Chapter 3: The Man Who Would Be Damned

Naruto walked into the classroom, having woken up halfway through the ride to the academy. He felt the glares on him as he passed, but some of the people glaring turned their heads, though he couldn't imagine why. He turned his head and saw that both Iruka and Hinata were glaring right back at them. He knew Iruka's glare was terrifying, as he had been on the receiving end of it several times, but he never knew Hinata had a mean bone in her body. Seeing her glaring at the people as they passed by scared him a little as well. Her eyes seemed to be burning holes in the people as they passed by, judging from the way they reacted to her. When she saw Naruto was looking at her, she turned a deep shade of red and turned away, closing her eyes, which relieved some of the onlookers.

"Ne, Hinata-chan! That was awesome! I have got to learn how to do that as well!"

"Oh… N-Naruto-kun… T-thank you… I-I think?"

Iruka looked as his two pupils, his dead last and one of his star pupils after Sakura and Sasuke, who he think he stepped over back at Ichiraku's. He chuckled to himself and took the food from Hinata as they were walking into the school grounds.

"I'll hold the food until I see both of you with your forehead protectors!"

"But Iruka-sensei! That will be forever from now! I could probably eat it before the exams start!" Naruto yelled.

"I know Naruto, but this is more of a gift than a treat. You'll get it when you pass!"

Naruto, not one to give up so easily over ramen pushed a little harder, "but there won't be any passing if I don't have enough energy to even move! That's why I need the ramen now!"

Iruka chuckled and shun-shinned away. He left an irked Naruto and a rather amused Hinata. The bell rang, and Hinata turned to walk into the academy, hopefully for the last time. When she heard no footsteps behind her, she turned to see Naruto, still looking at the place where Iruka was, defeated. She giggled again, before grabbing Naruto by his arm and dragging him inside. When they walked into class, they found that the class was unusually empty. She was probably the only girl there besides Ino. The class was also missing a raven boy, which was rare, seeing as he was always the first one there. Then she remembered the events of the day, and gave herself a mental pat on the back. She single handedly took out all of her female classmates, half of which probably didn't deserve to be a genin anyway.

While Hinata was thinking to herself, Naruto was noticing something else. Everyone else in class was looking at him, or rather… them? He looked down to see Hinata still holding on to his arm, which he thought was normal, seeing as he was dragged around by her a lot recently. So what was so damn interesting? Was there something on his face? He decided to ask Hinata, as she was usually much more attentive than he was. He nudged her a bit.

Hinata felt Naruto nudge her, and broke herself out of her musings. She looked up at Naruto to see him looking back at her. Before he could ask his question, Hinata looked back at the class, this time noticing the people who were in the class rather than the people who weren't, and then back to them. She broke apart immediately and blushed heavily, before walking to her seat in the back, next to Ino and Kiba. Naruto went and took his seat next to Choji and Shikamaru.

"Haha, you seem to be popular with Hinata-chan, Naruto" said the feral boy, Kiba.

"Indeed, the levels of affection between you two were sensed by my bugs long before you entered the class" said Shino, the Aburame.

"It's troublesome, having something like that so early in life. Although I guess it would be easier than doing it later in life…" said the lazy Nara, Shikamaru.

"Meh, you're overreacting, its kinda cool Shikamaru" said Choji, eating his ever famous chips.

"You may be almost as much of a ladies man as Sasuke-kun" said Ino Yamanaka.

"Ne, Ino, could you not mention duck hair in here? I'm tired of his pompous attitude" said Kiba with a sneer.

Naruto decided now was as good a time as any to interject, "Yeah Ino-chan. Don't compare me to the teme. He treats his friends as lackeys rather than comrades. He has a lot more female friends than me but he treats them like toys. I don't know what you guys are talking about but I'm happy I have Hinata-chan as a friend. She's kind and loyal and sweet and most importantly…"

By this time Hinata had fainted, and Ino was reconsidering her choice in man, but Naruto isn't the "Most Unpredictable Hyperactive Knuckleheaded Ninja" for nothing …

"… She's taught me a lot of stuff! Like, there's this thing she does with her hands, she touches me in these places, she starts out really slow, but then she gets faster and faster until finally, I get weak in the knees and collapse. When she's done, we're both really tired. We've done it so many times though I'm starting to last longer and… wait… why are you guys fainting?" little did everyone else know he was talking about their sparring practices.

By this time the door to the room was slammed open, and in came Mizuki-sensei, their exam proctor, and a more than pissed off Sasuke and Sakura.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble you're in dobe" said the raven haired Uchiha

"Yeah baka!" said his cheerleader, the pink-haired banshee. (I would like this time to apologize to Sakura from Shippuden, who's an awesome medic ninja. If I ever write long enough for a time skip then she would be able to redeem herself, unless the readers would rather it a different way, but for now, she was kinda mean for no reason at all.)

"Naruto, it has come to my attention that you have assaulted Uchiha-sama, and as such, you are not allowed to take the graduation exam." Said Mizuki

"What? That's no fair! The bastard started it!"

"That's not what we heard; we have eye-witnesses saying that you did. Listen Naruto, don't make this any worse for yourself, you're excused."

By this time, Hinata had woken up and heard the gist of the story. She decided that she wanted to defend her man, and that overruled her usual fear of public attention, "B-but it's true Mizuki-sensei, Sasuke, came over and started to bother us and…"

"That's enough out of you Hinata! If it weren't for your family you would be excused as well", Mizuki started to laugh, "this brat will never know something like that"

Shikamaru decided his two cents were worth something now, "Mizuki-sensei, that's a little harsh. Your role as a teacher means that you have to make unbiased decisions, and judging from your demeanor that hardly seems to be the case… Besides, I find it more likely that Sasuke provoked the fight." He said in his lazy voice, still looking out the window. He may have mustered up the motivation to care, and he may have conjured up the interest from the depths of hell to talk, but it would be a cold day in said hell before he moved his eyes off that cloud.

"Shut it Nara, before you are disqualified too, we all know your class participation sucks, and I could fail you just for that."

"I don't think it'll affect me, graduating is too troublesome anyway."

It was about this time his Choji senses were tingling… Something was wrong in the force… No more chips! He knew something was wrong! He was sure he brought enough to last the entire exam and then some… so that means that something was holding them up and whatever it was would PAY! It was then he noticed that someone was annoying his best friend and picking on Naruto, so he decided they were adequate rage quenchers.

"I doubt you'll ever graduate cactus head" said raven boy

"Says duck ass head" screamed Choji

The pink banshee decided it was time to use her special powers, "SHUTTUP! DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT SASUKE-KUN LIKE THAT! YOU-YOU FATTY!"

The class gasped and waited for the explosion that never came. Choji looked silently at Naruto before turning his head and laughing. Naruto smirked too. He knew what Choji was doing. He and Choji had started to hang a few days after he entered the academy. They became fast friends, and started to become tighter than brothers. Not as tight as Shikamaru and Choji, of course, but still very close. As such they became to learn from each other, Choji taught Naruto a low level form of the body enlargement technique, with the permission of the clan of course, and Naruto taught Choji something that would later become invaluable to the Akimichi, how to control your anger to use for later. Naruto would pity her, had she not been testifying against him… and had she not been such a raging bi-… (Trying to keep rated K+)

"Sakura-chan, no offense, but I had heard from the girls that were there who called me… They told me what happened and I don't think it's fair what you're doing" said Ino, who was impressed by Naruto.

"Shutup pig-girl, don't tell me you're siding with the dobe?"

"I'm not siding with anyone but justice."

"Then JUSTICE claims you shut the hell up and back Sasuke-kun!"

Kiba was just laughing. And they called his mom a… (You know… dog clan… mom is a female…)

It was at this time that a boy in the back spoke up. He had spikey red hair, and wore a red and black version of the apparent ninja jackets that's standard for some reason. He had pitch black eyes with blue irises, "I concur"

Mizuki, who had up until this point been quiet, enjoying the battle between the students, decided to respond to the young boy, "Ah, I know you, class prodigy Yoshi Red. Came into the class halfway through the year and aced every test. Shrouded in mystery, for some reason you were accepted by the Hokage instantly, almost from the second you entered the village from unknown lands. An orphan, the only thing we know about you is that you love ramen. Hehehe, you're the Uzamaki brat if he was halfway acceptable.

Naruto had only looked at the boy who was so much like him, why did he not see him before?

Yoshi, sensing his stare, responded, "Don't worry Naruto, I'm just the author's attempt to incorporate himself into the story in order to fill any plot holes and be an overall living deus ex machina… Don't worry; I probably won't appear very often, as I have much to do."

The class looked flabbergasted, but Mizuki decided that he would just ignore that and move on to torturing Naruto.

"Anyway… you are excused Naruto, you are holding us up and I would really like to move on."

Hinata looked ready to protest again, but Naruto placated her by raising his hand. He flashed his biggest smile and waved, "Don't worry Hinata-chan, it'll be okay"

On the outside, Hinata seemed to let his words calm her, but on the inside, she was crying. After hanging around Naruto for so long, she could sense when he put on his mask, and she hated it. That smile, that smile hurt her more than the elders of her clan ever could. Naruto was crushed in mind and spirit. She didn't know how, but on that day she decided that more than one person responsible would be crushed as well, some in more ways than others…

So how was it guys? Please leave a comment, any will do. Hell, give suggestions, I don't care. Most likely I will do them. I would have updated sooner… but my laziness puts Naras to shame… Like I said, some comments might change this…