Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my own original character.

Chapter 11: The Days After

The days in the academy were interesting, but there was always time afterwards. The time afterwards was the time I used to explore the village and learn things.

So it was today, after school, that I decided to go to a place Naruto had told me was called a bookstore. From what I could see, the bookstore sold books, which contained a lot of information. And I did have some money from wrinkly human.

I wanted to get some books that could tell me more about humans, this world, and possibly what happened to the Kyuubi. Learning more about…chakra would be nice too. It seemed interesting. And I could tell Naruto about it…since he never seemed to pay very much attention in class at all.

So I decided that I would go today. I wondered if Naruto would want to go. Probably not, but maybe…

"Naruto, I am going to the…bookstore place. Do you wish to go?" Now to see his answer. Currently, we were eating in his apartment and I was in my phoenix form.

"Nope! I'll do something else." He did not want to go. That was fine with me.

I turned into my human form. I could now walk…more or less correctly and pronounce most words. Some words were hard to pronounce though…

"Bye Naruto, I will be back later."

"Bye!"

I left the apartment. Once I was outside, I looked around. Let me see…the bookstore was…that way? Or was it in the other direction? I could not remember. That was not too good.

I would have to ask a human. Asking a human for directions…seemed a little…bit off to me. I did not want to ask a human for directions. What kind of phoenix asked humans for directions? But I would have too…Oh well, that was what I would have to do. It was not that bad, anyway…

So, since there was a little group of humans down the street, I decided that I would ask them. They were humans…but not children and not adults. They were in the midway stage between a child and an adult. I think they were females…but I could be wrong. Usually females had longer hair, but that was not always the case. Humans were too confusing.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me where the store called the bookstore is?" They would probably know. If not, I would have to ask someone else.

I waited for an answer, but they just stared at me. Was something wrong with them? Then one of them made a really high pitched sound. A squeal, maybe? It hurt my ears a little.

Something was indeed wrong with them. Instead of answering, they just made a weird sound that was definitely not a word.

Since they were not going to answer, I decided that I would have to leave. So I did. The humans I talked to before, though…they kept following me. It was a little…unnerving. Humans do the strangest things. That was for sure.

So I walked into a large crowd of people…and tried to lose them. Persistent, were they not?

Luckily, it worked…but now I was totally lost. Where was I? I had never been in this part of town.

Being a human was so hard. How did they remember streets and things from the ground? So difficult. Maybe I should respect humans for that more…

So, I was now lost. Lost. Me. Lost. I never get lost…except when I was on the ground…

I decided that I hated being on the ground. And being lost. It was annoying. I sighed. I decided that I would stay in this human form a little longer and try to find my way around. If I could not find something I recognized in twenty minutes, I would turn back into my phoenix form and fly back to Naruto's apartment or the bookstore. Whichever one I saw first.

The problem was that I did not know what the bookstore looked like from the air, only from the ground, which was the reason that I used my human form.

Anyway, I just continued to walk around. Bookstore, appear already. Really, I needed something that I could use to get around town. And something to tell me the name of the thing that I could use to get around town.

I really still did not know anything about this world. It was an alien world. And this was still only a portion of this world. So much to explore, to learn, and to know. It was almost too much. But it was also exciting…how many times do you get to explore a totally new world?

And so, I continued to walk around. Really, I liked it when I was with Naruto better. At least he knew his way around the village and was fun to talk to.

After walking around for around fifteen minutes and asking directions from some adult humans I saw, I finally reached the bookstore. It was a relief. This village was so crowded and big. It was too easy to get lost in.

I went into the bookstore. Inside, I could see rows and shelves filled with scrolls and books. The place smelled like paper, which was not too strange, considering its contents. There was a person behind a counter. The seller of the books? I believe so. The human greeted me and I said "hello" back.

From there, I went to look at the shelves. My last experience with shelves had not been too pleasant. I could not find what I was looking for until the last shelf. That had been annoying.

Maybe this time, I could just ask the seller person. So I went up to him. "Do you have anything that details this village?" I needed something like that.

"You mean like a map?" So it was called a map? That…would detail the village?

"Yes." At least, I hoped so. The seller human went to one of the shelves and pulled out some paper. He then gave it to me. I thanked him, but the map was not the only thing I needed.

I went through the shelves, looking for books on humans, their habits, and things like that. I found a nice one after a while. It detailed human anatomy, along with some more information about them. Using this, I could learn more about humans. And figure out how to identify whether a human was male or female.

I also found a book on chakra. It seemed interesting, so I decided to buy that too. And maybe tell Naruto about it. I could not find a book on the Kyuubi, though. I looked in the history books, but they either did not mention the Kyuubi, or claimed the Fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi. So I still did not know the state of the Kyuubi. Maybe wrinkly human knew about it?

The only problem about asking wrinkly human was that he put the village first. If the Fourth Hokage had indeed killed the Kyuubi, however unlikely it seemed, asking wrinkly human would be a bad idea. Wrinkly human would ask me why I wanted to know, and the answer would have to be along the lines of "The Kyuubi cannot be killed." Then he would want to know how I knew that, and the answer would be "We come from the same place." If the Fourth Hokage had killed the Kyuubi, then it would have been for a reason, and me coming from the same place…would mean that I was a threat in the same way Kyuubi was. The Kyuubi had attacked this village. I did not know why, but wrinkly human could think that I would do the same thing.

So asking wrinkly human could possibly mean me being killed. Especially if these humans knew how to kill the tailed beasts.

Even if the Fourth Hokage did not kill the Kyuubi, apparently something had happen to him. Whatever happened to him, I did not want it to happen to me.

As I was thinking all of this, I bought the books from the seller person. Using the money was a little bit confusing, but the numbers on the money helped. All I had to do was add up the numbers on the bills and made sure it equaled the amount the seller told me.

I left the bookstore. I would have to walk back to Naruto's apartment. I could not haul these books home in my phoenix form without my talons tearing them up.

I decided to look at the map. So I opened it up. There were lines all over, but there was also something called a "legend box" which told me the lines on the map were roads. I read the directions that came along with it on how to read the map. It was not too complicated. Well, actually…it was. But I figured it out, after mulling about it for about an hour.

But once I figured it out, I could locate Naruto's apartment since I remembered the street in front of it. The map really was useful! So I folded it back up…well, not very well, but I managed.

Then I walked in the direction the map told me too. There were some humans on the street, but they all seemed to be busy. And I soon came upon Naruto's apartment. It worked! The map does work! I would have to study it more, and then I would know my way around this village more. Also, on the top of the map had been this village's name, Konohagakure. I had not known that before. Now I did…but I should have asked before. Oh well.

I went back into the apartment. Naruto was in there also. He seemed to be practicing a jutsu that the academy had been teaching. It was a technique called Clone Jutsu. It was supposed to create intangible copies of the user.

Naruto had a problem with it though. Whenever he tried to use it…only a dead looking clone would appear. That was not supposed to happen.

"Naruto…"

"Ahh! It won't come out right!" He had a strange look on his face. Disappointment? I was quite good at reading Naruto's expressions by now, and I was sure that his face showed disappointment.

"I am sure it will come out right if you practice." There was something strange about this, though. He could only make one clone. Yes, in the class, since everyone had just learned it, everyone had some trouble with it…but Naruto's, in particular were…exceptional.

"But I've been practicing!" Yes, he had been.

"Maybe I could try? If I try, I might be able to know what is wrong with yours."

"Okay. That might work!"

So I did. "Clone Jutsu." I followed all the directions that the academy gave. I had listened, and knew everything that Naruto did, after all. But…

My clone…there was only one…looked dead. It looked dead! My clone looked dead…In fact, I think it was dead…I was really disappointed…

"Um…never mind. I cannot do it either." We both could not do it? So, maybe most of Naruto's class could not do it either at the moment, but whenever someone managed to, it did not look dead.

Naruto looked a little disappointed. Oh well…

Maybe the book on chakra might say something about this? I hoped that it would.

I could also try again. So I did. But every time…it would not come out…well. It continued to look…dead. Naruto's also. Why was that? I would have to figure it out.

And as for Naruto…how old was he now? He had never told me his birthday. I would have to ask. Birthdays for humans were important, right? Since they had such a limited amount of birthdays, it would be important. "Naruto, you are seven, right? So when do you turn eight?"

"My birthday's on October tenth!" October tenth? Wait…that was the day that the Kyuubi supposingly died. I had heard that the Fourth Hokage killed him because the Kyuubi had attacked this village. But on the same day that Naruto was born? What coincidences. "What's yours on?"

My birthday? "Oh, it is on…" I did the conversion from Makai's calendar to Naruto's. "June sixteenth, but it will probably change in the next four hundred years or so." When I died and came back to life it would change.

"Wow! Your birthday can change?" Funny human. His birthday would never change.

"No. Naruto, your birthday will never change. Mine can though."

"How?" He really did know nothing about phoenixes.

"Read more about phoenixes. Then you will find out." Maybe now he would read more? He certainly did need to.

So, we had been in Naruto's academy for a while. What would come after this?

Author's note: So, this chapter is finished. Next chapter: Naruto fails the academy graduation for the first time. Akarui can use chakra, as you can probably see. He could not make a clone, because he has too much chakra, the same reason as Naruto. In my story, anyway. So the Kyuubi is partially responsible for Naruto's chakra, and Akarui came from the same place as the Kyuubi did. So, it would make sense that he has the same problem Naruto does.

Oh and I hope the explanation about why Akarui could not talk to the Hokage about the Kyuubi makes sense. He will find out the same time Naruto does.

To my reviewers: Thanks so much. Much thanks to you my reviewers! Even if I do not thank you individually, thanks so much anyway. And once again…if you are reading this…please review.