(July 2)

(About three months prior . . .)

Naruto sat in his desk, frowning. Looks like Sakura got her way and sat next to Sasuke. Naruto wondered when she'd wake up. That Sasuke of hers was always getting in his way. Sakura praises him for it . . .

Although Naruto was strong and so was Sasuke, Naruto was plainly average as a shinobi. He would have got average grades, but he slacked off. The thing was that he was higher and lower in some areas like everyone (except Sasuke) else. He didn't know why, but he had neither riches nor poverty in anything.

He sunk down, hearing the chatter of the classroom . . . by how ever many minutes the clock passed, Iruka-sensei had not yet come in, and Naruto was getting impatient. He looked up to the board that had today's announcements on it. 'Teams . . .' thought Naruto.

He finally came back into the room. "Alright class, sorry, just had to get the list."

Naruto sat up and immediately looked cheery. Iruka smiled. All these emotions were faked, however, and Naruto was just trying to look normal now. Naruto gave him a small respectful bow.

"You guys look excited today! Well, I know we're all a little antsy, so those who think that their team will be called first, I have to warn you I'm going in a backwards order today, hah-hah . . ." said Iruka, scratching his head sheepishly. They gave furtive glances to each other with smiles. Of course Naruto was thrown a couple if glares, unfortunately. It was enough to destroy his mood which was starting to improve . . .

"Yes, well, alright. Team 10 will be Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino." he said with a nod to Ino. She blushed angrily that she wasn't with Sasuke.

"Team 8 . . . Hinata, Kiba, Shino . . ." he said with inflection, tracing his finger down the list.

"Team 7."

'This one I've been waiting for.' thought Iruka.

"Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto."

Ino and all the other girls screeched while many of the boys just sighed in relief. At least they weren't paired with Naruto or Sakura.

"Hey!" said Naruto, standing with anger. "Why do I have to be with these losers?"

Naruto didn't think. He just reacted . . . he was beyond angry . . . he hated Sakura and Sasuke . . . but it wasn't worth it.

Iruka looked shocked. He sighed, obviously noticing everyone was shocked and awed by Naruto's reaction time. He knew something always had been up with an unsettling feeling in his stomach. He always thought he tried hard and loved everybody who had forgotten him or went as far as to punish him. Sakura and Sasuke were no exception. Something was wrong . . . maybe he'd talk with him at lunch, and Iruka was not about to let an ego flip deter him from what he thought about him. "Naruto, think of it as a learning experience . . . you'll get two of our best students in this class on your team."

"Yeah-ttebayo!" said a small voiced girl for Naruto, obviously angry at hearing Sakura's name being used like that. The class laughed as Naruto immediately blushed.

Then Kiba said, "Hahahaha! Don't you think the extra weight is enough Iruka-sensei?" and the class went in an uproar.

"Think you need the extra baggage, you two? I think you need head check, all 2 and half of you." said Ino, wailing in laugher.

"Ha . . . troublesome . . . you got no balls to back it up Naruto." said Shikamaru and mostly boys sniggered.

"Stop!" said Sasuke, Sakura, and Iruka, all for different reasons. Sakura was just enraged by Ino and Sasuke was mad a shit, however Iruka . . . he was redder, angrier, and even more fuming at the jokes.

"You . . . you horrible . . ." said Iruka, tearing his ponytail out and letting his hair down.

Naruto laughed a little, but he was also sobbing. He had dealt with worse his whole entire life, and somehow it still hurt.

"Hehehe . . ." he laughed, crying uncontrollably. "You don't know me . . ."

"What do you mean? I mean, are you alright?" said Iruka, putting his hand up instinctively in a desperate to reach for his student that they just tore apart.

"You don't know me . . . ahhahaha."

His tears stopped. It didn't hurt any more.

Sasuke looked into his eyes for just a moment when Naruto turned towards him, and did a double-take. Somehow everyone's eyes were on a different part of the room, and not on his eyes. Even Sakura wasn't looking. Then Sasuke . . . when he looked back up . . . and Naruto's eyes still had those red pupils . . . That's when he got this thought ingrained into his brain . . . "Sasuke, mark my words . . . I will surpass you."

They all giggled slightly, a little drawn from the experience. The class was now very scared being around 3 psychos, so Iruka calmed himself even more, gaining composure and put his hair back in the ponytail.

"Alright, after I finish calling the teams, I need to see you Naruto." said bringing himself up.

Naruto smirked and the class giggled slightly again because they thought Naruto was being blamed for some reason.

XXX

(Naruto)

They were in the Hokage's office and many of the children had already left the school part of the Academy. Naruto had been taken into the office when the Hokage was notified, and his frown intensified.

"What's wrong." said Hiruzen. His brow furrowed strangely.

"My eyes . . . they hurt . . . I don't know why." he said. He sounded like he was seething with anger. "Maybe it's from the crying?"

Naruto knew that was a lie . . . he felt like a Kage had just hit him. They weren't looking at him in the eye anymore. That was exactly what he wanted. The actual reason to why they weren't looking was known to Naruto, but he still kept that part from them.

"Why are you acting so strange right now, Naruto?" said Iruka.

"You mean why am I so angry, right? I don't know what came over me, just acted. I'm angry . . . I'm angry . . ." he said with angst, then not carrying the thought. He was being very vague . . .

"Obviously we need to see a person to see his eyes. I think I might now what be the cause of the sudden frustration he feels . . . it's a side effect of something far deeper than I could understand. Bring in Tsunade, and I think we shall be well guarded enough after that." said Hiruzen.

The Anbu brought in the Sannin and she couldn't look into Naruto's eyes. The Anbu guards left without another word.

"For some reason something's deterring me from looking straight into them. I've only seen this once before . . ."

"We know. I'm not even able to look at them." said Hiruzen. "It's quite amazing since no one but he had this power. Just like him, right? Only I sense he'll be stronger than your brother, Tsunade."

The jig was up . . . they knew what this was, and they could tell him. That's what he felt looking into Hiruzen's eyes as he shuffled a bit.

"I'll . . . I'll let you look into them, but I'm warning you, you might go under a Genjutsu . . . you've felt it, right, Ojiji-san?" Naruto said suddenly, frowning at him as the Hokage nodded. Then they all nodded to give him the heads up . . . Iruka actually taught Genjutsu, and he wasn't worried about the Hokage . . . but he was still figuring out how this mysterious jutsu worked. It's not like he could help it . . . it was automatic. He knew that this jutsu was based off of gathering the innermost secrets of people. He got up from his chair and turned to face the three. He turned on the Sharingan eyes Sasuke saw earlier and they looked into them. Hokage was completely blank because he didn't let him in like before. Naruto couldn't quite read Tsunade for some reason because he felt that he was processing more emotions that he could muster. Iruka was actually giving him his innermost thoughts . . . he must not have noticed the Genjutsu. It felt creepy peering into Iruka, but he knew most of the thoughts already. "I figured it out . . . I knew the feeling was my Sharingan. I got the cognition upon activation."

"But how, he's an Uzumaki . . ." said Iruka.

The Sannin couldn't believe it. 'Impossible . . .' she thought, "May I ask the teacher to leave since we are about to confide information?" she glared at Iruka and that told him he needed to leave.

Hiruzen then said, threatening him, "Tell no one of this Iruka, or we will be forced to wipe your memory and make it very painful."

Iruka left quite willingly after that.

"I'll make sure Iruka's followed." said Hiruzen

"Alright, so now what?" said Naruto.

But Tsunade was in tears . . .

"Naruto . . . you realize we are related, right?" said Tsunade, walking over towards hugging the boy, "You and I share my grandfather—your great grandfather. You remind me of him . . . too . . ."

The Hokage stood up and joined in on the hug slightly, putting his hands on Tsunade's and Naruto's left and right shoulders respectively. "Sasuke . . . no, I'm sorry, I can't speak anymore of the subject since I'm still lacking everything. We believe it has something to do with your father . . . and I want you to remember . . . Naruto, remember that your life depends on keeping this secret."

He sighed then continued when they parted from each other. "Although you have obviously not received the Mokuton, there are other reasons why I say guard this with your life, because it is literally your life and everything after that will try to take it. I cannot speak anymore, Tsunade . . . what will you do?"

"I'll take him . . . I'll tell him all about my half brother . . . I will be happy to take him. What about the Uchiha?"

"No, that would be too dangerous. Shisui had a lot of enemies."

"Is . . . Shisui my father?" said Naruto finally. He decided not to ask on the other secrets.

"I'll tell you all about him, Naruto." said Tsunade, cracking a smile. "Technically, he was the family secret for a while . . ."