Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto not am I making any profit from this work. (Besides feeling happy with all the nice reviews)

Chapter 9: Ninja Academy?

After Naruto got his apartment cleaned up and actually able to be lived in, it was much more comfortable. I spent the days learning new words and talking to Naruto, trying to teach him how to use his brain. He was not stupid, but…I do not think anyone ever took the time to teach him correctly. So he was a little slow, but he learned a little.

I also spent the mornings, before Naruto was awake, taking my human form and learning how to talk. It was harder than it seemed. By watching other humans and Naruto, I finally got it. I spent a long time in front of the mirror, but I finally mastered it. I could now speak in my human form.

Today was the day that I would show it to Naruto. He had never seen me in that form before. I think he would like it. He would be excited. There were also many things that I could do in human form, and I wanted to go around the village in that form.

So in the morning, I was practicing speaking. I was able to speak quite well (in my own opinion) now, and so I was quite pleased. I was waiting for Naruto to wake up. He slept a lot, and for long times. He was very difficult to wake up. But I just waited.

Then I heard him move. It was about time! He takes too long…Anyway, when I heard him move, I waited a little more. He was probably still half-asleep. Then I heard him move toward the area where food was prepared…the kitchen, I think Naruto called it.

I went out of the…restroom to the kitchen. Naruto was there. I was in my human form. I just stayed still, wanting to see his reaction when he saw me.

He saw me. His eyes widened. Then he jumped up and yelled. "Ahh! Who are you!" Very loud child…I would never get used to it, would I? He was pointing a finger at me as he was yelling.

"It is me, Akarui…" Now to see his reaction!

"Akarui…you're human? Are you sure you're Akarui?" His reaction was not as funny as I anticipated. I thought he would go running around. But no, now he thinks that I was a human? And he asked if I was sure I was myself. Of course I was sure that I was myself. How would I not be? If I was someone else, I would not be me.

"Yes, it is me, Akarui. This is my human form." I explained it to him. Now…maybe his reaction would be better.

When my words registered in his brain, his mouth opened, but no words came out. I had come to associate that motion with surprise. Then, "Waah! You have a human form?" This was yelled. Now he was running in circles…I thought that would have happened earlier, but I was wrong…He still was running around though.

I made a funny sound. When I realized that I was making a strange sound. I stopped. What was the sound that I had been making? I had heard it before, from wrinkly human, but what was that? I had barely realized that been making that sound, because I was amused by Naruto.

Then I looked at Naruto. He now had another expression on his face. I could not tell what it was. "It's not funny." But it was. So I told him so.

"Yes, it was." Another strange expression from the midget-y human. I really needed a book or something that could tell me what all of the human's strange expressions meant. As for me in my human form, well…my face was not as expressive as Naruto's. My face looked a little blank, but that was because I could not make any faces, not knowing what expressions were suppose to go with what emotions.

Really…How do humans handle all that? I, in my real form had never used my face to express emotions. So I guessed it would make sense that I would not be able to express emotions properly with my human form. Oh well, I would work it out later.

Then I felt something grab my hand. "C'mon! C'mon! Let's go out to the village then!" He was now really excited. I guessed that he was surprised that I had a human form, but his happiness probably overwhelmed that.

"Fine. Let's go." This would be my first time out in town with this form. I hoped I would be able to walk around correctly. When I had been practicing speaking, I had also been practicing my coordination…but, it still was not perfect.

We exited Naruto's apartment. This was my first time out in my human form. The world looked a little different to me now. Even though my eyesight and hearing stayed the same as it was when I was in my real form, I had always been on Naruto's shoulder then. Now I was taller than Naruto, so everything seemed a little different.

"Where do you wish to go, Naruto?" I let him choose. I would not be able to go to any particular place without him, anyway. I still did not know this village very well. If I led, we, or at least I, would quickly get lost…

"Let's go to the park!" The…park? What was that? I guessed that I would find out soon.

Naruto, still holding onto my hand, led me in one direction. The direction of the park, I presumed. We walked for a while, with me trying to memorize and map out the village in my head. So complicated, with all the streets and all. This village was pretty big.

It also had a lot of humans. We passed many humans on the way to the…park, but they either ignored us or just glared at us. I got many odd looks. I could not tell what it was, but I guessed that they wondered why I was with Naruto. Not a lot of humans must hang around Naruto.

I just ignored them, and Naruto just had a large…grin on his face. It was probably his own automatic expression or something.

We soon stopped in front of what I guessed to be the park. It was a large expansive area, with many trees and grass inside. A very peaceful looking place. Except for the place where there seemed to be many human children playing around a large structure. And a box full of sand. What was the box of sand for? What would humans do with a box of sand?

Well, my question was answered quickly afterwards, when a couple of human children ran into the box of sand and started to…play with it. Humans play with sand? Really, they do the oddest things.

But to my surprise, Naruto did not stop here. He went further into the park, where the trees were much denser and packed more together. We walked further and further in, even after I could not hear the screams of happiness (I am guessing it is happiness, what else could it be?) from the children at the play area.

We walked in for a little bit more. Then I could see a clearing ahead. In there, two people seemed to be fighting each other…sparring maybe? One person was using one of the black throwing knives while the other had no weapons. They seemed to be sparring.

Weapon human lunged forward at weaponless human, but weaponless human seemed to dance away and he missed. Then weaponless human was suddenly behind the weapon human. He attempted to kick weapon human across the clearing. He succeeded.

Weapon human flew, even though humans are not supposed to, across the clearing. Weapon human quickly caught himself and landed on his feet. Impressive. Then he flickered, almost out of sight of my eyes, and lunged at the other human, reaching out an arm to hit the other human. The other human blocked his arm, and then grabbed it to try and throw him. He succeeded, again. Weapon human, once again, flew across the clearing. Weapon human was clearly not as good as the weaponless human.

The fight was devoid of the techniques that I had seen in the battle I saw before. Jutsus…I think it was called that. This seemed to only be physically battling, hand-to-hand combat. It was quite interesting to see. These humans moved with an impressive speed, and even had enough strength to throw other humans. It was quite interesting.

In the clearing, the two…fighters stopped. They then nodded at each other and seemed to exchange a few words. I did not catch the words though.

Then to my surprise, they nodded in my direction and then left the clearing. They had noticed Naruto and me? They had been fighting, and they still noticed us? These humans were quite something…to notice us while we were a distance away and while they were also fighting.

What were those humans?

I looked at Naruto, who had an interesting look on his face. Awe, maybe? I would have to ask him what those humans were.

"Naruto, what were they?" I hoped that he knew, because I really wanted to know what they were. They were not the humans that were usually on the streets. Those humans were slow. These humans moved differently. Maybe they were like humans that I had noticed on the rooftops?

Naruto answered me. "They're ninjas! Shinobi! I want to be one when I grow up!"

Ninjas? Shinobi? What were they? They were humans too, that was very clear. But they seemed to be a completely different type of human. I was confused. Humans should be like other humans, but these humans seemed different. I made a mental note to learn more about these humans. They were very interesting.

Is this why Naruto had brought me here? He wanted to see these…ninjas? I guessed so, because after the…ninjas left, he led me out of the area. We even left the park after that.

After we left the park, I asked Naruto if he wanted to eat at Ichiraku's. It was lunchtime. Of course, he had answered with a "yes." More liked yelled it…

I decided that I should probably turn back in to a phoenix. I would have to eat less that way. So I told Naruto to wait and then I went into one of the alleyways. There was no one in there, so I turned back into my real form. I was still the size of a sparrow, though. But it was still a relief. This form was always easier to handle. Phoenixes have a much better form than humans.

After that was complete, I flew back to Naruto. He then headed to Ichiraku's. Like before, he ordered a miso ramen. That seemed to be his favorite. I just took two noodles. That was enough for me.

After that lunch, Naruto decided to go back to his apartment. I just stayed on his shoulder, thinking.

My trip in the village in my human form had been very interesting. I had a lot of things to think about. I had not talked to any other humans, but that was fine. I could talk to them later, anyway.

I also decided that I needed to get some money somehow. I could not get all my money from Naruto. If I had human money, I would be able to buy books and scrolls and read more about this place. But where could I get money? How do humans even make money? I would have to figure that out.

While I was thinking this, Naruto had stopped. I looked to see why he had done that. Wrinkly human now stood in front of him.

"Hello, Naruto." Wrinkly human looked like he was going to give Naruto good news.

"Ojii-san!" Naruto went up to wrinkly human.

"Naruto, I have good news for you." Good news? I wondered what it was. I am sure that Naruto wondered what it was also.

"Really? What is it? What is it? Do I get free ramen?" Does he never stop thinking about ramen?

Wrinkly human made that funny sound that I could not identify. "No, Naruto, it's even better. I enrolled you into the Ninja Academy."

Naruto's eyes went wide. Then he cheered. "Really, Ojii-san? You have? Yay! You know what? I'll become the best ninja ever! Believe it!"

Naruto…sure aims high. Now he was going to become a ninja? One of those fighting humans? Somehow, this thought disturbed me. It seemed more than a little dangerous.

Then, wrinkly human made that funny sound and then said, "Yes, yes, I'm sure you will, Naruto."

Then Naruto looked back at wrinkly human. "Hey, the best ninja in the village is you, right Ojii-san? And you're the Hokage." He thought for a while. "Then I'll become Hokage!"

The wrinkly human smiled. "The academy will start three days from now, so be ready Naruto. It starts at seven in the morning." Three days? That was quite…sudden.

"I'll be ready!" But I was thinking. Seven in the morning? Naruto always slept in until nine or ten. He would probably oversleep and totally miss the class. I would probably be the one that would have to wake him up. He was…really hard to wake up. Actually, he was quite near impossible to. I sighed.

But he was going to an academy, right? An academy is a place where you learn things… so if I went along with Naruto, I could learn more things! I would definitely have to go along with Naruto.

Then wrinkly human looked at me. "Hello, Akarui-san."

"…Hello, wrinkly human." Wait…did I say that out loud? Oh…I did not mean to do that. Too late.

The wrinkly human made a choked sound. I think he was surprised. He made that sound for a while.

"Ojii-san, are you OK?" Naruto was concerned. By this point, so was I.

"I'm fine, Naruto," he gasped. Then he stopped. He then turned to look at me again. "So, how have you been doing, Akarui-san?"

"I am fine." I was, but…would he know of a way for me to make money? He probably would… "Is there a way that I could make some money? I want to buy some things that might be useful."

He just looked at me for a while. I think he was thinking. "For now, I can give you some money, but you will have to make some later." That was good, at least for now, I had some money. "I'll give it to Naruto for now, since you probably can't hold it."

"Thank you!" I was happy, maybe now I could buy some books and things like that.

He handed the some money to Naruto. Then he said, "Don't forget, Naruto. The academy is three days from now."

"I won't!" Well, if he forgets, I would remind him, anyway.

After that, wrinkly human left.

And the academy would start three days from now.

Author's Note: So now the academy is going to start. This was just the chapter leading up to it. Hope you enjoyed it anyway. The funny and strange noise is laughter. Sorry for the short fight scene, but I just wanted it to be a little spar.

And to my reviewers: You have my thanks, as always! Thanks so much for the nice reviews! They really made my day! My version of the academy will have to be different, since Naruto is already seven. Oh well. Thanks anyway, though!