out Uchiha Sasuke during sparring time at the academy.

There was a knock at the door. The Hokage, an old man sitting behind a desk in red and white robes denoting his station as the leader of the village, set his calligraphy brush down and leaned back in his chair. "Come," he said as he steepled his hands in front of him.

The door opened to admit Iruka. The academy teacher bowed to the Hokage before moving to stand closer to the desk. "Hokage-sama," Iruka said, "you called for me?"

"Yes, I assume you know that some of the families in the village have complained at the mistreatment of Uchiha Sasuke today," the Hokage said. "They all seem to claim that Uzumaki Naruto went on a rampage and beat the poor boy to a bloody pulp, until he was on death's door even, and had to be hospitalized."

"Hokage-sama, that's just simply no-"

"Don't worry, Iruka-kun," the Hokage said, waving off the chunin's concerned look. "I know that it's quite the opposite. I was in the hospital when Naruto was the one admitted, so I'm not worried about Sasuke's condition. I called you here because I wanted your account of what did happen. All I've read so far are shoddy third hand reports at best and I didn't want to wait for your written report." Anything to get out of more paperwork, mused the old Hokage.

"Ah, um, yes, Hokage-sama," Iruka said. "The event took place during today's taijutsu sparring day for my class. I usually rotate who spars against who, so that everyone can get a more even experience. Naruto was paired against Uchiha Sasuke. At first, the spar proceeded as it normally does when Naruto fights, and he was defeated easily by Sasuke. Then, from some unknown well of strength, Naruto tossed Sasuke off of him and they went at each other again. Sasuke pulled a punch and delivered a kick that sent Naruto away again.

"I would have called the match then, because Naruto appeared to be down for the count. Then, and I swear I don't know where he pulled the strength from, but Naruto stood back up. It was clear that he had the air knocked out of him, and his body was shaking from the effort to stand, but Naruto was just refusing to stay down.

"Sasuke seemed to take this refusal to submit as some kind of challenge to his honor and attacked more ferociously than before. It didn't last long, maybe ten seconds, but Sasuke never gave Naruto a chance to defend himself and, well, you saw the condition that Naruto was in."

The Hokage nodded. "Continue."

"Well, Sasuke got tired, I could see him slowing down. He kicked Naruto away and assumed the match was finished. Naruto looked very much done. I should have called the match earlier, but I swear I've never seen such a fire in Naruto's eyes when he once again pushed himself to his feet. It was like I could literally see Naruto's Will of Fire."

"I don't blame you, Iruka-kun," the Hokage said. "Though you perhaps should have stopped the match sooner, your response afterword was everything I've come to expect. And Naruto wasn't seriously injured. He was even trying to tell a joke when I spoke to him earlier. But now I'm quite curious, how did the match end?"

Iruka looked suitably abashed at the light admonishment. "Sasuke was quite shocked that Naruto was still coming at him, even though he looked seven steps from the Shinigami's grasp. Sasuke was so shocked that he didn't react at all as Naruto punched him in the face. Laid him out flat on his back. It's the first time Sasuke's ever been knocked down in a fight like that. Then Naruto collapsed and I rushed him to the hospital as fast as I could."

The Hokage nodded and gave Iruka a wry grin. "I suppose it's good to see the younger generations bearing such a strong Will of Fire."

Iruka smiled and said, "Yes. Naruto has always been excitable but I've never seen him refusing to stay down like that before. It's like he was possessed… or… something. Hokage-sama! You don't think?!"

The Hokage frowned and then shook his head. "No, if the seal had weakened in the slightest, you would have seen the effects and I doubt the rest of your class would have been able to keep quiet about anything like that. No, I am sure that this was all, one hundred percent Uzumaki Naruto gutsiness. It would be nice if we could all have such strength."

Iruka sighed his relief and nodded. "That would be nice. I'll have my report to you by the end of the day, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage sat up straight and dismissed Iruka. He picked up his brush and grumbled as he continued drafting the letter he'd been working on before. Paperwork wouldn't finish itself, after all.

Naruto was certain now. The sun was going down, he was in the hospital, and it seemed like he was in some serious trouble. This was the worst day of his life.

"And it started off so well, too," Naruto mumbled.

"I don't know. Today seemed like a pretty good day to me. You did get to beat Sasuke, after all."

"Well, yeah, after he beat the crap out of me like I've never been beaten before. Hey!" Naruto's eyes widened as he realized just who it was he was talking to. "It's you! The voice from this morning! I thought it was just a cat! And then I heard you during the fight with Sasuke, too! Who are you?!"

"Quiet down! You don't want to attract the attention of the hospital staff, do you? They'll see you talking to yourself and think you've gone insane."

Naruto grimaced and quickly glanced at the door. After a few moments of silence, during which no doctors or nurses came to check on him, Naruto let out a sigh of relief. "Just because I don't want to get caught doesn't mean I don't want my question answered," he whispered.

"Yeesh! Don't you remember that dream you had last night at all?"

"That was you!?" Naruto said a little too loudly. He waited a few moments and relief washed through him again when no one came to check. Quietly, he said, "I thought that was a dream."

"Yeah… not really. That wasn't a dream. I'll just tell you again, since it seems you forgot. Call me Agent Nine. I'm a being of some power and I'm here to help you, Uzumaki Naruto, to become a badass ninja."

"What?" Naruto scrunched his face up in confusion. "Why me? I don't get it."

"That's fine. You don't need to understand everything right away. I'm not going anywhere soon, so you'll have plenty of time to figure it out. For the time being, I should tell you the rules that I follow. The first rule is I will not be interacting physically with you or the world around you. That basically means I can't do anything for you or help you in any way physically."

"That's stupid," Naruto grumbled. "How are you supposed to make me a badass ninja if you can't help me train? I don't think I want your help if you can't do anything."

"Of course. If that's how you wish it. But I suppose that my help earlier when you were facing Sasuke wasn't really needed. You had that fight fully under control, right?"

"What?" Naruto sputtered. "But that was… I… Okay, fine!" Naruto huffed. "You can help, but I don't know how a voice in my head is going to be of any help!"

"Ah, well, let me tell you my second rule then. I cannot tell you anything you can find out on your own, in most cases. There are some ways to bend that rule and there are some cases where the rule doesn't apply. In regards to helping you train and become stronger, I can't tell you how to train, but I can tell you if it's working or not and assist you in strategy and tactics, both on and off the battle field. I'm also permitted, though this is a little bit of that rule bending I mentioned, to suggest ideas to you. Whether you go through with those ideas is completely up to you, of course."

"So, you can't tell me how to train and get super strong and you can't physically make me stronger, but you can tell me what to do?" Naruto scrunched his face up and then he shook his head. "I don't think that's going to help me much at all. That just sounds like you're a lazy bum who is going to make me do all the work."

"True, I suppose it does sound that way. How about this? You and me do this thing on a trial basis for the next four months, until you graduate. If you see improvements and the arrangement is to your liking, then we'll just keep going forward with this. If not, then we'll work something out then. Is that an acceptable proposal?"

"Hmm…" Naruto tilted his head as he thought about it. It couldn't hurt to at least try it out. Besides, it didn't sound like anything would change so it's not like he'd be getting worse with this voice in his head. "Yeah," he said, "okay. But only until I graduate. If it's not working by then, you gotta go."

"That works for me, Naruto. Well then, to make it official, I officially declare that Uzumaki Naruto has entered into a mentoring contract with the Pan-Dimensional Security Agency. My designation now officially changes from Agent Nine to Operator Nine. You, Uzumaki Naruto, are now designated Agent N, for Naruto or Ninja, whichever you prefer. Just don't let anyone know that, because it's supposed to be super secret and stuff."

Naruto grinned. "That was so cool. The way you said all that stuff and it's like, I'm a secret ninja spy now. This is gonna be so awesome!"

A/N: So I decided that the previous chapter was too short and abrupt without getting across what the story was generally about. So I posted the second chapter to the story to help with that.

Review and tell me what you think!

~I.K.A. Valian