Hi everyone! I swear, some of you live on the computer. The second chap wasn't up one hour and I already had reviews. I know I have left a ton of unanswered questions, which I will answer in this chapter. As for the harem, it's Sakura, Hinata, TenTen, Temari, and I'm still wondering if I should add Tayuya. I guess you'll have to read and find out. Oh, and sorry this took so long. New Year's. What can I say?
"Speech"
"Animal Speech"
'Thoughts'
'Kyuubi Thoughts'
Naruto woke up at 6:00, as he had for the last 8 years. He got out of his bed in the Hokage Tower, stretched a little, and then looked in the mirror. While he was doing this, he contemplated how much he had changed from a helpless 4-year old to what he was today.
'Well, you have red-orange fur all over your body, claws instead of finger or toe nails, a muzzle, fox ears, purple eyes with slits, all the power and then some of the most feared demon in history, enough ninjutsu and genjutsu to make most Kage envious, a flawless taijutsu style, a total mastery of all weapons manufactured for ninja, and most important, said demon as one of your close personal friends. The only way you and that pup are alike now is the fact you walk on two legs and that blond mess of yours.' answered the most feared demon in history.
Naruto grinned. 'Hey Kyuubi, are you excited about our first day at the academy?' 'Not really. You'll be so far ahead of the kits there that you might as well compare a shark's mouth to a newborn's.' 'Imagery aside, I know what you mean. Still, I'll get to know people my own age. No offense, but having no one to talk to other than a bunch of old people for 8 years isn't quite to my tastes.' With that, Naruto put his cloak that hid every inch of skin on and went downstairs.
There he found his adoptive father and brother having a fight. Or more his brother fighting and his father ignoring him. "I'm gonna be Hokage anyway, so you might as well just give me that hat now!" Konohamaru yelled at the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure a.k.a. Grandpa or Old Man.
Naruto groaned. "Konohamaru-kun, it's too early. Couldn't you wait until I actually eat something?" he said while silently thanking the boy for starting his day with a bam. "Naruto-neechan, help me wrestle that hat away from him!" he yelled, and so saying lunged at the old man.
Sarutobi dodged without even looking up. As his grandson sat nursing his head, he looked up and said "Ah, Naruto-kun. Off to the academy I see. Try not to show off." Naruto gave his trademark grin. If you could see his face, you'd see that he was showing all of his teeth/fangs. But you couldn't, so you just got the feeling he was smiling. "Can do." And with that he was off.
It was the first day of the graduating year at the Ninja Academy. Iruka looked at his students, hoping they would all become great ninja. Though he was a bit doubtful about Sasuke's fan girls. They were so obsessed that they easily became distracted. About the only one that got decent grades was Sakura.
At that moment he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. When all of their eyes were on him, or at least as close as they could be to being on him while still being on Sasuke, he addressed the class.
"Welcome back to the Academy. I hope you studied over the summer. Today we have a new student joining us." It was at that moment that Naruto appeared in the doorway. Iruka noticed him. "Ah, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Please introduce yourself to the class."
Naruto bristled at the devil comment. Though he had met Iruka a few times and it was probably a joke, he still got annoyed. He walked up to the center of the floor and looked at his classmates.
There seemed to be a boy that had all the female's undivided attention. But judging by the look on his face, he didn't want it. Naruto guessed this was Sasuke Uchiha, the guy everyone in the village treated like a prince. Kyuubi looked him over, thinking of how his bloodline limit came to be.
While Kyuubi was reminiscing, Iruka asked "How about you tell us about yourself? Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, that sort of thing." Naruto nodded and then talked to the class. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but everyone I know calls me Naruto no Kitsune, for my taijutsu style and attitude." 'And appearance.' Naruto would have continued, but a boy with a dog on his head spoke out.
"What kind of a name is Naruto? Isn't that some thing you put on ramen?" The boy broke out in laughter. Naruto took the connection to his favorite food as a compliment, but he decided to have a little fun with the boy.
"You have 5 seconds to apologize, or I'll neuter you, burn removed object, and slip it into your lunch." The room was the epitome of silence, while the male half of the population instantly covered their Pride.
The boy was as pale as a ghost. He managed to stutter out "Y-You're B-bl-bluffing." Everyone in the room got the feeling of an evil grin coming from this cloaked boy. "Are you sure? Are you willing to risk the chance of ever having children?" The question hung in the air like a threat.
The dog-lover, if possible, went even paler. He finally said "Sorry, Naruto-dono." It was like a switch was flipped. Suddenly Naruto was all sunshine. "Wonderful! Back to where I left off, I like training, shogi, and very meaty ramen. I dislike prejudice and my proverbial uncle's obsession with 'the power of youth'. I also dislike people who ask dumb questions. My hobbies are training, napping, and eating."
A pink-haired girl got up the courage and raised her hand. Naruto looked at her. She had a large forehead, bright green eyes, and pale skin. Naruto guessed that she was a Haruno. "Excuse me if this is one of those 'dumb questions', but why are you wearing that cloak?" The rest of the class nodded, wondering what kind of a threat she was going to get.
Naruto allowed a moment's silence to build the suspense. "The reason I wear this cloak…" he said in a calm tone. Everyone was leaning forward, even Sasuke, wondering what this new kid's face was. "Is none of your business." Everyone face faulted.
Iruka cleared his throat. "Naruto, why don't you just sit by Kiba and Akamaru over there?" Naruto saw that his new sensei wanted him to sit by the boy he had just threatened. If Kiba got any paler, he would suffer from blood loss.
Naruto nodded, walked slowly up the stairs, hearing the frightful murmurs behind him. 'Congratulations, you just alienated the younger generation of the village' the Kyuubi thought with his voice dripping with sarcasm.
'Hey, you're the one who always said that fear was power. Besides, I have a whole year to repair the damage.' Naruto took his seat and faced Iruka. "Now class, today we shall be reviewing the Substitution Jutsu."
Naruto had to hold back a scoff. He had mastered this jutsu 8 years ago. Deciding to ignore the lesson, Naruto tried to talk to this Kiba guy. But he seemed to be more scared than attentive. Naruto tried a new tactic and talked to the dog on the boy's head.
"Hey, your name is Akamaru right?" Akamaru and Kiba were, in a word, shocked. "You can talk to him?" "You can talk to me?" Again, Kiba got the feeling of a smirk instead of actually seeing it.
"Yes, and don't ask why. You'll get the same answer as that girl." Naruto looked at said pink-haired beauty. He didn't know why, but he got a strange feeling when he looked at her. In his half of their mind, Kyuubi smiled. 'Looks like the kit just found his first mate.'
"Well, I won't ask then." said Kiba, returning to the role of scared boy. "Sorry about that threat by the way. I just wanted to start the year of with a bang, you know." The feeling of a kind grin invaded the air. Kiba's face started to return to its natural orange.
"Yeah, I think I get what you mean. My name's Kiba Inuzuka. And this is Akamaru." The confused puppy gave a little "Hi." Naruto almost laughed at how he didn't identify the boy's family immediately. The Inuzuka's were notorious for their canine counterpart's.
The newfound friends would have continued their conversation had not an eraser been thrown in their direction. Instead of catching it, which would attract attention, Naruto merely dodged the projectile. Kiba did not, however, have such reflexes. The fur on his hood gained a new color.
"Stop talking and pay attention!" yelled a disgruntled Iruka. Both boys and the dog gave a "Sorry."/ "Sorry." Iruka returned to the chalk board. Naruto spent the rest of the time before lunch making sure his cloak completely concealed him, ignoring the class, and staring at the pink-haired girl.
When the lunch bell rang, Naruto walked to a tree outside, sat down, and ate the banko his 'sister' Kurenai had packed for him. Naruto, as always, took stalk of his surroundings. Sasuke was trying to avoid most of the female population, Kiba was coming to talk to him, and the pink-haired girl was talking to a platinum-blond girl.
"Hey, can I sit here?" "Of course, Kiba-kun." Kiba sat down next to Naruto in the shade of the tree and gave Akamaru his lunch. Naruto used a trick he picked up from Kakashi. He ate so fast that no one saw his form at all. Kiba could only stare at the box that had been full a second ago and now was empty.
"Man, even I can't eat that fast. Mind if I sit here?" Naruto looked up to see a chubby boy with brown hair and red swirls on his cheeks. Next to him was a boy with a pony tail that resembled a pineapple. "Sure." was all Naruto said.
Both of them sat down. The boy with the pony tail just sat down and started looking at the clouds. "My name is Chouji Akimichi. This is Shikamaru Nara." The boy with red swirls on his cheeks followed up this introduction with the munching of five bags of potato chips. "How troublesome." was all the pineapple-haired boy said.
Naruto gave a nodded and turned his attention to the pink-haired girl's conversation. A normal person wouldn't be able to hear it over the hustle and bustle of the courtyard, but to Naruto, it was as if she was standing right next to him.
"So Sakura, are you going to introduce yourself to this Naruto no Kitsune guy?" the blond girl asked. "Are you crazy Ino-pig? That guy has weird written all over him. Why don't you introduce yourself?" the pinkette retorted.
"Well, Billboard-brow, why don't we both introduce ourselves together? I'd rather be acquainted to this guy than be on the receiving end of one of his threats."
The girl known as Sakura looked scared for a minute, and then nodded. The two started making their way to the new student and his friends. When they came up, they both put on a smile. "Hi, we're-"Sakura started to say.
"Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. Pleasant to meet you." Naruto said for the girls. Both of their jaws dropped to the ground. "How do you know our names?" the rivals said in almost perfect unison.
Everyone in the vicinity got the feeling of a smile from the cloaked boy. "Only a Haruno could have those eyes and that for head. And the Yamanaka's blond hair and jade eyes are no great secret." Even Akamaru stared. This guy had the deductive reasoning of a ninja, and this was supposed to be the place where you learned to become a ninja. How could he be this good on the first day?
Naruto, taking note of their looks, gave a little clarity to the situation. "My adoptive father trained me a little ahead of time for the academy." 'Yeah, since the age of four along with Konoha's best of the best.' Kyuubi added in their mind.
It was at that moment that everyone was called back inside. Naruto fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon and had to be forcibly pushed to wake up. "Hey, Naruto-kun, could you please move? It's time to go." Kiba said to a disgruntled Naruto. He nodded and then made his way home. He of course did this in the blink of an eye. Kiba was left starring at an empty space thinking 'What the hell?'
That night, Naruto had dinner with Sarutobi and Konohamaru as always. And, as always, Konohamaru made an attempt to get Naruto's cloak off. These were almost as frequent as his attacks on his grandpa.
After sending him into his room with a broken wrist, Sarutobi groaned. "Must you be so violent? He's only eight and he's sustained enough injuries to make a ninja envious."
Naruto gave his trademark grin. "It's his own fault. I just protected him from the nervous breakdown that would result if he found out his big brother is literally a cheeky fox."
Sarutobi had a laugh at this. "I still wish you were a bit gentler. But anyways, what was with you at the academy? Iruka told me you made the ultimate threat to the Inuzuka boy and then ignored him for the entire day."
Naruto actually laughed at the seriousness in Sarutobi's voice. "The only reason I am currently not leading my own ANBU division is because you want me to make some friends not in their 30's. Re-learning things I learned 8 years ago was never part of the deal." Sarutobi laughed in turn, and then sent Naruto to bed.
The rest of the year passed in a similar fashion. Naruto completely and utterly ignored Iruka, and fully devoted his time to his new friends: Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Hinata Hyuuga, who had introduced herself to Naruto and had watched him from a distance ever since. Naruto tried to close that distance as often as possible, not wanting the girl to be permanently shy.
That same week, about a quarter of Sasuke's fan girls converted themselves into fan girls for Naruto, after conquering their fear of course. It wasn't for his looks, because no one had seen even a hair of his body. His cloak made sure of that. It was more the drive to see what he looked like, to crack the puzzle of Naruto no Kitsune. After all, everyone loves a challenge.
Sakura was somewhere in between. She was still obsessed with Sasuke, though not as severely anymore. She too felt the need to figure out what lay beneath the folds of black cloth that covered Naruto's body. Though not in any perverted sense, mind you.
Sasuke was also something of an acquaintance. He noticed that when he was near Naruto, the only fan girls in sight were his. He would never bend his Uchiha pride far enough to say so, but he respected Naruto.
It was the last day of school, and everybody but Naruto was nervous. He silently gave a cheer as each of his friends was called to take the graduation exam. When he himself was called, he strode into the testing room without a single nuance of doubt that he was going to pass.
"Okay Naruto, the test is on the Clone Jutsu. Please make as many clones as possible." Iruka told the slightly bored Naruto. "Which type of clone?" he asked. Iruka looked confused, but then said "Whichever you choose." Iruka and Mizuki, who hated the kid with every ounce of his being, watched as Naruto's sleeves went wild as he made hand seals too fast for them to see.
"Multi Omni Clone Jutsu!" The entire school gave a scream as normal clones, shadow clones, fire clones, water clones, earth clones, wind clones, and lightning clones filled every room. As soon as they appeared, they disappeared in a mass of flickering, puffs of smoke, bursts of fire, falling of water, turning into mud, gusts of air, and flashes of lightning.
Everyone in the school was then treated to the rarely heard laughter of one Naruto no Kitsune. "You should see the looks on your faces!" Naruto laughed while looking at a flabbergasted Iruka and Mizuki. "You said 'make as many clones as possible.'" Iruka finally mastered himself.
"Congratulations Naruto, you pass with flying colors." When Naruto and the 2 sensei's reentered the classroom, the boy had a Konoha headband around his neck. All of his friends gave him cheers.
"Settle down. Now, I will award the Rookie of the Year reward, and then you can all go home." The entire class, still recovering from the army of Naruto clones, took their seats. "Now, though as you have just seen that Naruto is a master at the Clone Jutsu, the Rookie of the Year goes to Sasuke, for the fact that Naruto just barely passed his tests." The girls in the room, except for Hinata and Naruto's fan girls, all gave a big cheer.
Outside, everyone showed off their new headband to their parents, while Naruto waited for Old Man Hokage, as he still playfully called him, to arrive. Naruto noticed that Sasuke was headed towards him.
"Hi Sasuke-kun, what do you want?" Sasuke got straight to the point. "I've gotten the feeling that you've been holding back all year. I don't want to be Rookie of the Year just because my test scores are higher than yours. So, right here, right now, we fight. The winner is the real Rookie of the Year."
Naruto said flat out "No." Sasuke smirked. "Afraid you're going to lose?" Sasuke felt the presence of Naruto's foxy grin. "Quite the contrary, I'm afraid that I might get too carried away and hurt you." Sasuke's Uchiha arrogance kicked in.
"There is no way in all the ninja lands that I will lose to you. So come on and fight me!" Naruto sighed, but followed Sasuke to an empty patch of ground. All of the adults looked with adoration at Sasuke and contempt at Naruto. They had all come to the conclusion that Naruto had saved those people just so he could finish them off himself.
Sasuke took his stance, while Naruto just stood there. "No holding back, you hear me?" Sasuke yelled at the motionless form. "Oh, if that's the case," Naruto said. Before Sasuke could question what he meant, Naruto jumped into the air spinning like a top. Several black things rained down from him, and each made a crater when they hit the ground. Everyone's eyes started to resemble dinner plates.
"What the hell was that?" Sasuke yelled when Naruto came back to the ground. "You said no holding back, so I removed my weights." Sasuke stared in one of the craters and saw that it was indeed a training weight.
"How many of those do you have?" Sasuke asked in a mild state of overawe. "About 10, and each is 150 pounds." (I know that this is a bit over the limit of the imagination, but you know how weird Gai is, and I had to pick a number that was particularly crazy.)
"Now, I believe we have a fight to do." Naruto was a little excited. He'd get to finally give Sasuke a healthy dose of reality. Though it might not be so healthy to him.
Before Sasuke could get back into his stance, not that it would do much good, Naruto yelled "Kitsune Cyclone Barrage!" and rushed forward at speeds the Sharingan wouldn't be able to keep up with. He reappeared instantly in front of Sasuke with his right hand swinging as if to swipe him. A cut appeared on Sasuke's chest. Naruto spun around and delivered a swipe with his foot. The entire time he was releasing chakra from each of his tenketsu.
And so it went; Naruto kept delivering slashes with his hidden claws while releasing chakra in his spins until it looked like Sasuke was being attacked by a purple cyclone. Finally, Naruto gave a kick that sent Sasuke flying back.
He ended his spin so that he was facing away from Sasuke. But the cyclone went after the raven-haired boy. All the children and adults alike could do was watch as their beloved Uchiha was consumed by a chakra whirlwind. When the cyclone finally cleared, Sasuke fell on the ground with some nice chakra burns to add to the dozen or so cuts on his body.
Everyone was still for a minute, and then they one and all rushed forward crying "Sasuke!" Most of the villagers threw glances that could kill at Naruto, but he brushed them off. He started to walk away when he heard a faint, even to him, "Wait."
Naruto looked around to see Sasuke being held up by three dozen or so hands. "You are powerful enough to make my brother look like a kid playing ninja. You could have been Rookie of All Time. Why not?" All the villagers gasped, both at the mention of Itatchi and the scope of the demon's power.
Their thoughts were cut off by the feeling of a very kind smile. "The Rookie of the Year should be the one who learned the most. I learned all this years ago. I don't deserve the title." And with that, Naruto walked away while Sasuke passed out.
Chouji, Kiba and Akamaru, Shikamaru, and Hinata detached from the group and followed Naruto. They started flooding him with compliments and questions alike. "Brilliant move." "How the hell did you do that?" "N-nice work N-Naruto-kun." "Will you tell me how you learned how to do that?" "Can you please answer Kiba's question?"
Naruto laughed. "Thanks, practice, thank you, again practice, and I just did Akamaru." The gang followed Naruto as he walked up to… the Hokage? "Hello Hokage-sama." They all gave a little bow while Sarutobi waved it off. "Please, don't be so formal. So Naruto, would your friends like to accompany us to Ichiraku's?"
They were all struck senseless. Kyuubi had to take temporary control to stop Naruto from falling to the ground laughing. "Everyone, allow me to introduce you to my adoptive father: Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure. Or as I call him, Old Man Hokage."
The whole year Naruto had refused to tell them who his surrogate dad was. All of his friends had bugged him about not telling them. Now they knew. "Um, sure. We'd love to." Hinata said, for once not stuttering.
The others nodded, and so Naruto set out with his friends and family to have dinner to celebrate him becoming a ninja of the village that he loved.
Well, there's another chap. Give those reviews I love, and check back in. But with school coming up, that may be a bit later than usual. Sorry. Good night everybody!