The First Day of School

------------Mission------------

After the students left the auditorium, the other teachers started leaving after saying their farewells for the morning. Only a couple of teachers remained after a couple of minutes, plus the principle, and they were chatting as they were walking to the door.

"Can't believe it. Now I'm teaching, and I have to deal with these kids year long," complained Asuma followed by a heavy sigh.

"C'mon, teaching can't be that bad. Well I have to set up my classroom for my 1st period class, I'll see you guys," said Kurenai as she rushed off.

As Kurenai left, Asuma pulled out another cigarette, and was about to light it. Somebody tapped his shoulder. He turned around and faced Ebisu.

"I don't see why you're complaining, you don't really have to do anything with your class. I have to teach these little runts on how to further their charka control, and that can grow to be very dull. Especially me telling them the same advice over and over again," he said.

"Well I guess I do have it easy compared to most teachers, but I still don't like it..." he replied as he lit his cigarette. He inhaled and exhaled the smoke as both men left the auditorium.

Jiraiya was the only one left, walking really slowly in deep thought.

"Doing this, takes away all my research time..., but I'll make sure fans won't wait long for the next novel. I'll just gather some material here," he thought, as he let out a giggle at the thought of peeping on some of the very "nice" teachers here.

As he was about to step out, his secretary walked up to him. Jiraiya turned around and glanced at his young, beautiful secretary.

"Now, it would be a waste if she isn't in Ichi Ichi Paradise Vol. 5," he thought with a mischievous smile, trying to hold in his giggling, as the secretary was speaking to him.

"Jiraiya-sama, are you listening?"

"Oh um, yes..., what was that you were saying, uh, Fina, right?"

"Yes. Anyways, I was telling you that Godaime Hokage is in your office waiting for you," she informed him, "She told me to go and call you since you were taking so long."

"Tsunade? What is she doing here? Ah, probably telling me more stuff to do," he said with a loud sigh. Jiraiya nodded and turned the other way and walked.

"Jiraiya-sama, your office is that way," she called after him.

"Damn, I thought she wouldn't notice!" Jiraiya cussed. He reluctantly turned around and started walking back to his office.

As he opened the door, he saw Tsunade sitting his chair behind the desk. "Very comfy seat you have here, I have to tell Hanako to get one of these for the office."

"Hanako?" questioned Jiraiya as he closed the door behind him, and went over to a seat.

"My new assistant since Shizune is working here now. Very useful, might I add. But I'm not here to tell you about my assistant," she stated as she took a bottle of sake in the drawer. She poured a glass of it and put the bottle on the desk.

"I was saving that, you know?" Jiraiya said coldly, as she drank the glass of sake.

"It's not good to be drinking on the job."

"I didn't say I was going to drink it during school hours..." he muttered.

"Anyways...," she started, but he interrupted her.

"May I ask you a question before you start? You have been really busy lately, so I couldn't contact you, but it is something I must know."

Tsunade looked at her watch and replied "Uh, okay. I have plenty of time, so go ahead."

"Why are you still allowing the people from Sand to attend here considering the recent events?" asked Jiraiya in a serious tone.

"Why? Do you have a personal vendetta against them," she questioned.

"If I say I do, does that mean you'll find someone else as principle," he joked.

"Even if you admit yourself as the traitor to the country, there would be no way of getting out of this one," she replied with a smirk, "But to your question, the recent events have been reported all over that it is solely the plan of the Hidden Village of Sound in the invasion of Konoha and assassination of Sandaime."

"But there were eye witnesses."

"All of the citizens in the stadiums were put to sleep by a person on the side of Orochimaru. And the other ninjas..., well that would be another secret they have to bear till death. Them going through the death of their Kazekage is already enough for them to handle. And they were under the influence of us being enemies of the world to start with."

"Regardless, there are some ninjas that still have hatred for them since some of their friends and family died by the hands of these Sand shinobi. Will it be okay for them to go to a school where the majority student body is from Konoha? It may be 25 that they have parents that are ninjas themselves, but that is still a large number! Plus considering the monstrous battle three Sand kids had against Naruto, the Uchiha, and the other finalist at the center of the stage."

"I can guarantee only a selected few that saw that battle. I heard from Morino Ibiki that there was a genjutsu barrier around the stage at the precise moment the invasion happened. The barrier made people outside of it see and hear nothing but normal test activity. Only few very high and capable nins were able to see past that. It also blocked people from interfering like the one made around Sandaime Hokage and Orochimaru. I didn't inform the others about the truth of what happened inside it, because it wouldn't be deemed necessary considering everybody got out of there okay. Also, I have made sure that the Sand nins would get an equal treatment from both adults and children, by using my 'methods'."

"The very same method that got me to be the new principle of this school," questioned Jiraiya with a frown.

'The very same," she replied with a grin.

"But why would they put up that kind of barrier at all?"

"I think Orochimaru didn't just come to Konoha to rid of Sarutobi-sensei..."

"He was planning on to kidnap or is it that he was planning to kill one of the three Konoha nins that were on stage," he asked in a worried tone.

"My sources say it's more likely for the first one than the latter. He managed to develop "that" technique," she told him.

"He managed to defy the power of time, eh? Then that would mean he is after the Uchiha, isn't he? He should've done the job himself, if he wanted to succeed," he commented.

"Yes, he should've. Anyways, that brings me to the next mission I'm suppose to give you," Tsunade said.

"I thought being principle was my mission...," he replied dully.

"Nope, this position is just an excuse to give you more missions, so bear with me," she said as she handed him a folder. Jiraiya opened it up and read it, as she started to speak again. "Your mission is to protect the "3 Aces". Under any circumstances, they are to be protected by you and your men while in school grounds. We'll handle the rest."

"Do we have to inform them about their current danger?"

"No, it would be easier to operate without their knowledge of us following them everywhere they go."

"Okay, but I gotta ask you something else...," Jiraiya started. Tsunade nodded, to tell him to continue.

"I understand the Uchiha, but why the other two?"

"Some of Konoha men have reported an organization that is planning to collect demon vessels. We are unsure of their motives behind this act, but we must protect both of them at all cost. It is also rumored from some of the snitches that Uchiha Itachi belongs with this organization."

"Oh boy..., so that's why you brought me here."

"Yep. I only trust you to be able to protect the whole student body, because this organization will do anything to get the job done."

"I understand... Oh yeah, before you go, how did you explain the death of Sarutobi-sensei. I heard rumors hear and there, but they don't seem to be very good explanations."

"I said that he simply died of natural death during the junior graduation ceremony. We will clear his cause once we get a hold of the people behind this."

"It seems as it won't be as easy as you say…" Jiraiya said.

"Probably not…, but I'm sure we can handle it. A little twerp once told me not to give into pressure and fight it with everything I got. So that's what I'll do."

------------Class Time------------

The division 785 starts entering their classroom. As Shikamaru was entering through the doorway, Ino squeezed in.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" she shouted.

"Hai, hai, sorry," Shikamaru said, even though he knew it wasn't in any way his fault. "What a troublesome person," he muttered.

Apparently Ino heard the insult pretty clearly (her ears wiggled), so she turned around and faced Shikamaru. Her face had built up anger like a demon as Shikamaru took a couple steps back.

"What did you say?" she asked to declare if she heard correctly.

"This person feels extremely dangerous. I better choose my words wisely, or I might not be able to speak again," Shikamaru thought in a heartbeat, "Now what sounds like troublesome: devil's son, crumpled bum, rubble crumb, wonderful one..., good enough!"

"I said..." Shikamaru started before he was interrupted.

"Hah, you don't even know it. She's always humming around Sasuke like a mad fan girl. She IS very troublesome..., and annoying too. Hey..., now I remember you!" Naruto stated loudly.

Ino grew red with anger. She brought back her fist and threw it forth with incredible power. It connected to Shikamaru's face as he flew out the doorway, dragging Naruto back with him. They crashed into the wall, and showed no signs of life for a while. Then, they slowly started moving about.

"Hey, I wasn't the one that insulted you...," Naruto said as he got up to his feet by grabbing a random person's leg to help him up.

Apparently, he grabbed Hinata, and she was very red with embarrassment. She, by reflex, pushed Naruto down again, making him knock Shikamaru down again, who just sat up.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologized with a bow.

"What did I do to deserve to have a guy like him hanging around near me...," Shikamaru thought in regret. He let out a heavy sigh as he pushed Naruto off him and got up.

Naruto started thinking with a very high concentration.

"What did I do to get attack twice?" he questioned himself, not having a clue about his recent crimes.

Eventually, everybody went inside the classroom. Since the seats around their friends were taken, Naruto and Shikamaru sat next to a different group.

"Yo," Naruto proudly greeted to Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and some other person. That other guy just nodded as he stared off into space.

"H-hi," Hinata said shyly, with still slight redness in her cheeks. She started twiddling her fingers as Naruto stared at her.

"Are you okay? You look kinda red. You should go see the school nurse," he suggested. She just replied by sliding down her seat more and growing a bit redder.

The division teacher cleared her throat to get the attention of her division. "Hi, I'm your division teacher. You guys can all call me by the name of Shizune-san. I'm a teacher for "Healing Techniques". But you don't have to worry about the subject till next year, and that's if you chose to become a medic-nin. I'll start telling some stuff to you about our school now. This school was founded by Sandaime Hokage, 7 years ago. He built this first international school in order to create bonds with other countries and to create peace between countries. It was a very wise decision he made, and the main reason why we don't have as much wars as other countries might have with each other is because of that."

"Now onto other subjects. Everybody, take your schedules out," she stated as students started rummaging through their bags and pockets and pulled out a piece of paper.

"All of you have the following subjects in common, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu. The other two are lunch and a class given to you to improve your weakness or further increase your strength. The school board analyzed your strengths and weaknesses that you showed last year, and that gave you the class according so. Now everybody, please introduce yourselves till the bell rings. And when that happens, that mean you are to go to 1st period," she said. Shizune sat back down behind her desk and listened to her students.

"So," Naruto started, "The name's Naruto. Nice to meet you guys," he said as he stood in front of the class.

"Tell us about yourself," Shizune asked.

"Well, uh…, let's see. My likes are ramen, adventures, and uh..."

"Don't tell me…," Sakura hesitated.

"Sakura-chan!" he mumbled shyly.

The rest of the class started wooing and started whistling once he finished his sentence. Sakura slid back into her chair, vowing to kill Naruto after school.

Next persons who volunteered themselves was Kiba and his faithful dog partner.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and he's Akamaru. With the both of us, we make a deadly pair of shinobi!"

"You need a little doggy to help you out in danger," teased one of the kids.

"WHAT? Akamaru, let's show a thing or two about…," he said before the teacher interrupted.

"Kiba-kun, you can sit back down now," she said strictly.

Kiba grumbled in frustration as he went back to his seat.

"I'm Chouji and my likes are chips, barbeque, dumplings, candy, cookies, pork, chicken…"

"Uh, that's enough. You may sit back down," stopped the division teacher.

"Oh yeah, and that pony-tailed guy over there is Shikamaru. He said it would be less troublesome if I did the introduction for him, while I'm up here. Let me see…, he likes Shogi and clouds and…. I think that's it. But he's a really great person once you know him!"

"Heh, a loser just as I expected," thought Ino.

"I'm Shino," he introduced curtly. Then he went back to his seat.

"Uh…, I…, I'm Hyuuga Hinata and...," she started before the rest of the class started mumbling amongst themselves.

"Ah, I knew her eyes look familiar…"

"Oh my God, do you think she knows Neji? Maybe she can introduce me to him…"

"I heard she isn't that great compared to the other Hyuuga geniuses. I mean just look at how she stands…"

Hinata started growing more awkward and awkward at the moment. She was about to run out the room to get away from all this public pressure before she felt a shout of support from the crowd.

"Hey, stop being so rude! She was silent when the rest of you were introducing yourselves!" a certain loudmouth blonde shouted. Once he got the crowd controlled, he gave her a sign to continue.

"T-Thank you, Naruto-kun!" she whispered softly to herself as she gained confidence to continue with her introduction to the class. "I will try my best this year, and I hope all of you will put up with me." She then gave a bow to the class.

"I'm Ino and that big forehead girl over there is Sakura. She's too embarrassed to talk, because of what the village idiot was blabbering on about," she said. By the end of her presentation of herself to the class, she was on the receiving end of deadly stares by Naruto and Sakura.

Last person up was Sasuke. On mid-way of his introduction, the bell rang. All the girls stayed behind voluntarily just to seize every moment they can hear him talk. Even if he tried to leave for class, they still urged him to continue.

"Uh, I have to get to class," he said.

"It's okay, it's okay. Please continue," said the other girls as they stared mesmerizingly at him.

------------Failing Basics------------

Soon the first period bell rang, and every student walked to their classes. Naruto was now in Chakra Control class for some extra learning that he didn't understand the first time around in junior high, although he thought that there was no point for him to go to such a class.

Ebisu, their teacher, was a skinny man wearing all black with a bandana and dark glasses. He first instructed the class how to mold chakra. Before long, the loudmouth boy felt the need to express his opinions on the subject.

"Gah, this is first grade stuff. I came to this school to learn new stuff, not just get bored out of my mind. I will be Hokage one day, so give me more of any exciting and challenging subject!"

"Uzumaki, is it?" the teacher began in a calm tone. "Okay, please demonstrate the class how to mold charka by climbing the wall by the side over there with the use of only your feet."

"Easy…., I think…," he said as he got up. He stuck two fingers out and started gathering charka at the sole of his feet. He put one leg onto the wall and felt it was sturdy enough for him to set his other leg on it. He gave a grin to the class as he slowly walked up the wall.

Once he reached halfway, he boasted, "See! Easy… A 4 year old kid can do…" Before he can finish, he dropped to the ground with a thump. The whole class erupted with laughter, including one laugh that stood out very much.

"Ahhahahaha! Man, you suck so much!" said Kiba as he was holding back his tears of laughter.

"Oh yeah, why don't you try it? You were put in this class for some reason, weren't you?" questioned the blonde.

"What did you say? Me and Akamaru were only put in this class due to a mistake with the scheduling. We're pros when it comes to gathering charka. Right, Akamaru?" His small puppy barked in agreement.

They ran toward the wall Naruto was near and easily climbed (or should I say walked up it?). Once they reached the ceiling, they gave a "V" sign pose for victory.

Naruto grunted at being showed up by some dog freak, while Ebisu clapped his hands.

"Good job. Now, let's see how well you do with walking on water. Try the small pond over there…"

"What? We can walk on water?" said Kiba in surprise as he slowly got back to the floor. "You know anything about this, Akamaru?" His dog shook his head in response with a small whimper.

They headed over to the small pond at the center of the room and observed it closely. "I'll just gather charka and see what happens, I guess…"

One step in, and already he plunged into the water. It was amazingly very deep as Kiba dropped to the bottom of the "pond". He quickly swam up to save himself from drowning.

Naruto dropped on the floor laughing once Kiba re-surfaced, while the other classmates had small giggles of their own.

He got up and was all wet. Before he can dry himself off, Ebisu said, "I see that you two can barely handle the basic of the basics. Please, don't interrupt my class again if you can't prove your point…" lectured Ebisu.

Naruto and Kiba slowly got back to their tables and sat in silence and embarrassment.

------------Lazy Meets Taijutsu Crazy------------

Meahwhile, Shikamaru was in Taijutsu class as everyone introduced themselves to their teacher, Maito Gai. He already gave his brief introduction as he waited for the rest of the class to finish their part. Last was a very unique-looking guy wearing a green spandex jumpsuit and had thick eyebrows with a bowl-shaped haircut, very similar to their teacher.

"Gai-sensei, I think I'm in the wrong the class. My schedule is full of first year classes," he stated loudly.

"We'll go get that fixed up after class. Now kids, this is Rock Lee, my most proud student of all. Since today's the first day of class, he'll show you some stuff we'll do this year. Lee, take the stage."

"Hai!" He walked up in front of the class and gave his presentation. "First, it would be the basic 2 punch-elbow-kick-deathlock-headbutt-spinning leg sweep combo" He demonstrated what he said to the class and did it to the punch bag.

"Even though he did all of that to the bag, it still looks like the bag's crying from extreme pain…," thought Shikamaru as he flinched at Lee giving the demonstration of the second move.

Class went on, and now Gai explained the daily schedule in this class. "You are expected to go through a small warm-up before you practice your taijutsu moves, so I expect you to do 200 push-ups, 150 sit-ups, and 50 squats…"

"Gai-sensei, you shouldn't underestimate them too much. Each year, the youth come rolling in more energetic than the people before them, so I say we should double that amount," Lee said as he gave a nice guy pose to the class. The class shrunk down in horror.

"Is he serious? We'll be dead from exhaustion by the time main lesson starts if this happens…"

"You're very right, Lee. I apologize for giving you such a light warm-up schedule. We will now do 400 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, and 100 squats."

The whole class groaned in dissatisfaction, while Shikamaru let out his trademark comment.

"How troublesome…"

------------One Silent Alliance------------

Next period finally rolled around, as young shinobi head to their next destination. Lunch for some, Training for others, and Ninjutsu for another selected few.

"Ninjutsu 3? That can't be right…" Shino wondered as he entered the class.

Right as he entered, many people gave him stares, probably thinking, "Isn't he a little too young for this class?" or, "What's the deal with the whole jacket and glasses cover-up? Is he a spy or something?"

Shino didn't mind though. This was just another day for him and he got used to it. Another person came into class receiving the same treatment also, although they seemed more like scared or threatening ones.

Gaara came in and sat in an empty chair next to Shino as class was about to start. He looked very calm and seemed ignorant of the people around him. There was muttering about him before the class officially started about how they heard from a person's distant relative's friend's neighbor about how Sand freaks like Gaara are plotting against the safety of the whole world.

One kid stood out and decided to defend his homeland with his ignorant, harsh words. "Hey, freak…, go back to where you came from. We don't want you here!"

Gaara just remained silent and ignored him. The guy decided to repeat his words in a more controversial fashion to get something out of him. "Hey, did you hear me? Drag all your bummy Sand buddies and leave. You will only make our school look bad!"

Once again, Gaara remained silent. Very angry for not getting any reaction out of the guy he had insulted so badly, he decided that he had to raise his fist. He threw a punch forward right at Gaara, while sand slowly came out of his gourd in order to protect him. But even before it connected, the boy stood in paralysis. Then a couple of small bugs crawled out from under him.

Gaara turned over to the person next to him, Shino, and gave him a questionable stare.

Shino just stared back for an instance and turned over to the teacher who was about to begin her lesson.

------------Suspicious Aura------------

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all met in the hallway in the way to their next class. "So where are you guys, heading?" Naruto eagerly asked.

"Ninjutsu. Shikamaru too," Chouji cheerfully replied.

"Same here," he responded with a wide grin. "I can't wait to learn some new techniques. It's going to be awesome!" He then started daydreaming about what the lesson plan was going to be. "Okay, today for class, you guys are going to learn the Ultra Flashy Super Cool Megaton Fire Bomb Jutsu. Since Naruto is the most gifted in the class, why don't you…"

"Hey baka, we better head to class before it gets troublesome," Shikamaru told him as they already walked on ahead of him.

"Hey, wait for me!"

Luckily, Shikamaru and Chouji made it just on time before the bell ring. Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't so lucky.

"Sorry, the crowded halls can be so hard to navigate through sometimes," he said with a sheepish grin to cover his bad excuse while scratching the back of his head.

"Just go to your seat. I don't feel like dealing with annoying brats today," he responded. He was a tall dark man with bandages covering his mouth and neck. He had a Hidden Village of Mist hitai-ate and had a huge sword that laid on the ground behind his desk.

Naruto obediently listened to the scary man and walked over to an empty seat in the back row, which coincidentally had Chouji and Shikamaru nearby.

"Don't you guys think that guy kinda looks like a mummy?" Naruto whispered over.

Chouji nodded as Shikamaru let out a sigh for the idiot not noticing that he was still being watched.

"Do you have anything to share with the class, brat?" the teacher asked out loud as he eyeballed the blonde.

Naruto shook his head hesitantly as the teacher was finally able to begin the lesson.

The lesson wasn't as grand as Naruto had expected. First off was his introduction to the class (his name is Ichimonji Genji by the way). Then they dashed right to the lesson, which sounded pretty damn good to Naruto ("Oh yes! Time to learn deadly powerful attacks!"), but it wasn't as expected, for him anyways...

"Hey, stop talking about the boring history stuff and let's go to where the action's at!" Naruto declared loudly.

"What a troublesome baka," Shikamaru thought as he slowly "scooched" his desk away.

Naruto was ignored by Genji though as he continued to write history facts of ninjutsu on the board. Naruto despised most being ignored, so he immediately rose up to his seat to continue again. "Hey, are you…," he immediately paused in his dialogue once he felt a person lurking behind him.

"You will not disrespect Za…, Genji-san!" he threatened as a needle was held up right to Naruto's throat.

"Kid, back to your seat! And brat, you interrupt my lesson plan again, I won't be so diligent with your behavior!"

The masked boy obeyed the teacher's orders without question as Naruto slowly absorbed the situation around him.

"You okay, Naruto?" Chouji whispered in concern. The expression of fear still ran through his face.

What Naruto felt wasn't normal. The murderous aura he felt leaking from the guy was something he felt not so long ago coming off another person. But against this person, he felt that he didn't have a chance to compete against. Why? He wasn't sure. He rushed in to beat Gaara without a second thought during the tournament. But against this guy, it seemed to be a whole different story. This fellow classmate of his wasn't just another freshman…

"Naruto?"

He immediately shook it off and answered to Chouji's concern. "What? Yeah, of course I'm okay. Never been better!" he replied with a false grin.

Chouji immediately felt reassured though, while Shikamaru observed "underneathe the underneathe." "Maybe, he'll be less annoying from now on…"

Naruto remained oddly silent throughout the whole class, a feature which didn't seem very likely coming from him. Regardless, that's how he was throughout the period. When class ended, Naruto made sure that he was the first one to leave. Shikamaru and Chouji quickly caught up to him.

"Hey Naruto! Lunch is next!" Chouji stated as he searched through his bag. "I still have a lot of good food in here!"

"Well, I can't wait to eat it!"

"Well, I have some troublesome Training class next. I'll meet up with you guys later then," Shikamaru said as he broke off from the group.

They waved good-bye as they happily marched to the period that they've been waiting for, good ol' Lunch.

------------At Last, We Meet Again------------

The rest of the day went pretty casual for Naruto and the rest. Fortunately, Division 785 met each other at their lockers before heading home or wherever according to their plans after school.

"So Shino, I heard there's going to be some fight after school. A dumb freshman was messing around with the wrong senior's girlfriend is what I heard. You wanna check it out?" Kiba asked. He and Akamaru craved for some action since entering his school. It has been a big letdown for his first day, but who knows?

"F-Fight? Should we t-tell a teacher or s-something?" Hinata hesitated at the thought of violence.

"The fight should extinguish itself, so you need not worry Hinata. Also, I'm not interested," Shino curtly replied as he finished his duties around the locker area.

"Fine, but I'm telling ya, this isn't something you'd wanna miss! Let's go, Akamaru!"

The two separated in their own directions, leaving Hinata by herself. She looked around and wasn't sure which exit she should head to. As her mind wandered off, she accidentally bumped into a certain loudmouth ninja. She fell over with a huge THUMP!

"I'm sorry," she said with a heavy blush.

Naruto helped her up again without much concentration on her well-being. "It's okay… Sakura-chan!"

"So how did the rest of the day work out for you, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked his best friend.

"Troublesome. This school is definitely worser than I expected. It's so hard to get any good sleep when the teachers talk so loud," he said followed by a wide yawn.

"Heh, at least I won't see this guy next year. He'll probably have to stay back," Ino commented to Sakura loud enough for the person she insulted to hear. He just shrugged her off and continued putting books away in his locker. Ino was about to talk with Sakura, but immediately saw Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, let's walk home together!" she yelled out as she skipped over to the raven-haired boy.

"That Ino-pig! How dare she stand between me and my true love!" Inner Sakura commented while punching the air in rage. Sakura immediately followed after her, so her blonde friend would have a chance to capture her crush's affection.

Naruto was about to talk to her, but he saw that she left to be near to Sasuke. "As expected, I guess…"

To immediately refresh his cheerfulness, he turned over to his two new buddies. "Hey, you guys, let's hang out! We can show each other our awesome abilities!"

"I'm sorry, but I have to head to the store then back home. I have to go pick up some groceries, and my mom can get really annoying when she gets impatient…," Shikamaru said. He then walked away toward the opposite direction he was facing in his usual careless stroll.

"How about you?"

"Sure, I have nowhere to go to anyways. Are we going to go eat afterwards?" Chouji asked. He started rubbing his stomach, anticipating for the right answer.

"Of course!"

They walked outside, talking about what techniques they can do. Naruto talked about this one time how he stole a secret scroll from Jiraiya and learned how to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. He also made mention of his ability to summon a frog, although he hasn't gone far with that since his last try. Chouji spoke of his Akimichi clan techniques, which sounded pretty cool to Naruto's ears. "Can you teach that rolling technique to me? It would be great to do that against Sasuke, completely surprising him!" He suddenly turned and noticed somebody just following behind them.

"Hinata, right?"

Since she was facing the ground, she was thrown off-guard when he called her name. She nodded nervously.

"I-I... D-Do you know which way is Entrance H? I'm s-supposed to meet up w-with my cousin there…," she shyly stated. She assumed that following Naruto would eventually lead her to where she was supposed to be.

"Oh, I passed by there when I was heading to my last period. Follow us!" he said as he waved her to walk beside him. She turned red and slowly picked up her speed.

"So you're an Ouga, right? What special moves can you do?"

"I thinks it's Hyuuga, right?"

"Y-Yeah, it's Hyuuga… Uh…, I'm not r-really good at anything…," she embarrassedly stated. She felt she had an undying spirit at the beginning of the day, but they just lower and lower the more she interacts with others. She just feels that she's really useless…

"Don't worry, you'll be really good one day!" Naruto said with a wide grin.

Although Naruto probably didn't mean much when he said that, it really encouraged and boosted her confidence. Hinata felt more optimistic with herself just with that one line. "T-Thank you, Naruto," she softly stated with a slight blush on her face.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"N-Nothing…"

As they continued walked around the school, the three of them met up with a trio that they weren't expecting to meet.

"Well, if it isn't Uzumaki Naruto. The guy who beat my brother," Kankurou coldly stated as he stared at the spiky blonde. Unlike his brother and sister, he didn't feel grateful for what Naruto done. All he saw was a person that would be a threat to him.

"The puppet guy, fan girl, and sand man. What a lovely alliance," he commented in a joking manner.

"The guy still has a loud mouth on him as usual," Temari joked back.

Hinata was concerned with the tension going on with these three strangers and Naruto, so she whispered over to the blonde to ask what was going on.

"It's nothing. Don't worry," he said with a reassuring smile.

"So Gaara, what's up?"

"Nothing… Uzumaki Naruto, I just want you to know that I intend to return what you did to me. But when that time comes, it will be a fair fight between the both of us," Gaara stated.

"I can't wait for that day then!"

After they made their promise to have a rematch, they walked past each other with the tension cleared. Kankurou still had the look of disgust on his face, but the rest seemed to be slightly happier with the situation out of the way.

"You, who have also helped me, I also plan to return the favor."

"So Naruto, who were they, anyways?" Chouji asked after they dropped off Hinata at the right entrance (with Naruto's guidance, Hinata would've gotten there quicker if she was by herself).

"Just some old friends."

Author's Notes: Due to the support of my lovable fans (probably lost most of them though), I was able to continue with the story. I initially gave up, because there was a lot I had to cover and it seemed to be too much. But then I thought of these mini chapters within the chapters to help my focus. Anyways, please read and review. Recommend it your family and friends. And expect a new chapter by…., well, I don't want to make any promises. Just make sure to look out for it, okay?