Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 5: Friends are hard to find
A lone figure stood in the midst of a grassy field under the night sky, gazing into the heavens. If some observer had been around, he would have taken the figure for a normal blonde child of perhaps six years of age who was known in nearby Konoha as the container of the nine-tailed fox, village pariah and occasional prankster. That impression would only last until said observer had the opportunity to look into the eyes of the figure.
In place of the normal eyes of deepest blue that the Uzumaki child sported he would have seen two solid colored orbs of the darkest black imaginable. They looked less like visual organs and more like gateways to some infinite abyss. If one had the willpower to keep looking one would perhaps notice some tiny dots of light that whirled in a complex dance in the endless depths. From the bottom of these pits an incredibly alien entity studied the world.
He was the Lord of the Starry Night, and he watched his work in satisfaction. The flow from the spring of magic he had created half a year ago was stable and slowly imbuing the landscape. Its creation had been a calculated risk, but fortunately all had panned out. The amount of power he had to channel through Naruto had posed a heavy strain on his precious son's sanity, but they had seen no alternative to the creation of this sanctuary at the earliest possible moment. He had reduced his possessions of his son's body to once a month in the aftermath to be on the safe side, but the danger was now over. Naruto's sanity was stronger than ever before and the magic supplied by the spring eased considerably on future pressure. No longer had he to completely rely on his own power that he had to cumbersomely draw from his realm on the edge of dreams, routing it around and through Naruto's consciousness before he could wield it in the waking world. He could now use a bit of his power as catalyst and take the rest from the spring. It would only work in the relative vicinity of the spring; the further away Naruto was from the sanctuary the harder it became.
In that the spring of magic behaved pretty much like a more mundane one on a completely flat plane. You had the spring itself that provided a lot of water in a constant flow. Surrounding it was a pool washed out by the pressure of the water that held a lot of volume but was ultimately finite. Outside of that a thin film of water was spreading in all directions, before it was absorbed by the ground. The sanctuary was the pool, and the magic was slowly permeating and changing the woods and meadows in its area. The colors seemed more vibrant, the woods more alive, everything was more real. At this point in time the process was gradually becoming perceptible. In the future when the effect grew stronger new unique species of plants and later animals would begin popping up in the sanctuary, perhaps even some supernatural beings like tree spirits.
The radius of usable magic had spread approximately twenty kilometers outwards and looked to stay that way. They would have to create a lot more springs and later connect them with lines of power until magic could be used in a more widespread area by humans. Konoha was solidly inside of the magic zone, meaning he could begin to teach Naruto the beginnings of sorcery. Nothing powerful, but small things that would help him in his life. In contrast to him his son would be unable to tap into the power of the spring if he left the sanctuary and would therefore need to settle for a lot less power. As they hadn't come up yet with a systematic approach to magic, most things had to be done in a rather cumbersome and energy-intensive manner until someone developed an organized system of mortal sorcery that fit this world. Come to think of it, that would probably mainly be Naruto's job.
But the most important thing was that he now had access to more power. He and his mate lived with the constant fear that some members of Akatsuki or someone completely unexpected would show up early and try to take Naruto away or kill him. The regeneration ability they had given him protected him adequately from accidents but was absolutely no good against a determined enemy. The Akatsuki would then proceed to use their ritual to try and extract the Kyuubi.
Unfortunately for them the Kyuubi as they knew it no longer existed. If they ripped out his mate via the extraction ritual they would only manage to completely obliterate their beloved Naruto's soul while injuring his mate grievously because of their close connection, but it would do absolutely nothing to him aside from giving him his freedom. Which he would immediately use to make their suffering legendary for eons to come. Not that it would do any good for their son; he would be irretrievably gone forever. His mate would eventually recover from her injuries after about a century, but they were determined to avoid such a scenario at all costs.
Now, with access to some external magic he could intervene directly in an emergency without undue risk to Naruto's sanity. There would still be trouble down the line with the villagers if he had to intervene, but it was no longer an existentialist threat to Naruto's wellbeing. If only his original plan had worked. He and his mate would be free by now and they would have found a loving family in a distant land far away from any potential trouble for Naruto who would have no longer to shoulder his fate as a jinchuuriki. Alas, the completely unforeseen attack of the caretaker on Naruto's mind had thrown everything off the tracks, and now they were both intimately bound to Naruto and saw him as their own son. And now the boy had an even grander destiny before him if he chose their path.
After some time he was finally finished with the monthly observation of the inner sanctuary. He had about an hour left before he had to end the possession and return to his realm. Delicately he placed his borrowed body on a soft bed of moss. It was time to check on the outer wards. Luckily he had succeeded with one of his other ideas and wouldn't need to drag his son's irreplaceable body around. With a bit of concentration he left the body in a newly created spectral form and took to the air on ethereal wings filled by the wind of magic. He wouldn't be able to leave the limits of the magical zone because he had to maintain a connection with the body holding the main part of his being, but everything in it was free game. The spectral form had almost no functionality as a spying tool because his perception was decidedly strange. He could perceive the normally invisible magic clearly and living things as well as chakra to a lesser degree, but sound perception and normal vision was beyond him. Meaning he could neither read notes or hidden scrolls nor was he able to eavesdrop on people. On the plus side he was incorporeal and invisible. Flying at a leisurely pace, he reached the boundary of the sanctuary.
He carefully observed the eddies created by flow of magic at the edge of the sanctuary. Two months ago he had finished the first and most important line of defense. It was now almost impossible to find the sanctuary if you didn't know where and what it was. It was by no means impenetrable, but it was a start. He would slowly add more protections until the sanctuary was reasonably safe. The next project would be the establishment of a direct connection to the sanctuary from a hidden location in Konoha to spare Naruto the strenuous monthly teleport from and to his apartment. Inspection finished, he decided to have a bit of fun for a few minutes and flew higher. His realm might appear almost indistinguishable from the real world to Naruto and his mate, but as its creator he was only too aware of its limits. Here, in the waking world, there was no feeling of confinement, and for a few minutes he was able to feel free.
Daiki's amusement was cut short as he felt a strong draw on the magic field located in distant Konoha. That was cause for concern. Even if the humans were blissfully unaware of the existence of magic, some of the more esoteric chakra using techniques were conceivably able to tap into it in roundabout ways. Especially some rituals using seals or specific types of ninjutsu were potential candidates for that to happen. Until the creation of the sanctuary, there was simply no magic around to influence things, so who knew what could happen now when some hapless mortals used a ritual that inadvertently drew some magic? One thing was for certain, it would most certainly augment whatever they were doing to a dangerous degree.
As he drew closer to the village, he could differentiate between two different sources of the draw. One was located somewhere under the Nara compound, but the draw it caused was steady and very slight, meaning investigating it could wait. The strong draw originated very obviously from the Kurama clan holdings. Most of the buildings were enveloped in a veritable maelstrom of flames made from chakra and magic, and the fire was even now spreading further. The flames seemed somehow sentient as they took the forms of monster and animals and seemed to make an effort of tracking some fleeing humans down. One specific line of flame was even zigzagging as it followed one particular shinobi. The man finally took to jumping from tree to tree, evidently hoping to escape the flames in this way. Unfortunately for him the line of fire split in two, one incinerating the tree he was standing on a moment ago while the other engulfed the tree he had jumped to. The shinobi did not survive.
The conflagration was very obviously not natural and still spreading. If not stopped soon, it could pose a threat to the village proper. Luckily the Kurama holdings were a bit isolated from the rest of the city. He had to find the origin of the flames and cut the draw before it was too late. As he neared the main building he noticed a considerable mental pressure. Whoever managed to escape the flames would be driven insane in short order. Interestingly it enabled him to sense his surroundings much better than normal. Phasing through solid walls he perceived several humans reacting to imaginary surroundings and enemies before the fire claimed them.
Finally he found the point of origin of the fire. It was apparently some sort of ritual chamber with a complicated seal array carved into the floor that was still partially active. A number of partly burned human bodies were strewn through the room. Some were still alive but obviously insane. More interesting to him were the occupants sitting in the center of the array. A monstrous semitransparent apparition was hovering in the air and screaming in agony. Torrents of flames were spreading outward from it, but not all seemed corporeal. That he could even perceive the screaming indicated that the figure was the source of the mental pressure as well. Directly underneath the phantom untouched by the fire sat a human girl of about the same age as Naruto who was holding her head and was screaming as well.
He needed more information on what was going on here, so he sent some mental probes into the still living humans. Normally he refrained from entering the minds of healthy humans because it cost him more energy than he could really afford in the current state of affairs and the affected humans would almost assuredly notice his attempts. These humans here posed no such difficulty. Their minds were shattered beyond recognition and offered no resistance. It was far more challenging to make sense of the fragmented remains of memories, but he wasn't an expert of the mind arts for nothing.
After a short while he managed to gather enough information to understand the situation. Apparently the Kurama bloodline was faltering, and had been for a long time, probably even before Konoha's founding. Most clan members couldn't access the enhanced genjutsu capabilities that it theoretically provided. The clan had tried increased inbreeding in an attempt to revive the bloodline, but that had only led to a more rapid decline. Many currently living clan members were infertile, and they had lost some key people in the last decades to a string of bad luck. The clan had long ago taken to elaborate rituals to awaken the weakening bloodline in the young members. The scene he was looking at should have been the initiation of the clan heiress, but the ritual had gone completely out of control when it tapped into the newly freed magic.
When he compared the aquired memories with his own knowledge about chakra he came to an suprising conclusion. Even if the ritual had worked without interference, it wouldn't have had the desired result. Yes, it would have strengthened the girl's capabilities in the area of genjutsu a great deal, probably even enabling her to blur the line between illusion and reality. At the same time, it would have weakened her already low physical capabilities further and damaged her mind permanently. Most likely a monstrous or psychotic second personality that would fight with the main one for control would have emerged. That was probably the semi-transparent apparition hovering in the room. Now that he knew what to look for he found a lot of earlier mental damage in all the adults present.
Apparently the Kurama didn't really know what they were doing. The used some barely understood seals in ludicrous combinations and hoped for the best. He could only compare it to randomly poking pointy sticks in someone's brain and expecting no negative effects. And they weren't even aware what they were doing to their own offspring. Fools and amateurs the lot of them. The girl's mind looked like someone had raked red-hot claws straight through it several times, and she was the least damaged. She was sitting in the proverbial eye of the storm, and aside from one older man that had apparently tried to reach her everyone else was either dead, dying or incurably insane. It seemed Konoha was about to lose a second great clan after the Senju, not that many people even remembered the Kurama.
The question was what he should do about the situation. He could simply kill the girl; that would interrupt the ritual and extinguish the fire, but it was very inelegant. There had to be a way for him to profit from the situation. He quickly calculated several scenarios in his mind. The girl was roughly the same age as Naruto, and if she survived with her health and mind intact would most certainly meet him at the academy. He could now assure that his son found a friend and ally. Perhaps there would even develop some romantic feelings later, but he wouldn't do anything to force that. His mate fantasizing about grandchildren was already enough for him, a downside of claiming the life domain. Though it would take all his remaining time this cycle and cut short the next one, it seemed a worthwhile investment.
He quickly isolated the intact parts of the girl's mind and wrested control of the fire from the apparition. Then he took control of the old man and had him carry the girl to a hermetically sealed cellar that he had seen in one of the memories. That should protect them from the fire. He proceeded to use the fire to destroy all incriminating evidence of the ritual and released the insane humans from their suffering. After that he severed forcefully the magic flow of the ritual. Immediately the mental pressure stopped, and the fire lost its supernatural properties. Now he had to solve the tricky part.
He entered the airtight shelter where the girl and old man were located. After a careful examination he decided he had to do something about the girl's bloodline. That thing was dangerously unstable. It took considerable effort, but he managed not only to repair the mind of both the girl and her uncle but twist the old bloodline into something new. The girl would no longer be able to make her illusions real, but would retain an unparalleled affinity to genjutsu illusions and gain the ability to create real sound and pictures easily via ninjutsu. Most people probably wouldn't even notice the difference until the girl was far older.
Daiki ran into a problem when he had to fix the damage from the inbreeding. He only had the access he did because of the aftereffects of the ritual. The next time he would be able to act in the real world he would be unable to further manipulate the girl's genetic makeup. Due to his tight time limit he had to take some shortcuts, meaning that the new bloodline would only be active in the girl's female descendants. Male descendants would carry an inactive form and would be able to pass it along to their children, but only the girls would be able to activate it. Additionally he brought the girl's physical abilities up to a tad below average. After leaving a few subtle compulsions to get to know Naruto in her subconsciousness, he turned to the girl's uncle. He barely had enough time to fix the worst of the man's injuries until his time ran out. The man would probably only be around for a few more years, his injuries were too grave for anything more.
He had done all he could for the girl, now he had to spend some quality time with his family. Quickly returning to Naruto's body, he teleported the boy back into his apartment and dove to the doorway anchored deep in his son's mind that led to his realm.
Naruto was standing in the halls of the academy, holding a bucket of water in each hand. He had been sent out of the classroom for 'disturbing the lecture' when the asshole seated two rows behind him had ignited a firecracker. Naturally, he had been blamed and was therefore missing another lesson. The walls were thick enough to prevent even him from eavesdropping and learning at least part of whatever the old fart in front was lecturing about. He used the free time to think about his situation.
After five months Naruto was sure: He officially hated the academy. All of the teachers he came into contact with seemed to dislike his presence or outright hate him. That fact didn't surprise Naruto, as many of them were chunin that were unfit for active duty due to crippling injuries and the Kyuubi attack had produced a lot of those. What surprised him was the degree to which they allowed it to influence their professional conduct. Their homeroom teacher was the worst of them. He was a middle-aged man named Kazuhiro Takaki who had lost his right leg in the attack. From his mutterings when the man believed himself out of earshot Naruto deduced that two of his brothers had also been killed. The teacher used the flimsiest possible excuses to punish him and sent him out of the class, thereby preventing him from witnessing the lectures. He even timed it specifically for Naruto to miss the most crucial parts of the lessons. The other teachers were somewhat better, but they too tried to make his education as unpleasant as possible. If he asked a question he was subjected to ridicule without being provided an answer, his test papers were graded much more harshly than those of his peers and some instructors even tried to teach him faulty lessons.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it because the slightly dumb persona he had created as a cover wouldn't be able to recognize that the lessons were faulty. The bastards were careful to limit themselves to forms of harassment and sabotage that could be easily explained away. The faulty taijutsu stance he was taught for example was inconspicuous enough that it could pass as an honest oversight on the instructor's part even if it would seriously hamper his balance in a battle, and the punishments had been gradually increased. They were even busy building a paper trail that painted him as a notorious troublemaker, inattentive in class and general academic underachiever. Combined with the less than stellar reports from his orphanage time it would lead even an unbiased person to the conclusion that he was a lazy mischief-maker that the teachers tried and failed to properly educate. It wasn't even a collusive effort on their part; each teacher did his little thing independently as far as Naruto was able to discover.
To top it off, none of his mostly noticeably older peers wanted to associate with him apart from some snide remarks. The adults had thoroughly poisoned them against him and his cover as low-skilled student didn't help much in the friendship department. Some of the faces he even recognized from his time in the orphanage. They were already busy with spreading rumors about him, making his social situation even more difficult. Not that any of them had enough potential to make the effort to befriend them worth his time. It may have been a bit early to judge, but Naruto was unimpressed with their potential. They were a thoroughly substandard bunch of mainly civilian, single shinobi or unknown origin. Some of them might acquire some modicum of skill and make it to a middling position if they put supreme effort into it, but most would end up either dismissed or as cannon fodder. Especially as none of them showed any particular drive to succeed. He wondered why this cycle of the academy was so overpopulated with lackluster students.
'Probably because all potential candidates, or rather their parents, are waiting for the clan heirs to start their education. After all, if your child is in the same class and manages to strike up a friendship with one of them the connection could be very valuable later in political terms. I wonder how high the bribes for the members of the academy administration have risen.' Naruto mused.
All in all, it was a colossal waste of his time. He was neither gaining friends nor getting a decent education. The question was what he could do about it. If he had been the lonely orphan of six years that everyone believed him to be, the treatment would have almost assuredly caused him to develop a habit of neglecting his education and skipping class as often as possible. Luckily, his mind was far older than his six year old body, though even he wasn't sure by how much. The time flowed irregularly at the edge of dreams, and he could only guess the amount of time he had spent there. Around six years by now was his best estimate. He wouldn't even have caught many of the deliberate falsehoods he was taught if it weren't for his parents. A part of their weekly time together was always spent with a careful examination of the week's events. They might not have the necessary shinbobi knowledge to teach him themselves, but they could spot most inconsistencies and errors.
Still, all that double-checking cut pretty severely into his time to learn other things. He needed to learn the basics of the shinobi arts, but he didn't want to neglect his magical and other studies. They were far too useful for that. After a nightly visit to the teacher's library last week he owned copies of the various instruction manuals and the entire current school curriculum. Unfortunately, these things weren't as useful as he had hoped. The more advanced subjects required the knowledge of the basics, and he wasn't able to learn the basics without spending an inordinate amount of time playing trial-and-error. Whoever had written the manuals had assumed the reader already knew the material and needed only help in teaching it. Most practical subjects at the basic level were normally taught without the help of textbooks for the students as they required the molding of chakra or physical exercises; and it was generally considered easier for a teacher to show them how it was done rather than to give the students a written description for which they lacked the correct frame of reference to understand it easily. That changed somewhat starting with the second year, but one needed to know and completely understand the stuff from the first year to properly utilize the second year books.
The shinobi library probably had detailed guides for beginners in its inventory, but Naruto wasn't allowed in there until he made genin. Neither were his skills as a burglar developed enough to stage a break-in without setting off the security measures. After all, the details of shinobi training were considered a village secret, albeit a lower-ranking one. He had already checked the civilian library under a disguise. It was possible to reconstruct the necessary lessons from the books he found there, but it would be the same time-consuming process as if he used the teaching manuals.
Now the question was what he should do. He could simply soldier on and learn what he could, it would be enough to pass the tests but his grasp of the basics would remain somewhat shaky. It would come back to haunt him later in his career when he tried his hand on more advanced stuff and it would cost him a lot of time to revisit all the material he had missed or learned incorrectly.
He could invest the time to meticulously reconstruct and double-check all the stuff he was supposed to learn in his first academy year. That would help him in respect to his shinobi career, but throw him back drastically in his other activities. In both this and the first course of action he ran the risk that the teachers would sabotage him even more drastically in later years.
Or he could focus on the fields besides his shinobi training for now, take whatever the idiot instructors actually taught him and then deliberately fail the progression tests so he would be forced to repeat the year. Even if the new set of instructors continued in the same vein as the old ones, they wouldn't botch his education in exactly the same way. If he compared the teachings it would be relatively easy to figure out the correct ones. Heck, he might even get lucky with the new teachers and get someone who didn't hate his guts.
Furthermore, he knew a lot of clan heirs were roughly the same age as him and would be entering the academy at the usual age in a year or two. If he timed it right he might be able to get into their academic cycle. His father had said that it was important for him to get to know them, and that some might even grow to be his friends.
'Right, that decides it right now. I don't want to stay friendless besides the nice ramen people and become some antisocial loner. Deliberately failing the tests it is.' he thought.
It was probably too late to do this for the upcoming set of progression tests at the end of this month as the test results of the in-semester assignments counted towards the end result. He had done badly on these assignments, but not badly enough. To lower his average score enough to repeat the semester he would have to totally bomb the progression tests. Unfortunately, if he did that badly he courted the danger of being thrown out of the academy altogether, and that simply wouldn't do. He had to achieve a low enough score to be barred from advancing, but not so low that he would be classified as hopeless and dropped from the program.
'Great, another six months scooped up with these losers. Well, it could be worse.'
In that moment, the school clock rang and the door to the classroom beside him opened. The students began to pour out, eager to get home. Of course, some of his special friends used the opportunity to barge against him, causing the buckets to clatter onto the floor and spilling their contents.
'Oh yes, how could I forget them?'
Standing before him with a smirk on his face was Haguro, self-appointed top dog of the class and incidentally nephew to Kazuhiro-sensei, and his three little followers. The boy was already almost ten years of age and towered above his classmates, using his relative physical superiority to rule over the mostly seven- and eight-year olds. In reality he was quite pathetic, repeating the first year for the third time. Naruto suspected that his uncle had pulled quite a lot of strings to keep him enrolled in the academy, because the boy was only good at boasting and being a thug to children several years his junior. He had to lay low the years before because his former, more competent classmates didn't let him get away with his bullying. Unfortunately, now that he was in Naruto's class and with his uncle as sensei to boot, he apparently believed it was his time in the sun. He had found three little helpers that Naruto remembered as bullies from the orphanage and began terrorizing the class. With the general skill level what it was nobody stood up to him. Naruto could have handled him, but that would produce questions he didn't want to answer.
"Hey midget, too weak to hold two little buckets? Here let me help you pick them up."
Haguro bent down and picked the bucket up, but instead of giving it back he simply emptied it on top of Naruto's head.
"That's for your monthly bath, loser. Come on guys, let's grab something to eat."
Outwardly calm but seething internally, Naruto picked up both buckets and was about to take them back into the classroom when a rasping voice sounded behind him.
"I hope you didn't want to leave without cleaning up your mess, Uzumaki?" asked Kazuhiro with an expression that begged him to give his teacher an excuse for punishing him further.
"No, sensei. I will clean it up immediately." Naruto answered in forcibly calm voice.
"See that you do."
With that, the teacher disappeared in direction of the teacher's lounge. Naturally, he ignored the drenched status of Naruto's wardrobe. After cleaning the floor, Naruto left as quickly as he could towards his apartment. A change of clothes and some ramen later Naruto was lying on his bed thinking.
The bullying slowly reached completely unacceptable levels, but Kazuhiro wouldn't do anything about it. Neither would the other teachers as long as Kazuhiro held his hand above his nephew. Naruto couldn't act too much out of character lest some very uncomfortable questions be asked. That ruled out simply killing the assholes or putting them openly into their place. A murder of an academy student would trigger a professional investigation, and he wasn't good enough yet to hide his tracks from competent shinobi above genin level. Besides, he wasn't sure that he was ready to kill a human. That left pranking, but he would need to maintain plausible deniability.
He would have to ask his parents for some ideas, but this would be his first pranking campaign in contrast to isolated pranks. Slowly, an evil grin spread across Naruto's face and his eyes glinted with malice. Prank them he would, and by the time he was finished with the four boys and the teacher they would need quite a lot of counseling if they ever wanted to lead a normal life again.
"Hokage-sama, Naruto Uzumaki is here as ordered." the ANBU with the rabbit mask said as he stuck his head into the room.
"Thank you Rabbit, please send him in." Sarutobi answered in a tired voice.
"Hey Old Man, you wanted to see me?" Naruto shouted as he ran into the room, bright smile on his face.
"Hello Naruto-kun. Yes, I sent for you. There are some matters of importance we have to discuss."
"Great, are you finally ready to grant me clan head status? Or promote me to genin because I'm so awesome? Or send me on a super secret mission to rescue some princess? Or…"
Sarutobi had to suppress a chuckle at the boy's antics. He wouldn't let himself become distracted from the matter on hand.
"No, I'm quite sure you know what this is about."
The old man gave the boy his best 'I am so disappointed look', but Naruto simply stared back with an innocent and slightly confused expression.
"Huh?"
The Hokage sighed. Apparently Naruto wasn't willing to make things easy, as his mask of confusion was quite good. Not enough to fool a man of his experience, but quite good nonetheless. He tapped his pipe on a high stack of papers sitting on his desk.
"These here are complaints from your teacher Takaki-san on behalf of him and his nephew. He claims harassment of the boy and three others at your hands. Now, what do you have to say for yourself?" the Hokage asked in a stern voice.
Naruto folded his arms. "I don't know what you're talking about, Old Man. I've never laid a hand on any of them outside of spars at the academy."
"Then let me refresh your memory. " He grabbed the top sheet from the stack and began to read loudly. "Three days ago Takaki-san found termites in his wooden leg. On the same day, his nephew was found hanging gagged from the top of the academy building only clad in diapers. His friend found all his undergarments drenched with itching powder. Another one loses control of his… ahem, bodily functions at random times, probably caused by some unknown poison. Yesterday a family of weasels took somehow residence in Tataki-san's teacher's locker." The Hokage looked up from his sheet of paper. "Do I need to continue? You have been blamed for all of the pranks played in the last weeks."
"You can't pin anything on me! I wasn't even near them most of the time! There are a lot of people who might have done that. Haguro and his cronies are always bullying the other students. Just last week he broke the nose of Aya after she didn't want to give him her lunch money. She went to Kazuhiro-sensei but he simply said she did it herself to slander Haguro. Several people saw it, but none of the other teachers will do anything. The following day Haguro broke her arm for telling tales about him." Naruto shouted. "And besides, nobody saw whoever did the pranks." he added in a much calmer tone.
Sarutobi considered the complaints he had read and realized the boy was right. At no point had he been seen actually perpetrating one of the deeds he was accused of, and if what the boy said was true there were plenty of other people who had a motive. He would have to look into that. Some amount of roughhousing and bullying was normal between children and even served as a training tool. But if a teacher was showing nepotism to such a degree that he overlooked serious injuries, things were getting out of hand. The Hokage was pretty sure that Naruto had done the pranks, but there was indeed no proof. Besides, he didn't really want to punish the boy; some of the pranks were quite funny. He had laughed for half an hour after seeing the stern Kazuhiro Takaki covered in pink feathers trying to get away from a pack of hounds that were all trying to hump his legs.
"Very well, you can leave for now; I will look into the matter."
"Thanks Old Man. Say, do you want to go eat some ramen with me? " Naruto said while looking at him with hopeful eyes.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but I have too much work to do. Perhaps another time."
They boy's shoulders dropped. "Okay. See you soon, Old Man."
After Naruto had left the office, the Hokage pondered who he could send to look into the situation. Normally the misbehavior of some academy students and a teacher wouldn't justify sending an ANBU, he had few enough of them at his disposal. Then an idea struck him. The ANBU Frog was currently on medical leave because of an injury and not fit for normal duty, but constantly badgering the doctors to clear him because he was bored. He could assign him to spy on the suspect children and teacher; that would get him off the back of the medics and the medics in turn would stop filing complaints. Less boredom for the ANBU, less hassle for the medics, less paperwork for him. It was light duty inside the village, and really, what could go wrong? He quickly scribbled an order and put it in his out-tray. Satisfied, he placed the stack of harassment complaints in the circular file and returned to some more important work. Now, where had he left the report on the increasing tensions between the Uchiha and the rest of the village? It would probably be best if he…
Naruto was mentally laughing as he left the Hokage tower. The old man had reacted exactly as planned and would send someone to investigate soon. All he had to do was lay low for a while until the investigation was over. If it led to the sacking of Kazuhiro-sensei he could stop with his campaign for good. If not, well, there were so many usable plants and animals in the woods with interesting effects, some of them still unknown to the ninja world at large and he had barely tapped into his trapping skills. Who knew what fun you could have with a basic bear trap, three pieces of rope, a lever, a glass of honey and some fire ants? He would have to continue playing pranks occasionally to test his skills. Heck, he could even deliberately show himself to create a pursuit scenario. All for the sake of training, of course, not because it was fun.
It was really surprising how few pranks he had to do to create his reputation; they had just to be widely visible. His favorite targets had been the civilian shopkeepers that treated him badly out of spite, but they hardly posed a challenge anymore. Kazuhiro-sensei had been a bit more difficult, but the man had let his skills decay badly. It was more difficult to keep the pranks from becoming dangerous than to hit his targets. A big prank every few months, preferably done while wearing that horrible bright orange jumpsuit he had acquired and nobody would pay him much attention when he wore his normal clothes. It would also lay the groundwork for a reputation of ingenuity, which would become useful later when he revealed more of the true scope of his abilities.
Naruto still wasn't sure what the Hokage's game was, and how much he knew about the seal's secondary functions. If he didn't know anything and was really that kindly, well-meaning grandfather-like man Naruto was wasting a lot of time by holding back and playing slightly dumb. On the other hand, if all that was an elaborate plan to mould him into a pliable tool it would be disastrous if Naruto gave any indication that he wasn't the seal-addled idiot that he would have become if not for the interference of his father. Naruto knew which of the two options he considered more likely. After all, one didn't become, and more importantly stay, the Kage of a major village by being overly sentimental and ineffective. He had no illusions that he could stand up to real shinobi that were out to kill him. Or survive a prolonged torture session with his mind intact. Heck, if Naruto was as important to Sarutobi as the man led him to believe, why didn't he offer him any help in his studies by assigning a tutor? He knew his progress in the academy was reported to him, he had seen one of the written reports on his break-in of the teacher's lounge, and another one lying on the Hokage's desk. There were enough shinobi who would do it simply because the village leader asked nicely. His grades were bad enough to justify it, and his living alone meant that there was no one he could ask for help.
Well, no sense in bitching about it further. Perhaps it was time to put more effort in the search for possible friends outside of the academy.
"You can't play ninja with us!"
The brown-haired boy was taken aback. "Why?"
"'cuz, whichever team that's got you will definitely lose! You're so slow."
He looked in the faces of the other children, but nobody spoke up in his defense. Disheartened, he turned around and left them to their game. Perhaps it would have been different if Shikamaru had been present. He knew him and Ino because their fathers were close friends, but recently the Nara boy had become increasingly lazy. It was hard to get him to do anything beside cloud watching and doing that in the long run was boring. He decided to ask his father for advice.
"…and they say that the Akimichi clan has only dumb fat asses. Everyone says that…"
"Hmm, I see." The large older man looked at his son in concern. "But Choji, you've got a kinder heart than anyone I know. There will be someone who will see that in you, and become your friend. If you meet him, treat him as your best friend, and become comrades who will trust in each other more than anything else."
Choji was reassured by these words and favored his father with a beaming smile. He would try again and find a new friend. The following day, Choji visited one of the many parks of Konoha. Unfortunately, his attempts at making friends were unsuccessful so far.
"Why would we want to play with a tub of lard like you? Get lost."
His shoulders sagging, he left the other children to their game and was already on his way home when something completely unexpected happened.
"Hello, do you want to play with me?"
Choji looked up in surprise and blinked. Before him stood a boy with bright blond hair and whisker marks on his cheeks who looked at him expectantly. He held a leather ball in his hands and waited patiently for Choji to answer.
"Um, sure. My name is Choji Akimichi, who're you?"
"That's great; nobody else wants to play with me. Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you."
Choji instantly liked the blond boy. He was friendly, energetic and didn't hold it against Choji when he was too slow to catch the ball. After two hours of playing in a private corner of the park Choji was exhausted but very happy to have found a friend.
"I'm done for. How about we get something to eat? There are several food stands close by." Choji said.
"There's no need, I've brought lunch with me. We can share if you like."
Now Choji was in a quandary. He didn't believe Naruto was familiar with the amounts an Akimichi considered sufficient food and he didn't want to eat all of Naruto's lunch, but it would be impolite to refuse. If he ended up eating too much, he would simply have to pay for additional food from the vendors. "I'd like that, thanks."
"No problem, I've more than enough with me. Wait a moment."
Naruto climbed a nearby tree and returned a few seconds later with a basket full of food, the amount of which would make every Akimichi proud. Cold duck, several pastries and even a simple cake. The taste wasn't entirely up to his usual fare, but quite good nonetheless. After all, there were few cooks better than his mother and other clansmen.
"That was quite good, thanks for sharing."
"Thanks, I cooked it myself."
Now Choji was truly surprised. A boy of roughly his own age had cooked all this? "Wow, that's impressive. Did you learn that from your parents?"
Naruto's face fell for a moment before he resumed his happy expression. "No, I learned it all by myself. My parents died long ago, I've never known them."
"Oh, sorry to have brought that up."
Naruto dismissed his concerns. "You couldn't have known. How's it like to grow up with a large family? I heard the Akimichi are one of the largest clans." he asked with a slightly wistful expression.
They spent the afternoon chatting amicably. Choji told of his life as part of one of Konoha's great clans and Naruto regaled him with tales of his exploits in the academy.
"Wow, you're already an academy student, that's great. How do you like it?"
Naruto scowled. "The shinobi training is great, but the teachers? It's like they try to make me fail. I don't think I'll make the next grade this year. On the positive side, if I repeat the year the kids should be more my age."
"Why would the teachers do that?" Choji asked in astonishment.
"I don't know why, but all the adults in the village either ignore or hate me, and they tell their children to stay away from me. You're the first one who actually played with me." Naruto looked at him hopefully. "Would you like to be my friend?" he asked and held out his hand.
Choji remembered what his father had told him and shook the offered hand. "Sure, I'd like that."
They continued talking for a while and Choji learned that Naruto's greatest wish was to found a clan so that he could have a large family and would never be alone. It was then that Choji realized for the first time how great a treasure his family was. Even if the other children didn't want to play with him, there were always his parents or some of his countless uncles, aunts and cousins to turn to. Shikamaru and Ino were the same, they had both large families. Naruto had no one. He could hardly imagine such a life. That only hardened his resolve to be the best friend possible for the blond boy.
All too soon it became evening, and Choji had to return home. He arranged a meeting with Naruto in one week at the same spot. Choji would have liked it sooner, but Naruto said he was busy with the academy. He couldn't wait what his father would say when he told him of his new best friend.
Naruto could hardly believe his luck. He had tried for almost two weeks to befriend someone, and the first one to accept his offer of friendship was the Akimichi clan heir of all people. Naruto liked the boy and felt already the beginnings of a genuine friendship. It was advantageous that Choji would be politically connected later and had good potential as a shinobi. He would have tried to befriend him further regardless of that, people he could possibly call friend were precious in every case, but it was a nice bonus.
The ball game had been fun, and it had served for Naruto to get a good impression of Choji's general physical skills while the following conversation allowed him some insights into the boy's mind. He liked what he found there. If he could gain Choji's friendship he would get an ally that would stand with him no matter what. Naruto intended to reciprocate. He would do his utmost to be a good friend to Choji.
The only question remaining was if Choji's parents would allow him to pursue this friendship.
Choza Akimichi listened good-naturedly to his son telling him of his day in the park. Apparently he had made a new friend. He hadn't expected his talk to Choji yesterday to show results quite so soon. Only listening with half an ear, he became suddenly alert when he heard the name of his son's new friend.
Naruto Uzumaki. The jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko and perhaps last person the Akimichi clan head wanted anywhere near his family. A demon container was dangerous, and he had pushed for the boy to be raised in a remote location far from the village. His attempts had been to no avail, the Sandaime had gotten his way to give the boy a 'normal' upbringing. What idiot counted being raised in an orphanage and confronted with the villagers' animosity normal he would never know. From what he gathered from Choji's still ongoing tale the boy had been extremely lonely and was desperate for friendship.
It was time for him to make a decision. He could forbid Choji from meeting Naruto ever again, but the consequences might prove disastrous. After his speech yesterday it would appear hypocritical to the extreme if he did that, especially because he couldn't explain his reasoning to his son. The Sandaime's law made that impossible. Choza knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he belied his own words and principles in such a way. Even worse, he might lose the respect of his own son.
'Damn my luck. Why had it to be the jinchuuriki of all people that my son wants to befriend? If it had been Shikaku's boy things would have been so much easier.'
"… wanted to ask if I could invite Naruto the week after next?"
This was it, his moment of decision. "Sure Choji, whenever your little friend has time."
Choza only hoped his choice wouldn't cost his family dearly.
Naruto was bored. Naruto was very bored. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and ended the attempts to feel and direct his chakra. The boy left the sitting position to stretch himself before he lay down on the grass. Cloud watching was definitely more interesting than chakra exercises.
"Already slacking off, kit? What would your father say when he learns about it?" a voice sounded from behind him.
Naruto jumped up and spun around to see his mother standing behind him with an amused expression.
"But mom, it's soooo boring. Why do I have to do so much training to make my control better?" he asked in a whiny voice.
Youko studied Naruto for a few moments. "It seems a lesson is required. Come along, I show you why you need to learn control."
"Okay." Naruto said before following his mother. The day had just gotten a lot better, not only was he spared from the exercises but his mother was giving him a lesson. The lessons were always interesting, even if he didn't believe that there was anything to justify continuing those boring exercises with his current level of proficiency.
After about ten minutes of walking they came upon a strange arrangement. Three rows of ten granite blocks each were standing on the grassy field, at least ten meters space between each row. They took a position before the first block of the first row so that the remaining blocks of the row were obscured by the first one.
"The first example will be an application of nearly uncontrolled amount of power. Please step a bit back." Youko said.
After Naruto complied, his mother threw her arms forward. A veritable stream of white-hot fire flew from her hands and hit the stone, creating clouds of smoke and dust. Arcs of fire swerved widely and hit everything in a wide area. A few seconds later Youko stopped the power flow and let the dust settle.
"Examine carefully the results of uncontrolled power. When you are finished we move on to the next row."
Naruto approached the stone and took careful note of the attack's effects. The fire had carved deep gouges and holes into the hard rock, but none of the blocks had been destroyed. The second and third blocks in the row had taken some damage from the arcing fire, but the rest was completely intact. All around the row small trenches and burned vegetation were visible where the fire had wasted itself by hitting nothing but earth. After he thought he had seen enough Naruto returned to his mother's side who had moved to the second row of blocks.
"Now I will use the same amount of power, but this time much more controlled. That's roughly your relative level of control."
She pointed at the first stone and once again a stream of fire shot forward. This time it was compressed into a narrow beam, with hardly any flames leaving the main mass. With a crackling sound it hit the first stone and seemed to disappear there, but a series of cracks was clearly audible. The attack ended, and Naruto could see it had neatly pierced all of the stones in the row leaving fist-sized holes in its wake. The still smoldering holes were somewhat ragged but clearly aligned in a straight line, with cracks spreading out from each hole. One of the blocks had completely collapsed into rubble. They moved to the third set of stones after Youko believed Naruto had seen enough.
"This time I will use still more control and knowledge of the target." Youko explained.
She pointed a single finger at the final row and a bright pencil-thick beam shot out. The first block completely shattered upon contact with the beam, obscuring the rest of the row in a cloud of dust. Repeated explosions left few doubts about the fate of the rest of the blocks. After the dust had settled Naruto saw that all blocks had shattered into small fragments.
Naruto turned to his mother with stars in his eyes. "You're so cool, mom."
Youko smiled. "I know, but I prefer to be considered hot. Anyway, these are the benefits of control and knowledge. Knowledge to know where to hit to do the most damage, and control to actually hit the spot with sufficient force to make use of the weakness. There are occasions when overwhelming power is enough or appropriate, but it never hurts to have more options as I have learned to my chagrin. You can apply that lesson to almost anything. This is why we have you do so much control exercises. You will wield a great deal of power, more than you can easily control. It will help you enormously to develop your control early. Now, do you want to be a moron who throws a gigantic amount of power around to accomplish little or someone intelligent who has the same power but uses it efficiently?"
Naruto didn't even have to consider it, after that demonstration it was blatantly obvious which way was better.
"I want to learn control." His expression changed to a pout. "But the control exercises are still so booooring."
"I know, I know. How about you continue the exercises for an hour, after that I take you hunting into the woods?"
Naruto's face lit up considerably. "Sure thing, mom. Fox or human?"
Youko pondered for a moment. "Human I think. There are some ways to lay traps that I want to show you, as well as how to find some roots that can be used to create dye."
"Yay!"
'A touch more power.' he thought before infusing the lowest amount of magic he could grasp into the construct. His efforts seemed successful as he could feel the structure expanding, but he still needed to maintain a tight grasp lest it collapsed ineffectually.
'Keep the structure steady…steady…now!' He felt the structure reach the planned spread and pulled on the connections he still maintained to the construct before him. As expected the connections were severed by this action, but the tug they conveyed to the structure was enough to cause it to fold in a complicated pattern and assume its final shape.
Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the small ball of dim white light that was floating in the air before him. Slowly his expression transformed into a broad grin.
"Yes, I did it! I finally did it!" he shouted while jumping into the air. "I finally made it work. DAD! MOM! Come here, you have to see it."
A few moments later his parents appeared from the house. One look at the floating light brought a smile to their lips.
"Congratulations, kit. This is a very important step for you." his mother said while giving him a hug.
"Indeed. Your first piece of actual working magic is a cause for celebration." Daiki remarked before examining the hovering ball closely. "You have a long way to go, son, but now we all know you can do it."
"Thanks. Now that I pulled it off for the first time it should get easier. I will be a grand sorcerer in no time!"
In his excitement he completely missed the knowing glance as well as the smirk his parents exchanged.
When he left the realm of his parents several days later Naruto was very happy due to several reasons. The most important one were his advances with magic. It was incredible difficult to make headway there because he had to think in more than the normal three dimensions when he tried to directly weave magic into something with an actual effect. Youko and Daiki didn't have the same problems because their way of thinking was decidedly non-human.
Naruto had to find a way to weave and cast magic that was more accessible to a human mind. It was a learning experience for all of them how he could properly conceptualize what he wanted to do and bring about the proper effect. He had to use magic from his own personal reservoir to gather and shape more magic from the surroundings. At this point things got tricky. When his parents did it they interacted in an intimate way with the magic that caused it to do pretty much what they wanted. For him it wasn't so easy, first he had to condense the magic into strands that he could then weave into complex patterns that could even become multi-dimensional. These patterns made up the building blocks he could combine for actual effects. At least he thought of the entire process like that, he had no idea if that was what he really did or if it was only a crutch for his mind.
It was pretty much trial and error by this point because they didn't know what patterns did what. His parents often had some idea how something could possibly work, but they couldn't test it themselves because when they tried their own magic made it automatically work in a way Naruto couldn't replicate. That meant he had to do the testing himself.
Once they found a way to do a particular thing they could package the individual steps into a spell which Naruto could use without too much problems. The only difficulty was that the more defined and therefore easy to use the spell was the more inflexible it became. For example, they now knew a way for him to create primitive real illusions, meaning actual sources of light without a physical body instead of the mind-affecting stuff ninja usually called illusions. They could ingrain things like the color of the light, size and relative position to the user into the spell, but that would require a new one for every little variation. If they left the color or other things modifiable the spell required more concentration and in-depth knowledge of the mechanics behind the casting to work.
Instead of assembling an array of specific spells they tried to explore these mechanics. In effect his father wanted to identify the proper building blocks that would make the assembly of arbitrary spells possible. If they reached that level Daiki could begin translating spells he had encountered in different worlds to a form that would work in Naruto's world. It was a daunting task; normally the development of a useable system of magic took generations and left quite a few people with broken minds behind.
In some regards magic was much like chakra. In their first academy year the students learned to mould chakra in specific ways and intimately associate a specific pattern with a specific hand seal until they could do it instinctively. When they later used a jutsu the hand sign-coded patterns would do most of the molding without requiring the conscious attention of the user. Oh, there would still be a lot of molding to do consciously to make it work, but the hand signs created the figurative bones of the jutsu. That was why it often wasn't simply enough to repeat the hand signs to replicate a jutsu, you needed to know what you were supposed to be doing.
This was the primary reason why the Uchiha were such a feared clan. With their eyes they could see and memorize the hand signs a well as the chakra flow of a technique. There still existed limits to their copying skills, for example they had problems with techniques that required physical prerequisites, further knowledge to properly utilize the effect or when the user they tried to copy was good enough to skip some hand signs, but it was a fearsome ability nonetheless.
The second reason for his happiness was his developing friendship with Choji. He met with the chubby boy as often as he had time, and it was simply great. Naruto had even visited Choji's family, and they seemed to at least accept his presence. They had a great deal of fun together, and Naruto was really glad to have found a friend. Choji had even celebrated Naruto's seventh birthday with him, a completely new experience in the real world.
Thirdly, Kazuhio-sensei had officially retired last week because of health concerns, but unofficially it had been discovered that he had used blackmail to cover up quite a lot of his nephew's escapades, some of which were crimes. Both uncle and nephew had been removed from the academy, and if Naruto was any judge at least Kazuhiro would soon suffer an 'accident' arranged by one of his victims while Haguro had been shipped off to somewhere else. Possibly to an asylum, the boy had become quite twitchy at the end of Naruto's pranking campaign. His three helpers where in a similar state and were lying low for now.
The new teacher seemed to dislike Naruto a little less, but it would soon be moot either way. The exams were coming up, and Naruto had already ensured that he would have to repeat the year. In a little more than a month he would meet his new peers. Sadly Choji would only join the academy half a year later, but perhaps Naruto could arrange to be relegated to his friend's class at some point in the future.
Yakumo Kurama was nervous and excited at the same time. Today would be her first day at the academy, and she really wanted to be a kunoichi. She had gotten up extra early and was now waiting for her uncle Unkai to get ready.
The last year had been difficult for both of them as they came to grips with the fact that their clan was no more. Yakumo herself didn't remember what exactly had happened; only that she was on the way to her initiation ceremony into the clan when suddenly a fire broke out. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the arms of her uncle in a shelter with the door sealed. Unkai was badly hurt, but he calmed her down and held her close until help arrived.
It had taken hours before the rescue forces had dug them out of the shelter. Once outside, they had seen that the clan holdings had been completely destroyed and only ashes remained of the compound. The following days had been a blur; the only memorable event had been the mourning ceremony for her dead clansmen. That was when it really sunk in that she was alone in the world apart from her uncle.
The old man had been badly hurt in the fire and would never really recover. He had only limited use of his left arm and needed a walking stick to move longer distances. Additionally he often suffered from agonizing coughing fits that got slowly worse with time. Aside from comforting Yakumo he had spent the last months teaching her about the clan's history and writing down what he knew of the clan's techniques. All their belongings had been destroyed in the fire, meaning that all the secret techniques exclusive to the main branch had been lost, as had all the clan rituals. Her uncle feared that he didn't have much time left and did what he could to teach her everything she needed to know.
Finally Unkai was ready to leave the house. Before he opened the door he gave a few last pieces of advice.
"Yakumo-chan, today is very important for you. In the academy you will meet many people who don't want to invest the necessary effort to become serious shinobi because they see it more as an adventure. Don't let them mislead you to neglect your training. Try to find some friends who have a good determination, their grades aren't that important. Be careful with people that only want to befriend you because of our vote in the council. Still, you need to make good connections if we want to have any hope of resurrecting our clan. Your parents would want you to become a great kunoichi who can bring honor to the clan. Give always your best."
She nodded resolutely. "I won't disappoint you, uncle. Everyone will recognize our clan."
After the short conversation they left the small house that was their home since the fire. Most of their fortune had been destroyed, and they had to sell their land to cover outstanding debts. They had even had to pledge their council vote to a rich civilian for six years in exchange for waiving some large debts they couldn't cover with their money. The remaining funds sufficed to buy the small house and see Yakumo through her academy years, but after that she would have to earn her own money.
A short walk later they arrived on the square before the academy which was slowly filling up.
"Look at them Yakumo-chan, all these civilians whose children only play at being ninja. It's despicable that such riffraff are even allowed to visit the academy. The only true ninja originate from the clans with a long history."
She had her own opinion. If the child of some civilians wanted to be a ninja, why not? After all, the person who became the first ninja couldn't have had ninja parents himself. Despite these thoughts Yakumo kept her mouth shut. Her uncle was set in the way of tradition, and she didn't want to start an argument on her great day.
The director of the academy and the Hokage gave some very inspiring speeches before they were separated and their assigned teacher led them to an empty classroom. As soon as they had all been seated the teacher began with a roll call. Soon it was her turn, and she nervously stood up.
"Hello everyone, my name is Yakumo Kurama and I want to become a great kunoichi to continue the traditions of my clan."
Relieved to have passed the introduction she sat back down and tried to calm down. She really wasn't used to the presence of so many other children; she had hardly left the presence of her uncle in the last months. Yakumo listened to the introductions carefully, trying to learn which of the children showed genuine motivation. No one really stood out until finally a blond kid spoke up.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and my goal is forming my own clan!"
What impressed Yakumo weren't the words, but the conviction behind them. There were always those that hoped to establish a new clan, but it was rare for a boy her age to be so determined. He would bear watching.
Naruto was sitting on a swing and observed his classmates leaving the academy for the day. The new semester had only begun two weeks ago, and he could already say that it looked to be much better than his last one. Their homeroom teacher seemed only to intensely dislike his presence instead of hating him outright, and he might actually get to learn something. His class even seemed to be mercifully free of bullies.
On the matter of his classmates, they were much more promising than the last bunch, not that it was possible to be much worse. Naruto hadn't tried to befriend anyone yet; he preferred to observe them for a time before making his move. Most appeared to be a good average potential-wise, with the positive exception of the Kurama heiress. Under her cheerful exterior she seemed to be watching everyone else with a calculating mindset that reminded him of his own, even if he was much better at hiding it.
Being academy students, they had access to some of the training grounds and Naruto used that privilege liberally. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one at the current time. The others were content to leave their ninja training to the academy hours and acted pretty much like civilians the rest of the time, but Naruto knew it was not enough. It was obvious that the classroom lessons only served to lay the groundwork and familiarize them with the general principles, but they had to actively train to become truly proficient. Every day he spent one hour after the academy closed training his 'official' skills before heading home to hone his… less official skills.
'Perhaps it is too early to expect such seriousness from the others. I only hope they get better in time.'
He stood from his seat and was about to leave when a female voice caused him to come to an abrupt halt.
"Hi there Naruto! Where are you going?"
Naruto looked around to see Yakumo Kurama standing behind him. The brown-eyed and brown-haired girl was looking at him without the hostility he usually expected to see and was waiting patiently for him to answer.
'Huh, she made the first move, I wasn't expecting that. Let's see where this goes.'
"Hello Yakumo. I was about to head to the training grounds to do a bit of additional training."
"Do you mind if I join you? My uncle says I have to train hard, but doing it alone is boring."
"Sure, I would be happy to have you as my training partner."
Half an hour of intensive training later, Yakumo was completely winded while Naruto was hardly sweating.
"How do you manage that?" she wheezed.
"I have a lot of stamina and an additional year at the academy." Naruto answered shrugging. "Just rest a bit while I finish my workout."
After Naruto finished his exercises Yakumo was recovered enough to join him in basic practices of kunai and shuriken throwing. It was obvious that Yakumo had already some former training, but not as much as Naruto would have expected from a prospective kunoichi of a great clan. He asked Yakumo about it, and her answer was definitely interesting.
"You're right, I was trained as long as I can remember, but it wasn't so much physical training. My clan specializes in genjutsu, we rarely engage in direct combat."
Naruto shook his head. "That may be so, but what if you encounter an enemy who is resistant to genjutsu? Or what happens if there are too many, you don't have enough time to set it up, or when you are low on chakra?"
Yakumo looked startled. "I… don't know. I guess I never really thought about it."
"Don't sweat it. We're only at the start of our training, and you'll have a lot of time to improve. I thought about it a lot last year, and I think most shinobi tend to overspecialize too much. You should always have some additional skill sets you can use as a fallback position when your favored style proves ineffective. It's still too early in our career to know what we'll be doing later, but it is something to keep in mind."
The girl giggled. "You sound so much like an adult when you say it like that, Naruto-kun."
'Naruto-kun already? That was quick.'
"Well, I've been living on my own for two years now. There's nobody who really looks out for me, so I have to do it myself. It's better to think beforehand than to make avoidable mistakes."
Yakumo nodded solemnly. "I understand. I'm the same way since my clan perished, even if I still have my uncle. He's often ill, and I have to do more and more by myself. If you want to realize your dream you need that forethought."
"You aren't going to make fun of me because I want to found my own clan?"
"Why should I? It is a lofty goal, but I'm sure it is possible. After all, a clan has to begin somewhere." she assured him.
Naruto favored Yakumo with a bright smile. "Well, Yakumo-chan, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship."