Author's Foreword:

I should probably have said this sooner, but I'll mainly focus on the academy days of Naruto. That is because it seems to be a not a very used scenario in Naruto fanfiction and, if I want some distinction, that's what I'm going to use. It gives me many oportunities for using slice-of-life bits, which is a genre that I actually enjoy.

By what I've read on the Narutopedia, the Hokage Residence and The Hokage Office are two separated places. In fact, the Hokage Office and Mission Assignment Desk seems to be located at the Academy, which may seem weird, but when you think about it, it makes sense that that the highest military official on the hierarchy would have their office located at the sae place where they train potential recruits. It's still weird, but it does makes sense, so I'm going with that too.

Also, if you know at least a little about japanese folklore, you'll probably notice that I'm using the mythical fox or fox spirit yokai, whatever you prefer to call it. That is because I'm very much into mythology and supernatural stuff, which the series had, but not in enough amounts for my satisfaction.

Expect this to play a role on the story, whatever path it's going to.

I'm pretty much writing as I go, to be honest. My only guides being the rules I've set upon myself.

Anyway, let's continue the show.

xxx


Chapter 2 – The First Day (1st Period)

"Are you sure about this, Naruto?" The Hokage asked one last time while holding his adoptive grandchild's hand. Chuunins flanking them side by side, keeping their eyes prepared for anything. ANBU hiding in the sahdows, doing the same task.

"Yes, Gramps! I already told ya! I can keep being like this for two days straight now!" the blond boy with lots of leaves on his hair said.

The Hokage chuckled at the enthusiasm of the boy. "Alright, alright. A promise is a promise. Which kind of person would I be if I didn't keep my promises?"

The boy smiled to him.

He knew the answer and kept it to his heart.


Iruka had a pretty peaceful life.

Sure, he was an orphan and he didn't consider himself anywhere near to "good looking" thanks to face scar that horizontally graced his nose (although some people he doesn't know about would disagree with that with his self-image opinion). However, being a teacher was a very satisfying experience, which mostly compensated all of that.

Filling kids with knowledge, even if it was knowledge of how to become a glorified magical assassin, was a wonderful experience. See the kids slowly becoming smarter and better was a great pleasure to the young man. And today he received notice that he would welcome a new kid to fill up with knowledge!

What a wonderful day.

As he finished this thought, the door to his class opened, presenting his superior and village leader, Hiruzen Sarutobi, The Third Hokage, and a little blond boy with a bunch of orange leaves sticking out of his hair.

"Yo!" the boy did a little salute that made the teacher smile. "Are ya the teacher?"

"Ah, yes! My name is Iruka Umino, but you can call me Iruka-sensei!"

The Hokage smiled to him, then encouraged the boy to go near the teacher. Iruka then started to address the class.

"Today we have a new student with us! Please, pay attention while he presents himself."

The boy did the same little salute to the class, with a big smile full of white pointy teeth, stretching the whisker marks on his cheeks.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, leaves and to play pranks! Someday I'll be Hokage like Old Man Third! I hope we can be friends!"

The Hokage did a little cough on the "pranks" part, while Iruka sent a nervous smile to the boy. "Well, Naruto, why don't you choose a sit? There's still some free ones while we wait for the other students!"

Naruto smiled to his teacher and then set his eyes to scan the classroom. Some other students where already there:

A black haired boy that looked like he would prefer to be anywhere else but the class. Or that everybody around him exploded. Whichever is better.

A sleeping boy with a little hair bun that looked like a pineapple sided by a fat boy munching on some chips, both seemingly uncaring about the new student.

Some other people without relevant characteristics (and that probably would made good infiltration agents because of that).

A boy with face marks that made him look like Princess Mononoke looked at him like he was a dog that just spotted a cat. In fact, he appeared to carry a small dog on his head making the same expression towards him.

A boy with dark glasses and a tall shirt collar that covered half of his face slightly turned his face to regard him.

A girl with white eyes that seemed to be very fixated on Naruto and was suddenly startled when they locked eyes.

"Oh." She said.

"OH!" he screamed making the sleeping boy jump.

The boy ran under all the tables, like a fox following a rabbit to it's den under the bushes, startling everyone on his path, until he appeared right on the free spot besides the white-eyed girl. He looked directly into her face, too close to be what someone would call a respectful to her personal space. He gave her a big shining smile with pointy teeth, one that only threatened to make her feel good and warm.

"Hey, I remember you!"

"Y-you do?" She stammered.

"Yep!" He proceeded to give a very warm hug to her immediately. "I hope nobody bothered you again!"

She made a sound that was somewhere between a happy bird and a desperate exclamation.

Then she fainted.

The entire class just fell into silence until Prince Mononoke shouted "What the hell just happened!?"


Hinata couldn't believe it.

For almost two years she wondered about the boy who could transform himself into a nine-tailed fox (albeit not as big as the actual Kyuubi) and a small rat. She always wondered where did he go? She never caught sight of him again since that day.

Her caretakers ended up telling her Father what she told them what happened that day. Her Father then proceeded to ask her if it was real or just her imagination and no, it did not matter if there was other three boys who had seen it, only the eyes of the Hyuuga could not be fooled!

She confirmed, of course, but she was never sure if he believed her.

She even started to think that it was maybe one of those fabled fox youkai that could turn themselves into anything using magic and some leaves (she didn't understand why the leaves, but she didn't put much thought on that part). Sure, nobody has seen a magical fox before or since that terrible day the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible, right?

And then, when she was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, she dreamt the entire thing, the boy just appears on her class as a new student.

What are the chances?

And of course he had to hug her and make her faint in front of everyone. She didn't expect it, nobody did, not even the Hokage, it seems. Her Father sure was hearing about that later.

But she would worry about that later, as she started to wake up again.

As the lights invaded her visual senses, she started to make sense of the people around her. One of them seemed to be the Hokage, using some jutsu to diagnose the girl.

"It seems that she just fainted a bit, nothing to worry about." He said, making Iruka-sensei some of the students around her sigh in relief. "You must pardon Naruto, Umino-kun, he is very… fond of hugs." He chuckled to the blond boy, who hovered behind the elderly leader, trying to see what was happening.

"Sorry, I just got excited…" He said scratching his head.

"That's okay, Naruto." Iruka-sensei sighed and smiled to the boy. "Just remember that people like when you first ask permission to enter their personal space."

"No promises, Iruka-sensei!" he responded with a big smile full of mischief.

"Naruto…" the teacher look exasperated and resigned. "I feel like I'm going to have a handful with you…"

The Hokage chuckled. "Oh, Umino-kun, you have no idea."


As the class started, Naruto felt an excited feeling of expectative.

He always wanted to interact with other children his age!

Sure, it sucked that he had to hide his tails and ears, but hey, he already made a friend! No time to mop about his continued disguise!

Iruka-sensei seemed to be a genuinely cool guy, helping him when he had difficulty in understanding something. He had people teach him stuff before, but unless it was the Hokage personally doing it, it seemed that his past teachers had done it without any drive to actually make him learn something.

But Iruka-sensei was different! He is passionate about teaching and even someone with the attention span of a hyperactive 8-old could see it!

It was something that brought some relief to his small heart. Naruto was honestly worried about the classes, he knew he was a late-entry. He understood that he actually was meant to have entered the academy at least a year before, but Gramps wouldn't let him enter the academy unless he could hold his transformation even when he was unconscious.

It was kinda hard to hold this form for more than a day. It felt like trying to hold poop for long periods of time, but didn't felt as bad or as gross as that. The Hokage would like him to say it was more like wearing a suit three numbers smaller, if only because it was a less gross metaphor, but Naruto is a young child that did not understood why such a comparison is better than his own. Either way, the point is that keeping a transformation for so long was rather uncomfortable after some hours.

But anyway, he was in the academy now!

Time to start his road to being Hokage like his Gramps!

While he daydreamed about being the leader of a ninja village, the class went by and soon it was time for lunch. He immediately did a 90º degree turn to his seat neighbor, the white-eyed girl with dark hair called Hinata.

"Hey, wanna eat with me?" he asked with excitement.

"Hm, I, uh…" she tried to grab any sort of strength to say 'yes', but she kept nervously mumbling until Prince Mononoke interrupted.

"Hey! Leave her alone! Don't you see you're bothering her!?"

The boy with a dog scowled at the blond boy with whisker markings on his cheeks. Neither of them could put a finger on it, but they seemed to feel some sort of ancient instinct of rivalry and annoyance at each other. Like some sort of animal rivalry between cousin predators or something like that.

Naruto immediately get up of his seat and puts one foot over his desk. "And who are you to tell her what she is feeling, huh!? If I'm bothering her, then I'll just ask her if she wants me to leave her alone!"

The other boy started to point at their direction with anger. "Hinata is too shy to refuse! She is just gonna agree to it because she doesn't have courage to say 'no' to some jerkass like you!"

"Shut up! Why the hell do you think I'm a jerkass!? I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You made her faint with your desperate hugs!"

"Who are you calling desperate, dog boy!?"

Naruto was ready to jump from his desk to the other boy's with all his strength when he felt a small hand grab hem of his shirt. His face went from anger to curious questioning while he looked at Hinata.

With a small soft voice that seemed to fight with her own need to just disappear under the desk, she said "I, uhm, I want t-to eat lunch with… with you, yes!"

They kept quiet for a moment.

Then Naruto gave her a beautiful shining smile, quickly picked both his orange bento box, grabbed her hand and went out of the classroom with speed, making sure to pass by the face-markings boy with an infuriatingly smug grin.

Kiba could only scowl back at the blond while he exited the room with Hinata. He didn't trust that guy, he smelled like a rival predator, like some distant annoying cousin that had a bad habit of stealing their prey.

He smelled like… like…

"Freaking fox-smelling bastard, I'm going to punch that shit eating grin out of you when we spar later…"