Chapter 12: Following the flow

I walked in on the Hokage resting his head in his hands, looking quite displeased. The reaction had been sort of expected, since I had the time to sit down and think my actions through. The message from my normally hidden Anbu watchers had confirmed my suspicions about how bad the incident was.

When the first child had stepped forth and confessed my actions, the rest of the class had followed. That meant I had already gone through my first scolding session, where I had mostly been kicking myself mentally because I knew this particular conversation was coming.

"Purely defensive seals, Naruto?" The old man in front me inquired expressionless. "What part did you misunderstand in our talk about Fūinjutsu where you promised never to use it on others unless you gained explicit permission?"

I felt like exclaiming several expletive words. "Well, this case could go under 'self-defense' if you squint your eyes and tilt you head just a bi…" I trailed of when I noticed his expression just seemed to harden. "I do not truthfully feel sorry for what I've done, but I understand that I overreacted and should have handled the matter more maturely while paying closer attention to their age. I can explain the logic behind my behavior if so allowed, but I have taken into account already that several notions were wrong and needs to be changed."

He gave a slight inclination of his head as permission to continue.

"Firstly their behavior towards others showed a distinct lack of respect, which gave me three possibilities: accept it, change it slowly over longer time or deal with it as quickly as possible. I choose the last option, and I proceeded to secure them to their seats in order to lecture them about their faults. Since words are meaningless unless backed up with action, I needed to prove my words were worth heeding, so I gave them the simplest demonstration I could think of." I took a deep breath and concluded with; "This both showed unfamiliar physical attributes and a willingness to fight, which would hopefully make them hesitant to attack me after releasing them."

If he had been any other, face palming would have been an appropriate action. The old man simply took forth his pipe and began pulsing. Perhaps he needed something calming.

"Funeno-san has already explained to you why your actions were wrong?"

I nodded eagerly. "Yes. Such reasoning should only be used for older individuals and never on my comrades. I should calmly explain to them my points before using any force and never use such violent methods unless completely necessary."

"Then you can go."

"Thank you, Hokage-same." I jumped out of the chair and ran to the door, before glancing back at him with relieved smile. "I'll try not to cause any more problems, Jiji."

"Do not inflict any more injuries on yourself either."

"I'll try not to."

I closed the door softly after me and felt my legs tremble under me as tension left. That had gone better than expected. It was almost worthy of celebrating… Almost.

·

Kakashi engaged in a staring contest, the second I opened my front door. Several minutes passed by before I lost due to laughing. It was quite unfair that he had not given me a warning and time to compose myself before getting to business.

Everyone would have lost to that glare unprepared.

"Threatening your whole class the first day, huh, Naruto?"

I gave a long deep sigh. "Please, can we not do this? I have already been scolded, and as I told our honored Hokage, there were sound and logical reasoning behind my actions… I just miscalculated a bit."

He stayed expressionless on my doorstep. "You pointed a sharp weapon at them you had just demonstrated in action… on yourself."

"Alright, it was a big misjudgment." I admitted. "Perhaps I did not really take their age into account, and went a bit overboard with my lecturing, but it was a good point I presented to them. It was a very well-meant action, and that has to count for something."

He lifted a single eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I stepped back and indicated for him to enter, since it felt a bit silly to just stand there. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions and what not. It was a big overreaction, which left the image of me in their mind as…"

"Weird, creepy and violent."

"Exactly." I easily nodded my agreement. "It turned out your advice was excellent and I should have followed it, yada yada yada. You're the wise one, and what not, while I'm just an immature brat. Now as my wise elder, can I ask for your guidance in one specific matter, which has become very pressing?"

"I'm not the best to ask about social protocols." He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "But you could hardly do worse."

"Very funny, but rest assured that was not at all what I had in mind." I clapped slowly before once again indicating he could come in. "I have realized that I currently have one giant weakness, which most likely will be exploited by my classmate, since I sort of, kind of, threatened them." I took a deep breath before admitting. "I don't know how to fight."

He only stared at me.

"I know, asking now after this incident is bad timing, but the matter is very, very pressing."

The bastard stayed silent.

"Pretty please?" I tried.

He finally moved by biting his own thumb, making a couple hand seals and slapping his hand to the floor. The next moment after a brown pug appeared before me.

"Grapple until you feel satisfied. I can't deal with you right now."

I turned toward Kakashi together with the pug, whose expression best could be described with 'grumpy'. "You can summon dogs?" I managed to say without grinning.

Kakashi looked at me like something was wrong with my head. "Yes."

"So, you're saying you had the ability to conjure dogs out of thin air all this time, and have never once thought of using it? Even when you had no idea on what to do with me?" I eyed him with exaggerated disbelief. "When the thought 'hey, I have this little girl, wonder if she like puppies?' never crosses your mind, you know you're doing something wrong, nii-san."

The dog followed with, "So who's the girl?"

"Talk…." Something clicked in my brain and I whipped around to face the small dog. I lowered myself to his height and bowed slightly with excitement coursing through my body. "I'm honored to meet an exalted summon, please teach me oh dog-san of great wisdom and knowledge of the mysteries behind the grand technique which makes summoning capable, and how you physiology differ from normal animals to make you capable of intelligent thought and speech. Please accept me as your humble student."

Kakashi muttered, "You show him respect," at the same time as the dog answered with; "I like her."

"Off course you do." He sighed. "Naruto, this is Pakkun. Pakkun, Naruto. Since you obvious like each other, spend the day together. Pakkun, make sure this child stays out of trouble and get back before dinnertime."

The dog looked at his summoner like he had a screw loose. "When did you get a puppy?"

"She's not mine." Kakashi hurriedly answered, and I tried unsuccessfully to keep myself from sniggering.

"I'm an annoying tick he can't just seem to get rid of, so he had to eventually accept me." I explained cheerfully to the pug, whose expression did not change the least at the clarification.

"Just entertain her." Kakashi halfway groaned. I blinked at the sound of exasperation and gaped silently at the man.

I had done it. He had finally become annoyed.

"Before dinner." The copy-nin repeated before vanishing into thin air.

·

The next several hours was spent in the forest. The pug agreed after a bit of begging to explain tracking to me, knowledge which was mostly useless since I did not possess a nose capable of picking of individual scents and following them for miles upon miles.

Still, it was interesting, and it helped the dog was cute.

"So your spiritual energy is pulled through time and space, and made able to enter a body similar to your own by the summoner's physical energy." I summarized after a discussion about summons. "But aside from chakra theory, you don't know a whole lot about yourself."

He simply looked at me as if I had missed the entire point of our talk.

"I'm talking about your brain and vocal chords." I elaborated. "Summons who does not possess the necessary vocal chords to talk can still do so, the same with the ability to think. It seems many fundamental concepts to our thinking process applies for both humans and summons, while the individual species does have an influence on your thinking process it does not make it entirely alien. I wonder if chakra makes it possible for you to expand and develop higher brain capacity, or if this is simply another unexplainable fact of life?"

"You think too much, girlie."

I grinned. "Probably, but the fact that you register as any other animal, not accounting for higher chakra levels, for sensors and still possess the characteristic of your given species is very interesting. It makes one question a lot of things, which are normally seen as the undeniably truth." A squirrel moved about in the trees over our heads. "Such as what separates me from the forest life around us. If it's possible to change your own chakra network to register as nothing but another harmless animal…"

"Changing your own chakra would mean changing yourself." The pug frankly replied.

"A very likely possibility, yes." I was able to change my chakra network slightly with the Henge, but it was still in the human spectrum. My ability to sense chakra by touch had made me able to check out anything I could get my hands on, and so a variety of different animals' network had been documented by me. "But you should also theoretical be able to retain your own mind if it was done right."

The dog made the equivalent of a human shrug. "You said you wish to learn tracking, girlie?"

"Yes." I slowly admitted, mind still busy with turning over the newly learned facts.

"Then chase that squirrel."

I blinked and glanced upwards again, finding no sight of the animal. "But…"

I flinched away from the dog at the feeling of his jaw closing around my ankle. For one short second we just stared at each other, before the pug commanded yet again. "Chase it."

Pure theory was just not for anyone.

·

The hours spent at the academy mostly felt like a waste of time. When we we're not learning simple math and how to write, we we're feed propaganda about the nobleness of the ninja lifestyle and calling, not to forget the hours wasted on lectures about our duty to the village and the Hokage.

For goodness sake, I knew the man, and he was not a god. I could do without listening to others glorifying him and his predecessors, even if one of them technically was my biological father.

The only silver lining to the ordeal was I had access new knowledge in a broad spectrum of subjects in the form of new books. My primarily teacher had finally stopped trying to catch me off-guard with questions to the subject he was currently making the class go through at a snail pace and had accepted one of his students rarely was mentally presents to any of his lectures.

It was either that or finding another way to kill my boredom, which would most likely end with traumatizing my classmates even more than last time. No one dared approach me after the incident, and those I had chided gave me glances I had a hard time analyzing, since they all looked away the minute my gaze turned towards them.

It was slightly worrying and made me consider what I could possible do in order to stop them from carrying out whatever schemes where taking form in their minds.

A smaller part of me recognized that their behavior could simply be to protect themselves from any future incidents, better watchful than ignorant, and it did not have to mean they were considering vengeance in any form. Someone could have accepted it, but my paranoia was a bit too pronounced for me to continue on without doing anything in response.

It was time to formulate a plan.

·

The target was alone. It was the last one to confront, and because of that he was the last step to completing this self-appointed mission.

Time to get it over with.

"Your name is Ryou Fukui, right?" The black-haired child froze mid step and stared back at me with huge eyes darkened by his wide pupils to an extent which made it impossible to judge his eye color. The shock confirmed the question and made a verbal or bodily response unnecessary.

His name was a bit weird since the currency was named Ryō, and could mean something along 'fortunate'. He was most likely of a civilian family, merchants or the like, since no one else would have such a fascination with money.

Well, if you did not count Kakuzu, one half of the zombie combo of Akatsuki. If all ninjas were like him it would most likely lead to a string of tragedies ending with the destruction of this world.

My though train was getting me more than a bit off track.

"I have with the help of others seen the error of my actions the first day, and apologize for using Fūinjutsu and threatening you and several other classmates before trying to convey my message in another more peaceful way. I simply wanted to make it clear how wrong bullying is, and I hope that now that this matter has been cleared between us, we can coexist peacefully by each other side without any more incidences."

The kid blinked a few times and I decided to take that as a sign that he had understood.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I hope our years together as classmates will be rewarding and pleasant for both sides. All the best luck in your efforts in trying to become a Ninja, Fukui-kun." I made a small polite bow and started walking away.

If my actions had slighted any of them enough to contemplate revenge, my formal apologize to each and every one of them would ensure that any outside would see their reasoning as petty and childish.

Now I only had to stay off their radar and not do anything to further upset them, and they would forget it had ever happened in a few years. Early memories were so easily forgotten, after all.

Whistling a happy tone I strolled into the forest, eyeing the leaves overhead for any sign of activity.

I had squirrels to catch.

·

The day I come across features I recognized, had been looking for since my first days wandering the streets, I merely blinked and looked back a second time.

It was quite hard to overlook pink hair, and as shameful as it is to admit I stalked the mother-daughter pair as they made their way through town to the playground and miniature Sakura was left on her own.

I could not even justify the stalking as I had Kakashi. She was a problem free kiddie who had no connection to the current vessel of my conscience. Harassing her would most likely not be as fun, and her personality of right now was not developed enough for it to even resemblance the grown-up Sakura for even a bit.

Not to mention I had not really liked her character in the series.

Which made me feel bad since an echo of the same dislike surfaced again when faced with a chibi version of said character, and she had done nothing yet to deserve those feelings. If the author of the manga had been a bit better at creating strong female characters and letting them have some glory, then I would probably not even have those feelings.

Ugh, don't go there. Imagining this whole world as the work of a single man, and my every interaction with another person would be nothing but messing with a product of said author's fantasy.

Nothing good could come of it.

My stalking continued while my mind tried to handle the new perspective of the world around me. I was able to feign innocence each time the girl looked my way by using the playgrounds swings, mechanical moving my legs until I didn't have to think about it.

Then another little girl began pointing at Sakura's forehead and made a remark, which prompted laughter from those around her.

Huh, I had actually forgotten that issue. Wasn't this supposed to be somewhat important for her?

My heels burrowed into the ground.

"Hey, how would you feel if I laughed at you for something genetically decided?" I yelled, striding towards them while part of me was still bewildered about the missing feeling of wind against my face. It seemed I had left part of myself on those swings, and the part which had followed me physical was not one for considering consequences. "I could point out your nose, the freckles on your brown-haired friend or the nasty birthmark on the other. They're traits none of you can change, so back off."

The unknown girl's face scrunched up and started reddening. "And what about you? You're just a tomato!"

Oh gods, had I just entered into a contest in petty insults?

I took a calming breath, remembering what had happened last time I tried to teach this lesson. Time to see if the results could be achieved another way. "Yes, I do have red hair, thank you for pointing out the obvious. Not polite, I have to add, since I didn't call you Beaky or something else just as demeaning. I know bullying an outsider can reinforce and strengthen bonds within a group, but would it not be more fun to just forget physical differences and be nice to her? Perhaps play?"

"We won't play with you!"

This was not going very well. "I never said anything, which could indicate I wished to do so. In fact I rather poke out my eyes, but I was speaking on behalf of the girl you just made fun of." I said with a gesture to Sakura, who was silently watching the proceedings with wide eyes.

"I rather eat dirt than talk with you!"

I resisted massaging my temples and instead opted to just stare at the red-faced raven-haired girl, who had a glint of real hate in her eyes. "This is going nowhere," I ended up muttering before unleashing versions of a half-finished work of restraining bonds. They had no training and had therefore no chance in escaping them, but an experienced ninja could dissolve them by merely flaring his or her chakra.

I pulled a sealing scroll forth and summoned writing tools with a flourish and presented it to Sakura, who looked back at me with open confusion. Well, she was apparently not into vengeance. Knowing this was nowhere mature or smart I drew a happy smiley face and a 'remember to be nice' on each of the girls cheeks.

They were released again with a flicker of chakra.

When somebody discovered this little stunt I could at least say I had gotten better at being child-friendly in my approach, I thought with a teeth-flashing grin, before making my escape.

Author's note: We're nearing the action, while the crusade against bullying continues. Sorry, it's been some time. Been busy with moving and tying up some loose ends.