Chapter two

It had been seven years since Naruto's talk with the Hokage, who Naruto had started calling old man whenever it were just the two of them. Naruto still didn't know why the adults was afraid of him but that would change this afternoon, today was graduation, he would finally become a ninja and he would hold Hiruzen to his promise.

A lot had happened in the last seven years first of all Naruto had taken Hiruzen's word to mind and decided to focus on training his body and mind first and foremost rather than focus on just ninja techniques, he had also gotten quite far in his sealing art studies. He had completed the book "An introduction to the art of sealing" the book which was once in a pristine condition now had multiple notes written in it. Though as it was an introduction to the sealing arts he hadn't learned anything to complex from it, mostly how to make storage scrolls, explosive seals and some seals that could restrict a person's movements. Though Naruto didn't find them hard to learn and using what he learned from the books to make his own seals, the Hokage was impressed when he found out.

Flashback

Eight year old Naruto stood in front of the Hokage with a massive grin on his face, the reason? , The Hokage stood with a surprised expression on his face. In the Hokages hands was a sealing tag he had gotten from Naruto, which according to the boy was of his own creation, and looking at the seal he could see that it was a modified explosive seal and he could clearly see that it was Naruto's handwriting. Hiruzen scanned the seal, it was quite well made especially if you consider it was made by an eight year old, looking at said eight year old he asked "what is this seal Naruto-kun?".

To which Naruto's grin somehow grew larger and he replied "it's a smoke seal, go ahead use it" Hiruzen looked at the boy and decided he might as well give it a go knowing Naruto wouldn't give him anything dangerous, with that in mind he channeled some of his chakra into to seal. The moment he started he noticed that his office started to fill with smoke and within seconds his office was filled with enough smoke to completely blind him. "See isn't it awesome? With this seal you could make an fast escape from a stronger opponent" He heard Naruto's voice from within the smoke.

"It's quite a handy seal Naruto-kun" Hiruzen replied 'The Uzumaki blood is quite strong in him' He thought proudly. Noticing the anbu hidden in the room grow weary he decided to open a window to let the smoke out. With the smoke cleared he gave Naruto a smile and decided to give him some more books on sealing.

Present

Remembering the books he got Naruto smiled needless to say he had completely fallen in love with sealing and delved into the books he had gotten from the Hokage. Thinking back to another incident that happened when he was eight he remembered the woman who helped him get his stealth down to a satisfactory level.

Flashback

Naruto stood in a green field on one of Konoha's countless training grounds, he was trying to work on sneaking without the use of chakra by moving over different material from grass to gravel and all in between. With relative success but it still made noise and to an enemy ninja on alert that might give him away, he didn't want that. If he wanted to accomplish his goal he would need to be as silent as the wind, his goal was to become a ninja sure, that was every kids goal in Konoha. But he didn't want to become a ninja that just threw technique after technique at an enemy and hoping his would win. He wanted to take out his opponents without them even realising he was there, but at the same time be able to hold his own if he was found.

After failing to walk across gravel without a sound for the umptheened time he fell on his back 'what am I doing wrong?' he wondered while staring at the sky, watching a cloud pass by faintly remembering a certain Nara classmate and friend of his.

His view was suddenly blocked out by a shadow, tilting his head back a bit more he was greeted with the sight of a woman that looked about looked to be in her late teens. She had purple hair in a spiky ponytail that pointed up and she had brownish pupiless eyes she also had a snake tooth as a necklace, she raised an eyebrow at Naruto and asked "Training your stealth brat?" Naruto stared at her for a while and replied "yeah how'd you know?".

She gave him a teasing grin and said "i've done something similar, but I thought brats your age was more interested in ninja techniques".

"I was but the Hokage told me a ninja should train their bodies and minds first and foremost and that there were more to being a ninja than ninja techniques" Naruto said back annoyed at being called a brat.

The woman looked at the boy with a contemplating expression on her face 'interesting I wonder if he will keep doing this even after failing over and over again or if he will lose interest after a while' "keep trying brat" she said then went so sit under the shade of a tree keeping an eye on the boy.

"I will!" Naruto replied annoyed that she kept calling him brat, and went on to practice.

Present

Thinking back to that time Naruto smiled, after several days she had decided to give him some pointers which helped him considerably and he had also gotten her name Mitarashi Anko. She had given him several pointers and not just for stealth but also infiltration and assassination in general, she had become something of a teacher to him. They also spent some time with each other outside of training and had gotten to know each other quite well over the years. She had even introduced Naruto to some of her friends like Inuzuka Hana and Yuhi Kurenai, Kurenai had given him some chakra control exercises after learning of his struggles with techniques like the clone technique. It was also during one of their training sessions that Naruto had found out he was a sensor he could somehow feel other people's chakra and their location.

Thinking about Anko also made him feel weird his heart would start beating faster and he would get butterflies in his stomach. After talking to Rea about it he found out that he had a crush on her, of course there was no way he would be able to hide his crush from Anko or her friends so he got teased quite frequently about it which would leave him as a blushing mess.

Leaving memory lane Naruto looked at the watch next to his bed '5.00 am huh' he thought, rising from the bed he started dressing. Opening his closet he took out his clothes which consisted of mostly orange with some blue by his shoulder waist and feet looking next to those clothes there was a set of black clothes that he had bought for when he was sent on missions. Leaning against the side of the closet was a tanto of about 30 cm, 10 cm being the handle. Looking at the weapon he remembered how he tried to buy it on his own only to be told by the store owner he needed an parent/guardian with him.

He had tried to buy it with the money he got from Rea as an allowance, which every child at the orphanage got every month, the amount varying depending on the age of the child. Turns out Hiruzen increased the funds to the orphanage and with the increase in money Rea had decided to give the children a small amount to do with as they pleased.

Returning to his previous thoughts he remember being told by the shopkeeper that they didn't sell weapons to children, even after telling the shopkeeper that he was a ninja in training he wasn't allowed to buy weapons granted there were blunted kunai and shuriken student's could buy for practice but they were no fun. They always bounced of targets so unless you had good memory you would be hard pressed to notice if your aim had gotten better.

So after a bit of pleading with Rea she had gone with him but she had forbidden him from training using them without adult supervision or until he had graduated, which meant asking Anko, Hana or Kurenai whenever they had time and weren't out on mission. So Naruto usually ended up training with one of the three women and they usually gave him pointers on how to increase his aim too.

Taking his kunai holder and strapping it to his thigh and attaching his pouch to his waist he took a look around the room, he no longer had a roommate, Lee had moved out after he had become a ninja. Naruto sort of missed him sure he was loud and a bit weird but he trained more than anyone else to achieve his dream which made it hard to hate the guy if anything Naruto had a lot of respect for him.

After Lee had moved out Naruto had the room to himself and with only one bed in it now the room seemed a lot larger. The extra space was nice since he could now do some physical exercises in his room. In the middle of the room was a desk and above the desk was a window. On the wall was a couple of shelves with books on them, the books were about sealing, poison making and etc, things he thought would be of use for a ninja. Looking at the watch above the door he saw it was 5.30 am and decided to head to the kitchen to help Rea with breakfast like he did every morning.

Leaving his room and heading down the stairs he heard Rea moving around 'probably to start cooking breakfast' arriving at the kitchen he saw Rea start to prepare for breakfast she turned towards Naruto and greeted him and he greeted her back. Rea was now in her early 40s, she had some slight crows feet by her eyes but she still remained kind and loving towards the children in the orphanage. She stopped what she was doing to give Naruto a hug then she went back to preparing.

Naruto wasn't much of a cook but he did what he could to help ease her workload, mainly small things like squeezing oranges to make orange juice and the like.

Shortly after the other children started pouring into the kitchen and after exchanging morning greetings they started eating and as usual Rea's cooking was amazing. After breakfast Naruto prepared to head out saying bye to the other children and Rea, opening the door he headed out towards the academy.

On the way towards the academy Naruto saw Anko leaning against a building looking as if she was deep in thought "Anko-chan!" Naruto called "what are you doing here?".

Anko having heard Naruto turned towards him and gave him a smile "I'm waiting for you of course" she said while rolling her eyes "I came to wish you luck on the examinations today, Hana and Kurenai sends their wishes as well" she finished.

Naruto gave a light blush hearing her first sentence and by the time she finished talking he gave her a genuine heartfelt smile "Thank you Anko-chan I'll do my best" he replied. She decided not to tease him today despite how much she wished to, figuring it might have an effect on his examination "well I gotta hurry, Hokage-sama wanted to see me, probably another mission if it is we'll celebrate your graduation when I get back okay?" she finished while ruffling Naruto's hair.

Naruto got annoyed, he hated being treated like a kid especially by her but at the same tame he enjoyed the attention she gave him. "Okay I'll graduate for sure" he replied to her while giving a confident smile. Anko gave him a light flick on the forehead with her index finger and said "of course you will that was never in question, although if you do fail I guess I have to give you some special training" as she finished her sentence her eyes flashed dangerously and she gave a dark chuckle. As she began walking away towards the Hokage building near the mountain she waved her hand over her shoulder and bid Naruto goodbye.

"R-rig-right" was all Naruto stammer out as she walked away, the thought of Anko's Special training horrifying him. He might a large crush on the woman but she still terrified him sometimes. He decided to start heading towards the academy once again.

Arriving at the entrance to academy the large building where he had spent the majority of his life training to become a ninja, the thought of leaving it behind left him feeling a little sad. Entering the building he headed towards his classroom.

Upon arriving and sliding the door open, he was assaulted by the sound of excited children, sighing at the loud noises he took a seat next to Uchiha Sasuke one of the students he managed to befriend. Sitting down he noticed Sasuke give him a glance through the corner of his eye, "loser" Sasuke said while giving Naruto a slight nod.

"Emo" Naruto greeted back. Naruto might be friends, rivals even but ever since the Uchiha massacre Sasuke had started brooding more. Nothing to bad but he wasn't as talkative as he once was. Naruto still remembered that time, Sasuke had completely stopped talking to anyone after the incident. Naruto had figured that he might need some space but after one month of emo behaviour he had gotten tired of it. Naruto understood that it couldn't have been easy having his whole family and clan murdered in cold blood by his own brother, but drowning in negative thoughts for that long wasn't healthy either. So he had let Sasuke know he was there for him if he needed to talk which led to some words from Sasuke, "I don't need to talk I just need to getter stronger so I can kill Itachi and revenge my clan" being some of them. Eventually it devolved into a fist fight, Naruto had figured out that Sasuke was just venting his sorrow since he wasn't using his usual fighting style that he used during spars.

Although Naruto got a bit angry at being used like a punching bag he knew Sasuke needed to vent so he let him while getting a few hits in himself. After all was said and done the two boys laid on the ground panting.

Flashback

Naruto and Sasuke laid on the ground panting out of breath both of their bodies hurt "what the hell Sasuke I just want to help you" Naruto panted out between breaths "I know, I'm sorry I don't know what came over me" Sasuke replied his voice quivering. Looking over Naruto saw that he had laid his forearm over his eyes, knowing Sasuke hated showing weakness in front of others he looked around and finally said "Sasuke it's okay to cry, no ones around".

Sasuke didn't say anything he just laid on the ground but Naruto could hear light sobs coming from him "It's okay to let it out Sasuke it would be weirder if you didn't cry over the loss of your family" Naruto said "gods knows I would be bawling my eyes out if anything ever happened to Rea" he finished still regaining his breath.

Finally Sasuke talked in a choked voice "I don't know what to do Naruto I'm just so angry and frustrated" he finished while punching the ground next to him. Naruto looked at his friend sympathetically what he said earlier was true, he didn't know how he would act if Rea was murdered, crying his eyes out would be the first thing but then what? The woman is the closest thing he's ever had to a mother. Sasuke's actual mother had been murdered by her own son no less, Naruto was at a loss.

"I don't know how to help you get over your grief Sasuke" he started "but I'm here for you if you want talk or if you need a shoulder to lean on". "That's gay Naruto" Sasuke choked out in reply. Naruto frowned 'defense mechanism' he thought "I'm serious Sasuke, you're one of my best friends and I hate seeing you like this" Naruto finished while sitting up.

After a moment of silence Sasuke also sat up and looked at Naruto, his eyes were red and he had tears running down his cheeks "I know I'm sorry" he said. Naruto walked over and put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and said "If you want to talk then I'll listen but don't shut yourself in". With that they both spent the rest of that day with Sasuke letting his grief out and Naruto being a supportive presence.

Present

Thinking back to it their friendship had gotten stronger since that incident. Not seeing anything interesting going on in the classroom Naruto took out another book on sealing and starting reading. Sasuke seeing his friend take out a book look towards him then said "that's another book on sealing?".

"Yup" Naruto replied, Sasuke spoke again "I don't understand how you can make sense out of those squiggles" while looking over Naruto's shoulder. Naruto shrugged "I don't know either it just makes sense sort of like how you're with ninja techniques" he retorted to Sasuke, this was usual Sasuke being agitated that Naruto was so good at something he had no idea about while Naruto was slightly jealous of Sasuke and his ability to learn complex techniques. Hey Naruto might have given up on living the ninja life of the technique throwers but spitting out fireballs is pretty awesome. Their rivalry was always like this Sasuke getting agitated when he noticed Naruto do something new and Naruto envying Sasuke's ability to learn ninja techniques, that and Sasuke's chakra control. Naruto's chakra control wasn't bad mind you but it left much to be desired, Kurenai had done what she could going so far as to even tell Naruto about the tree walking exercise even though most people don't learn about that until after they've become genin. In terms of size tough Naruto won, if it was a competition which it wasn't.

Hearing the door slide open he saw two girls walk in one of them having pink hair and greenish eyes, the other girl had blonde hair and blueish eyes 'Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino' he thought. Ino walked up to him and Sasuke, Naruto rolled his eyes 'here we go again' he thought. Ino flashed her eyes at Naruto and asked him "Naruto could you please move so I can sit next to Sasuke?" Naruto looked at her blankly and said "No" then he shifted his eyes to sakura noticing she was avoiding his eyes and even gave a small flinch. He sighed remembering what had caused this behaviour.

Flashback

"Hey Naruto what are you doing?" Sakura asked having watched Naruto draw symbols and lines on a piece of paper "hush Sakura I'm concentrating" Naruto replied. Sakura not appreciating being told off in such a manner tried to snatch the piece of paper "hey do-" Naruto started, he had worked on a seal that would paralyze whoever it was attached to but it was still a project not a finished seal, alas he was to late the moment she grabbed it. It activated and she froze then fell over.'she must have used chakra to enhance her speed which caused the seal to activate'. Giving a worried expression he checked her over while at the same time a teacher came over "what happened here?" she asked.

Naruto busy checking over Sakura to make sure he hadn't accidentally killed a classmate, didn't pay much attention to her luckily one of his friends Nara Shikamaru spoke up for him "Naruto was working on a seal, Sakura tried to snatch it" scratching his head he spoke again "the result is as you can see" motioning with his hand to the situation at hand.

Naruto gave a small smile 'typical Shikamaru short and to the point' he thought. The teacher looked at Naruto and spoke "well" she stopped herself sealing was a dying art not many people knew about it "can you fix it?" she finished honestly she was at a loss. Naruto replied "well it was a work in progress an-" "what does that mean, you can't fix it?" the teacher interjected. Naruto grew a little nervous "give me a moment" he went back to checking over the seal. Ten minutes later with the attention of the whole class on him he finally said "I don't think I can fix this we should probably send for the Hokage" and before anyone could interrupt he hastily added "she's alive though so there's that" he started to look around nervously.

The teacher grew a little panicky and rushed of to get the Hokage she really didn't want to have a child die during class, she had only been a teacher for a short time.

Moments later the teacher came back with the Hokage who took note of the situation having already gotten a rushed version of the events from the woman that came to get him. He squatted down next to Naruto while giving him a blank look, Naruto hurriedly tried to explain himself "it wasn't my fault sh-" "I know Naruto-kun but you should have acted faster to prevent this from happening" Hiruzen interjected "I know I was just surprised" Naruto whispered out in reply.

Hiruzen started to look over the seal secretly impressed by what he saw 'giving him that book on sealing was definitely the right call, the boy is gonna go far' after looking over the seal for a while. The teacher getting more and more nervous as time went on, the Hokage rose and clapped his hands and said "honestly I'm at a bit of an loss here" before anyone could interrupt he continued "we'll get her to an hospital while I'll start working on a counter seal" looking at Naruto he continued "I'm going to want your help Naruto-kun" "of course" Naruto replied.

Present

In the end it had taken three days to come up with counter seal and after that he had gotten a stern talking to from the Hokage about being more careful when making new seals. He had also heard that Hiruzen had talked to Sakura about the consequences of interrupting a seal user when they're working.

All in all Sakura had survived so in Naruto's mind everything was fine but Sakura had grown weary of him now. He had apologized several times already 'even though it was technically her own fault'. After a bit of back and forth with Ino about who would get to sit next to Sasuke the teachers finally arrived, Ino went and sat next to Sakura who had found a seat elsewhere when she saw Naruto siting next to Sasuke.

The two teachers Umino Iruka and Mizuki were going to be in charge of their examination. Iruka one of Naruto's favorite teachers was a man in his early 20s, he had brown hair set up in a ponytail and black eyes he also had a large scar going over the bridge of his nose. Mizuki was a man in his late 20s he had white hair and light grey eyes, he was one of Naruto's least favorite teachers.

Iruka clapped his hands to get the class's attention once he was sure the ninja hopefuls were listening he started talking "today's your last day of exams" he started and before he could continue a boisterous shout was heard from one of the boys "hell yea! No more exams" with similar cheers breaking out amongst the class. Naruto smiled knowing who the first voice belonged to Inuzuka Kiba Hanas younger brother and another friend of his.

Iruka deciding to let the children have their moment of fun waited for a few minutes then he clapped his hands again, and again not getting their attention he spoke out "quiet down!" in a strong voice which managed to get everyone's attention. Letting the children settle down he continued "we will begin with a sparring exam outside, you will either go up against me or Mizuki and ninja techniques are allowed" with that everyone moved outside to a ring that had been prepared.