The First Steps

"Minato-kun, are you sure we made the right decision in sending Naruto-kun to the academy? I mean we could have enrolled him a little later instead and train him to make up for it." No matter what, Kushina would always dote on her children. Even if it wasn't the best option, she was afraid for them.

"Kushina-chan we can't be there for him all the time. I have my duties as hokage and you have to take care of Masuyo-chan. Besides, being around children his age should be good for him."

Naruto stared around the academy in awe. This was the place he could become a super strong ninja at. He couldn't wait to begin his training here and learn a bunch of cool jutsu. Both of his parents had gone here. This was the place they had taken their first steps towards being so strong at. He was going to be exactly like them.

His mother had dropped him off early so he could explore and perhaps meet some new people. Considering the fact that almost no one was around he decided to explore first. The academy was quite large but its training areas were massive! What was even more amazing was that this building, along with many others, was untouched by the Kyuubi's rampage.

The terrifying beast hadn't been able to get so far into Konoha during it's attack. Every part of the city showed signs of it's invasion, but it hadn't been able to destroy them. The Kyuubi was supposed to be the strongest of all the tailed beasts. If it was for ninjas to halt the advance of such a beast and even beat it in the end, then it must surely be possible for ninjas to protect their loved ones from everything that would try to hurt them.

"Naruto-kun!" Naruto turned to see a fair-skinned woman with long, black, hair followed by a dark haired child with the same coal eyes as his mother.

"Mikoto-sama, Itachi-san, it's nice to see you." Naruto had met his mother's friend Mikoto a few times. He had also met her son Itachi once or twice but the war was more important than organizing play dates so he never got to know Itachi.

"Yes it is, I haven't seen you in a while. Is your okaa-san around? I want to talk to her."

"Uh no, she left after dropping me off." Naruto was still a little bit nervous about talking to someone that wasn't family. He supposed he'd have to get used to it soon though.

"Alright, I guess I'm going to go then. I hope you two have a good first day."

Both boys gave their farewells before turning to each other. If there was anyone Naruto was glad to be left with it was Itachi. He had met Itachi a few times before and Naruto noticed that he was very subdued.

Not that he himself was much different now. He had heard Itachi stumbled onto a battle site and that he had changed because of it. Perhaps now that they shared a similar experience they would also share similar ideas.

"Naruto-san, I overheard our okaa-sans discussing what happened to you. What did you take away from it?" Naruto never dreamed that Itachi would be the one to start a conversation.

"I'm not quite sure what you mean." Itachi frowned slightly in irritation but decided to repeat himself as he wanted an answer.

"Did you learn something or gain a goal because of it?"

"Oh yeah, I've decided to make sure no one has to see that kind of stuff again ever again, especially my sister."

'He's absolutely serious about this goal, interesting.' Itachi analyzed him before finally answering. "I think you are chasing an impossible goal. There will always be fighting and the most you can do is try to maintain peace the people of Konoha have."

"I don't care what you say, I will succeed!" Naruto was done with the conversation and stomped away without saying goodbye.

'I do hope you're right Naruto-san.' Itachi let out a small smile before following Naruto towards the academy entrance.

Naruto entered the academy and quickly found the class meant for the new arrivals. He chose a seat in the back corner as he preferred being able to see everyone. He noticed Itachi entering and made sure to glare at him but was ignored. Grumbling to himself, Naruto decided not to let Itachi ruin his good mood.

He was excited about his first day at the academy, although he had a feeling they wouldn't be doing any sort of training today. He just hoped that he wasn't bored to death.

As he looked about the class he noticed it was rather small, most likely some kids simply didn't want to become ninja as they were too busy mourning their parents. This just furthered Naruto's belief that his goal of world peace was a good one.

He didn't want his sister growing up in a world where children became orphans because someone decided to be a killer.

He was broken from his thoughts when a female Uchiha he guessed was his instructor stepped in. He wasn't sure if he should be happy or worried about his new instructor. The Uchiha clan were full of talented ninjas so she might be good, on the other hand she might be a disgrace considering she was an instructor instead of part of the police force.

He couldn't allow his training to be handled by someone who wasn't strong. If it wouldn't be incredibly rude he would question his father about her he would. He decided to reserve judgement until he had seen how good she was.

She seemed to be quiet person as she asked the class to calm down. Unfortunately the class ignored her as she didn't see command any attention with her personality.

"I thought I said shut up. Unless of course you all wish to find out the difference between a chunin and an academy student." Silence permeated the room at the unexpected threat. "Much better." She finished with a smile.

'What was that? Was she pretending to be mean or is she pretending to be kind?' Naruto didn't understand the sudden change in personality his instructor had gone through. 'I'm not sure which one it is, but what I do know is that she acts a certain way to get the reaction she wants.'

"Good morning class, I am your new instructor. You may refer to me as Chie-sensei and nothing else. Today is the first day of your training to become a ninja. I expect all of you to take this extremely seriously. As you are all aware Konoha has lost many shinobi and you are the ones to replace them. It is for that reason that I am going to push you all to achieve your full potential. Am I understood?"

A chorus of agreements rang out through the class as they didn't want to anger their instructor again.

"It is also for that very reason that none of you will be receiving any special treatment whatsoever. I don't care who your parents are, in this classroom my word is law." Her eyes lingered particularly over Naruto and Itachi.

"Now that that's cleared up, I'm going to teach you a small bit of our great nation's history before lunch. I'm sure all of you know about the war that recently ended. Many of your parents likely fought and perhaps even died in it."

Naruto noted that some of the students seemed to fall into sadness.

"There was a particular battle during this war I wish to teach you about. There was a group of Konoha shinobi who were outnumbered and soon to be defeated. They had lost all hope until our hokage, then a jounin, stepped onto the battlefield to aid them. Utilizing his famed Hiraishin no jutsu he defeated every single Iwa ninja on the field and saved the day. In fact his overwhelming victory is one of the main reasons Iwa later surrendered. Our hokage holds the will of fire and helped bring our nations to peace."

Naruto couldn't help but feel proud of his tou-san. He had managed to save his fellow shinobi and had helped to end a war. If Naruto could become stronger than his father he would certainly be able to stop all fighting.

"All right, that's enough for now; you may all go off and eat lunch. However, be prepared as after we are going to begin physical testing to find out how fit each of you are."

When Naruto finally got home he couldn't help but feel proud. He was one of the best during the tests, although Itachi eclipsed everyone. It was obvious Itachi was better than him so Naruto resolved to watch and learn from him.

"Welcome home Naruto-kun. Hurry up and get ready for supper and then you can tell us all about your day."

"Alright Kaa-san." Naruto quickly went about getting cleaned up before entering the dining room. He father was already there, as if he was really needed he could simply flash to his office.

Looking at the table he couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed. It was ramen, again. His mother certainly made very good ramen but Naruto just didn't share her addiction to the food.

"So Naruto-kun, why don't you tell me and your tou-san about your first day?"

"It was good." Naruto noticed the frowns on his parents' faces and the quick look they shared.

'I'm making tou-san and kaa-san sad. I don't want them to be worried about me. Maybe if I act like Chie-sensei did then they won't be so sad.'

"Actually, we were told a story about tou-san. Chie-sensei told us how you managed to save a bunch of Konoha shinobi with you super powerful jutsu! You're a hero tou-san!" It seemed to work as both his parents brightened, although his father seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Hehe, well I'm glad you think I'm a hero Naruto-kun. Maybe I can be your role model?" His father seemed hopeful so Naruto made sure to smile and nod fervently. His father seemed rather happy while his mother was laughing.

'This acting stuff really works.'

"What did you think about your instructor Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned back to his mother to answer.

"Uh, I thought she was great."

"Naruto-kun why are you lying?" She knew he was lying? How?

'I guess some emotions are easier to fake than others. I'm gonna need to practice acting so I can fool anybody.' Naruto vowed to learn how to act better by observing people to see how they reacted.

"Well I'm kinda worried because she's an Uchiha." His parents both shared a look that Naruto didn't notice as he was too busy talking. "Maybe she isn't that good because most Uchiha are in the police force." He was confused by the looks of relief on his parents' faces.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun. I've personally made sure that every instructor is good enough to be one. She'll be able to teach you a lot about being a ninja." Naruto nodded happily at that.

If someone as great as his tou-san thought she would be able to teach him a lot then she must be able to. Naruto would make sure to watch her and learn from how she behaved.

Before going to bed Naruto made sure to visit his sleeping imouto. He couldn't help but be filled with love when he looked upon her sleeping in her crib. Every time he looked at her his resolve was strengthened.

He didn't want anything bad to ever happen to her. Already he was getting anxious for the time when they would be older and she'd come to him to ask for lessons on being a shinobi.

Leaning in to place a kiss on her forehead he whispered to her. "I've finished my first day at the academy imouto-chan. Tou-san said my instructor is good so it's only a matter of time before I can uphold my promise to you. I'm going to try my hardest to learn all that I can so I can make your world better."

"Today we are going to start with some shuriken training. I have set up some dummies with targets on them at different areas. I want you all to start practicing throwing shuriken at your dummy. These shuriken are also mildly dulled so you won't cut yourself on them unless you aren't paying attention."

Everyone was soon trying to hit their dummy. After his fifth complete miss Naruto was getting angry. Looking around he noticed the teacher going to each student to help them in their throws. He also noticed that Itachi was hitting his target with great accuracy. He even hit the bullseyes!

Naruto continued to watch Itachi throw and tried to mimic his stance and motions. His began to get noticeably better but he continued to glance over at Itachi and make minute adjustments to his stance. He didn't even notice that the instructor was standing beside him and watching.

"Very good Naruto-san. Instead of waiting around for me you took it upon yourself to improve by watching someone better than yourself. However you aren't quite moving your wrist correctly. Watch me and pay attention to how I flick my wrist."

Naruto was startled when she broke his concentration but he made sure to pay attention. When she threw her shuriken he noticed the difference between their techniques. He quickly settled back into his near trance-like state. Every throw he payed special attention to the movement of his wrist and tried to drill the proper movement into memory. He didn't care if he had to continue throwing for days, he would become better.

When he finally hit a bullseye he smirked. This was his first step towards becoming a super strong ninja!

I know some people dislike academy days in fics but I want to show the influences on Naruto when he's younger. I'm not going to write a prologue then simply do a ten year or whatever time skip. I want to build Naruto's character as best I can and show how he changes instead of just skipping and having him already changed.

Chie means 'wisdom'

tou-san is father