Naruto: Alone...
My God, another thirty reviews? If this keeps up this story will have more total reviews than any of my other stories! Un-freakin believable! Well now that I got that out of my system, I'd best cotninue with my talking. I would like to thank the one fan who did me the favor and checked out my Love Hina story. Now then, for those of you still wondering where the hell my other chapter updates are, please be patient, its hard coming up with ideas for an ENTIRELY original Chunin Exam, and I'm trying to figure out how I can keep the Naruto in AAS from being too overpowered at this point. Also I'm getting addicted to Civilization 4, as well as The Godfather.
So without further ranting, I wish to reply to my faithful reviewers;
Silver Warrior- Hate to tell you this man, but that's all Sarutobi can do from now on. He's done everything that he could, and now Naruto has to take his life by the reins, sounds cruel I know, but its the way it is.
RobotPirateNinja- Well you're half-right. You see though Naruto will get some attention from now on, it won't be too much. After all, all of his club is in the next class up so they won't see him too much during the Academy. But, while he MAY not do pranks for attention, pranks can be used for other purposes...
FictionReader98- Unfortunetly, as I told Robot, only the upper class have really heard of him (Read on in another response to find out why), so he won't have too easy of a time.
VFSNAKE- I think I said in the second chapter he did all that stuff in a river.
Raikiri1991- I know... but it was a sacrifice Naruto was willing to make...
MissNaye- Hey like I said kids will be kids.
Omegagaurdian- Glad you liked that part, and its alright if the review isn't long, any review is good.
PaulRap Raptor- Omake is the japanese word for outtake, or blooper.
paintball-gamer- Oh the depressing parts aren't over yet, cause with what I have planned it will be good.
Dragon Man 180- It is a strong possibility.
ZoneshifterD- Yes it is actually very possible.
shikamaru the nerd- Yep, only Tenten's class have heard about him, after all they are in the Academy, so they'd get the news on certain affairs pertaining to the ninjas of Konoha.
pyro-chan the dragon king- Well I think that after all of his years of hunting wild animals Naruto will find it very hard to pass up eating the delightfully, plump cat...
Well that takes care of the reviews, now lets not wait any longer and start the next chapter of Naruto: Alone!!!!
Chapter 5: Academy, The Worst First Day...
The sounds of chirping birds was the first thing to reach Naruto's ears as he woke up. He sat up in his make-shift tent and yawned as he stretched himself out slightly. He got up out of the tent and stretched more completely as he then scratched himself. Naruto yawned as he walked over to his pile of new clothes and picked up the set of black clothes and walked towards the sewer entrance. He opened up the lid and jumped down into the sewers. Naruto navigated his way around the sewers, careful not to allow any of his new clothes to get dragged around in the muck.
Naruto finally got to where he needed to get to as he saw a bright light at the end of the long, dark, smelly tunnel. Naruto jumped out of the sewage pipe and landed onto the bank of the river he normally washed up in. Naruto looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had not yet rose above the treelines, so he had time. Naruto went upstream a couple hundred feet, afterall he wouldn't want to bathe in the crap of the villagers. Naruto flung the new clothes to the side and undressed on the bank of the river. Naruto then jumped right into the water and swam down a couple feet into it. He came back up to the surface shook himself a bit as he got used to the rather chilly water in the river.
After getting used to the water in the river Naruto floated around a bit, soaking his body in the cleansing water of the river. As sunrise slowly began to approach, the sky beginning to light up slightly, Naruto waded his way through the river water, and up to shore. He shook himself dry for a little while before trying on his new clothes. He had to say, they were pretty nice. His shoes and his coat were both a bit oversized, but the shirt and pants were fine. And he really liked these clothes, they were really the first nice things he has had for a very long time. Naruto then thought about the sewer tunnel, so he took off his new shoes and replaced them with the old, and hiked up the legs of his pants to mid-way up his shins. He didn't want to ruin these things so soon.
He made his way back to his hideout and got packing. He got loaded the pockets in his cargo pants with kunai, shuriken, and ninja wire, all the 'essentials' for Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto looked up at the sky again for an idea on the time. He saw the sun was just now rising over the tree line. He had plenty of time, the old timer did say a couple 'hours', whatever those were, after sunrise. So he'd might as well get some breakfast and then go to that Academy place. Naruto got his trusty burlap sack and ran into town.
At this early in the morning all of the shops were closed, but road-side food places were still open. Since Naruto wanted to get to this Academy place early he decided to find a shop on the way to the Academy. It was actually a few blocks later that Naruto found his target. "Ichi... raku... ramen... what's ramen?" Naruto asked as he slowly read the kanji that were on the Ichiraku Ramen shops flaps. The lights were still off so Naruto knew they weren't awake.
Naruto snuck under the flap and slowly opened the wooden board leading to the kitchen and snuck over to the supplies cabinet (every road-side food shop had one, Naruto learned this after stealing so many goodies). Naruto opened it up... and saw these weird square things... they looked like they were made out of noodles. Naruto picked one up and hit it against the side of a counter a couple times, it was as hard as a rock. Naruto brought it up to his mouth and tried to take a bite...
"YEOUCH! This thing is harder than a rock!" Naruto semi-shouted as he tossed the uncooked-noodle square back into the cupboard. "And its stale! Do people honestly eat that crap!?" Naruto said as he continued looking through the cabinet... and he found nothing but those noodle squares. "What the hell, there's gotta be more..." Naruto said as he heard someone begin coming down the stairs. "Man, I'm outta time!" Naruto thought as he dashed out of the back of the store and back into the streets, figuring breakfast could wait for the day.
Meanwhile old man Ichiraku was just beginning his morning check of the supplies when he noticed something odd... "Why are there teeth marks on these noodles?" Ichiraku said as he glared at the marks. "Damn raccoons." Ichiraku said as he slammed the cabinet closed, and a certain red-headed container of the Ichibi began sneezing like crazy in Suna.
Naruto reached the front of the Academy and stared at the building in wonder. It wasn't as huge as that tower that the weird 'Itachi' guy took him to, but it was still pretty impressive. Naruto saw that there was no one coming, and that no one was there so Naruto sat down on a nearby swing and waited for about and hour and a half, wishing now that he had bothered to try and steal something else, when some kids that were older than Naruto came. Naruto looked at these kids, and saw Tenten in with a group of them, showing off the kunai he had signed for her a few days earlier.
Then Tenten looked in his direction, saw him, and waved at him. The other kids that were with her looked in Naruto's direction as Naruto waved back, and Tenten explained who he was. After she stopped the kids, specifically one with long black hair in a pony tail, with huge eyebrows and huge eyes, looked at him in awe before the girl's did a fan girl scream of 'Kawai' and the guys just nodded their heads in his direction. But the huge eyebrow kid just got this flame in his eye that told Naruto that something bad was coming when he would meet this kid in real life.
But soon those kids went into the building, and eventually kids who looked about his age came, their parents holding their hands as they walked them to the front of the school. While most of the parents gave him a glare that told him to just die on the spot, few of them looked at him with an appraising look. The ones that glared at him whispered something into their child's ears, all the while glaring at him. But the ones that 'appraised' him simply led their children into the building.
Naruto got up off of the swing and went inside the Academy building. Naruto walked around in there for a while, trying to find some sign of where he was supposed to go. He saw a Chunin in the hall and, deciding that he might as well take his chances, walked up to him and tugged on his jacket. "Hey, do you know where new kids are supposed to go?" Naruto asked as the Chunin turned around with a slight smile.
"Sure, its..." The Chunin began saying as he looked down and saw..." ITS YOU!" The Chunin shouted as he pointed a finger at Naruto. "You're the one who did this to me!" The Chunin shouted as he pointed down to his feet. Naruto swallowed a lump in his throat as he slowly looked down... yep it was one of the Chunin he had used the nails on a few days ago, there were so many bandages on his feet they almost looked like a cast. "Now..." The Chunin said as he cracked his neck. "For what you did... I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR LEGS!" The Chunin shouted as he tried to jump on top of Naruto.
Naruto jumped back and then made a mad dash backwards away from the Chunin, who despite being partially taken care of by medic-nins, was having trouble running after the boy. Naruto rounded a corner and figured that he'd better give this guy the slip. Naruto saw an open room to his left and figured that the room would due. Naruto slipped inside the room, slammed the sliding door shut, and waited until he heard the foot steps of the Chunin pass.
Naruto sighed as he turned around, and was met by the strange looks that many kids his age, and another Chunin with tanned skin, dark hair that was in a pony-tail, and a scar across his nose, were giving him. Naruto, the kids, and the Chunin looked at each other for a few moments before the Chunin coughed a few times and broke the silence. "Naruto Uzumaki, you're late. Mind giving me an explanation?" The Chunin said as he looked at Naruto with stern eyes.
"Well... you see... I was being chased by this Chunin in the hall, so it kinda took me a while to shake him." Naruto said as some of the kids began bursting out laughing, while others looked at him with a 'yeah right' look. Iruka simply put his hand up to silence the kids while looking at Naruto.
"Alright Uzumaki, just get to a seat while I continue role call." The Chunin said as most of the kids went bug-eyed at what he said, other either slept, said nothing, or ate while Naruto sat in a desk that situated him beside this kid with brown hair, with these weird marks on the sides of his face, and a puppy dog... that looked strangely familiar to Naruto... and another kid with black hair tied up in a pony-tail, that was sleeping right next to him.
Naruto heard the pup growl to his right, and watched as the kid stroked its head. "Yeah Akamaru.. he's the one who shaved you..." The kid said as Naruto sweat dropped.
'Great, I'm sitting beside THAT dog's master... today just could not get any worse...' Naruto said as the sliding door opened and he saw... the Chunin that was just chasing him down the hall come in.
"Oh Mizuki, what took you so long." The tanned Chunin said to 'Mizuki' as he walked into the room.
"Well you see Iruka, I was just chasing that Street Fox through the halls and I..." Mizuki said as he looked around the room... and saw Naruto sitting in the class. "... I'll get you later punk.." Mizuki said as he sat down beside Iruka, and Naruto just sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.
'You're just not giving me any breaks today are you?' Naruto thought as he looked back down and waited as 'Iruka' finished the role call and looked up at all of them.
"Alright everyone, my name is Iruka, but you all will call me Iruka-sensei." Iruka said as Mizuki then sat up.
"And my name is Mizuki, and you will call me Mizuki-sensei." Mizuki said as the class nodded.
"And we will, for the most part, be your teachers for the rest of your time in the Academy. We hope that we can teach you all everything you will need to know in order to become excellent Shinobi of Konoha." Iruka said as Naruto began to fidget in his desk. He had been waiting for this for the last couple days, and he was excited to finally begin training for the occupation that would change his life. "So would everyone please get the books that are under your desks and open them to the first page." Iruka said as Naruto practically face vaulted.
'What the hell, the old man told me that we were training to be ninjas, not book worms...' Naruto thought as he reluctantly got the book out and opened it. It was on... oh hell Naruto didn't know what the hell it was about. 'Great... I can barely read a word of this... no way this day can get any worse...' Naruto thought as suddenly Iruka looked up at everyone.
"All right then, has anyone here had any experience in learning how to read kanji?" Iruka asked as everyone, including Naruto (he had a little experience), raised their hands. "Alright then since all of you know how to read then there's no point in teaching how to read kanji." Iruka said as Naruto practically banged his head up against the desk.
'I should've left my hand down...' Naruto said as Mizuki said something that he really wasn't paying attention to, but then noticed him when he pointed at him.
"Why Uzumaki, thank you for volunteering to read some out loud for us." Mizuki said as Naruto's head snapped up, and looked at his, still, raised hand.
'I really should've left my hand down...' Naruto thought as he looked at Mizuki who was staring at him.
"Well Uzumaki? What are you waiting for?" Mizuki said as Naruto gulped.
"Well you see snesei... I really don't know how to read too much..." Naruto said as Mizuki was about to say something before Iruka cut in.
"That's fine, just read what you can." Iruka said as Mizuki looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto nodded, looked at the first words, in the first page in the book, and began reading. "The." Naruto said as everyone sweat dropped.
"And? Go on." Iruka said as Naruto blushed slightly.
"... That's all I can really read in this book, the other words are..." Naruto said as everyone in the class began busting out laughing. Naruto blushed even more before sinking back into his seat. As the laughter quieted down Iruka cleared his throat.
"All right then, anyone else wish to read?" Iruka said as the hands of other children raised there hands while Naruto sat there, just listening to the kids read out loud, while he heard some make some remarks about him that made him want to beat them across the entire room.
Lunch Time
Lunch time finally rolled around at noon, and Naruto was starving. Embarassing yourself in front of entire class, and trying to read along when you could barely read at all made a kid hungry. Add to that, he didn't have breakfast this morning, and you had one amazingly starving Naruto. Naruto decided to get himself some lunch, but since the Academy didn't provide lunches he was going to have to steal some lunch. Naruto looked over to the door where Iruka and Mizuki were and saw that they were drawn into a deep conversation with each other. Naruto saw his moment to escape and took it, running out of the fence into town.
Meanwhile Mizuki's and Iruka's conversation was just getting interesting. "So Iruka, what was up with sparing the demon brat? Don't tell me you're going soft on us." Mizuki said as Iruka sighed.
"Mizuki, we are Academy teachers, that means that no matter who comes through these halls, even if it is 'him', we must teach equally. I'm not going soft on you all, I'm just following the code handed to us by Hokage-sama." Iruka said as Mizuki chuckled.
"Whatever Iruka, but I just hope that you remember what that thing did to your mom and dad." Mizuki said as Iruka lowered his head at his parents' mention and Mizuki walked off. Iruka had not forgotten what the Kyuubi had done to his family, or presently lack there of, nor does he forget his hatred of the beast. But, as he said just a few minutes ago, the demon was now an Academy student and as a teacher Iruka was to teach the brat as he would teach any other Academy student... no matter how painful it would be to him. Iruka gave a quick glance over the entire area, but did not notice that Naruto had slipped out while he was talking with Mizuki.
Naruto was walking through the streets closest to the Academy, he would only have about an hour to steal some food, shake the Chunin that would most likely be chasing him after he stole some food, eat, and then get back to the Academy before they would notice he was gone. 'Simple enough.' Naruto thought as he got to a dango shop. Naruto cracked his neck, and walked non-chalantly into the dango shop. A few seconds after Naruto entered the shop there were sounds of struggle, dishes breaking, and curses flying.
A few seconds after that Naruto ran out of the dango shop, ten balls of dango in his arms, being followed by the shop owner who was swinging a broom around. A few seconds after that two Chunin were on the scene, and after a few seconds of talking to the dango shop owner they were chasing Naruto. Naruto smirked as he watched the Chunin try to catch up with him, and was about to speed up until one very bad thing happened... remember the shoes that were a couple sizes too big... he tripped because of them.
Naruto fell face foward, into the road, and dragged on a couple feet, the dango he had stolen spilling all over the ground. Naruto got up and began running again, not caring about the food, but being more concerned about his well being. Naruto ran, slipping up thanks to his shoes every now and then. Naruto though, saw his salvation, an alley on the side of the street. He smirked as he ran into the alley, and he was just about five feet into that alley... before he tripped again..
Naruto tripped and fell face first into a puddle, he tried to get up and get away.. but one of the Chunin grabbed the back of his jacket, then grabbed the back of his head, and slammed him, face first into a wall. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" One Chunin said as the other one caught up.
"Well it would appear as though to be the Street Fox my dear friend." The other Chunin said as they both grinned. "Say, why don't you hand 'em over to me, I was always better at 'interrogation' then you were anyway." The second Chunin said as the first one nodded, and threw Naruto to the second Chunin, who caught Naruto by the shoulders and then slammed him, back first, into the other side of the alley, causing Naruto to gasp in pain. "Hey... these are some nice clothes that you stole... tell you what Fox, we won't 'punish' ya too badly, if you show us where the rest of the clothes you stole a few days back are." The Chunin said as both he and his partner began laughing hysterically.
Naruto hated these stupid Chunin, he hated their just God damned cocky attitudes. Naruto gritted his teeth before smiling at the Chunin. "Go to Hell!" Naruto said as he spat in the Chunin's face. The Chunin glared at Naruto for a moment... before a small smirk on his face.
"You know what Uzumaki? I've had a rather bad day today. You haven't exactly brightened it up." The Chunin said as he cracked his neck. "So... allow me a moment or two to relieve some stress, and we'll call it even for your crime, and spitting in my face." Before the blond thief could reply to his 'kind offer', the Chunin immediately slammed his knee into Naruto's stomach, causing the poor boy to gasp for breath again. After a few minutes of slapping Naruto around, the Chunin working out some of his frustrations on the Street Fox's body, Naruto was tossed down onto the dirt, the two Chunin just shrugging.
"Alright, that'll do for now. Later Street Fox... don't try this kind of crap again." The two Chunin said as they immediately sped off, Naruto coughing and wheezing as he tried to regain his breath. Naruto slowly lifted himself off of his stomach and grunted as he got back onto his feet, looking over to a building's window to try and catch his reflection.
Naruto also saw that his face was covered in bruises, the two Chunin doing quite the number on his face. Ordinarily the blond was used to this, after all, it was the risk of survival: get caught, get a small smacking around. Still, Naruto's day hadn't been good at all, in fact, the little blond boy felt terrible before he had run into the Chunin. Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, trying to hold in tears that he knew would be coming... before he felt a warm feeling rush all over his body. As the warm feeling left Naruto opened his eyes to see that... he was completely fine. Naruto touched his own face to see if it were real... and it was. Naruto stood up, albeit a but shakily, and began walking back to the Academy, where it was safe... for now.
Naruto arrived at the Academy just as the children began heading back inside, he saw Iruka at the doors, who saw him coming. "Oh there you are Uzumaki, please hurry up, class is about to start again." Iruka said as Naruto only nodded and carried himself back into the Academy. Iruka noticed Naruto walking with a slight limp... all over, but just shrugged, thinking he must've had some trouble on the swing, or has some trouble with the other children.
After the Academy
Classes at the Academy finally let out, bringing with them the first year students, who were glad that such a boring day was over. They ran out of the Academy building, and they ran to their parents who were waiting with them, carrying umbrellas with them for some odd reason. Naruto walked out, his limp gone, and looked upon them. Most of the parents, as before looked at him with a glare, but also with an amused smile as their children told them about Naruto's inability to read.
But Naruto didn't care about the parents for now, Iruka had talked to him after class and told him that 'He would not allow such ignorance into the army of Konoha, and would give him lessons on reading kanji after school'. Naruto knew it was an insult from the really, really big word at the beginning of the sentence, but he really didn't care. As the parents left Naruto walked outside of the fence that surrounded the Academy... and heard thunder go off.
Naruto looked up in time to see rain begin pouring down on his body. Naruto looked down both sides of the street to see the parents open the umbrellas, and bring their children under the umbrellas with them. Naruto's head lowered as he began walking down the street. His stomach was growling loudly, but Naruto kept on walking, only really doing any other movement other than walking when quickly looting a melon from the melon stand, without the idiot even noticing due to him being so busy with 'Getting the roof of the cart on to protect his precious melons'.
Naruto walked down the alleys to his hide out, which was pretty much really, really wet when he got there. Naruto knew trying to start a fire in the rain would be out of the question so he just went inside of his tent, and began eating a meal he had been waiting for all day today...
Today... was one of the worst days he's had in a long time. And this Academy wasn't nearly as exciting as the old man made it out to be... but Naruto was going to have to go with it, if he ever wanted a life better than eating melon in the rain... then he would have to be tough... he would have to be strong... he would have to never give up... no matter how bad things would get.
Sad Chapter I Know... But Hey That's Life... R&R