Life was hard for some, painful, and terrible for others. But to the ones who stand and fight the demons of life daily, much respect was due. These people were extraordinary, humans like you and I yet extraordinary. A regular person may have hardships in life but not like a Shinobi. These strong men and women would go on out to the world and witness all kinds of wickedness and remain strong for the sake of the village. Was their life difficult? In short, very.

People often forget that such great people are still humans. Yet in his life, he had not seen them break down in public or weep in someone's arms for comfort. Do they hide their pain behind a mask? Like he had for most of his life. Surely his pain couldn't be as great as theirs, right?

The old man had always told him that bottling up his emotions was unhealthy but what else could he do? Every time they stared at him with disgust, every time they would hit him, shun him, throw him out of their store, overprice him, call him names, deny him every form of comfort. He hated them.

He could feel it even now, his hatred boiling within his little body and him subconsciously forcing it down. Was it wrong to hate them for this? He did not know the answer to that. Did he deserve any of this? In short, no.

He did not have a say at the time as to where to put the giant fox, but it was placed inside of him, so no, he did not deserve any of this and those fools refuse to see that.

Forgiveness, trust and hope got him here. On a bed... in a hospital. One thing was certain for our young Uzumaki... life sucks. All hope for the village was crushed, the only thing he felt was hatred. But for the sake of the old man, he would at least tolerate them for now, it's the least he can do for the old monkey he seemed to be the only person that cared, but he would not allow himself to be fooled, the old man carried no hatred towards him, he was grateful for him but he did not trust the Hokage, he knew the man had a duty to his village and so he would have to choose the village over him, and thus he did not know how far the man was willing to go for this cursed village.

All trust he had in this village was gone, never will he trust again and hope, for hope was for the weak and their dependability on others. He would become strong, to depend only on himself, he would put faith only in himself,he had believed the foolish words of the old man that better days were coming in which the village would accept and thanked him. He hated himself for his foolishness. He would be his hope since no one else would.

His fist clenched the sheets as he vowed to himself to become strong, to answer the mystery surrounding his life, to become the ultimate shinobi and to someday resurrect his fallen clan.

For the weak perish and the strong survive. It was the simple law of nature he would have to get used to for the sake of his survival, not once had he seen the strong cry or needed help, so he would become strong for he respected strength, he needed strength.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as an Anbu arrived in his hospital room

"Uzumaki Naruto, the Hokage wishes to speak with you," The Anbu operative said, looking directly into his eyes, awaiting an acknowledgement. Naruto slowly nodded, staring at the emotionless ninja.

"Yes, like a shinobi he will be strong and like an Anbu, he will have the emotional control to do what is needed because emotions only get in the way of decisions. Konoha did not deserve his heart, therefore he will keep it to himself and only to himself."

He nodded to the Anbu and prepared to meet the Hokage.

Before he knew it, he was standing before the man himself. The Sandaime Hokage. Staring at him with those eyes of pity he had seen too many times to count, but he stared back with a face of indifference something the old Hokage was used to.

The Sandaime sighed, it was hard to believe the boy standing in front of him was only six years of age, or should he say 'man' for the boy was long gone, forced to adapt at such a young age by the hardships and the sole bearer of Konoha's hate, the boy was erased now standing before him was a man, staring at him with the face of indifference.

He would not make the mistake of others and underestimate him like many, the boy may not look like much but was a genius just like his father before him.

"Naruto-Kun, it is good to see that you are alright after that… encounter with the villagers" Hiruzen spoke, eyeing Naruto for an acknowledgement... none came, he nodded to himself and continued " As I told you before there is little, I can do to help you in these situations for you, as a civilian you do not fall under the council of shinobi therefore you are out of my reach of work, therefore you are left with the civilian council, which to put short do not support you".

Naruto's indifferent gaze changed only a little to that of a light glare as if saying get to the point.

The aged Hokage saw this and continued as if he was accustomed to this behaviour, the fact is he did not doubt that Naruto liked him, he knew how the blond viewed him, respect was all he got from the blond, no love, just respect and gratitude for the effort he made for the boy.

"Why am I mentioning this? The answer is simple: I know your desire to get strong and protect yourself, and it is also my desire to get a little more grasp on your dealings within the village... So I present a proposal... The Konoha ninja academy will be opening for a fresh batch of students tomorrow and of such I would like you to join, you will have an opportunity to get stronger and once graduated as a shinobi of this village you will fall under my political protection... So Naruto-Kun, what will your choice be?"

Naruto thought about it deeply. "I see no downside to this proposal, though I can guarantee that there will be some that despise me,nevertheless I will do what I must to at least make my life somewhat comfortable." Naruto thought nodding to himself, he looked at the aged Hokage and nodded.

Hiruzen nodded and handed him a slip. "Give this slip to the secretary on your way out, she will in turn give you a letter, which you will give to the academy receptionist". Hiruzen said.

He watched as Naruto took the slip and exited the office. Hiruzen let a sigh escape his breath as he watched the crimson-haired boy from his window, the boy was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

XXX WITH NARUTO XXX

It had been a couple of minutes since Naruto had left the tower, he was strolling through the streets of Konoha, the late-night breeze hitting his whisker-marked face. He looked around the packed streets of Konoha, he did not like the people of this village but he was not going to deny that the streets of Konoha were a sight to see. The people saw him and all parted, making the streets clear for him to pass as if he was some disease.

They glared at him, some muttering words under their breath. He looked unbothered, he did not care about what they thought about him, they could all burn as far as he was concerned, they glared at him and he glared back daring one of them to spoil his somewhat good mood.

Some people diverted their eyes, some just scoffed and others just went on like he wasn't even there.

It bothered him a bit, to know that he would one day fight to protect the same people that spat in his face, the day he put on that headband he would have to swear to protect the people of Konoha and put his life on the line if needed, he scoffed at the thought of sacrificing his life for scum.

He sighed, such is life, but on a better note he would get stronger and make his clan proud, yes his clan it made a rare smile come to his face, he had a clan, He was thankful that the old man allowed him to research about his clan, knowing he had a clan give him a feeling of belonging, that he had not fallen from the sky and that it was just a chain of unfortunate events that led to his miserable life, from the fall of the great clan to him becoming a jinchuuriki, he was no fool he had put two and two together and did his little bit of research, the old man had not accounted for him to learn of such information from the scroll of the Uzumaki clan, the man just shoved him in a room in the archive department.

The old man had carried him to the Konoha archive for him to do his little research, the aged Hokage had gave him his word that he had allowed no one not even himself to go into the archive out of respect for the Uzumak, but Naruto figured it was because the vault was did not allow those without Uzumaki blood to enter. Hiruzen had told him that a ninja from Konoha had visited the fallen village and had brought back some valuable clan info in form of a large scroll, but sadly said ninja would die in the Kyuubi attack he would later find out from the info in the scroll that the ninja was his mother and only those with Uzumaki blood can open the scroll.

He figured the reason the old man had allowed him to the scroll was because he too was curious as to what was in the scroll, and to see if the scroll could be opened by him. Any other explanation would not really have made sense, because it would be illogical to allow a six year old with a scroll containing Kami knows what. .

XXX FLASHBACK SIX MONTHS AGO XXX

Naruto stood before the large vault, looking intently at the symbol on the door that he learned was his clan symbol. He saw a hand shape indented on the metal door of the vault and figured that his hand was supposed to be placed in there, he did so and turned around and looked at the old man who had an expectant look, he turned back and pushed his arm into the slot a bit more.

Then he felt something cut his thumb, he pulled back his arm in surprise as he inspected it, when he heard gears turning and the sound of the old metal door opening.

The room was empty with the exception of the large lone scroll in the middle of it, and a metal table in the corner.

He looked around a little surprised, he had not expected this, i mean for a clan you would have had to expect a lot more in its archive right?

(2-3 hours later)

He stared at all the info in front of him on the table that he had unseal from the scroll, sadly he was only able to access the part labelled maelstrom which he swiftly noted to himself that it translated to his name, with the word genin under it. The rest of the scroll he could not access due to it being protected by some complex looking seals, but he could see they were all labelled. There was a section labelled chunin, jonin, elite seal master etc, it looked like levels to go through and seals only got more complex with even more sections.

The genin section would do for now he supposed. The scroll contained basic stuff like history books, geography, tactics and the art of war, a sealings level 1 book, chakra theory, a ninjas tool book, an anatomy book along with a scroll marked training, he unsealed the contents of the scroll and found more scrolls including those of taijutsu, kenjutsu, genjutsu, another fuinjutsu scroll and a single ninjutsu scroll labelled kage bunshin and it went into detail on the jutsu, with with also a journal of Uzumaki Mito and Uzumaki Kushina.

If you had asked him it seemed that this Uzumaki Kushina had put this scroll in a particular order for someone like him, as if she had known he had need of this scroll at sometime, and the different sections signifying the climb in shinobi ranks only solidified this idea into his head.

Oh boy was he in for a shock.

After reading up on the history of his clan, he later read about the alliance between Konoha and the village hidden in the Whirlpool, he also read of the Uzumaki that was sent Konoha to house the Kyuubi as a show of good faith between the two villages, he had learned that the Uzumaki was a female and upon further research, he found out her name was Kushina Uzumaki the same woman that wrote the journal he saw earlier, she carried the rank of elite Jonin and was also a candidate for the position of Hokage, but the decision to chose her was overruled and the position went to another elite jonin by the name of Namikaze Minato. Who was rumoured to have had an affair with the Uzumaki? Minato and Kushina, later on, died killing the Kuyuubi, which baffled him, because earlier he had read up on a journal of Mito Uzumaki who claimed not even Hashirama could have killed the Kuyuubi so they resorted to sealing it.

Naruto then realised it as everything fell in place, not only was he born the same day, but he was a Uzumaki, he felt like slapping himself for not realising it earlier, she was also the only recorded Uzumaki to be alive after the fall of Uzushiogakure and the only Uzumaki in the village which meant?

Naruto's mind went blank before the gears started back turning after a reboot due to the overload of information.

Naruto's head snapped up his face showing that off shock as he connected the dots, so that thing on his tummy was a seal, he remembered noticing it that time he had tried doing the jutsu like he saw the weird one-eyed and green spandex-wearing jonin did. This means that the Kuyuubi probably escaped the seal, but how.

He read more of Mito's journal and realised the seal weakened during pregnancy.

Naruto thought about it and almost passed out from the answer, This means he was holding the Kuyuubi inside of him, it all made sense, the glares from the villagers and the hate he had endured he now knew why.

Then there was the fact that he was the son of Kushina Uzumaki, and the rumoured affair she had with the Yondaime, could mean that Namikaze Minato was his father!

Hiruzen looked at the boy's expression as it changed from shock to horror, Hiruzen was a little concerned, he had not seen any expression other than that indifferent mask the boy often wore.

Naruto had finished his research and had taken the scroll home. Right now he wanted a good nap.

Hiruzen protested against the idea of the boy living alone with the scroll, he did not want Naruto with those scrolls right now, but as Konoha's law had stated any clan head or last remaining member of the clan had the right to determine what should become of his/her clan's information but most people did not bother with the info, Hiruzen was quite surprised that Naruto had pulled the law on him when he tried to stop him from leaving with said information.

Though he wondered what it was that had the boy so shocked. when he inquired the boy refused to tell him.

A part of Hiruzen was happy for the boy to see him somewhat happy, but he was worried, the jutsus and information in the vault concerning the Uzumakis were unknown to him and he did not know if if contained dangerous information, but he would put a little faith in the young boy.

Hiruzen could feel it in his gut that something was coming that he nor the shinobi world was not prepared for.

He shook his head, maybe he was just getting too old for this and that boy was gonna kill him soon with stress.

XXX FLASHBACK END XXX

Naruto smirked as he remembered the day after that day he had started to get stronger, the hate of the village pushing his fuel for his strength like gas to a fire. He sighed, he deserved better, it was as if Kami took joy in seeing him suffer. He was alone, parents dead, the last of his clan, he felt alone in this world, he just wished he would wake up and this would all be a bad dream, his mom would tuck him back in bed and his father would check to see if there were any monsters under his bed. He sighed it was not that way, he wanted to cry and run into his mother's arms, but she was not there. He sometimes hoped some lost clan members would show up by some miracle and he would have a family, he felt his eyes burning slightly and realised he was about to cry.

He steeled himself snapping himself out of his thoughts, feelings like these were a sign of weakness and hope that something would change, some miracle would happen and for once in his life, he would be happy. No this was reality, the real deal, no waking up from a nightmare, no do-overs.

If he wanted to change he would have to make it, if no miracles happened he would become a miracle worker, he would find happiness somewhere in this god-forsaken world, He would create a better place and there will be nothing stopping him, he would go to war and come back if he had to.

Uzumaki Naruto vowed to himself he would get stronger and raise Uzushio from the ground too watch it prosper and return to its former glory he would get rid of all threats to it and create absolute peace so that those that were unfortunate like him would not suffer in this blasted world filled with hate and disgust, he would create peace. But first, he would need to rid the world of its trash, how will he go about doing that? He didn't know but he would do it, a promise is a promise

"It's time to get a move on". Naruto thought, passing a few villagers to which he paid no mind. He suddenly picked up the pace and gradually his walk turned into a full-blown sprint, he took to the roof and dashed across Konoha, his destination. Unknown to him, right now, he just wanted to run freely in the night, something about the night, it always seemed more pleasant in the night and the speed... it was his therapy.

He sprinted from rooftop to rooftop, his speed ever increasing, to the untrained eye, he was a blur. Naruto ran and ran and didn't even begin to tire. Those scrolls did wonders for his training, with the training regime the scroll had he felt like he was getting stronger daily the resistance seals he found in the taijutsu scroll had helped him greatly with his speed.

Right now while running he was going through the fuinjutsu lessons he had learned from his dispelled shadow clone. The shadow clone was a jutsu that the Godiame Uzukage had created to help his nation in the information-gathering department it was best used in his clan due to their large chakra pools, in the fuinjutsu portion of his training he found that he excelled the best even if he was only now learning the theory about the seals he found he understood them with ease.

After a while of running Naruto dropped down in front of his apartment building, it was not the best-looking building in Konoha, to be honest, but it served its purpose.

He unlocked his door and went into the building, he turned around after locking the door and found a clone chocking the other one out mumbling something about emo, and smart ass, he shook his head and walk past the two and saw that there was a clone preparing dinner, he headed to have a seat to the table when he saw four clones doing some calligraphy practises together before nodding to themselves and dispelling.

He had long now come to terms with his clone's weird behaviours and different personalities, while they were some normal ones they were… some rather interesting ones to say the least.

"HOW CAN YOU CALL ME AN IDIOT WHEN WE ARE THE SAME YOU IDIOT" a clone shouted to the other, who stood braised against the wall was calmly watching him, the calm clone shook his head and walked off mumbling idiot under his breath,

He sighed watching the two interact with each other, it was quite interesting, he felt as if he had a family for once, but these were just clones, they would get their tasks done hang around a bit and dispel after a while and then he was all alone again.

He found that clones put a huge strain on his mind once he received information from more than twenty of them, he had read in his clan history books that two hundred clones were sometimes made and spread out to the entire continent. So he figured with the more use of it and practice he would be able to ease his mind into the information sorting.

The window slid open and in came a man who looked as if he was in his late thirties with brown shoulder-length hair and a small scar over his left eye, he walked through the small apartment with two white bags in his hands, he handed them over to the clone that was preparing the dinner, the clone looked at the contents of the bag before it nodded in acceptance and the man nodded again before dispelling in a puff of smoke.

It had been a clone henged into a merchant Naruto had seen in the streets once. Naruto had devised this plan to get the supplies he needed since the shopkeepers always gave him quite a trouble. So he went in disguise to get whatever he needed.

Naruto soon finished his dinner and went tto prepare for bed.

XXX TIMESKIP XXX

(5 am- Wall of Konoha)

Naruto stared at the man in front of him as if he was some alien creature, his mind scanning the man's face as if trying to figure out a puzzle, he did not like things he could not figure out, and here stood in front of him a very weird man a wild creature of Konoha, he could not figure out what was wrong with the man, had he hit his head, was he mentally ill, was he mad, or was he just another freak of Konoha.

The weird creature in front of him was speaking some language Naruto's mind did not understand, he was shouting something about flames and youth and springtime of youthfulness?!

Even in the sunless morning, the man's teeth were blinding him, his eyes burned just staring at the man.

Naruto just nodded dumbfoundedly, not understanding what was quite being said by the man.

He had come out here for a warm-up and to take the resistance seal off to get a little used to his body. But yet again Kami had proven he had not liked him, because what the hell was this in front of him.

The man saw Naruto nodding and took it as a yes, he took naruto and pushed him forward nodding at him to go along. Naruto saw this and took it as an opportunity to get away from this man. He started running he ran for a good while at top speed and looked back to find that the man had disappeared he turned around only to find the man standing in front of him shouting about such flames at a young age.

"Alright time to step this up". Naruto said hysterically as he attempted to escape, he brought up his hands up to his chest, making his fingers intertwined he shouted "KAI".

It was only a couple of seconds later that Naruto started to feel the strange world around him, the place felt way lighter as if he was floating, "If this is level one, I can't wait to get started on the other levels" he thought to himself, he had only been using the resistance seal for about six months now. He was eager to see his progress now.

He shot forward with a surprisingly fast pace urgently, zooming past the intrigued Maito Gai.

Gai looked a little shocked at the speed of the six-year-old, he was somewhat amazed by the kid's speed, which some newly promoted genin were not capable of.

Naruto was feeling happy, really and truly happy at his progress, he felt as if he was at the top of the world right now, but he was soon brought back down to earth when he flew off the wall at a turn which he was incapable of following, into a tree, he did not even see what happened one moment he started running, the next he was in a tree…next to a very angry cat.

Naruto jumped down from the tree, with a few scratches on his face and a knocked-out cat in his hands, he gently placed down the cat nearby before jumping up back on the thick walls of Konoha, he threw a few jabs and that's when he realized he did not register his own movements, he sighed, he would have to get custom to the speed of his body, but before that, he would have to deal with the man standing in front of him, which was looking at him with interest, he then introduced himself as Maito Gai. Naruto did not trust the man, but gave him his name nevertheless.

(3 Hours later)

Naruto arrived back at his apartment and found it clone less, which made the place look a bit dull, but there was breakfast on the table.

With a little coaching from the man after he had denied the man's request to help him. The man had left him, giving up on trying to help Naruto after Naruto's continued refusals of his help. Naruto listened to the few words the man had left with him after his departure and put it to use and in no time he gained control of his speed.

Naruto had a lot on his mind, he did not trust the man and he was good at detecting deception and intent, a skill which he had developed over time, but what baffled him was the fact that the man had not seemed to hate him, his eyes held no malice or masked emotion it was just genuine, he had only seen those eyes seen in the eyes of Hiruzen and the two folks that owned the ramen bar down the street.

"Did that man not hate him, and why not, why help the demon brat?"

He sighed in frustration and dug into his food, he did not want any distractions today, today he would join the Konoha Shinobi Academy.

He decided for now he would stop thinking for now and just eat, he found himself being trapped in his mind a lot, if he was not going over scenarios, he was overthinking about decisions or he was just daydreaming.

He soon finished eating and got up to go take a shower and get ready for the day.

After a while, we find our crimson hair Naruto strolling down the street with boredom, he was wearing a black racer jacket unzipped showing a orange t-shirt under it and a black military cargo pants accompanied with a black Shinobi sandals with the pants being tucked into the sandals with tape strapping it.

He stopped and looked at the huge compound that was before him, it was surrounded by a huge chain link fence and a large gate with the name of the compound on it.

He heard the sound of children playing in the distance and saw the front yard filled with kids and their parents or guardians, he saw some parents giving him a look and pulling their kids closer to them, a silence passed over the yard as most of the adults payed attention to him, the kids stopping their games to see what was the problem, he looked at the scene with a face of indifference as he passed through the space the crowd had made for him, as soon as he entered the building and out of the sight of everyone, he could hear the complaints of some parents concerning his presence at the academy, in the presence of their kids, he had heard how they referred to him as it and not him or he.

He entered the room the old man had instructed him to go to l, as he walked in he could see the displeased face of some of the instructors while the others ignored him.

He walked up to a woman at one of the desk and handed the slip over to her.

She reluctantly accepted the slip and once seeing the Hokage stamp, she had begun writing something on a paper and rudely handed it to him.

He sighed, he had expected this but for some reason it still bothered him deep down, he did not show any emotion outwardly and would like to keep it that way, oh he he loathed this village

He walked through the corridors of the academy searching for the principal's office, he found the room and entered it.

He saw a fairly young man wearing a chunin flak jacket and the Konoha headband. The man saw him as he entered, he watched as the man's face shifted from surprise to that of a light glare.

"State your business". He said in a gruff voice nearly holding back a snarl.

Naruto said nothing as he just stared at the man with his own glare, he rudely chucked the paper into the man.

"At the request of the Hokage I was given permission to enter the academy. I hope you would not have a problem with that". Naruto said in a monotone voice, his face now back to the neutral and indifferent look.

He watched with a little satisfaction as the man averted his eyes from him and shifted a little uncomfortably.

The man took the paper, analysed it and started writing something up. After a couple seconds he handed back the paper and spoke.

"Welcome to Konoha Ninja Academy, your class will be located on the third floor of section A, it is the first class room on your right, but as of right now all kids will be in the yard for assembly"

Naruto nodded and left the office on his way to the yard shaking his head at the encounter.

He arrived and was awestruck when he looked at all the children. There were alot of them, they were all in different lines according to their age.

It looked like a small army to him; the numbers were great.

He went and took his place at the back of the line with the kids of his age.

He did not miss the looks he got from some of the kids, he was not surprised at all.

He knew they only looked at him because of the influence of the older generation. But it amazed him at how hate passed down from one generation to the other.

Though they do not know why they hate him, they just did because it was probably a cultural practice of how he is commonly treated.

If they hate him now he had now doubt they would hate him if they actually knew what was going on.

The cycle of hatred left the world in a pitiful state.

After the crowd settled and had given the head instructors all their attention, the assembly began.

They sang the motto of the academy and the pledge of Konoha along with the anthem and a national song, but Naruto refused to sing any of them. The Hokage presented himself and made an inspiring speech to the children.

The future of Konohagakure as he would put it, but if these children were the future, all hope was lost, the crimson hair boy thought.

As the Hokage prepared to leave he glanced at Naruto, giving him an approving smile.

Naruto nodded in return as he watched the Hokage being escorted by his Anbu

He noticed the children once assembled were now dispersed, each heading to their classrooms he decided to do the same.

Following the principal's directions he arrived at the doors of his classroom, he heard noises and shouting coming from inside and sighed, he forgot how kids act these days, they were not like him somehow he knew this would be troublesome.

He placed his hands on the door knob and pushed the door, he heard the class get slightly quiet. He pushed the door more until it was out of his way exposing himself to the children seated in the room.

His eyes passed over them, taking in their reaction towards him, they were interesting to say the least, he had not known the Hokage had placed him into a class with the clan heir's, this was an interesting development.

He did not want to interact with any of these kids but it was inevitable, so he figured he would at least sit next to a tolerable person.

Almost everyone in the class was either in a conversation or giving him a glare, with the exception of a boy who seemed to be asleep.

He saw an empty seat located by the window. The only other occupant was a black haired boy who by looks of it was not impressed with anything, he looked out the window almost bored completely ignoring everything.

He recognized the boy by the clan symbol on his clothing, it was an Uchiha one he recognized as one of the sons of Fugaku Sasuke as he believed he was called.

Naruto had a weird habit of spying and a love for information and his clones only made him love it more, he would always like to know as much as he can on everything going on in the village since we'll he was just curious.

Call the Uchiha arrogant or whatever, but Naruto did not care once he was not disturbed.

He took a seat next to the boy who turned to face him, his red eyes meeting the pitch black orbs of the Uchiha.

The boy grunted before turning back to the window, Naruto took it as his way of acknowledgement, before he too turned away.

It was as if the boy was not impressed with him or just didn't view him as important. To be honest… he did not care.

A few minutes later the classroom door opened and in came a man dressed in a commonly seen Chunin outfit, he was a fairly young man with spiky brown hair pulled back by a pony giving it a pineapple look, the man's most notable feature however was the scar that laid across his face resting on his nose bridge.

The class either did not notice or was just ignoring the man, but either way they were silenced when the man in a comedic fashion made his head grow to an inhuman proportion, then he proceeded to shout at a eardrum popping level to silence the class.

Yep this was gonna be a very long day Naruto thought.

The man went on to introduce himself as Umino Iruka to the class and insisted that each member of the class introduce themselves.

Everyone took turns introducing themselves.

Naruto knowing much about the clan heir's did not pay attention to their turn and he also paid no attention to the rest.

The boy next to him stood up and spoke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke of the Uchiha clan". My dreams are to surpass my big brother and become the strongest clan head. Sasuke said before taking his seat.

"Oh he's so cool."

"Yeah and so badass. "

"I like him.

"No you don't."

"He's mine, right Sasuke."

"Man, that guy is so full of himself. "

"Yeah he thinks he's so cool."

"Troublesome."

"Uhh, whatcha say Shika?"

Naruto was really doubting the future of Konohagakure right now. These kids were hopeless.

He looked over at the Uchiha to see his reaction to all the praise he was getting and saw the same uncaring face.

As much as he would deny it, he was starting to like this guy.

Naruto then realised it was his turn so he stood up to introduce himself.

"Check this freak out."

"What's up with the red hair"

"He's kinda cute. "

"No, my mom told me to stay away from him."

"I don't like this guy. "

"Let's hear what tomato sauce got to say. "

"My dad doesn't like this kid. "

Naruto ignored all the comments and decided to just get on with it.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

Iruka looked at Naruto expecting him to continue but only to sweat drop when the boy sat down.

The class all looked at Naruto with a wary look.

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow at the boy sitting next to him.

"Was that all he had to say?" The class collectively thought.

"He is probably just trying to sound cool like other guy."

"He didn't even tell us about himself."

"Like I would care."

"Uh um, now that introductions are finished why don't we move on with today's topic." Iruka said, trying to move on.

Iruka clapped his hands, stood up and motioned for everyone to follow him outside to the field.

They all arrived outside where they saw Iruka standing in a circle with spikes on the rim looking similar to the outline of the sun, he told them to form a circle around the one drawn on the floor.

"This circle is known as the 'Budo' it was a system developed by the Shodaime Hokage in which fighting between comrades is permitted, bad blood between fellow Shinobi and also if two clans had something to prove they would pick their best fighters and would put them in the the Budo to see who would be the victor, this system soon spread internationally and was were the Chunin exams were based on, but you'll learn more about that later."

"When fighting in the Budo you must make the unison sign, the unison sign is an oath showing comradery and anything sorted out in the Budo must stay there."

"But the Budo must only be used if in the presence of a witness, light spars with comrades can be done elsewhere but once you have an agenda it must be sorted in the Budo, understood! "

"Yes sensei! " The class answered

He then walked up to another circle, this one though was a regular one.

"This circle is not like the Budo; it is normally used in the academy or can be found on training grounds, this circle is commonly used for regular spars. "

Iruka looked over at the kids looking for someone he would pick for this practice and noticed Naruto's uninterested look and smirk.

"Naruto please come and stand in the middle of the circle."

Naruto nodded and did what was required of him.

"Now would anyone like to volunteer in this practice, the objective is that of a light spar."

Iruka stood there expectantly but no one raised their hand.

"I'll do it," a voice said.

Iruka searched for the source and found Sauke raising his hand.

"Ok will u please come here in the circle so we can begin." Iruka said, motioning to the circle.

"Beat his ass Sasuke-kun."

"Yeah you show him. "

"Man can you guys tone it down some people have enhanced hearing ya know"

"Shut up dog boy"

Iruka sighed at the scene, maybe teaching was the wrong choice.

Sasuke ignored the girls and walked into the circle facing Naruto.

"Remember this is a friendly spar and we will be doing these exercises on a regular basis for training and stance correct for your Taijutsu practices." Iruka said to the class.

"Now will you two please make the unison sign?"

The boys nodded and walked up to each other, looking into the eyes of their opponent and made contact with each other, their index and middle fingers interlocking, before they nodded at each other before jumping back and into a stance.

"Hajime!!!". Iruka shouted, chopping the air with his right hand.

Sasuke seeing that Naruto had no intention of moving started charging at the red head he threw a jab with his left hand, which was blocked, so he followed up with a right hook which was dodged, he pivoted on his left foot, jumping up to deliver a spin kick which was caught by the Naruto's right hand.

Naruto seeing an opening took it, he threw a quick jab at Sasuke head, which landed, throwing the Uchiha off balance, he followed up with a roundhouse to the rib which was barely blocked the the Uchiha,but the force pushed Sasuke off his feet and into the hard unforgiving ground.

By the time the Uchiha came to his senses Naruto's right fist was in his face, ready to continue if he dared to stand up.

He was shocked, how is he so fast? Who is he? What type of style is that, so many questions he had going through his mind right now.

His father would never allow this, him being beaten by a civilian? Unacceptable.

He could already hear it now, his father comparing him to his brother, telling him to be better, he could not allow this, he must make this right.

he was brought out his thoughts when he saw those lifeless orbs staring at him, it felt like staring into the abyss, cold, uncaring, hurt?

Was his pride wounded? Yes greatly, but his brother and mother always taught him was not to hold grudges for they were no good, but one thing was for sure and was evident now, the academy was about to get interesting.

Iruka was a little surprised, he had never seen that style before, Naruto had better Sasuke the Uchiha clan heir? A civilian beating that of a Shinobi family was uncommon in the world of Shinobi, but to Better that of an Uchiha upbringing was just rare.

The class was shock, not only by the skills the too boys showed but by the speed at which the fight ended and in the favour of Naruto no less, some had not really seen what had happened because of the speed the fight went on with, some people were literally picking their jaws off the ground at the scene.

"Winner Naruto Uzumaki!!!" Iruka declared breaking the silenced and shocked class out of their thoughts.

"Now will you two please make the unison sign signifying the end of the match." He requested.

Naruto, hearing this, got up and began walking to the middle of the ring when he heard Sasuke speak.

"No!!!This match is not over. I would like to try again".

"Uh…um if that's ok with Naruto then yes"

Iruka looked at Naruto to see his answer.

The boy slowly turned around to face Sasuke, eyeing him as if trying to figure him out.

"Why? "

"Huh"

"Why fight again if I have already shown that I'm capable of winning? "

"Because I was thought the fight is not over until you run away or die, isn't that a Shinobi saying? Though we are not fighting to the death, I will not just sit here and have you be declared the winner and giving up is not the way of the Uchiha, I did not get to test you properly and was not prepared but that won't happen again, this time I'm ready, Also…you…Uzumaki Naruto interests me. You're surprisingly strong and have gained my attention, even going as far as to beat me, which I thought no one here was capable of." Sasuke said

"Man…talk about ego stroke, this jerk carries the pride of the whole clan or what 'which I thought no one here was capable of' man what a jerk" the boy recognized as Kiba said in a mocking tone.

Kiba was the only one in the class able to see the fight clearly, he could keep up with them no biggie, he bet he could take both of them on right now and still win cus he was just that guy.

Kiba did have to be real though, Naruto was strong and as much he would not mention it he knew he would lose badly against the tomato head boy.

"Shut up Kiba Sasuke-kun is no jerk!" A girl with blond hair shouted.

"Man Ino you could be troublesome sometimes. Shikamaru said lazily.

Naruto thought about what Sasuke said. Pondering, thinking about his next move.

"So appearance can be deceiving, he seemed quiet but under that lid was just a superiority complex waiting to snatch whoever dared to be better, something his pride could not allow."

"No"

"What?"

"I said no, this was a practice match and was only to give an example and I will not fight unnecessarily to make you feel better about yourself and your pride and besides another fight won't change the outcome" Naruto said with his neutral expression and monotone way of speech.

He walked away past Iruka and joined back in the circle of kids.

Sasuke stood there, a bit angry at being treated like nothing but fodder, he was trying his best not to hold it against Naruto, if he did not want to fight then so be it.