Second chapter of the story is here!
* review response:
Liger01, I think that it's up to those, who are consumed by the Shinigami, whether they fight in its stomach or do something else. And no, dead ones will stay dead in this story.
ApexPredator, read and find out XP
OverLordRevan, academy lasts five years in this story: they start it when they are 7 and the finals are when they are 12. Minato will have threesome (no lemons there, sorry). And no, do you really think that with all this paperwork poor old Sarutobi-sama has more than several minutes a day to watch over Naruto?
Wyrtha, thank you!
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using yoki / jutsus / Iruka's 'demon head' speaking"
'thinking of higher beings'
chapter 2: Academy days
After the academy day finished, Naruto followed Sachiko and when he was sure, that they were pretty much alone, he showed herself, scaring the girl a bit in the process.
"Why do you wish to be friends with me even if our sensei said no to?" He asked. White-haired girl looked into his eyes, before answering his question.
"You seem to be nicer than he, so why not?" Naruto bowed to her slightly.
"Thank you, Sachiko-chan." She smiled.
"Do you know nice secluded clearing where we can train? Somewhere where it won't be easy to find us?" Sachiko asked. "If we want to be good shinobi, we will need to train a lot." She added. Naruto though for some time.
"No, but I'll go look for it today." The girl nodded.
"Then, until tomorrow."
"Bye." And Naruto ran towards his 'home' to drop his school things there and start looking for his and Sachiko's secret training ground.
As months went by, Sachiko was teaching her friend what Mizuki didn't bother to teach him in the academy. But Naruto was clever enough not to reveal this secret training sessions with her by getting good marks. They also sparred with each other often, thus working on their fighting styles. Naruto was a juggernaut, rather slow, though he could dodge almost any attack if needed, very strong, with incredible stamina and really hard to knock out. Sachiko, on the other hand, relied more on her natural agility and speed, preferring to use her opponents strength against him.
They found out that Sachiko had large amounts of chakra, nearly chuunin level by the second academy year. Naruto himself had reserves that could only be described as monstrous. This meant that they both needed to do chakra-controlling exercises to be able to perform low level jutsu that were required to pass the finals of the academy.
Also, both kids became really good at stealth. This, coupled with her white hair, pale skin – she almost always was either inside a building or in the shadows – and white clothes earned Sachiko a nickname 'Konoha no gen'ei' or 'the ghost of Hidden Leaf'.
Sometime during their third year at academy, when they were ten, Sachiko discovered her ability to control dust around her. After some research, mostly carried by Naruto at the main village library during nights, they found out that Sandaime Tsuchikage had similar abilities, which, in his case, were a manifestation of a jinton bloodline. As Sachiko's parents were unknown, kids decided that she too may have this bloodline and decided to keep it in secret for the time being...
***
Eleven years old Naruto was sure he was sleeping in his 'home', but his dream was really strange. He was in something resembling a labyrinth made of dark dirty corridors with muddy water on the floor that reached his knees. On the walls there were pipes. Some were colored blue, others – red, but they all looked almost the same because of the mold that grew on them. Labyrinth had lots of the rooms, each had a ball of dark glass in it. Each time Naruto touched the ball, he found himself in some other world. Some of these worlds were definitely his memories, while other... Naruto had never rode on a head of giant sword wielding toad while facing Kyuubi. Or had he? Continuing the exploration of the labyrinth, blond boy came to the giant chamber. On the first sight it seemed to be empty, but as he entered it, Naruto found out that it was much bigger than he though. And in the chamber, unseen from the doorway, there was a giant shapeless mass of solid-looking red energy behind green from the accrued mold glass. As he approached the glass cautiously, the energy started glowing in an unfriendly way and releasing some killing intent.
"What is this?" Naruto wondered aloud. He, of course, got no response. Other than a spike in KI from this mass of energy. The boy did a step back and studied the room closely. First, he noticed carved kanji for 'seal' on the glass. Next, there were pipes that went from inside of this glass cage and to the walls and out of the chamber. Naruto wanted to study this place more, but was brought back to the reality by a hell-spawn device named alarm clock.
After another hellish day at the academy under Mizuki-sensei passed, Naruto met with Sachiko at their secret training ground.
"You know, today I had a very strange dream." He said after his friend explained him today's lessons. Sachiko looked questioningly at him.
"Like what?" Naruto though for a second about how to tell her about it. Finally, he answered:
"I was in a giant sewer-like labyrinth. I had a lot of rooms with glass balls. Some of these balls contained my memories. Other – I don't know, but what I saw was way too strange to be a memory of mine." Sachiko was about to say something, but saw that he hadn't finished, so she let him continue. "And finally there was a chamber with a lot of red evil energy behind glass with a kanji 'seal' on it." The girl didn't know what to say about it.
"Maybe you should ask Hokage-sama about it?" Naruto nodded, agreeing with her. "But if I were to guess, it might have something to do with you containing Kyuubi."
"But shouldn't Kyuubi be a giant fox with nine tails?" Blond demon container shouted.
"Who knows? But it is said that bijuu are nothing but a conscious mass of yoki, so why can't it have different forms?" Naruto had to agree that Sachiko had a point here. "But, really, you should ask Hokage-sama about it, even if I'm your friend, I'm still just an academy student."
"OK, I will ask him tomorrow." Naruto took his taijutsu stance. "But let's spar now. I will definitely win today!" White-haired girl only smirked, taking her own stance.
"Oh, don't be so sure!"
***
On october ten of the last academy year Sachiko walked into the classroom with two new stylets attached to her belt. Many students noticed it right away, and several girls who liked gossiping decided to find out where she got them from.
"It's a birthday present a friend of mine gave me." Sachiko said coldly. Why everyone had to know where she got them from. In her mind, she replayed events of her and Naruto's yesterday's 'training' when the boy presented this weapons to her. She never got it out of him, how he got the stylets, but she didn't really care, of course, as long as they weren't stolen, but Naruto said they weren't and she believed him.
"You have a friend?" Pink-haired banshee named Haruno Sakura screeched. "You don't even want to be with Sasuke-sama, let alone have a friend here. And these blades are definitely a present from a boy. I want to know, who may be better that my Sasuke-sama." Sakura spent next minute or so, arguing with other Sasuke's fangirls about who will win his heart. "So, who is he?"
"Why should I tell you?" Sachiko replied in the same cold tone.
"Because... Because we tell you to do so!" Sakura said. White-haired girl was thinking how to tell the other girls to get lost in a way that they will understand, but was saved by Mizuki, who decided to start the lesson.
Later, when the class was out for the taijutsu practice, Sasuke approached Sachiko.
"What do you want?" The girls asked him in an unfriendly way.
"I know your little secret." Uchiha boy said. "Yesterday I saw you fighting with the demon, and you weren't faring very well. He is the deadlast. Are you this weak, second top kunoichi of the class?"
"You want me to kick your ass?" Sachiko responded, desperately trying to keep her cool.
"Like you stand a chance against Uchiha." Sasuke said, trying to intimidate her.
"We will see." The girl replied angrily. Then she called Mizuki. "Sensei, I want to fight Sasuke Uchiha."
"Are you sure?" White-haired chuunin asked. "Maybe you should fight someone weaker?"
"No. I want to fight him." Sachiko said in a certain voice. Mizuki shrugged.
"As you wish. But don't run away crying when he beats you. You are going against the rookie of the year and you must understand this." The girl only nodded. There were several matches before hers: Shikamaru Nara outsmarted another genius Shino Aburame; Ino Yamanaka and Ami knocked each other unconscious after a short fight; Sakura got her ass juuken'ed by Hinata Hyuuga. "And now we will have a special match..." Mizuki announced. "Uchiha Sasuke versus Sachiko. Rules are the same: taijutsu only." Almost the whole class was shocked: someone was willing to fight against Sasuke? And that someone was class' ice queen Sachiko? Opponents took their places in the ring. Sachiko was standing in a loose stance while Sasuke got into his family style's stance.
"Ready to lose, demon lover?" Last two words were whispered in a way that only Sachiko could hear them.
"You sure, you won't be blown away by the wind? Your ego seems to be bigger than Hokage's tower." Uchiha gave her a death glare, but had enough of self control not to start the fight right away.
"Hajime!" Mizuki announced. Sasuke immediately darted towards the girl, intent to finish the match with a single hit. But to his surprise, Sachiko caught his fist, at the same time stepping onto his foot. She pulled him forward and, before he could do anything, spun around the axis passing through these two points, kneeing him in his shoulder, sending him onto the ground. Sasuke's fangirls were now screaming for Sachiko's blood: how dare this... This bitch hurt their Sasuke-sama?
"You are dead." Uchiha boy hissed, rising from the dirt. To make his point clear, he gave Sachiko a glare with his sharingan, single tomoe revolving in each eye. He darted towards her again, this time a bit faster, almost on chuunin level, but the girl dodged his fist, bending backwards. Sasuke saw in every detail what happened next, thanks to his sharingan, but still, he was too slow to do something about it: Sachiko did a stand on her hands and immediately spun around, hitting his knees from behind, again making him fall onto the ground. Rising up from the ground for the second time, Sasuke used a dirty trick, trowing sand into girls eyes, and while she tried to clear her eyes, he attacked her, landing a good punch square on her chest. Sachiko was sent flying backwards, but by some luck stopped just before she crossed the line of the circle. Seeing his chance to win the match, Sasuke tried to hit her again to send her out of the circle, but the girl jumped high into the air and landed behind his back.
"You have good eyes, but they aren't going to help you, if your body can't keep up with them." Sachiko said, elbowing Uchiha heir out of the circle. OK, now Sasuke was pissed. Scratch that, he was beyond pissed. He flashed though the set of handseals.
"Katon: goukakyuu!" He exhaled a large fireball in the girl's direction. Usually Sachiko would just sidestep such an attack: her speed allowed her to do so. Unfortunately, if she did so, fireball will continue on its way and will hit several academy students that were frozen in fear by Sasuke's jutsu. So there was only one way: as she had no time for handseals, Sachiko prayed to any and all known Gods that she'd be able to pull this technique on her will. Raising her hand she will the dust on the ground to rise into the air and form a wall on fireball's path. To her luck, it worked, though the strain was a bit more, than she anticipated; she fell on one knee, breathing heavily.
"Sachiko!" Mizuki yelled. "I clearly said that you are to use only taijutsu in this match!" The girl tried to stand up, and just barely succeeded.
"Oh, and wasn't... that fireball... a ninjutsu? Or Uchiha... don't have to follow... the rules?" White-haired chuunin found himself cornered: he couldn't make Sasuke the winner of the match now – it would be a clear favoritism and if anyone told Hokage about it, he could lose his job. But he just couldn't make this girl winner too.
"As both Sasuke and Sachiko used ninjutsu during the match, the match will be a draw." He announced. Both participants of the match hissed angrily, though for a different reasons: Sachiko because of clear favoritism Mizuki displayed and Sasuke because he lost. Lost to a clanless white-haired whore. "You two, get lost from the arena, there are several more matches there!" Chuunin yelled at them. And both knew that when he was angry, it's better to do what he says or the results won't be pretty.
"Next time we fight, I will kill you." Sasuke said to Sachiko before walking away.
***
One month before academy finals Naruto made it into Hokage's office. Through the window as the secretary wouldn't let him to come even in five meters range with the door.
"Old man!" Kyuubi jinchuuriki greeted, making Sarutobi almost knock a pile of documents from the table. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Hokage turned to the blond boy.
"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun. What brings you here today?"
"Well..." Naruto started. "There are several types of clones, right?" Sarutobi nodded: this was true. "Well... You see, I have so much chakra, that no matter what I do, I can't perform academy clone without failing the jutsu. And they don't teach or even show us other types..."
"So, basically, you want me to at least show you how to do another, more chakra-consuming, type of clones?" Sarutobi asked. Naruto nodded eagerly, making Hokage sigh. "Well... I think I can do this. I need to do exercises too, after all." Old man stood up and walked to the center of his office. "I don't think that you already know your affinity, so I won't show any elemental clones. But shadow clones might be what you need." He did a cross-shaped handseal and a copy of himself popped into the existence. "I have to warn you, Naruto, this is an A-rank ninjutsu, more, this is a kinjutsu, and for a reason. The jutsu splits the chakra evenly between you and all clones, so this easily can lead to the chakra exhaustion."
"Don't worry, old man! I promise, it won't happen!" Naruto called, trying to perform the technique. Hokage let the boy practice in his office and was really amazed, when he it correctly after almost two hours of trying, summoning three shadow clones.
'This boy is something, don't you agree with me, Minato?' Sarutobi thought as Naruto left his office.
***
Somewhere in the another plane of existence Minato was a happy man with Kushina-chan lying his right side and Mikoshi-chan on his left. Apparently, Shinihami's plan backfired and instead of killing her husband and his new lover, Kushina joined them...
"I just had a feeling that someone asked me something about my son." Minato said quietly. His girls just kissed him.
"He must be a really good boy then, right, Minato-kun?" Both said simultaneously. Then Kushina added: "After all, who is his awesome mother!" Ex-Yondaime Hokage chuckled.
"Of course, how could I forget this." And three of them started laughing.
***
"You may enter." Sarutobi said. Second later an ANBU wearing dolphin mask entered Hokage's office.
"Good evening, Hokage-sama. You wanted to see me?" Hiruzen nodded.
"Yes, yes. Dolphin, are you sure, you want to leave ANBU?"
"True. I think, I'll do better as a regular jounin." Sarutobi's eyes flashed through the document in his hands.
"Very well. If you would like, there will be a graduation from the academy in one month, and I believe, there will be many promising genins there. Do you want to try yourself as a jounin-sensei?" ANBU nodded,
"You know, Hokage-sama, I always thought that I'm better at teaching kids than anywhere else."
"As you say. So, you are now jounin of the Hidden Leaf village" Hokage said, signing a paper. "You can pull your mask off." ANBU nodded again and removed his mask, placing it onto Hokage's table and taking the paper from old man's hands. "If this is all, you are dismissed."
"Yes, thank you. Have a nice evening, Hokage-sama." Now already ex-ANBU said, before shunshining out of the Hokage's office.
That's all for now! Read and Review! Flames welcomed... as long as you explain why you are flaming.