A/N: GEEEEZ! After practically two years, I finally update. Some of you must think I suck. Well.... I do. Don't worry though, I figured out the problem; I was making my chpaters too long. This one is almost 9,000 words and originally was only half done! Now I know my limitations and will be able to produce chapters efficiently and quickly. Also, realize that this was mostly written two years ago and my writing skills have advanced exponentially since then. So, consider this the appetizer before the juicy main coarse of the next chapter! Read on....

"I'll be back in a while Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he left the house.

It was in the evening and the sky wasn't quite dark yet, but it wasn't light either. The sky had that calm navy blue color about it that seemed to stretch across the earth like some sort of warm blanket. This was one of Naruto's favorite times of day. During the day there were too many people he didn't like out, but at night, the town was too quiet, so this was the time he could go out and really enjoy himself without any scornful looks or bumping into anything.

After Naruto had gotten his acceptance letter he couldn't believe it at first. His life was finally, finally, FINALLY, going his way. He had wanted this so bad and it actually came true! Not to say that Naruto had any doubts or anything like that. It was just that in the past, Naruto had become accustomed to disappointments and failures that for something to finally go his way was just the tops. And that didn't even come close to Iruka-sensei's reaction when he read the letter.

Naruto had never heard so many cheers come out of such a grinning idiot.

Still Naruto was glad when Iruka-sensei didn't try to bring down his mood by telling him that it would be hard work, or "that all of the hard stuff started now", or something like, "this meant more was expected of him as a ninja." He just smiled at Naruto and gave him a big hug that must have lasted twenty minutes before Naruto could get out of his grip. Afterwards, Naruto and Iruka-sensei went out on the town and partied in practically every restaurant that could/would take them. Naruto must have had so much ramen that, the next day, he actually didn't want any for once. "That was a lot of ramen" was the understatement of the century that someone could say.

Now though, Naruto was out on the town of Tane to celebrate a little more quietly. Naruto had gotten 50 ryou as a gift from Iruka-sensei and he wanted to spend it as fast as possible. Nothing worse than having cash to load you down he figured. He needed to get rid of that cash fast.

"Heh, heh," Naruto chuckled to himself.

So here he was, in the middle of the town square with tons of booths all around him just brimming with cool and useless trinkets that Naruto could blow his money on. Looking at the stands on the right he saw a bunch of different food stands with things like: fried squid, odango, candy, ice-cream, and chicken-heads. Then on the left he saw games and toys and souvenirs that people would buy for their kids or if they were on a trip or something and wanted the souvenir to remember their stay.

Naruto knew he probably wanted to get something that would last a while because he figured that he wanted something that could last his stay at his new school. Konoha Boarding School. It was a boarding school, (like the name said) and thus he would need something to remind him of home.

He started looking around some more when he spotted a key chain stand. There were little key chains of such things as dogs, frogs, cats, snakes, and other creatures that he didn't know of. There were also key chains of things that were just symbols and didn't really represent anything. There was one that simply looked like an ink-drop ("too dark"), one of a crossing "S" like shape in red ("too comic-book"), and another that looked like a tic-tac-toe board ("too simple").

One though, really caught his attention. It was not really any color, but if you had to pick one it would be blue. It was sort of like a marble but the shape and color seemed too translucent. It didn't look real in a way. He took it off the shelf and held it up to the sun to look at it. That's when he realized it!

"It's a swirl..." Naruto whispered to himself.

Indeed, it was a swirl that was shaped three-dimensionally so it was in a sort of sphere shape. It looked so mesmerizing and whimsical. Naruto couldn't really recall what made it so appealing but suddenly that key chain seemed extremely important. It was a representation of Naruto's achievement of getting into Konoha Boarding School. Naruto had to buy it all of a sudden. So a few minutes later, Naruto walked away with 20 ryou gone and the key chain deep in his pocket where he could keep it safe.

After that, Naruto just wandered around town a little more trying to enjoy the last scant minutes of this twilight time before it got too dark. Soon though he spotted some kids coming out of a shop and they were laughing their heads off. At first Naruto couldn't recognize them, but after a moment it popped into his head and Naruto turned away as fast as he could to go in the other direction. He just hoped above all else that they didn't notice Naruto as he walked away.

'Please don't, please don't, please don't,' he kept thinking to himself, 'please don't, please-'

"Hey look, it's Naruto!"

Damn.

Naruto knew that the best thing to do was freeze because if he tried to run, he would probably just make it worse. So Naruto stood there, waiting for the moment where they would come up and start terrorizing him like they always did.

"Hey loser," one of them said coming up closer now.

At that, Naruto turned around to face them. They were the three kids who had beaten up Naruto earlier that summer. Their names were ingrained in his mind as they were his regular tormentors when they went to school together. It was like they didn't have anything better to do than ruin Naruto's life.

"Hey Ryo, Takame, Ai," Naruto mumbled to them in an unenthusiastic greeting.

"If it isn't our favorite punching bag! How's your summer been loser?" Takame asked with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Yeah, we haven't seen you since, umm, when was it?" Ryo asked pretending to think to himself.

"Since we beat his ass in June." Ai said calmly.

"Oh, yeah!" Ryo exclaimed proudly like he had just remembered something really good that happened to him. In a way, for him, it probably was. It's always nice when you put someone else under your heel. Yeah, soooo fun.

'Jackasses' Naruto thought to himself.

"So, tell us Naruto, what school took a loser like you in this fall?" Ryo asked punching Naruto in the shoulder a little too hard.

At this Naruto suddenly saw his glimmer of hope in all of this. If there was anything that Naruto could brag about, that he could one-up these jackasses with, it would be where he was going to school for the next three years. This was something that Naruto could use to finally get back at them.

They were just lucky that Naruto was the modest type.

"Well, I'd really rather not talk about that kind of thing with you guys but-"

"Well I got into the Fire Country Prep School for Boys. It's one of the top ranking fifteen schools in all of the Fire Country. Ai got into the Lotus High School which is part of the top ten best schools in the country, and Ryo got into Fire Country Prep with me." Takame explained with a smug grin on his face, all the while taking a really conceited tone of voice that just made what Naruto was going to say next all the more sweeter.

"Wow, so I guess you guys don't get any girls at your school. That must be like, a dream come true for you guys. Finally going to show your true feelings for each other huh?" Naruto questioned mockingly all the while keeping his eye contact away from theirs.

"Alright then loser, what school did you get into?" Ryo asked now with a dark tinge of anger in his voice rather than the smug, conceited, voice he had from before. Apparently Naruto's comment didn't go over with him so well.

"Me? Oh, I didn't really get into anywhere special I guess. Just a little old school you might have heard of a few times called..." at that Naruto stopped for dramatic effect and turned to make eye contact with the three stooges, "...Konoha Boarding School."

At that moment the night air suddenly whistled with an unexplained ominous wind. No one moved and it was as if the whole world kept going, and those four teens were frozen into their own universe. Naruto stood there waiting for their reactions while Ryo, Ai, and Takame were completely frozen as if they were still waiting for Naruto to answer their question. After a while though, their faces changed and they started to look at Naruto with faces that he had never seen before.

They looked a little afraid.

"Liar," Ai said simply.

With that though, the other two suddenly took a breath of relief and started to laugh. After a minute all three of them were laughing so hard it was practically scratching at Naruto's brain. He wanted so badly to pop those guys one and show them whose boss.

"It's true!" Naruto shouted indignantly.

"Please, a loser like you could probably only get into ninja secondary school or something," Ryo said with a laugh.

"Even a secondary school couldn't take a guy like Naruto," Ai said with a chuckle.

At that Naruto couldn't take it anymore. Naruto was going to run up to those three jerks and knock some sense into their over-inflated heads. He was going to get his revenge for all of the torment they gave him. It was time for a new Naruto to take charge!

That's when Naruto was hit with a realization: he was above this. Naruto had just gotten accepted into one of the best, no, hell, the best school in the entire Fire Country. He didn't need anything to make himself feel better or validate his worth. He had already proved it. Even if these guys didn't believe him, all that mattered was that it was true and he knew it. He was better than them, plain and simple.

With that Naruto turned to walk away.

"Hey where are you going loser?" Ryo asked loudly.

Naruto didn't even turn around though. All he did was keep on walking without any remorse or thought of looking back at the people he once considered to be his goal. For so long he wanted them to accept him and stop making fun of him. Naruto had tried so hard to get to their level that he never realized that he was already above their level. So as he walked away, all he gave them was a small wave with two fingers and a single thought.

'I wonder how hot the girls are going to be?'

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The next day Naruto wasn't able to see Iruka-sensei because he had to go to the opening ceremony for his school but Naruto was okay with that. He'd been alone for a long time and he had become kind of independent. He'd forgotten how it felt a little bit, but that loneliness was still there. It did feel bad, but in a way it also made him stronger, more independent.

Despite that though, Naruto could not find his damn train!

Naruto was on the 32nd platform and just couldn't find which one was his train. His ticket said he needed to get on board by 4:00 and it was currently 3:52 and Naruto was completely lost. It would be a total crap-job if Naruto missed his first day of school just because he couldn't find a freakin' damn train!

"Hey, buddy; you know where I can find my train?" Naruto asked handing his ticket to someone who looked like he worked there.

"Oh, yeah. You see that kid over there?" the man asked pointing to a kid with dark hair tied up into a ponytail.

"Uh, yeah."

"I just told him how to get on the train, follow him and you should be good."

"Thanks dude."

With that Naruto started going after the dark-haired kid making sure that he didn't lose a step. The kid was pretty far ahead though so he was slightly worried he would lose him in the crowd, but after a while he finally caught up to the kid and saw him getting on a train.

"Phew!" Naruto sighed to himself loudly checking his watch. It read 3:58, so he knew that he really cut it close. Looked like someone was watching out for him though because he wasn't going to miss the train and everything would be just fine.

"........................... nope, nothing."

As soon as that thought had crossed Naruto's mind he was sure that something bad would happen like in the stories, but he was perfectly fine. So with that thought he got onto the train.

It was pretty crowded with, what Naruto could only assume were the other students he would meet at the school. There were some guys, some girls, and a whole lot of chakra. He could feel that every one of these other passengers were pretty strong with high chakra levels and just sheer auras of strength. If you wanted intimidating, it was on that train.

Soon though, Naruto was able to find a car to himself at the back of the train with a broken door, but otherwise it was in a pretty good condition. Naruto hopped in and quickly stashed all of his bags in an overhead compartment along with all of his ninja gear. Once he was all settled in, Naruto finally got the chance to relax. It was supposed to be a two hour train ride up the mountain, and Naruto had time to kill, so he planned on just lying back and enjoying the solitude.

"Yo."

Damn it.

Naruto snapped awake to see that the train had been moving for a while. He must have been out for a few minutes because his clothes were crumpled from lying on them weird. Also he felt his underwear riding up the way that it did whenever he slept on something besides a bed. Last of course to finish it all up was the sleep crease he had on his face with the small trail of drool on his chin. It was at that moment he looked up to see who woke him.

"I said, 'Yo'," the kid that Naruto followed to the train before said. This time Naruto got a good look at his face though. He had a sort of tired look on his face that seemed like he wasn't getting enough sleep with a stupid lop-sided look. Next to him though was another kid who was probably a few inches taller but several inches wider. He had a bag of chips in his hand with a blue shirt with the kanji for "food" on it. He seemed to have a round face, but it was hard to tell because he was eating so fast you could only see his eyes.

"Ummm... hey," Naruto said hesitantly now sitting up from his laying down position from his previous nap. He came up slowly but after a while got a better look at them to see that they still had all of their bags. After of a moment of contemplation Naruto finally decided what to do.

"You guys want to sit down?" Naruto asked now more chipper.

"Thanks," they said in unison.

What happened next was so extraordinarily quick that Naruto almost missed it. They got up and quickly stacked all of their things into the overhead compartments with his, and then stuffed the rest into compartments under the chairs that Naruto hadn't even noticed. They then zoomed into the two open seats across from Naruto and set up camp. The dark-haired guy splayed himself across the arms of the chair with his head upside down and looking out the window. The chubby guy with the brown hair sat down in a pretty normal way except of course for the fact that he was then munching on the bag of chips from before with absolute abandon. Didn't that bag ever run out of chips?

For a while they were all just sitting in the car completely silent and staring at each other awkwardly and Naruto started to wonder if they were doing it on purpose. After an even longer pause though Naruto finally took the initiative and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Well, uh, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you," Naruto said as politely as he could before he started to snap. Without any reaction after a while he started to get a little pissed at the duo.

"HEY!"

"Mendokuse...." was all the dark-haired guy could say and the other one just kept on with his damn munching!

"Alright, alright, let's get on with it I guess. My name is Nara Shikamaru. My friend with his face in the bag is Akimichi Choji. Is there anything else you want to know or can I go back to looking at the clouds?" Shikamaru, as Naruto now knew him, replied with such a bored voice you would have thought the guy was dead or something. Meanwhile he never took his eyes away from the window. Also Choji never even looked up when his name was mentioned. Still eating if you couldn't guess.

Naruto had a lot of things he wanted to ask in that moment. Mostly he wanted to ask because he knew he was probably only getting a small window of opportunity to talk with these guys before they would start tuning him out so Naruto wanted to know things about them now while he could. Normally he would have asked if they liked ramen, or had hobbies or something, but after meeting them he really only had one question.

"How did you guys get in this school?"

It was if a bomb had gotten dropped in the middle of the room. Both of them looked over at Naruto in the same instance and stopped what they were doing. Shikamaru got up from his laying down position and sat up looking Naruto in the eye and Choji put his bag down to do the same.

"It's.... our dads." Shikamaru said after a long pause.

"Huh?"

"Our dads were part of a legendary trio called the Ino-Shika-Cho trio," Choji said, it being the first time he had ever spoken, Naruto was surprised for a second and wasn't sure who said it. Once he saw it was Choji though, he was surprised it didn't come out more like an oink. His voice was much gruffer than Naruto's and Shikamaru's. Maybe that wasn't all fat on his form.

"There's sort of this.... growing expectation that we do really well too. Man, this is really troublesome...." Shikamaru said turning his head to look out the window again, "I would much rather just go to some small ninja school close to home and watch the clouds. Now I'm gonna have to do work and stuff." Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"Not only that but we're supposed to look for some Ino guy who's supposed to complete our trio," Choji said starting to go for the bag again, "Luckily, Shikamaru and I already knew each other from junior high, but now we gotta find this other guy too or our dads will think we're betraying tradition or something." Choji said with a groan and then went back to munching.

Naruto couldn't believe it. This Shikamaru guy must have been the laziest guy that Naruto had ever met in his life. He was actually upset that he had to go to this prestigious school. He was upset! That made Naruto want to laugh, cry, and yell all at the same time.

Still though, it got Naruto thinking. These guys had fathers who were ninjas and now they themselves were ninjas. Naruto had heard of clans and such but they usually only pertained to Kekkei Genkais and such. Would there be more people at this school that were part of famous clans? Maybe ninjas who had been trained since they were kids. Or even more amazing, these kids didn't have to develop techniques, just learn them from the family. Naruto didn't really think that was fair.

The year at this school suddenly seemed more interesting. If this was the best school in the country, Naruto was sure to meet a bunch of famous people and famous techniques that were probably hundreds of years old. Not only that but since Naruto didn't have a family jutsu or anything, maybe, the techniques he would learn and showed off to everyone would officially become legends as they dropped down the grapevines of families and clans. Oh yeah, this was gonna be sweet. Then a thought hit him.

'If Shikamaru is a lazy ass, and Choji is a fat ass, then I wonder what kind of ass this Ino guy is?'

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"Nice ass!"

"Lookin' good Ino!"

"Thank you boys." the blond girl said curtly with a smile on her face.

Yamanaka Ino had recently gotten into Konoha Boarding School after years of rigorous work at her starter ninja school. She had gotten top marks in all her classes, especially her kunoichi studies, and rocked the classrooms with her radical telepathic capabilities. She didn't want to brag and say that she was perfect but why argue with it. She had looks, brains, beautiful tresses of long hair, a personality to kill for and-

"Too short."

"What?" Ino asked her pink-haired friend.

"Your skirt is too short. That's why you got those comments. Ino, if your dad saw you in that he would explode." Sakura said with a giggle.

Haruno Sakura was Ino's best friend and worst rival. The two had known each other for years and Ino loved Sakura to death, but she could kill the girl. Ino got top marks in her classes but Sakura was the top marker. Not only that, but Sakura got asked by guys left and right, while Ino stood in her dust. She hated to admit it, but Sakura was the one person in the world who could deflate Ino's head without even trying.

"So? The only way this skirt could look good is if I look good in it, so the comments still count!" she replied haughtily.

"Ino, that thing looks like you wore it in kindergarten." Sakura returned calmly.

"That's just a blatant exaggeration!" Ino exploded.

At that moment Sakura disappeared and Ino was standing in the hallway corridor of the train by herself with no one there. She looked around for her friend and where she could have gone because she knew if she didn't stay aware, she'd regret it. After a moment though all Ino saw was dry paint and peeling wood and this was getting annoying. In that moment she just wanted to leave this deserted hallway when she realized that her friend must have been using her specialty jutsu: genjutsu.

Too little too late though as suddenly Ino heard a harsh rip and a tug on her skirt that startled her. She immediately went to damage control to straighten her skirt out and see what damage had befallen it. Once she was sure it was fine she turned to yell at Sakura when she paused to see her holding a small tag reading in colorful letters: "The Preschool Kunoichi collection."

"Even smaller than I thought." Sakura stated smugly.

"Ah, shut up." Ino said as she snatched the tag from Sakura and started to stomp away to their car.

When Ino opened the door though she was surprised to see, not normal empty seats with Sakura's baggage piled on the left and Ino's on the right, but a girl she had never met before stuffing her bags under the seats. The girl looked sort of short with a very stylish black on blue ninja skirt and green blouse that matched with her hair that was of the same shocking color. After a moment of being flabbergasted though, the girl turned around and looked at Ino with a cold look.

"Uhh... hey." Ino said startled at the girl's dark look.

Sakura came in a second later right next to Ino to see who was in their car. In that second where Ino turned to watch Sakura approach, and the one second she wasn't looking at the green-haired girl something must have happened because when she looked back, the girl had the loveliest look on her face that Ino had ever seen. She was a completely different person.

"Is this your car?" the girl asked them with a sweet voice.

"Yeah, but its fine if you want to sit here too." Sakura stated off-handedly as she entered into the car to sit across from the newcomer.

Ino snapped out of her trance and wandered into the car as well to sit next to this new girl who was smiling so nicely at them. She seemed to be a fine person, but that look Ino got when she entered the car was still gripping at the back of her mind.

"My name is Doku Yowaku. But you can just call me Yui for short. Nice to meet you." She said in a sweet tone that seemed to reach in to the back of your brain and make you feel sort of serene in an odd, forced way.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, and that girl next to you is Yamanaka Ino."

At that Sakura and Yui, as they now knew her, started chatting up a storm that Ino didn't really want to pay attention to as it was only about grades and their former schools. Ino was a good student, but Sakura was a nerd. Ino did well, but Sakura liked school. She could be really boring sometimes.

Until the oddest question popped up that made Ino's interest explode back into the conversation.

"So seen any hot guys yet?"

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Naruto got off the train and took a deep breath of fresh air. This was what freedom smelled like to him. Here he would not only be able to explore his abilities and become stronger, but he was free from Iruka-sensei. It wasn't that he didn't love him or anything, but Iruka-sensei was such a task-master sometimes. Now though, Naruto had true freedom to do whatever the hell he wanted to do. He could run around campus like an idiot, or pants some people, or flip a couple of skirts, and no one would yell at him. At least until the school year started.

Then he saw the campus and was taken aback. The campus was literally fields and fields of endless of grass. Nothing but grass and flowers everywhere in the distance, and birds and animals living unfettered and away from society. It was so beautiful and... country-like. This was going to be a truly awesome year at Konoha Boarding School.

"Man this place sucks," Shikamaru said as he exited from the train behind Naruto, and Choji was following close behind. He looked very bored and unimpressed with the campus, but he looked like that all the time. What did it take to get this guy excited about stuff?

"Well, I guess we should get registered. Come on Choji, let's get it out of the way while we can do it without a line," Shikamaru said slinging his bag over his shoulder, and walking lazily off to the distance. Choji closely followed, munching on a candy bar along the way behind him. This site was so familiar to Naruto now that it was scary. Then he realized something.

"Wait! What do you mean registering?" he asked Shikamaru as he started fleeting away at a slug's pace.

"All arriving students have to register with the front desk at the school, so the school knows you got here and all. They also gotta rank you and give you your schedules and room assignments. Man you really know nothing about schools like this, do you?" Shikamaru said with an incredulous sigh. He and Choji were soon gone, and Naruto could only assume they were heading to the school that was off so far in the distance, that Naruto couldn't see it. This campus must be huge!

Naruto didn't have time for stuff like that though. He could register any time if he wanted to, but having free-for-all fun would come so rarely once he had to follow campus regulations. If he was gonna cause some mayhem and destruction, he would have to do it now. Not only that, but he wanted to explore a little. This campus was going to have a lot to offer, so he might as well see what he could drag up. Naruto grabbed his stuff, and set off.

Once he started walking around, Naruto got a better look at the campus. There were wide fields of grass and flowers, but then they became training fields for shuriken throwing, kunai dummies, and Punching bags. There were also trees in the distance, and a large building next to the forest, which he could only assume was the school. When he jumped up, he could see slightly past the forest, a town. That must have been the main capital of Konoha. He had never seen the big city before, but it looked promising.

Walking around for a while, he noticed he was only getting closer and closer to the school, so he changed directions and walked against the wind. It felt so relaxing and nice as it blew against his face. Naruto let it ruffle his hair a little bit, and he took a pinwheel out of his bag and attached it to a headband he tied around his head. He could only grin at how cool he must have looked right then.

"Oh my God. What a dork!"

When Naruto heard that he got as pissed as humanly possible. He turned around and faced to where he heard the voice come from and saw three figures. They were all girls, one with blond hair, one with dark green hair, and one with pink hair. The first two were pretty hot, but the pink-haired one was so incredibly pretty! He suddenly forgot his anger and ran up to them as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto and you ladies are?" he said deepening his voice and holding his hand out all cool-like. Naruto saw that the blond one was just sort of looking at him with a questioning look, but the pink-haired one had a sort of small smile on her face. The green-haired one was not impressed though.

"Oh my God. You are such a pathetic dork. You actually think a gruffy little boy like you, can talk to beautiful women like us?" the green-haired girl said in a huff. She was actually very pretty though when Naruto got a good look at her, but he still preferred the pink-haired girl. Not only that, but this girl was sounding like a real bitch.

"Hey, I'm pretty awesome! I got plenty of girls chasing me, and I've got the skills of a future Hokage!" Naruto said defiantly. The blond and pink-hair looked sort of like they were giggling, but the green-haired girl had an absolutely evil look on her face.

"You! Ha! You're not even fit to lick our feet. Right Sakura?" she asked turning to Sakura.

"Uh... right, I guess," she said with a sort of half-nod.

"So your name is Sakura? Nice to meet you Sakura!" he said walking up to Sakura, but the pinwheel started to spin against the sudden wind, and Naruto grabbed at it to try and take it out of his headband, and scratched the living daylights out of his head.

"Uh... right," she said sort of half-heartedly.

"Please, you little squirt, don't try and talk to us," the green-haired bitch chimed in again, pushing Naruto away from Sakura with an unbelievably hard push. "There's no way she could be interested in a short, gruffy, pathetic little dork like you. She would go more for a guy- a guy like that! Yowza!" she said with a sudden change in her pitch from snideness to excitement.

Naruto could only think: Who says "Yowza"?

The green-haired bitch was pointing at a boy a few yards away with a black t-shirt on and white cargo pants. On the back of the t-shirt was some sort of a fan or symbol or something that Naruto didn't recognize. What really caught Naruto's attention though, was the dark scowl on his face. What was stuck up his butt?

"Kami! That guy is gorgeous!" the blond said suddenly spotting the guy. "He's so hot!"

"And cool," Sakura said with a sort of long sigh, that made Naruto want to sink into a hole. Or punch that dark-haired guy in the stomach. Or both.

"Well, what are we waiting for ladies? As they say: First one there gets the worm! If you know what I mean!" the green-haired one said with a suggestive glint in her tone. She suddenly disappeared and was heading over to the guy at lightning like speeds. Sakura and the blond were right behind her, and when the dark-haired guy started walking away, they just kept on following him. Now Naruto was really pissed.

"Aw, who the heck?" he asked himself quietly. Here he was, about to ask out probably the prettiest girl he had ever known or saw, and she zooms off after some pretty-boy. Naruto knew he would have a problem getting past her bitch of a friend, but now he had competition to deal with as well? Man that was a real bummer for him.

"Uchiha Sasuke," a voice said quietly.

Naruto gasped in surprise and swiftly turned around to see who had said that. Suddenly, he was faced with the off-white color of an over-sized sweater that someone was wearing. When he looked up a little, he saw that the shirt was worn by a really tall guy with shades. Not only did the shades make him look a little creepy, but being this close to him, Naruto could have sworn he could hear strange noises that made his skin crawl.

"Whoa! Who are you?" Naruto asked jumping back and facing the kid in a fighting position.

"Aburame Shino. That kid you just saw was Uchiha Sasuke," Shino said simply pointing off to the distance to the spot where Sasuke had been previously standing. He stood in a very slanted way, and barely lifted his hand to point in the distance giving him a very laid-back sort of posture. It made him look kind of cool, in a creepy way.

"U-Uchiha Sasuke? You know him?" Naruto asked now falling back into a slightly calmer position but only slightly. This guy still creeped him out to no ends...

"I know of him. Uchiha Sasuke, 16 years old. The last of his clan after a mysterious assailant killed his entire family at age 6. His skills are supposed to be the pride of the Uchiha clan, and his know-how of jutsu and chakra-manipulation is far beyond any ninja of his age. The impressive part though is that his strength is completely self-gained. He was never trained by any family members, and he never got one-on-one training from any master. All of his skill and power is his own," Shino said as if he was listing off all of Sasuke's attributes and strengths off of a trading card or something. Nonetheless, this Uchiha kid sounded tough.

And lonely.

"So, he's all alone?" Naruto asked the strange boy who had approached him.

"Hai," he answered simply, and started to walk away or sort of glide away as Naruto could barely see any movement from his feet. When it came to weird guys, he was definitely at the top of the list. Aburame Shino. It would probably be best if he kept an eye on that guy.

Still, hearing that that Sasuke guy was alone without anybody had a strange affect on Naruto's mood. Maybe if he was alone and Naruto was alone, they could be friends. Sometimes, Naruto thought it was unbearable to have no one, but if Sasuke was alone, then they were alike right? He should try to catch up to that guy.

Naruto started to go the same direction that the girls went off to, and predictably, became lost. He knew that Sasuke must have gone into this direction somewhere, but he couldn't seem to find him. When Naruto looked around, all he could see were lush fields of green and color.

That's when he spotted a wall, that ended all the fields of green, and it wasn't a man-made wall it was a wall to a cliff or something. Naruto figured, that would probably be a good place to start, so he headed over. When he got closer though, he saw that he had been wrong from before. It wasn't just a wall that he was staring at. There right in the middle, was huge waterfall the likes of which he had never seen. The waterfall fell into a pool of water at the bottom that created a sort of river that ran down towards Naruto's direction. How could he have not noticed that before?

Staring at it for a few moments in awe before snapping out of it, Naruto saw a dark-haired figure standing on a bride that faced the river, but arched over the river it created. He supposed it was for people who needed to cross the river or get a good view of the waterfall. The dark-haired figure though, was staring down from the bridge at the water standing near the edge. Really close actually. That person must have been fearless.

"Oi! You! Got a second?!" Naruto asked, running up to the bridge and hoping the dark-haired person would turn around. When they did though, he realized it was a girl.

"Hey, you seen a dark-haired guy near here, with a dark t-shirt and a mean look on his face?" Naruto asked the girl, after he got to the bridge out of breath. He couldn't help but notice that the girl was really surprised by his presence as she was shaking and sweating all of a sudden.

"Wha? Uh, n-no," she said quietly and turning away from Naruto's gaze.

"Really? Damn, I was really hoping that I would be able to find that guy here. Aw well, no harm on your part, I'll just keep looking," Naruto said with a nod, more to himself than to the girl, before he gave a quick look around, as if Sasuke might be hiding or something.

"Yes, well, a lot of people are registering right now, I don't know if he might be there or not, I mean I don't know your friend, and I certainly don't know you, but if it was me and I was to do something- well obviously I'd be here because that's where I am, but I mean to say if I was your friend- not that I'm saying we have to be friends, I wasn't implying anything like that, no, no- but that doesn't mean we shouldn't- I mean..." and from there the girl just muttered on and on as she got quieter and quieter that Naruto couldn't even pick up what she was saying. This girl was a basket case!

"Oh? Okay...." Naruto wasn't sure what was up with this girl, but she sure acted weird. She was way too quiet for his tastes, but she didn't look half-bad. She was pretty cute, but she kept slouching and hiding her figure under that large sweater. "Well, thanks anyway. Oh right, I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he said walking away but giving her a quick nod as he ran off to look for Sasuke.

"Oh! I'm, I mean, my n-name is Hyuga Hinata!" she shouted after him as he took off.

Naruto ran off until the girl just became a dot on the horizon, but he still saw no sign of Sasuke. This was really starting to bug him. How hard should it be to find on guy on Campus? Naruto then realized what a weird question that was, as he just saw that this Campus was freaking huge! He decided to give up, and took that- what was her name?- that weird girl's advice and went to register. If Sasuke was anywhere, it would most likely be there.

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Ebisu came to the Konoha Boarding school with the best teaching credentials of any ninja to ever walk through the school's doors. He didn't want to appear too cocky, but when he was interviewed for the position the board had not only offered him a position as a teacher of advanced ninjutsu, but offered him a seat on the board of educational advances for the school. He wasn't at all surprised when they accepted him. Ebisu was born of the elite and he would always be meant to teach the elite.

So for ten years Ebisu stayed at Konoha Boarding School not only because he loved teaching, but admittedly the job had many advantages that he could fully appreciate. It gave him certain connections to nobles, ancient ninja clans, even to one of the Legendary Sannin. Plus, he was in line to start tutoring the Hokage's grandson soon as long as everything went well. Coming to this school was definitely one of Ebisu's greatest career choices.

So because of his great respect for the school and its teachers, students, and reputation, Ebisu believed in the school and most of all he believed in its headmistress, Tsunade-sama. He never questioned the workings of the school or the choices it made. Sometimes, they had hit rough patches from Tsunade-sama's reckless behavior at times, and sure he worried when they didn't accept certain noble students from strong ninja clans despite the offers their parents made for donations, but all in all, he never really worried that the school was in any sort of trouble or anything.

Then there was this boy.

Ebisu was looking at the transcripts of one Uzumaki Naruto and it did not look at all professional. Mediocre grades and abilities, and in registration, his profile ranked him so incredibly low that Ebisu had to bring up once more with the rest of the staff how ludicrous it was to let this boy come. The only good thing that could be said about the boy was that he had mastered the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Otherwise, his jutsu list was short and lacking any substance. Plus, most of the jutsus he listed were noted as only half-way completed at best. PLUS, one of the jutsus he listed was... was... that atrocious abomination of a technique, the Oiroke No Jutsu......

Ebisu had, admittedly, acted unprofessional upon seeing it, but that did not mean anything. He simply had a small lapse in judgment when he saw it. He hadn't – as Izumo had put it – exploded in vitality like some old codger-less pervert.

The boy would definitely be a trouble maker, a true stain upon the school's excellent reputation, and for that Ebisu wouldn't stand aside and let the boy come to this school. He couldn't change the opinion of the board or Tsunade-sama, but all he had to do was make it clear to everyone that the curriculum was one not be taken lightly. Especially by a boy who definitely could not hold up to the necessary standards of a student at Konoha Boarding School.

Ebisu knew it would be difficult, but if he played it smart, and made sure to not make his hatred for Uzumaki too obvious, then he would be able to get rid of him by the end of the year. The first thing Ebisu would do was make sure to put as much pressure on Naruto as possible. By giving him the lowest rank possible, and assigning Naruto the most notoriously difficult teachers in the curriculum, Naruto would surely crack.

Before all of that though, he would need something to send Naruto a message but wasn't tied at all back to Ebisu. He needed to show Naruto, that he didn't belong in this school. Ebisu had killed, captured, and done much else in his career as a ninja. Taking care of one ordinary boy like this would be simple.

So, he began his plotting....

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Naruto hurried to his room looking at the numbers rapidly passing him by as he went. He bumped into a bunch of people along the way, but he didn't pay any attention as finding his room was of streaming importance. He had heard that there was supposed to be some opening ceremony or something where all the first years met the rest of the school and it would be starting soon. Naruto figured that would be the time to finally meet Uchiha Sasuke, so he needed to be able to dump all of his stuff somewhere before he went.

"Where.... where..... where...." Naruto muttered to himself as he ran down the hallway, searching for the right numbers. Then he finally found them, gave a breath of relief and opened the door.

To get jumped.

Naruto fell to the ground with a loud thud, as something crawled all over his face, biting, scratching, snarling, and generally causing a mess to Naruto's face with absolute abandon. Naruto tried his best to get the thing the hell off of his face, but it was like trying to pour water on a cat; he just couldn't get it to stay still! Naruto was getting some hand-signs ready, willing to do whatever it took to take this animal off his face, when all of a sudden the dog stopped still and hopped off his face. Now, he was sure it was a dog though as it looked up at him with its tongue hanging out and a grin on its face. It was just a small little pup!

"What the hell?" Naruto asked as he went to beat the hell out of this little monster when it turned and ran up to this other, bigger dog that Naruto hadn't even noticed before. Then the dog stood up on its hind legs and ran its hand along the smaller dog's back. Wait, what?

"I see you met our new roommate Akamaru. Huh? What? Yeah, I agree, he does seem pretty scrawny. I wonder what kind of rank he got too," the kid said to the little dog – Akamaru apparently – like he could actually understand what it was saying or something.

"Huh? Who are you? What's with dog?" Naruto asked, wiping the small amounts of blood that had appeared on his face.

"Oh, right. My name is Inuzuka Kiba, and this little guy is Akamaru. We're going to be your new roommates apparently. Frankly, I kind of pity you. Akamaru is gonna be shedding for the next couple weeks," Kiba said with a shrug as he patted Naruto on the shoulder, then went back to his bed, now that Naruto realized that's what that mess was, to lay out some more of his clothes.

"Wait, you brought your dog to the school? Is that even allowed?" Naruto asked as he dropped his bag on the bed that looked untouched, and closed the door with his foot.

"Well, not a regular dog, but Akamaru and me, we got special treatment. You see, not only is Akamaru my pet, but he's my buddy. He's my nin-dog. So I get to bring him because he's my partner in ninjutsu," Kiba said somewhat proudly before Akamaru gave a loud bark of gratitude over his shoulder.

Naruto couldn't help but think that that was a sort of cheap way around the rules, and he didn't really know what a nin-dog was exactly, but at the same time he thought it was pretty cool. It was lame to say that you're best friend was a dog, but at least Kiba didn't have to come to this school all alone or something. Naruto had yet to make a friend here, and with what happened with Sakura and that bitch she was with, he had a small dark thought that maybe...

"So, what rank did they stick you with?" Kiba asked as he walked up to Naruto, apparently done with his unpacking (though you wouldn't be able to tell if you looked at his side of the room).

"Rank? Oh, you mean that letter grade thing! Yeah, that guy with the sunglasses gave this to me..... here we are!" Naruto said as he fished through his bags until he pulled out the charm-like object with the paper inside. It had a large capital letter inscribed on it that Naruto read aloud. "Yeah, they gave me an E-rank. Whatever the heck that means..." Naruto said as he tied the charm to the back of his bag.

The next thing Naruto heard was the sound of a bag dropping to the ground and Kiba looking at him like Naruto was wearing a funny hat or something. Then the laughter started. And it didn't stop. Then when Kiba ran out of breath, and started heaving, he calmed down and the laughter died. Then he started up again after a look at Naruto and continued laughing. Soon, Naruto became a little pissed so he gave Kiba a kick to the back to help him regain his form.

"What the hell is so funny?" Naruto asked indignantly as he felt like kicking Kiba a second time.

"Well, it's just... dude, an E-rank? That sucks man! The only way you could have gotten an E-rank is if you really sucked dude!" Kiba said as he got up and patted Naruto on the head like he was another dog or something.

"Oh yeah, well, what rank did you get ya' hotshot!?" Naruto asked as the heat rose to his face, and his hand shaking in a fist. This Kiba guy was starting to get on his last nerve, and he got the urge to suddenly punch this guy in the face or something. Or something more sensitive like his crotch.....

"Me? I got a D-Rank, but it's not as simple as that dude. With every rank in this school, each one is so far apart from the next on a scale of strength, that it isn't even fair to compare to people on different ranks. I mean, if I met someone who was a C-rank, I'd be really impressed because I bet that's the highest any first-year was going to get. D-rank is probably about average, but an E-rank! Those guys usually drop out in a month from the pressure!"

Kiba continued his laughter from there, and it even seemed like Akamaru was joining in before they began to walk out of the room slamming the door behind them. Even though it was muffled by the door and other noises in the hallway, Kiba's laughter still carried to Naruto's ears and he decided that he didn't like his new roommate very much.

So, it had all come together. Naruto didn't want to say it out loud, but ever since he had gotten his acceptance letter to Konoha Boarding School, Naruto had wondered why they had accepted him. Naruto knew for a fact that he was one of the greatest in the world, but in school he hadn't done so well, so being accepted here was like a dream. Now though, maybe that dream was turning out to be too good to be true.

Naruto hadn't known that the ranks were going to be like this, and he was definitely surprised that he had apparently gotten the lowest rank, but he thought that he did okay in his registration evaluation. Whatever this school expected of its students, it must have been great. Plus, judging from what Shikamaru and Choji had told him, there were a lot of students at the school who had family techniques passed down to them, and some might even have Kekkei Genkais! Naruto didn't even know where his last name came from....

Naruto fell down on his bed and placed his head in his hands, feeling that it felt a light all of a sudden. What was he doing? How was he going to survive here? He had always goofed off in school before, but he had also gotten by okay in class. He was already failing here and it was just the first day! Naruto felt the room was spinning around him, and all of a sudden he had to wonder, could he do it?

Could he become Hokage?

A/N: End of Chapter 2. Kind of boring, but it introduces a lot of the important characters, so necessary. Next chapter, Sasuke and Naruto meet and their meeting is not what you'd expect.... or what you exactly expect. Also, all you romance fans will have to wait a while, but I promise you, it will be angsty. Until then, enjoy the upcoming action! Rawr!