AN: A bit later than I'd intended, and with less content too, but the chapter is here at least! Now, first off, I'd like to address a few things raised in reviews. Regarding 'female' Naruto being possible and not female 'Matatabi'. I never said the tailed beasts couldn't take on a human form, of either gender, it was Matatabi who dismissed the idea out of hand. As for the demon being female, she's meant to be Naruto's 'opposite'; grown where he's a child, female where he's male, ferocious where he's cautious, close quarters focused where he's a ranged specialist, etcetera, etcetera. Now, another thing is other human characters. Yes, there will be humans, and they'll start turning up now, and yes, he will be friends with some. Next is seeing youkai. No, the byakugan will not see them just 'because', and neither will the sharingan. As I said in chapter one, the large amount of yang chakra imbalance cause a mutation that allowed him to fully see youkai. Other people, if they train to do so, will be able to make out silhouettes, shadows, and whispers, but will not be able to fully immerse themselves in the 'other world' so to speak. This is actually a plot point for later on, how Naruto is not fully part of either world, and is pulled in two separate directions. Also, Naruto is nowhere near fluent in the demonic language. The only reason he was able to work out as much as he did was by deducing certain types of words (like how in English words ending in -ly are probably an adverb) and by trial and error because the words have a visible effect. Now, please enjoy the chapter.

PS: Blame the inchlings on too much Touhou.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 21 – Day One

Early one spring morning, Akiko wandered through the trees to Naruto's cabin. She didn't often do this, but today was a special day, it was to be Naruto's first day at the Ninja Academy, and while she couldn't hang around all morning, she was going to at least walk him there, like a mother would.

Hinoe would do it, but all of the youkai were reluctant to reveal themselves to humans, especially after something that had happened the previous year. She didn't know what it was, but Naruto had missed two weeks of school because of it – with a youkai pretending to be him in class – and the youkai had pretty much closed ranks as well.

No one had told her what had happened, and while that did hurt a bit, it was clear that it had hit some of them pretty hard, most notably Naruto and Tsurara. The former had turned near mute for months afterwards, and even now seemed to suffer frequent nightmares that kept him up at night. The latter had become far more focused, both in training herself and in her attention to Naruto. She was completely devoted to the young, blonde boy.

Akiko's eyes landed on a tree. This particular one caught her eye because of the rope and talismans around it that marked the edge of the barrier around Naruto's cabin. This was another thing that had gone up over the last year, most likely because of whatever that mysterious 'event' was. What this particular barrier did, as far as Akiko knew, was deactivate the array that made youkai visible to normal people if someone the barrier didn't recognise passed through it.

Fortunately, Akiko was keyed into it and passed through with no incident.

"Good morning, Lady Akiko."

The teacher almost jumped out of her skin as Minako appeared in front of her. The zashiki-warashi seemed to enjoy spooking her by appearing out of nowhere like that, and even though she was unfailingly polite at all times, Akiko could just tell that there was a mischievous streak a mile wide hidden behind that smile, her teacher's instincts told her so.

"Just Akiko will do, Minako, you know I'm not a noble lady." She said to the household spirit.

"You are master's educator, and so deserve respect." Minako replied.

"I'm not his teacher any longer, he's going to be going to the Ninja Academy starting today." Akiko reminded her.

"Will these ninja teachers be visiting master's cabin here in the forest?" Minako asked.

"I doubt it." Akiko sighed. "If I hadn't seen that kappa hand print years ago, I probably wouldn't be here myself either."

"Then I shall address them respectfully if and when they do come here." Minako affirmed. "You are here, therefore master likes you more than he does other humans, and therefore you are someone to be respected."

Akiko just smiled and didn't verbally reply. What Minako said was true after all, she was the only human aside from Naruto that could freely wander into this particular place. Anyone else would find themselves incapable of locating it, and wouldn't even stumble upon it accidentally.

That was… rather sad actually. Hopefully, now that he was going to school with ninja children, Naruto might be able to make a friend or two his own age. After all, weird stuff was the bread and butter of ninja life, wasn't it? At least, as far as Akiko knew, in all of her civilian naivete.

Akiko sighed, before speaking to the household spirit. "Is Naruto up yet?"

"Of course." Minako looked affronted at that. "He's currently off training with the barbarian, but he should be home for breakfast shortly. If you wish, you may wait at the table."

With that, Minako seemed to flicker and disappear. Akiko knew that Minako, for some reason, didn't get along with Takame, always referring to her as an 'uncivilised, barbarian brawler' and never by name. Takame, on the rare occasion she rose to the provocation, called Minako a 'frivolous and redundant infant' in return.

Thinking about the interactions between 'Naruto's' youkai made Akiko smile, as it was things like that which made them appear just that little human, despite the fact they most definitely weren't so. Just looking up, she could see some sort of hybrid of bird and lizard flying overhead, and off to one side was what looked like a cross between a beehive and a doll's house.

This was the home of a colony of youkai that used to live on the border between River Country and Fire Country. There'd been a flood there that had ruined the dwellings of the humans, and the small, fairy-like spirits had fled when their trees had been cut down to build new homes for the humans.

She remembered when they had come to Naruto, almost on hands and knees, asking for his help. He'd given it freely of course, and it was at that point that his reputation really began to take off. Now, Naruto was pretty famous amongst youkai throughout the Elemental Nations, and he'd earned the respect and goodwill of a fair number of them too.

When he'd built that home for the 'inchlings' - as they preferred to be called – the colony of them had almost deified Naruto then and there, especially considering he'd went through the effort of even making them little beds and pillows to sleep on.

After the inchlings had come the foreign kodama spirits, and after them had come more and more youkai. The forest around his cabin was now rather lively, and it was difficult, if not down right impossible, to approach the wooden cabin without someone noticing you.

Akiko was certain that several dozen youkai had noticed her already, even if she couldn't see them right then.

Anyway, she made her way into the cabin and towards the kitchen/dining room, where she found two fairly familiar faces. Tsuyukami was sat at the table with a stack of folders in front of him, most probably reports from all of the youkai all over the elemental nations that made up Naruto's 'spy' network.

She wasn't entirely certain how the jovial shrine spirit had ended up with that particular 'job', but he turned out to be pretty damn good at it regardless. He filtered out all of the useless bits of random trivia that could be found in them, and organised what was left by region before passing it on to Naruto.

He gave Akiko a small wave when she wandered in.

The other familiar face was Hinoe, the one who could quite easily be called Naruto's mother figure. She was leaning back on her chair and smoking her pipe. A window behind her was open and drawing all of the smoke outside. She looked to be in her own little world, far away from them right then.

Within seconds of taking a seat, Akiko found a plate of breakfast food appear in front of her, courtesy of Minako no doubt. She checked the food over before eating it, just to make sure the prankster household spirit hadn't added wasabi sauce or anything like that the pancakes.

She munched on those while she waited for Naruto to get in from his morning training session.

xxxxx

"You're doing well, master." Takame praised, clapping the boy on the shoulder. "You have speed and strength. Now all you need to work on is skill. Your fighting 'style' is crude, but effective for now. You need to learn how to deal with different weapons and tricks, but you are finally showing some improvement in hand to hand."

"It's not much though." Naruto sighed. "No matter how much I train, a second or third year academy student could probably wipe the floor with me."

Takame flicked his forehead. "In terms of skill? Yes. In terms of speed and strength? No, I think you are rather strong for your age, and fast too. Maybe you're not quite as muscular as those Inuzuka I've seen around the village, or as large and meaty as the Akimichi… but you're are most definitely 'well defined' for your age."

Naruto grumbled something unintelligible under his breath as he placed his right hand over his left hand. There was a slight black aura for a moment, and when he took it away the cuts, bruises, and gashes from training had been fully healed. A moment after that, Naruto was bent over and coughing up an oily, black substance.

Takame gave him a disproving look. "Normally, when one makes a mistake messing with demons, they stop messing about with such dangerous powers."

Naruto cringed slightly. "When… that happened, I'd meant to abandon it all, but you know that I'm not free of my mistake. If I want to fight against what I made, I need to understand how it works first."

Takame still looked unhappy, but she could understand what he was talking about, at least a little. Even after that female copy of Naruto had been 'killed' - having disintegrated after taking too much damage – he'd still woken up from nightmares frequently, made worse by the fact he was sporting injuries received in his night terrors.

That didn't mean she liked it though. She could admit that the flesh-knitting spell he'd created – inspired by the flesh beast he'd fought – was a useful thing, but demonic power and techniques were not meant to be used by humans. This could be seen with the black substance that Naruto vomited up whenever he used such spells.

"Don't delve too deeply." She cautioned him. "It's said that those who look into the abyss, have the abyss look back at them. With demons, this could both be far more true, and possibly far more literal, than for anything else. Be careful that you don't become what you're trying to oppose."

"I won't." Naruto said.

"Just be careful." Takame told him. "Now, I think we're done training for the morning, and I'm sure that breakfast is waiting for you back home, so let's head to the cabin, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's." Naruto agreed, and the two walked side by side back to Naruto's home.

As they passed several of the youkai that were up and about, Naruto waved and exchanged greetings. An Uwabami, a giant snake, lazily waved back with its tail as it dealt with its current hangover. Several kodama spirits also greeted Naruto, and when he got closer to his cabin a small swarm of inchlings began flying around him in circles, chattering rapidly in their high pitched voices.

Naruto smiled widely at that, and happily chatted with the excitable small youkai. He liked the inchlings, even if they did almost worship him. They were always happy – the first time they'd met, asking him for help, notwithstanding – and their cheerful attitude was rather infectious. He couldn't help but grin with them around.

"Lord Naruto! Lord Naruto!" They cheered, dancing around him in the air. They kept that up until Naruto got to his cabin door, whereupon most of them returned to their 'hive'. Naruto knew that a handful of them would follow him once he left, there was always a few of them around him since they'd come along.

"Hey, Akiko-sensei." Naruto greeted his teacher when he saw her in his home. "What are you doing here this morning?"

"Good morning, Naruto." Akiko replied. "I thought I'd walk you to the Academy this morning, it is your first day after all. I can't hang around long, I've got a class of my own to get to, but I thought you'd rather have someone with you today." Her eyes flickered to the youkai. "Well, someone visible at least."

Thanks, sensei." He said as he sat down, breakfast appearing in front of him. "Thanks, Minako."

"A pleasure, master!" Minako's voice chirped from another room.

"And I'm not your sensei any longer." Akiko added. "You can call me just Akiko from now on."

"Thanks, Akiko." Naruto grinned. "And sure, it'll be nice to walk with someone that other people can see."

"Oh, are we really that unappreciated?" Masami asked, wandering into the room. "That makes me sad, Naruto." She faked crying at that, complete with big, wobbly eyes and a pout.

"I truly love you like family, Masami, but I'm not going to fall for that trick again." Naruto dryly replied, remembering the last time she'd tricked him with her fake tears.

"Aw, really?" Masami whined, before giving a huff and joining them for breakfast.

Tsuyukami laughed at the little display, before tidying up the stack of folders in front of him. He then told Naruto the latest bits of info that the youkai had sent to him. There wasn't much really, just some minor bandit activity here and there, an increase in recruitment by the 'Hidden Sound' village, apparently run by Orochimaru, and some more youkai requesting his help, amongst other things.

"What sort of help do the youkai need?" Naruto asked.

"There's a colony of ningyo who are complaining about something polluting the coastal waters they live in, several territory disputes between groups, and a number of sightings of some… less than pleasant youkai." Tsuyukami hesitated. "Some of the reports suggest that the growing number of aggressive youkai being formed is due to some sort of conflict going on in Rain Country, a civil war maybe."

Naruto grimaced. "Well there's not much I can do about that myself." He said. "I can look into the pollution thing next weekend though, but I'm not going to be dragged into an argument about territory. I don't know how to mediate an argument at all, much less one where both sides will be at each others' throats."

"So tell them to sort it out themselves or you'll send in Madara and Misuzu to squash both sides?" Tsuyukami suggested. "It should calm things down, as I don't recall either group being particularly strong, and both Madara and Misuzu have earned their reputations."

"If it works, then go right ahead." Naruto agreed, before glancing around. "By the way, has anyone seen Tsurara this morning? I haven't seen her yet?"

Hinoe chuckled. "I believe she went to the Academy early in order to break in and check out the records. By now, I'm fairly sure she'll be stalking your teacher to be and seeing if they have any ill intentions towards you."

Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. "How would she even be able to tell that? I mean, the Academy instructors are chunin, ninja, and they're not going to be stupid enough to walk around talking about how much they hate the 'demon brat', or whatever it is people call me."

Tsuyukami sighed. "Some people are that stupid actually. Some of the youkai around the village have told me about how a small number of villagers blame you for everything, from the high price of exotic teas to them tripping over a pebble. Of course, given that I know one of these individuals is a constantly drunken amputee, who lost his arm in the kyuubi 'attack' eight years ago, they're not really worth bothering with."

"Well in his case at least, I can see where he's coming from a bit." Naruto admitted. "I might not be Kurama myself, but a bitter man would need something to blame. I can only imagine how much worse things would be if Kurama had done more damage than he did back then."

"Speaking of the nine tails, where is he?" Akiko chimed in curiously. "I don't see him around here very often."

"He's probably gone bounty hunting again." Naruto replied. "Now that he's a reasonable size, he likes to slake his blood-lust and hunger for battle. Going after low rank missing ninja is a way for him to do that and make me some money. In return, I help him with his control issues and other things."

Akiko blinked in surprise. "The kyuubi… is a bounty hunter? How on earth does he claim the bounty? I can't see him just wandering into a bounty office so easily with no one batting an eye at one of the biju cashing in on a kill."

Naruto snorts with laughter. "He doesn't do that. No, he brings the corpses back here, and I transform into a random person and claim the bounty myself. No one suspects a thing, because I use a youkai transformation, a physical alteration of the self, rather than the academy ninjutsu, which is a shell of chakra that reflects and refracts light."

"That went right over my head." Akiko admitted. "I know 'civilian' subjects, not ninja stuff, but it sounds pretty impressive all the same."

Naruto smiled at her, but couldn't help but think that the academy 'Henge' was impressive in and off itself, particularly because of how little energy it took to cast and maintain. True, there were physically altering transformation ninjutsu – the Inuzuka man-beast techniques came to mind – but the fact that 'Henge' distorted light to form specific images and constructs was something that Naruto found immensely impressive himself.

The conversation from that point onward drifted from topic to topic as everyone ate breakfast together. Akiko talked about the work plans she'd made for her classes and her hopes for her students, while Hinoe and Takame spoke of politics amongst youkai, and Naruto even told Akiko about how he'd joined with a kodama spirit and found a safe way of making plants grow quickly!

Once everything had been eaten, and the dishes whisked away by Minako, those that were going out made their way out of the door and towards Konoha proper.

xxxxx

Akiko glanced at Naruto as they walked along the streets of Konoha to the academy. He looked quite different to the young kid that had first entered her classroom a couple of years previously, and not just because he'd grown older. There were several notable things about him.

For one, Naruto's blonde hair had grown out a bit and was left loose, giving him a somewhat rough and wild look about him, like a lion or a wolf. He was of average height for his age, perhaps a shade on the shorter side, and possessed a fair bit of muscle definition for someone so young – primarily due to Takame's spars and training – but there was a limit to how much muscle an eight year old could have, and Naruto was thankfully nowhere near the grotesquely bulging with muscle stage.

His attire was a little unusual, but fairly practical. A plain pair of cargo pants with plenty of pockets tucked into a pair of sturdy boots was what he wore on his legs, and his long sleeved shirt was fairly plain as well. The only notably odd thing there was the belt with pouches for his potion vials, which were currently filled with the basic potions Naruto could make.

What made Naruto odd by ninja standards was the leather duster coat he wore – made by himself – which had plenty of pockets on the inside for him to keep things in. Naruto tended to have a lot of things on him at any one time, between his numerous packs of shikigami, a few knives, a pad of paper and some pencils, a book or two he was reading, his training gloves which he kept on him, his weapon shiki, and many other things.

Naruto also had a broad brimmed hat on his head to keep the bright sun out of his eyes. In fact, if Akiko had ever heard of 'Van Helsing', she would have said that Naruto's outfit greatly resembled his. However, neither Van Helsing the vampire hunter, nor Count Dracula exist inside this work of fict- I mean this world.

After looking Naruto over, and reminiscing about when she'd first seen him, Akiko's eyes then drifted to the empty space beside him, where she knew one of the youkai was walking. She couldn't see who it was, but her long term exposure to youkai had allowed her to develop a sense of there being something there, and she could almost make out a shadowy silhouette as well.

Going by the height of the figure, it was probably Masami. This thought was only reinforced by Naruto's blush as he glared at the figure, probably in response to Masami making some sort of perverted comment or innuendo as she so often did. She was a rather cheerful and mischievous girl, Masami.

Akiko just hoped that no one would pick up on how Naruto tended to focus on things other people couldn't see, or if they did notice then they'd pass it off as either him being unfocused or bored. Of course, being ninja, Akiko didn't hold out much hope on his… strange habits going unnoticed for very long, but Naruto was just so used to youkai being around that it was difficult for him to act like they weren't there, even when they were behaving themselves.

"Are you ready, Naruto?" Akiko asked. "The Ninja Academy is bound to be very different to civilian school."

"I'm as ready as I really can be." Naruto shrugged. "I've probably got a head start on other civilian kids, but I don't know how I match up to clan kids. I mean, they'll have started learning about being ninja years ago, so they should know what they're doing, right?"

Akiko grinned at him and ruffled his hair. "It won't be that bad, don't worry. If there really was an impossible to bridge gap, then why would they even bother admitting civilians to the academy? Remember, two of the legendary Sannin aren't from clans."

Naruto huffed. "I'd like to think that I won't turn out like either Jiraiya or Orochimaru, thanks. One is well known as the author of a porn series, and the other is known for experimenting on children. I should hope that I never end up like either of those two, no matter how powerful they've become."

Akiko's smile shrank a little, but it didn't disappear. A small part of her knew that, if it wasn't for the immoral experiments, Orochimaru would likely be a sort of role model for Naruto. He was, after all, an orphan that had become one of the most powerful people in the Elemental Nations, and as a Missing Nin, he forged his own path, something Naruto hoped to do in the future.

On top of that, he was well known for seeking knowledge too, and that was something else that her little blonde friend could appreciate and respect. Like she had mentioned, if only in her own head, it was only the human experimentation that Naruto really had a problem with regarding the snake Sannin.

"I know you won't become like that." She reassured him as she gestured around themselves. "You have too many good influences to fall that far, Naruto."

"And if I were to become a missing nin?" He asked, almost absently.

"Then Konoha will have lost a good young man." She said. "However… you can only follow what your heart tells you, and if it tells you to go, then go. Just please send me a letter once in a while, okay?"

"My heart?" Naruto wondered aloud, before sighing. "Aye, I'll be sure to send plenty of letters."

They fell into a comfortable silence then, even as Akiko thought about what Naruto had said, and what she knew of his intentions. She knew that Naruto craved freedom, something he wouldn't get in Konoha, and he couldn't just run away. He was a jinchuuriki after all, and he was a resource that the village couldn't just let go.

That didn't mean that it didn't make her sad, because it did. She was at least woman enough to admit that she'd grown quite fond of Naruto, and she was already not too happy with the fact he was no longer her student. Give it a few weeks without him there during the weekdays, and she'd probably start turning up at his cabin every weekend, as opposed to every once in a while like she usually did. Heck, she'd probably turn up on school evenings too, because she didn't want to lose her little friend.

"We're here now." Naruto murmured, bringing her out of her thoughts.

She looked up to see that a number of children, most accompanied by adults, were now aimlessly milling around, probably waiting for the Hokage to make his start of the school year speech. Like the others, she settled in to wait, she and Naruto were still a little early after all.

xxxxx

The Hokage looked out at the students as he gave his speech. He spoke of the values that Konoha stood for, of teamwork and the will of fire. He told them about the greatness of the Hidden Leaf and of how they were the first and strongest village of them all. He praised them for taking the first step on the path to becoming protectors and ninja of Konoha.

He knew it was propaganda, anybody with ears and a brain could tell you that much, but Hiruzen Sarutobi truly believed in what he was saying, lending more passion and charisma to his words. It seemed, from the awed faces of the children, that he'd succeeded once again in instilling in them a sense of wonder.

His eyes drifted over to Naruto who was standing near the back, beside a woman whose name he couldn't think of right then, but at least recognised as one of the civilian teachers from one of the village schools. There was a small smile on the blonde's face, and his eyes glimmered with amusement.

Hiruzen's smile broadened a little at that. It looked like Naruto was a happy and healthy young boy, and someone who will go on to become a truly brilliant ninja of Konoha. After all, with parents like his, what else could he be, especially with the added power of being a jinchuuriki?

He let his eyes move onto other students as he moved onto the next part of his speech, the three requirements of being accepted into the Ninja Academy. First, a potential student must swear to love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity. Secondly, they must have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work. Finally, they must be healthy in mind and body.

While he was looking elsewhere, he didn't notice that Naruto failed to swear to the first requirement, even if he did recite the second and third. After all, he didn't love the village, and once he was powerful enough to make his own way in the world, he intended to leave and not return.

xxxxx

Iruka Umino looked at the class he was to teach for the next few years. He personally found the number of prominent clan children in the class a little intimidating. While he was somewhat confident in his own abilities, he was still only a fresh teacher, only nineteen himself! On top of that, there was one student he… well, he wasn't too happy about having.

While Iruka knew that Naruto Uzumaki was the container, not the fox itself, he still wasn't very comfortable being anywhere near him, especially not as a teacher. He'd considered actually asking the Hokage to have someone else teach the jinchuuriki in his place, but he hadn't actually followed through on that thought.

Anyway, forget that for now! He was a teacher, he needed to introduce himself to his class.

Turning around, he reached for a piece of chalk… that wasn't there any longer. He knew it had been there a moment ago, he'd seen it when he'd entered the room, and none of the students had been anywhere near the board, so where had it gone?

Unseen, above his head, an inchling had taken the piece of chalk and was giggling madly. It had seen how Iruka had grimaced at seeing Naruto and hadn't been happy about it at all. Naruto had given them all a new home, had even made furniture and furnishings for it as well!

So, in immature inchling fashion, it snapped the chalk in two and began breaking it up and sprinkling it over the scarred chunin's head.

"What the-" Iruka looked up, only to get a face full of chalk dust which caused him to splutter. Swiping his hand, he managed to grab hold of the chalk, but not whatever technique or mechanism had kept it suspended over his head.

When he next opened his eyes, he glared at his class, looking for which amongst them looked to be the culprit of the prank. His eyes narrowed when he saw one particular blonde seemed to be focusing on something other than himself, something that was above his head.

Iruka gritted his teeth together and stopped himself from shouting. After all, he didn't have any proof… yet.

xxxxx

Naruto couldn't believe what the inchling had done.

Well, actually, yes he could believe what it'd done, but that didn't mean he wasn't surprised by the action. He'd noticed how the teacher had looked at him, and while it wasn't hostile, it also wasn't a particularly friendly look either. He didn't care much really, he had no reason to seek this guy's approval, and he already knew that he'd never please everyone. So long as the young teacher acted professionally, that would be enough for Naruto.

His blue eyes flickered around, and he had to hold back a low whistle. He hadn't expected to have so many clan children in his class. An Aburame, a Hyuuga, an Inuzuka, a Yamanaka, a Nara, an Akimichi, an Uchiha… those were just the ones he recognised, and who knew just how talented the civilian kids would end up being.

There were more clans in Konoha, the Sarutobi, the Kurama, the Hatake (what little of it was left), and more that Naruto couldn't think of. Heck, he was an Uzumaki himself, and while that was a clan of Uzushio rather than Konoha, it was still a name to be somewhat proud of.

Maybe his Academy years would turn out to be pretty interesting after all.