Chapter 2

Academy Life

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

In the early morning of the great village of Konoha, the sun slowly rose enveloping the entire village in its golden warm rays. All was silent as the village slowly rose from its slumber. The wind was softly blowing, gently caressing the many house and buildings, a few ANBU and ninja could be seen jumping soundlessly from rooftop to rooftop and-

"Naruto Namikaze this is the last warning I'm giving you. Wake UP!" the voice of Kushina Namikaze could be heard all the way to Suna.

A small red haired boy who looked to be six years old, groaned from the comfort of his bed as he reluctantly raised his head. He blinked a few times before rubbing the sand in his eyes and got up from under the covers of his bed and made his way to the door. The young boy gave a small sigh as he slowly opened his door and started to do a mental count down.

'5...4...3...2...1'

"Naru-kun!" Two excited shouts was all the warning he got before he was tackled by two red blurs, he groaned in obvious pain and discomfort. Having experienced the same thing every morning you'd think he would have been used to this by now however that was not the case.

"Hitomi, Hikari get off me" Naruto said, after trying and failing miserably to get away from their morning 'death hugs' as he had called them. For a few seconds nothing happened before two pairs of arms unwrapped themselves from him

"Morning Naru-kun" the two sisters said simultaneously, the first person whom Naruto saw was Hikari, like all of them she had red hair and deep blue eyes, her hair was long, reaching her waistline. She looked much like their mother when she was young. The second red haired girl, Hitomi looked much like Hikari, though unlike her sister her hair was shorter, reaching barely past her shoulders. Her hair was a lighter shed of red as for the rest; well they were pretty much alike.

"Morning Hikari-chan, Hitomi-chan, do you have to do this EVERY morning?" the two girls pouted and looked at him with teary eyes, slightly quivering lips and hugging each other with their faces pressed together.

'Come on Naruto stand strong, don't fall for it, they are just doin-' his thoughts were cut off when both girl's shoulders started to shake.

"Fine you win" he said with an annoyed sigh and muttered something under his breath that both girls did not hear which did not stop them from instantly cheering and giving him a big hug.

"Naru-kun, Kaa-chan said we have to get ready" Hikari was the first to speak she tried to put on a serious face and for further emphasis she put her hand on her hip copying what she had seen her mother do a few times already, though that only made her look cuter.

"Read for what?" asked a now confused Naruto, he heard Hitomi giggling and turned to her waiting for her to answer.

"The academy starts today remember" at this Naruto froze then slowly his eyes lit up in excitement, a large smile slowly made its way across his face and faster than the two could blink, Naruto rushed to the bathroom. A few minutes later he came out wrapped in a towel, he went back to his room and they heard clothes being shuffled around and when the door opened again Naruto could be seen wearing a dark blue hooded jacket with a white shirt inside, he was also wearing black shorts and blue ninja shoes

"Let's go already we're going to be late!" Naruto shouted to his sisters who were still standing at his door with a stupefied look on their faces.

'Naru-kun is weird' they both thought and a second later they followed him down the stairs.

In the kitchen Kushina smiled when she heard the footsteps coming from upstairs, her smile got even wider when she saw her son followed by his sisters.

"Good morning Kaa-chan" Naruto greeted his mother.

"Morning Kaa-chan/morning Kaa-chan" Hikari and Hitomi greeted their mother after coming down the stairs. Kushina walked towards her and kissed them on their foreheads. The children knew their father usually woke up early and left for work whilst they were still asleep and seeing that he was not in the kitchen where he usually was in the morning, they knew he had already left for work. Kushina knew how much her husband wanted to be there with them on their first day of the academy but there had been an emergency at the Hokage tower so he had to leave earlier than usual.

"Good morning Naru-kun, Hika-chan, Hito-chan. Are you all ready for your first day of the academy?" the triplets nodded their heads excitedly, though she noticed Naruto was the most excited one of them all. Honestly it did not surprise her at all with 'that' blood flowing strongly in his veins it was to be expected.

"How about we stop at Ichuraku Ramen stand on the way to the academy?" Kushina suggested, earning two excited squeals of agreement and one grunt of disagreement, which did not surprise her at all. It was a surprise to everyone when they discovered that Naruto, unlike his mother, father and sisters...did not like ramen. In fact he actually hated the food, this came as a shocker to everyone , especially Kushina with how much both she and her husband love the stuff they expected all their children to love it too if not more.

Though he did have a favourite food which he loved just like his family loved ramen and that food was pocky. The first time he had tasted it, which came as a gift from Jiraya...who had forgotten that it was their birthday and had searched his pockets for something to give them, and had produced a packet of pocky, while the two girls found the pocky a nice treat Naruto had loved it and became obsesses, till this date Minato still cursed Jiraya for that packet of pocky that he gave his son.

"Don't worry we will get some pocky for you on the way" at this Naruto smiled excitedly, nothing outdid pocky.

-At The Academy-

Kushina and her children sow the academy building a few meters away, she looked at her children and sow them walking a few paces ahead of her. She smiled knowingly

'They sure are exited' she thought to herself. She frowned a bit when she noticed that Naruto was covering his head with the hood of his jersey, she knew why he was doing it.

When they had discovered about Naruto being part Uchiha and part Senju, Tsunade had done a bloodline test and had discovered that he indeed had the capacity to activate the Sharingan but did not know about the First Hokage's Wood Release as it was never documented as a bloodline, and no other Senju( even his children) had awakened the Wood release.

Jiraya had suggested that they release the information to the rest of the village, Kushina, like the protective mother that she was had refused the idea, not wanting to point an ever bigger target on her child. In the end it was Minato who convinced her by asking her how they would explain to everyone how he had activated the Sharingan if he did, and if and that was a big IF, he managed to use the First Hokage's Wood Release. In the end she had reluctantly agreed with them telling the villagers.

On a lighter note, Tsunade had agreed to stay in the village and was now the Head of the medic department. Her reason for staying you might ask? Well it was rather simple really; she now had a living blood relative. With Naruto having Senju DNA, her grandfather's no less; he unknowingly had become a member of her family. So after a few hours of deep thinking and weighing the pro's and corn's of staying, Tsunade had chosen family over adventure, she decided to stay. Both Minato and Kushina had asked her to become their children's Godmother, a position which she tearfully agreed to.

When the news was released to the village, naturally everyone was shocked at first and eventually they got over their shock and many had accepted the news with happy, excited, faces. A few (cough) Danzo (cough) had even gone as far as to suggest that the child be trained as village weapon, with the amount the potential that the child possessed, he would easily become powerful, a fact that many agreed to. His idea however, was quickly short down, rather painfully, by a very angry Kushina.

The Uchiha Clan was the only ones who were against Naruto possessing the ability to activate their precious bloodline, the Sharingan. But when Minato had explained just whose blood was used and what that exactly meant, they all seemed to suddenly change opinions. Madara Uchiha may have been considered one of the biggest traitors in the history of the Hidden Leaf Village, but no one could dispute his strength, he was after all the strongest Uchiha ever born. The fact that someone alive had the same blood and would hopefully have the same talent as he once did in his prime, easily shut them all up.

The Uchiha elders better improved their image of the young Namikaze, by explaining to the clan how they could use him as a way to improve the Clan's reputation and power. When the boy managed to become very strong, which everyone knew he would, they would claim it was because of their mighty Sharingan, their reputation would rise exponentially as the boy became stronger and even better it would show everyone, especially the Hyuuga Clan, just whose doujutsu was superior.

So Naruto had become the talk of the village, with everyone holding high expectations for the poor boy. As Naruto grew older, many of the villagers would treat him, and to a far lesser extent, his sisters like a prince and princesses, which technically they were. Shops often gave him free food or treats, people would sometimes gave him a small bow as he walked past them, and this only got worse as he grew older. Minato had to daily refuse marriage proposals from many nobles and families.

Naruto was constantly the centre of attention wherever he went, this unfortunately had the side effect of making him avoid going outside of their house, and at one point refused to go to the park on their usual family outings. More unfortunate was that he mostly spent his time in the house and avoided people like a plague aside from his family. And sad to say, because of his distant and avoidance of people, Naruto did not meet any children his own age, and because of that he did not have any friends.

Hikari and Hitomi were treated like princesses because of them being the children of the Hokage, but their treated was not as severe as their bother's. Sure people greeted them wherever they went and a few shops gave them free treats here and there. It was nothing that was bad enough to deter them from having a normal childhood. And unlike their distant brother, they had friends whom were all the children of the clan heads; Yamanaka Ino and Hyuuga Hinata.

Kushina increased her pace when she saw the many villagers that were looking at them, specifically her son, and whispering to themselves. When she was beside him, she reached down and took hold of his hand, he looked up at her in confusion and she gave him an encouraging smile. He smiled back at her and nodded back at her, by now the Academy Building was very close.

-Inside The Academy-

All the parents with their children were led to an empty hall, where the ninja hopefuls were introduced to their new Sensei's and was shown to their classes. And so came the time for each parent to say goodbye to their children and leave them in the care of their new instructors. Unfortunately for a few, what was supposed to be a simple gusture of hugs and a few words of encouragement, turned into an embarrassing scene.

"Now remember, don't start a fight unless you have to and if you do get into a fight, make sure you beat the little punk into a pulp, that way they will know never to mess with you" Kushina advised her children, who all sweat dropped.

'What kind of advise is that?' they all thought.

"-and another thing, don't let anyone bully you. If they do tell your teacher or better yet tell me so-"Naruto ignored her from that point choosing instead to look around. He saw a few adults that he recognised either from one of the shops he had visited earlier or from having met them on the streets. A few kids that he recognised, were those that usually played with his sisters, one of them he recognised clearly was a platinum blond haired girl with light blue eyes, Yamanaka Ino. She usually came to their house and played with his sisters, however even though she frequently visited their house, he had never said a word to her.

The other girl that he recognised was an indigo haired girl with lavender pupil-less eyes. Her name was Hinata, heiress of the Hyuuga Clan, from the brief meeting between the two of them; Naruto had noticed that she was very soft spoken and very shy. She rarely came to visit his sisters and when she did, she was always accompanied by a guard. Before Naruto could continue with his observation any further, the angry shout of his mother stopped him.

"NARUTO! HITOMI! HIKARI!" the three children almost jumped in fright when they heard their mother shout at them. They looked at her and gulped when they saw the angry expression on her face,

"Were any of you even listening to what I was saying?" Kushina asked with a sigh, after calming down.

"Yes?" they all answered /asked at the same time. Kushina's shoulders slumped and she muttered something under her breath that none of them heard. The instructor that had previously addressed them all, and asked all the parents to leave as it was time for the young students to go to their classes.

Kushina hugged all her children one last time, giving them all a kiss on their foreheads. She stood up straight, wiping the tears that were threatening to fell from her eyes.

"Remember to stay together, I'll be waiting for you at the gate when the academy ends ok?" she looked at her children and took out a camera, from Kami knows where, and asked them to stand together. Naruto was standing in the middle while hugging Hikari on his left and Hitomi on his right, both girls giving a peace sign. She took the picture and with one last wave, watched them fellow the other students to their classes. She waited for a few more seconds before wiping the fresh tears in her eyes, and followed the other parents out of the hall.

"They grow up so fast"