Face Front True Believers (I've always wanted to say that), Chapter 2 is now up and running! I may have lost my train of thought for a bit there, but the ideas are beginning to flow again, so it's starting to come together pretty well. My many thanks to my friends symbiotic and MP5, who've helped me by equal parts inspiration and reviewing. Now get set, 'cause its Naruto's first day of school, and he's all set to start learning what it means to be a shinobi. Remember to R&R as you guys see fit, I enjoy a little constructive criticism every now and then.

Chapter 2: Back to school... again.

The sun rose early on Monday, streaming into Naruto's room and glancing off his eyes. He winced in discomfort and pulled the covers over his head sleepily. Just as he was about to drift back to sleep, he remembered what day it was and leapt out of his king-sized bed and rushed to the shower. Once he had dried off, he changed into his "civilian" clothes, which consisted of a pair of denim jeans, his Dust Goggles, a navy "Fantastic 4" t-shirt, a pair of black fingerless gloves and his standard issue sandals. "Oh man, I can't believe I almost slept in!" he exclaimed as he slid down the banister and hurried into the kitchen. He'd been ex-static about meeting his new classmates ever since he found out that he wasn't the only mutant in the class. Even though he'd joined mid-year, Xavier had vouched for him with Sarutobi, so he would be allowed to be in the same class as those listed in the Agenda-X files.

After he'd finished his breakfast and collected his scrolls and ninja gear, stuffing them into his backpack, he zipped out the front door and headed for the village. Moments later, he was bounding over the rooftops of Konoha, pulling off aerial acrobatics that few ninja could even imagine. He vaulted off a building and latched onto a clothesline that hung between the two of them with one hand; he swung himself in a circle around the rope for a few rotations, then launched himself into the air, his momentum carrying him to the building on the adjacent street. Upon his landing, he back flipped onto a chimney and leapt into the air, teleporting to the roof of Ichiraku Ramen at the height of his jump. His heightened sense of smell caught the scent of freshly cooked ramen wafting in the breeze, causing his mouth to water profusely.

'Ugh, that smells sooooo good!'

'Stay focused Kit,'reprimanded Kyuubi. 'You don't wanna be late, do ya?'

'Yeah, you're right Kyuubi,' he agreed remorsefully. 'Even though it thoroughly pains me to say it, I guess ramen can wait... this time.'

'Now that's a first; you saying ramen wait. I think Mephisto's realm just froze over.'

'Oh, grow up Kyuubi.'

As Naruto was busy talking with Kyuubi, Hinata Hyuuga happened to be passing by on her way to the Academy and glimpsed the blond crouched on the roof of the ramen shop. She had heard tell from her father that the boy was the son of an old acquaintance of his, and was somewhat of a berserker like his father; but despite this, something about him that captivated Hinata when she saw him. Maybe it was the way the wind rustled his hair, or maybe it was that carefree gleam in his eyes that spoke of mischief and adventure. But whatever the case, she fell for him right then and there. 'So that's him,' she thought. 'The boy father was taking about the other day; the one everyone says is living in the Fourth's estate. Naruto Uzumaki-Howlett.'

Just then, Naruto noticed Hinata staring at him and smiled at her. His sudden acknowledgement of her presence caused her to turn bright red, and her heart started racing a mile a minute. He gave her a short, but friendly wave and vanished in a cloud of black smoke, the smell of sulfur and brimstone lingering in the air. Surprised at his sudden disappearance, she gave slight yelp of astonishment and looked around to see where he'd gone to. A few blocks over, Naruto reappeared atop an apartment building and slumped against a ledge to catch his breath. He'd wanted to quicken his pace to the Academy so much, that he'd overshot his limit of two miles, winding him considerably; not even Nightcrawler, whom he'd known as Uncle Kurt, could travel further than three miles per 'jump.' And he was simply mimicking his powers to conserve chakra! As he sat there, he thought about the girl he'd seen staring at him. 'She seems familiar, like I know her from somewhere. Was she listed in the Agenda-X files

'She may have been Kit,'said Kyuubi with a distracted tone in his voice.'I sensed something about her back there. Something that I know I've felt somewhere before.'

'What is it?'

'I don't really know Kit. It was so familiar, yet so alien.'

'Oh well, can't really worry about that now,' thought Naruto, rising to his feet. 'We've still got a few buildings to jump 'til we reach the Academy.' With that, he took a running start, and then pushed off to the next building. As he raced off to the Academy, Kyuubi sat in the back of Naruto's mind. Although he'd rarely been unnerved by mutants that out classed Naruto in the past, he was unable to shake the feeling that the girl had given him back there. 'Maybe I'm just over-reacting. She's probably just another ordinary baseline.'

Nine minutes later, Naruto stepped into his classroom in the Konoha Ninja Academy. There were already a few students there, and they were busy conversing with each other. There was a rotund young man in the corner of the classroom, stuffing his face with a bag of potato chips; next to him sat a kid wearing a pineapple hair-style, snoozing away without a care in the world. "Hey,' he thought for a moment. 'I recognize that fat kid from Xavier-Oji-sama's file, cool! I wonder who else from Agenda-X is in this classroom.'

On the other side of the room was a boy who bore a striking resemblance to the girl he'd seen earlier. He had long black hair and a gaze so sharp that it seemed to pierce Naruto's soul when he caught his glance. He was talking to a girl who wore a Chinese-styled outfit, topped off with a pair of buns in her hair that made her look almost like a panda. Next to them was a strange looking young man in a green unitard, sporting a Moe Howard haircut and a pair of unnaturally huge eyebrows.

'Now I know both her and that guy with the eyebrows are in Oji-sama's files,' Naruto thought as he made his way to his seat. 'That's three down.'

In front of him sat a pair of girls, one with long blonde hair, and one with pink hair, who he thought was kinda cute. They seemed to trying to get the attention of the guy who sat brooding in-between them. This guy had spiky black hair and blood red eyes; he also wore a shirt that had a drawing of a red and white fan on it, marking him as a member of the once great Uchiha clan. His dad had told him about what had happened to the Uchiha all those years ago, and how only one of them had survived. 'So that's Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha.' Naruto looked at him and at the pink-haired kunoichi, who was busy glaring daggers at the blonde girl. 'Both of them are in the files too. I wonder...'

Just then, he noticed the girl from earlier come in and sit down behind two boys. One had red fang tattoos on his cheeks, and had a puppy poking its head out of his hoodie; the other boy's face was covered by his collar and a pair of Coke-bottle glasses. 'I know I saw that guy with the puppy in the files, but I still can't figure that girl...' Sensing his gaze, Hinata glanced down at her hands and began to play with her fingers nervously. Before he could think any more about it, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by Iruka, who'd just walked into the room.

"Okay class, settle down," he said as the students ceased their conversations and turned to the front of the class. "Alright everyone, today we'll be studying known Kekkei Genkai, both those native to Konohagakure, and others that have been discovered in the Five Shinobi Villages."

As Iruka began his lecture, Naruto listened intently to what he was saying about Kekkei Genkai. He was intrigued at how much these bloodline traits resembled X-Gene related mutations; the similarities between the two were uncanny!

'Cool,' he thought as Iruka continued his lecture. 'Its possible that Kekkei Genkai are actually mutations that have been strengthened with each new generation, like with Husk and Cannonball's family, the Guthrie's. If that's true, then some of these guys in the Prof's files may be the next step in the evolution of their bloodline's mutation. A whole new breed of ninja!'

As he sat pondering the similarities of both mutations, he never even noticed that Hinata was staring at him from her seat on the other side of the classroom, small smile on her face.

A few hours later, after Iruka's lecture had concluded, the school broke for lunch. A number of the students had brought their own bento, but Naruto had been so concerned with getting to school on time that morning that he'd forgotten to bring his. 'Ah well, now might be a good time to stop by that ramen shop I saw on the way over here,' he thought as he left the Academy campus and made his way to the eatery. Seeing as a few of his classmates were in the same boat, he offered to do something he would've never done in a million years. "Hey, you guys up for some ramen? My treat."

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto was seated on one of the stools at Ichiraku, while his classmates introduced themselves over a bowl of ramen. Aside from himself, the five that had joined him were the rotund boy, who he learned was known as Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka and his puppy Akamaru, the Chinese-attired kunoichi Tenten, the extremely odd yet pretty cool Rock Lee, and finally the revenge-obsessed Sasuke. While Naruto liked the first four of his future teammates, Sasuke wasn't making a good first impression. First off, he was always brooding, which lead Naruto to believe that he was emo when he first met him. Secondly, he believed that he was to be his clan's "avenger," and that anyone who got in his way was a hindrance to his overall purpose in life. Then finally, he stated that since Naruto had joined mid-year, had less of a chance at becoming a ninja than anyone else there. He'd even gone as far as to refer to Naruto as 'henshu furiku' (mutant freak)! While Naruto would've enjoyed nothing more than to throttle the spiky haired emo, he remembered Xavier-Oji-sama's lecture on human/mutant relations and calmed his temper.

'Yep, feel's just like Westchester,' he sighed inwardly as he finished his meal. 'Sasuke-teme thinks he's sooo cool just 'cause he's been here longer than I have and he has the best grades in class. Emo-jerk.'

He was just about to leave, not wanting to spend another minute around the pompous Uchiha, when Kiba asked him something that made him stay for a while. "So I heard from my mom that your dad is supposed to be some kinda insanely awesome fighter and that he works for some special organization," he said as Akamaru lapped up his leftover broth. "Is that true?"

'Oh, yeah, dad told me he used to date Kiba's mom back in the day.' Naruto shuddered slightly at the thought of Logan and Tsume Inuzuka together. "Yeah, he's a member of the X-Men," Naruto returned proudly after composing himself.

"The who?" asked Sasuke, skeptically raising an eyebrow. Naruto sweat dropped slightly at his own absent-mindedness. He'd forgotten that Konohagakure wasn't that connected to the outside world enough to have heard of most of the legendary heroes he'd worked with in the past. Sure they had some technologies, but other than that, they were just about as distant as the Savage Land when it came to global happenings on. So, he took a few minutes to tell them about some of the heroes he'd grown up with, like Spider-man, Captain America, the Fantastic 4, the Avengers, and of course, the Uncanny X-Men. After he had finished, the five before him sat staring at him with slack-jawed expressions on their faces; all except Sasuke, who didn't believe a word of what Naruto had said.

'Yeah right,' thought Sasuke. 'Like an annoying dobe like Naruto would be working with guys like that. He's probably making all this up.'

"Cool," said Choji, shoving a handful of potato chips into his mouth.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "it is pretty awesome, sharing your life with some of earth's mightiest heroes. Especially when one of em's your dad."

"So, have you actually fought along side any of them before?" asked Tenten inquisitively.

"Of course, dad makes it a point to share all of his life with me, especially since I became a full member of the field team two years ago. Sometimes he lets me get right in on the action, and others where he has me stay on the sidelines and help with either crowd control or rescues. But, then there are times when the action comes to me..."

"Like when, Naruto-kun?" asked Lee.

"Well, take the night I'd been inducted as a full-fledged X-Man for example. We were holding a party to celebrate and everything was going pretty smoothly for a while. Sadly it didn't stay that way for long...,"

(Flashback)

"For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow... that nobody can deny!" sang the Academy students as they congratulated Naruto on his "promotion" to field ops.

"Aw, come on you guys, quit!" he laughed as he massaged the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Really, I don't deserve all of this."

They had all gathered in the Institute's main ballroom for the party, which was pretty extravagant to say the least. Kitty and Ororo had spent hours setting up the decorations, and they'd even hired a professional caterer to serve real ramen. Cyclops had also invited a number of the X-Men's old friends to the party, including Brian Braddock and his wife Meggan from Excalibur.

"Don't be so modest son," said James (i.e. Logan) as he clapped his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You've earned it 'fer all the hard work you put in to get this far."

Just as Naruto was about to agree with his dad, a sharp pinging sound reverberated through the air as Emma Frost rapped on her glass to get everyone's attention. "Thank you all for joining us on this wonderful evening, as we celebrate the promotion of Naruto Uzumaki-Howlett to the X-Men field team," the once White Queen said warmly as she smiled in his direction. "We have all stood by him in his early years of training, and have watched him grow into both a fine young man, and a capable leader, as we saw during our last field day." She raised her glass and nodded towards him. "A toast to our young comrade, may the adventures to come be more exciting with him along for the ride."

"Here, here!" shouted the guests in agreement.

However, before anyone could take a sip of their 'sparkling cider', a tall figure crashed through the skylight above the ballroom, showering a number of the students in the broken glass. As the figure hit the floor, Naruto got a better look at the party-crasher. It was a massive android with gleaming metallic skin, a large .50mm G.A. rail-gun mounted on its shoulder, and a huge laser cannon where its left forearm would've been. Brian was the first to react.

"Fury!" he roared as he clutched the amulet around his neck, using its power to transform into Captain Britain. "Why did Jaspers send you?! Leave this place at once!" He flew at the android with incredible speed, his body glowing with mystic energies.

"Primary objective confirmed:," it said in a cold, synthesized tone, "eradicate Brian Braddock and all present super-powered beings." As it spoke, it leveled its cannon arm at Brian and cut loose with a burst of energy that struck the hero square in the chest, sending him flying into a wall. He let out a groan of pain before sinking to the floor in unconsciousness.

"Brian!!" screamed Meggan as the creature strode towards her husband. She quickly transformed her stature into that of the She-Hulk and ran at the Fury. A mean right hook sent the robotic monstrosity careening into the dessert table. As it fell against the table, the Fury attempted to fire off a round from its rail-gun at the hulking shapshifter. However, the shot went wide, spraying the room in a wide arc of depleted uranium rounds. Luckily, Julian Keller, one of Frost's Hellions, had erected a TK field over the fleeing students, shielding them from the deadly hailstorm.

"James!" Emma yelled as Cyclops herded the students out of the ballroom, rounds digging into the stone just inches above her head. "Cyclops, Bishop and I will see to the students. You, Naruto, Rachel and Sam help the Braddock's contain that thing!"

"Got it Frost," he yelled as he unsheathed his claws. Snikt! As they got into position, Naruto glanced over at his father and they both exchanged equally mischievous grins. "You ready for your first official field scrap son?"

"Are you kidding dad?" he replied, unsheathing the retractable claws he'd mimicked from Beast. "I was frickin' born ready!"

"Alright, then lets do it!" The father and son team ran at the Fury full-throttle, with Marvel Girl and Cannonball flying close behind. As the cybiote assassin staggered to its feet, sparks flying from its damaged rail-gun, it looked up just in time to see both Naruto and Wolverine bearing down on it, their faces contorted in a gleeful battle cry. "RRRRAAAAAWWWRRR!!!!"

(End Flashback)

"So what happened after that, Naruto-kun?" asked Lee in anticipation.

"Me, dad, and Cannonball helped Meggan pull the Fury off of Brian so Rachel could use her powers to destroy it. Let me tell you, that was one party no one at the Institute is gonna forget anytime soon."

"How come?" Kiba probed, Akamaru barking in agreement from his perch atop his master's head.

"Well, Rachel had to use the Phoenix Force to create a black hole inside its hardware. So, when it was sucked into the hole's singularity, its destruction created a wave of energy that completely wiped out the ballroom and knocked all of us for a loop. It took weeks for us to rebuild the ballroom, and Beast had to run a complete quantum scan on the blast site to make sure the Fury was gone for good this time."

"Wow, now that sounds like it was a pretty intense fight," said Tenten.

"Yeah, it was," Naruto said, smiling as he remembered the look on Emma's face when she first saw the wrecked ballroom. Just then, the alarm on his watch sounded, snapping him out of his memories. "Oh, man! We'd better head back to the Academy; lunch break ends in fifteen." As they ran back towards the school, Naruto glanced back at his new friends. 'I guess I was wrong,' he thought as he ran. 'This place isn't half bad after all.'

Well there it is, Chapter 2. Now make sure to stay tuned Agenda-X fans, 'cause the next chapter will be covering Naruto's graduation and introduction to his team. So be ready for intense battles, new surprise guests, and the revelation of Naruto's true mutant power! You won't wanna miss a second of it!