a/n- Time for chapter 7!

But, before we start, I would like to tell my dear readers who are tired of NaruHina pairings that this is not a romance fic, so no dating, kissing etc. until, maybe, much later, like shippuuden time frame, and that is, if I get there. (No, I am not going to abandon this fic, but I seriously have no idea when I will end this). So, relax, no need to get too worked up over that. I am more into humour and action and stuff like that. Also, you can expect a time skip soon...

Anyway, let's get on with the chapter!

Konoha's Orange Maelstrom

Chapter 7

It was yet another beautiful morning for the people of Konohagakure no Sato. They were walking through the streets, to get to their workplace for yet another day of work, while the shinobi population on duty were already keeping watch over their precious village, and at the same time, the kids training to be the next generation of shinobi were on their way to the academy.

Meanwhile, in a certain apartment, Naruto was having a hard time getting up from bed, mainly because he forgot to set the alarm the previous night, and, he went to sleep much later than usual, thinking about what to do with the situation he was in.

Of course, it was cool to know that somebody actually had a crush on him in a village where a lot of the people hate him because of the Bijuu sealed within him. However, he also didn't know what to do, as this kind of situation was totally new to him. Initially, he thought about doing what Sasuke did, but then he scratched that thought. He was never going to turn emo like the Uchiha. And so, he had to spend a lot of time thinking about what to do about this before going to bed, and he did decide what to do before going to sleep- Act as if nothing happened, and observe what Hinata does. If things kept on going as it was, he wouldn't mess up anything, right?

As of now, a totally out-of-the-loop Naruto was slowly getting up from bed, sitting at the edge of his bed, yawning and stretching his arms.

That was when he noticed what the time was on his clock.

"Argh! Why didn't the alarm ring!" Naruto shouted as he got off his bed and began preparing his breakfast. He took out his cup-ramen, poured some hot water in, and while the ramen was cooking, he brushed and dressed. He grabbed his cup-ramen and the chopsticks that came with it, and he was out of his apartment, locked his door with just one hand, and he was off, literally eating on the go.

On his way to the academy, he turned quite a few heads, as many were curious of the blonde that accomplished the miraculous task of simultaneously eating ramen and running. In time, Teuchi (aka Mr. Ramen guy) would here of this and would congratulate Naruto on accomplishing the task he himself had tried a lot and failed miserably.

However, Naruto was running really late. He was never going to make it on time, with just a minute before academy started. By the time he reached the academy gates, his cup of ramen was long finished, but he had no time to find a trash can, so, he did what anyone would do- he ran with the cup and chopsticks still held in his hands.

He ran through corridors at the speed of a flying kunai and soon, his classroom's door was in sight. He was thinking up excuses to tell Iruka-sensei, when a devious idea came into his mind-

'Ha! Why didn't I think of this before! I will Kawarimi with Sasuke-teme! If I am lucky, I can make Iruka-sensei believe that it was Sasuke that was late, and not me! I am a genius dattebayo!' Naruto thought as he proceeded to go through the hand seals for performing his insanely stupid plan. One does not think up good ideas when you are in a hurry like Naruto was.

By the time he completed the series of hand seals he was already at the door of his classroom. Naruto then performed the Kawarimi no Jutsu with Sasuke and Naruto was instantly substituted into the classroom.

When Naruto gained his bearings, he noticed a big problem- he was expecting to be seated in Sasuke's place, but instead, he was now standing in front of all of his classmates, who had their mouths wide open, staring in surprise (yes, even Sasuke was gaping)... and he was standing where Iruka usually stood...

"What the hell!" Naruto heard a shout from the other side of the classroom door.

There was only one thing going through Naruto's mind now-

'Shit!'

A bit later, Naruto was standing at the back of the class, inches away from the wall, with a face that had boredom written all over it, and a leaf stuck to his head with his chakra. Every time the leaf fell from his head, he had to run an extra round around the academy training grounds. The punishment for coming late at the academy, contrary to the belief of many pupils, was not actually punishment. The 'punishment' is actually training for improving chakra control and physique. So, the punishment actually helped in making a student a better shinobi when they grew up.

However, Naruto was going through sheer boredom now... It was not because of the leaf he had to hold to his forehead, which was child's play for him now... It was because of Iruka's boring lecture... Naruto was getting worried that he might fall asleep while standing, something which is not unheard of in the shinobi world, but still, rare.

Naruto was just about to slip into the wonderful land of dreams, when he heard that Iruka's voice had raised a bit. He shook off his sleep and paid attention to what Iruka said.

"...Over. Now follow me for our taijutsu sparring session. And, Naruto, your punishment is over." Iruka said while smiling- "I honestly didn't expect you to keep that leaf stuck to your forehead without letting it fall even once! Looks like your chakra control is improving!"

"Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted while grinning one of his trademark 'foxy' grins.

Iruka smiled back and said to the whole class- "OK, now follow me for our sparring session."

Naruto and all of his classmates followed Iruka out of class. Naruto couldn't help but grin when he thought of the sparring session.

'I really hope that I get matched up with teme. I am totally gonna kick his ass!'

Naruto was really disappointed when he found out who he was matched up with. He was standing in the sparring ground, making the seal of confrontation with his right hand, and in front of him was his opponent- wearing a grey shirt with the Nara symbol on it, slouching, and half-heartedly making the same seal with his right hand- Nara Shikamaru, AKA the lazy ass.

Naruto couldn't believe that he was matched up against the lazy ass- the guy was so lazy, that he didn't even complete his tests, writing just enough to pass, as he thought that the whole thing was 'troublesome'.

Naruto was now waiting for Iruka to give the signal to start, when the Nara said-

"Iruka-sensei, why can't I just give up? It will save me from a painful punch!"

Naruto facepalmed. Of course, he should have expected the Nara to say that. He said this before every spar began, but Iruka would never let him leave without a fight. And the same thing happened this time.

Iruka shouted out- "How many times do I have to tell you that you can't give up a spar! Don't you get tired asking me every time?!"

"Actually, I do, but it is always worth a try. The amount of energy I waste with talking is nothing compared to the pain I have to go through after these troublesome spars." Shikamaru replied, in his usual, bored-as-hell tone.

"Ah, just hurry up and fight already!" Iruka frustratedly yelled.

On hearing this, Naruto wasted no time in running up to poor old Shika, and delivering a stellar uppercut to his lower jaw.

Shikamaru was sent flying through the air, and it was a scene to behold- for a split second, it looked as if he was floating in the air. When Shikamaru landed, he was about 5 feet away from where he started, and he laid there, on his back, with his arms and legs spread out, watching the clouds.

'The clouds are so lucky... They don't have to go through troublesome stuff like this... How I wish I were a cloud, floating without worrying about anything...'

Shikamaru's cloud watching was interrupted by Iruka's voice-

"Shikamaru, why don't you at least try to fight? We are holding these sparring sessions so that everyone can improve their taijutsu. If you laze around now, you will find life as a shinobi very difficult! Now don't just lay there, get up! We need to start the next spar!"

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru grumbled as he got up and dusted off the dirt on his clothes, and then walked up to Naruto, while rubbing his lower jaw. Naruto sure knew how to punch!

Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. Even though he won, he didn't feel too happy. This win was as easy as stealing candy from kids! As Shikamaru approached him, he held out his right hand, and Shikamaru did the same, to make the seal of reconciliation.

They then joined the rest of the class to watch the upcoming spars among their classmates.

Hours later, Naruto was back at home from the academy. He was now waiting for his cup-ramen to cook, as he sat on his chair to eat. He was not feeling tired at all, and he wanted to train, but he decided it would be best if he asked Kurama what to do first. But, before he did that, he needed to have a snack of cup-ramen.

After the ramen cooked, Naruto slowly ate the ramen with his chopsticks. Some things in life are best enjoyed when you do it slowly. After Naruto had finished eating, he drank a glass of water, and he laid down on his bed and closed his eyes to get to Kurama.

About a minute later, he was looking at an amused Kurama's face, smirking/smiling at Naruto.

"So you have come to me to ask me what you should train in next, right?"

"Yeah, I think that is quite obvious. I need to get my training done y'know. So, tell me, what should I do now?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Hmm... Let me see... I think you should work on your Kawarimi... You messed up big time this morning..." Kurama said, trying to suppress a laugh.

"Hey! No need to laugh at me! Everybody makes mistakes! Besides, I did it perfectly last week during my fight with jiji! How did I get it right then?"

"I don't really know about that..." Kurama said as he smothered all traces of his laughter. "... But I have come up with two reasons from my observations. Number one, you were running when you tried to do the Kawarimi this morning, while you were standing still when you did it last week. And, Number two, plain luck. I think both reasons have contributed to your perfect Kawarimi last week..."

Naruto felt a bit insulted when Kurama told him reason 2, but he knew that it was true. Naruto had often Kawarimied with the wrong object when he practiced the Jutsu, but he thought that it was a problem of the past ever since his fight with the Hokage... until today... It seems Naruto had a bit of work to do...

"Ah, and Naruto, there are a few things I must tell you before I forget to do so..." Kurama said as he switched to lecture mode- "Based on my observations throughout my life, I know a few things about the Kawarimi. I am telling you this only because I think you have some potential with this particular Jutsu. As the Hokage told you, the chakra cost of performing the Kawarimi increases with the size of the object... what he didn't tell you was that, when the object gets smaller than a certain size, which is, smaller than the size of those logs of wood you usually practice with, the chakra cost increases as well. It is possible to Kawarimi with things as small as a Kunai, but not smaller than that, so, no shuriken Kawarimi. I would say that, it takes about as much chakra to Kawarimi with a regular kunai as much as it takes to Kawarimi with... umm... your bed at the same distance. I don't know if this is accurate, but, with your current reserves and chakra control, I think you can do that about 10 times before chakra exhaustion sets in. Also, if the body you want to Kawarimi with has more chakra, you have to expend more chakra to perform the Kawarimi. Moving on, you should also remember that most kekkai ninjutsu (barrier techniques) have a mechanism to prevent a Kawarimi user from bypassing the barrier. Only jikukan ninjutsu (space-time) ninjutsu can bypass barriers, and I don't think you will learn any of those any time soon..."

Naruto was listening eagerly to Kurama's lecture. Whenever it is something to do with training, Naruto finds lectures interesting. Kurama continued his lecture-

"... Now, coming to your training, what you should be working should be to first perfect your Kawarimi, then reduce the number of seals required until you can perform it seal-lessly."

"Wait, what? Seal-less Kawarimi? How is that even possible?" Naruto asked, really surprised.

"It is possible, because must Jounin that I have seen can do it. If you practice enough, you should be able to get it as well. It may take a few years, but you will get it eventually." Kurama said, as if he was telling a kid that they can learn to read, eventually.

Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit excited at this... He would be able to do something that any of his classmates would be able to do, and by the sound of it, even some Jounin couldn't do!

"So... Are you ready, Naruto?"

"Pfft! Please! Is that even a question?"

"Then what are you waiting for? Get started already!"

"Roger that!"

Naruto couldn't wait to start his training!

Chapter finished!

Sorry that it was a bit short!

Now, I know that I said you can expect a time-skip soon, but it may be coming sooner than you expected, most likely the next chapter.

Also, I hope that my Kawarimi theory is explained pretty well... if you think there is some fault with it, please do tell me!

I am also considering a change in outfit for Naruto... and, he may be a teeny weeny bit OOC after the time-skip due to his interactions with Kurama.

Did I forget anything? I hope not!

And don't forget to tell me what you think!