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Chapter 15: Academy

Naruto was currently standing in front of the door of his classroom in the Academy. He didn't know why he was nervous considering that he was already an experienced shinobi; well, ex-shinobi, so this should be a piece of cake. Maybe it was the prospect of meeting people his age that caused him a slight discomfort.

"You know, I find your being nervous a whole new experience." said Kurama in an amused tone.

"Shut up, Kurama. I know I shouldn't be nervous but this is the first time that I'll be joining people my age. I don't have that much experience hanging out with children growing up. Most of the people I spend some time with are shinobis." Naruto informed him.

"Point taken. However, you should consider this as a whole new experience. Sure, you didn't get to experience hanging out with kids your age but you can consider this a learning curve, so to speak. Besides, I would doubt that they know who you really are, both being my jinchuuriki or as the legendary Hitokiri Battousai."

"Fine, you're right. I'm just being stupid, that's all."

"I want to remark on that but I'll pass this time around." Kurama said cheekily causing Naruto to grunt in irritation.

"Smart aleck fox. Well, here we go." said Naruto before knocking on the door and opening it.

Naruto saw that the class already started and everyone was staring at him. He fought down a blush and walked towards the instructor that he recognized as Umino Iruka, a newly-minted Chuunin, if his information was correct."

"Good morning, I'm supposed to join this class starting today." greeted Naruto before handing his form to the surprised Chuunin.

Iruka stared at the form, memorizing the information, before beckoning for Naruto to face the class.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet your new classmate." Iruka told the class causing them to shut up and look at Naruto with an incredulous look on their faces. Naruto noted that the boys were sizing him up while the girls were looking at him as if he was a piece of meat. "Naruto, introduce yourself to the class and answer some of their questions if you please since it's your first time to attend the Academy and they will be your new classmates starting today."

Naruto nodded to his teacher and faced the class with a smile on his face. He could practically hear Kurama snickering at the various looks he was getting. Stupid fox.

"Good morning, everyone. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Twelve years old and starting my third year in the Academy. I was trained for two years by a friend of mine and the Hokage deemed me ready to be placed in this batch for the Academy. I like ramen, training, and reading. I dislike doing nothing and people who judge others without getting to know them better. My hobbies include reading about shinobi arts, especially sealing; cooking, gardening, and training. My dream for the future? Well, I don't have one at the moment but maybe to graduate with good grades and become a Genin of Konoha in the future."

His introduction caused a few whispered comments from the class which Naruto easily heard thanks to his enhanced hearing. He fought down a grin when he heard some of the boys wanting to test their skills on him, especially from the Uchiha who was eyeing him as if gauging his strength.

"So why attend the Academy now?" asked a boy with a dog on his head. Naruto scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Well, to be honest about it, I didn't realize that I needed to attend the Academy in order to become a Genin." This caused a lot of the students to sweatdrop. "I recently learned that in order to become a Genin, you need graduate from the Academy first. This information was new to me since I spend most of the time outside the village until my friend pointed it out. I immediately went to the Hokage and inquired if I get to attend the class same with people my age. After a few written tests and some physical exams, he deemed me qualified so here I am!" said Naruto with a grin that caused some of the girls to sigh. Naruto decided to be careful since it would seem that he acquired himself a fan club of sorts.

"What are your skills?" asked the Uchiha with a confident smirk on his face. Naruto had to stop himself from hitting the boy with an overpowered Sho right there and then.

"Well, I aced the written test for the first two years of the Academy class. I was trained in the Goken taijutsu style instead of the Academy taijutsu style since I found the latter uncomfortable. I trained myself in weapon throwing and I am quite happy with my proficiency in shurikens and kunais. Ummm…I know some jutsus that I learned from the library since I love to read and trained myself with them. Let me see…I guess that's it. Oh, I also trained myself with a katana if you're interested." Naruto answered happily, though he was inwardly laughing at the face the Uchiha was sporting which was pure disbelief. If Sasuke didn't believe him then it was his loss.

"Are you single?" one of the girls asked with the rest of the girls leaning forward in their seats as if his answer would move heaven and earth.

"Err…well, I'm twelve years old so a relationship is not an interest right now. I wouldn't say no to friendship though." answered Naruto with a blush since the girls were practically undressing him with their eyes after his answer. He could hear Kurama laughing in his mind and vowed to get even with his tenant later after class.

Iruka clearly saw that the boy was uncomfortable so he decided to get the class started.

"Alright, that's enough for now. Since we have a new student, we are going to have a small demonstration later consisting of weapons throwing, a taijutsu spar, and maybe a small demonstration on what jutsus you know." This caused some of the students to groan with a student releasing a 'troublesome sensei'. "Anyway, Naruto, please choose a seat since there's plenty of them available so we can begin."

Naruto nodded and made his way one of the few empty seats at the back of the class and made himself comfortable, preparing for the lessons to come.

Naruto groaned in annoyance after a history lesson with Iruka. There were lectured on the various achievements of the Shodaime Hokage during the founding of Konoha and he was tempted to run out of the classroom and beg his surrogate grandfather to bump him to Genin just to get away from the boredom that was Iruka's voice. Thankfully, Iruka had perfect timing and ushered them out into the grounds for an exhibition on the skills they had at their disposal.

The first up was weapon throwing consisting of throwing shurikens and kunais at the training dummies that littered the grounds. The aim was to hit the targets on the dummies as best as they could. Naruto was thankful that he practiced with his kunais and shurikens when he got them since he wasn't that good in throwing. He had perfect accuracy in using his spells but throwing was not his strong point but that was easily remedied thanks to his perfect hand-eye coordination, as well as his god-like speed.

Since Iruka decided to call them alphabetically, he was second to the last except for Yamanaka Ino being the last to perform. Naruto noted that the clan heirs were exceptionally good in throwing weapons thanks to their family background though there were some with civilian background who showed great skills with it, not perfect, but great nonetheless.

When Uchiha Sasuke was called, the various girls in his class started to cheer, making him wince in the process no thanks to his sensitive hearing. Of course, the cheer became a roar when Sasuke hit all the targets on the training dummies. He had to cover his ears which earned him a raised eyebrow from the Inuzuka and Aburame.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka called out. His classmates immediately went silent, curiosity was practically oozing from them since they wanted to know how good he was considering he revealed that he had prior training before attending the Academy.

Naruto took his place in front of the training dummies and noted that there were three of them with five targets on each dummy, all in areas considered as vital points to bring an enemy down. He was only required to hit the targets in one dummy but it was the perfect time to showcase his skills to shut some people up, mainly the Uchiha who didn't believe him when he was honest with his answer.

Taking a deep breath, his hands blurred as he started taking out kunais and shurikens from his thigh holsters and throwing them towards the dummies without bothering to pause or aim. Each kunai and shuriken found their mark, not deviating from the large red dot in the middle of the targets. Silence reigned in the training ground when he finished and almost laughed out loud when he saw the dumbfounded faces of his classmates.

"Hope I did good, Iruka-sensei." Naruto said with a carefree smile, not even winded by the speed he used to throw the weapons. He was already used to such speed and he wasn't even weighted down by the chakra bands he was wearing. He definitely need to increase their weights if he wanted to improve.

Iruka was shocked. This kid who just attended their class showed skills that only seasoned Jounins could have. Not only was he able to hit the targets dead-center, he took out his weapons and threw them without bothering to aim, and with such speed too. He needed to keep an eye on this once since the boy clearly showed Rookie of the Year material, more so than the Uchiha who many prided as a prodigy. It would seem that Sasuke met his match with this one.

"Very good, Naruto. You weren't lying when you said that you trained yourself before attending the Academy. From the speed and accuracy of your throws, I would say you trained yourself diligently." Iruka praised the blonde causing said blonde to blush.

With that said, Naruto simply melted back into the crowd before Iruka called Yamanaka Ino to start throwing. He noted the looks of awe and respect from his classmates and hid the smug grin on his face that he proved them wrong in their assumption that he was lying during his introduction.

After the Yamanaka heir demonstrated her skills in weapons throwing, which Naruto noted was average considering her family background in a shinobi family, they were given a five minute break before the next portion of the exhibition – a taijutsu spar. Iruka informed them that they would be pitted with one of their classmates and would get extra credit if they won the match.

Again, Naruto noted that the clan heirs were exceptional in their skills and some even displayed taijutsu styles outside the Academy mandate.

Aburame Shino used a variation by combining the straightforward Academy taijutsu style and his clan's more defensive maneuvers. It would seem that the Aburame heir was a powerful fighter though more on a defensive front than offense. Since he was partnered with a student with a civilian background who mainly stuck to the Academy style, Shino easily defeated the boy with ease.

Akimichi Choji was a powerhouse. The boy used his massive power, given evidence by his somewhat large frame, to bring down his opponent in one blow. It wasn't even a challenge which made Naruto snicker.

Hinata Hyuuga was a mystery for Naruto. Sure, the girl was shy and bashful who kept stuttering when she talked but her command of the Hyuuga Juuken was good for her age. However, Naruto noticed that Hinata was too flexible for the somewhat rigid Juuken and couldn't help but want inform Hinata that she might want to modify her knowledge of her clan's taijutsu style to best fit her innate physical capabilities. He might do that in the future once he got to know the girl better.

Naruto interest was piqued when Inuzuka Kiba was called to the ring. He was familiar with the Inuzuka's somewhat feral taijutsu style since he worked with some of them during his missions as Kage's Hand. He couldn't help but applaud the boy over his command of his clan's hand-to-hand combat, making the boy a powerful fighter in the future if he kept to training with it.

Nara Shikamaru was a lazy boy that made Naruto almost laugh when said boy wanted to forfeit the match. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the Nara, Iruka didn't give in and practically shoved the boy into the ring before starting the fight. Despite the laziness that all Nara's possess, Shikamaru had a good grasp on his family style and was able to dodge his opponent's attack and won the match through a solid blow to the stomach after getting under his opponent's guard.

He was caught off-guard when Iruka called the next batch into the ring.

"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, please enter the ring for an exhibition match." shouted Iruka causing a lot of whispers to spring up from the crowd. In truth, Iruka pitted Sasuke with the new student to determine Naruto's skill in taijutsu. Judging from the boy's prowess in weapon throwing, the boy was skilled and only Sasuke had the current skill set to give the boy a challenge. Besides, he wanted to see what Naruto was capable of and he felt Sasuke was the one to bring it out into the open.

Naruto sighed and pushed himself off the tree he was leaning on and made his way into the ring. One of his eyebrows twitched when some of the girls started cheering for him. Yep, he definitely earned himself a fan club now. When he entered the ring, he saw the Uchiha with an arrogant smirk on his face.

"You're going down, Uzumaki. You're unlucky to face me and my power." said Sasuke with a smirk on his face. Naruto simply titled his head to the side in confusion. This action caused some of the girls to coo since it made him look cute.

"Why do you say that, Uchiha-san?" Naruto asked curiously, though he was inwardly laughing his head off by playing the clueless wonder.

"Because I'm the best in this class and you're going to learn that the hard way. Time to bring you down, dobe." declared Sasuke before going into his clan taijutsu style.

Naruto sighed in boredom which practically infuriated the Uchiha. Since he already showed off in the previous portion of the exhibition, might as well show the class that he wasn't someone to toy around with. He settled into the basic Goken stance, body sideways, feet together, one hand behind his back and the other in front of him bent on the elbows, fingers together. Since he wanted to infuriate the Uchiha more, he made a sign with his hand to come at him.

Smirking, Sasuke dashed forward at speeds above that of a Genin and started raining blow on Naruto who easily dodged or blocked it with his free hand. Sasuke, however, made a mistake by overextending one of his punches so Naruto took this chance to attack.

From everyone's point of view, Naruto simply disappeared but in truth, he just executed a high-speed maneuver getting under Sasuke guard before launching an upward kick that nailed the Uchiha on the chin, launching him upwards. Naruto swung around to right himself and pushed himself off the ground with a jump, putting him beside Sasuke's rising form. He spun to add more power to his next attack and executed an axe kick that hit the Uchiha on the stomach with such force that caused the boy to launch towards the ground and hitting it with a loud thud. Naruto landed and settled back into the Goken basic stance since he knew that his opponent was still conscious.

Everyone who watched the match was flabbergasted at the speed and power of the new student. Quite a lot of the boys made a mental note to avoid fighting Uzumaki Naruto. Some girls were cheering him on while the more devoted Uchiha fan-girls were booing and going crazy for hurting their 'Sasuke-kun'.

Sasuke painfully extracted himself off the ground while holding his stomach in pain. It was like getting hit by a sledgehammer. He glared at the calm boy in front of him.

"Lucky shot, dobe." said Sasuke with a painful grunt.

"Less talk, more action, Uchiha-san." Naruto said with a smile on his face. He smile widened when he heard Kurama cheering him on, shouting in his mind to kick the Uchiha's ass all the way to Suna.

Sasuke growled before launching himself at the blonde and started his attack again, Goken versus the Uchiha's Interceptor style.

Naruto noted that the Uchiha's taijutsu style should be used as a defensive measure though some of the high-speed strikes were quite deadly if they hit their mark. However, Sasuke executed them without bothering to determine a hole in his opponent's guard.

Naruto realized that the Interceptor taijutsu style was supposed to be used along with the Sharingan, letting the doujutsu find the weakness and attacking it at high-speed to bring the opponent down. From the looks of it, Sasuke didn't know that or just used it without bothering to learn that the style he was using needed the Sharingan to be effective.

Getting tired of the fight, Naruto deflected Sasuke's punch upwards using the back of his hand and launched a counterattack of heavy blows that hit the Uchiha on the shoulder, chest, and stomach. He carefully regulated his power to avoid breaking any bones though it would still result in a lot of bruises afterwards. Wanting to end the fight, he performed a whirlwind kick that hit Sasuke in the face that knocked him out of the ring making it his win.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." declared Iruka causing the crowd to cheer; except for the Uchiha fan club who was glaring at him.

Naruto walked out of the ring but froze when he sensed the build-up of chakra from behind. He immediately turned to see Sasuke forming hand seals and taking a deep breath.

"Katon: Grand Fireball."

A large fireball flew out of the Uchiha's mouth heading straight for him. Naruto knew that he could easily evade the attack but doing so would hit his classmates standing behind him. Flying through his own set of seals, Naruto shouted out one of the jutsus he learned from his trip to the library.

"Fuuton: Great Breakthrough."

Considering that he overpowered the technique, Naruto's powerful wind blast easily snuffed the fireball before it could hit him and the wave of wind hit the Uchiha dead on, causing him to fly and hit a tree which knocked him unconscious.

"Idiot. Why bring out a dangerous ninjutsu in a simple taijutsu spar? He could have hurt the people behind me." Naruto growled out while he stalked the downed Uchiha with clear intent in putting the boy under a lot of pain. However, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder which caused the blonde to turn to see Iruka also glaring at the downed form of Uchiha Sasuke.

"I'll take care of it, Naruto. Thankfully, you acted decisively. You could have easily evaded the fireball but knowing that it would hit your classmate, you chose to meet it dead on. Thankfully, you overpowered your jutsu or it would have made the fireball more powerful. I take it that you already know the use of elemental jutsus and their weaknesses?" asked Iruka.

Naruto nodded.

"I know that wind is weak against fire but considering the size of the fireball, overpowering the Great Breakthrough can snuff out Sasuke's technique easily since he didn't put that much chakra into his jutsu. I'm just thankful that none was hurt by his stupidity." said Naruto in disgust as he looked at Sasuke's downed form.

"Good. Why don't you and the rest of the class go back to the classroom and wait for me. I'll tend to Sasuke." Iruka said with a glint in his eyes that spoke of punishment for the Uchiha.

Naruto nodded and made his way to the classroom, his classmates moved aside to give him room. The blonde didn't know it but his action just resulted in his classmates respecting him even more, thus jumpstarting his legend as Uzumaki Naruto, Academy Student.

End of Chapter 15

Date Uploaded: July 12, 2012

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