DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Not Naruto, not enough talent to make money off writing, and certainly not enough money to be worth suing. So please don't ;_;

Chapter 2: Outcast and Avenger

There was a mirror in his room.

He stood in front of it, wearing nothing. He'd gotten out of the bath nearly an hour ago, but his reflection had distracted him. It wasn't the first time he'd stood in front of a mirror like this. He eyed his form, searching. His hair was bright blonde, a vivid shade unlike any other hair he'd ever seen in the village. If he ever saw anyone with this hair color, he might almost think they were related. But that couldn't be true. He knew he had nobody. Still, it wasn't like he was the only blonde in the village. There were many. He even had a blonde classmate named Ino, and her dad had the same hair! He and Ino both had blue eyes too, though his were the color of the sky and hers were more like gleaming jewels. A lot of the time, he kept his eyes so narrow they looked like they were closed, but Shino wore black shades all the time, so hiding his eyes wasn't a problem. He opened his mouth, staring at his teeth. His canines were slightly larger than most people's, but Kiba had even bigger fangs than that. Fingers traced the whisker markings on his cheeks. He'd had them forever, like birthmarks or scars or something. But Kiba and Chouji had markings on their cheeks too.

He traced over the rest of his form. No marks anywhere, not a scar or blemish at any place on his body. When his classes had gone for swimming lessons, nobody else seemed to have any marks on them outside of scrapes or bruises, so that wasn't out of the ordinary, either. He supposed he was kind of small for his age, especially compared to Shino, but nobody in his class was the same size as anyone else, so that couldn't matter. He was...thinner, he supposed, than most of his classmates, but he was still bigger than Shikamaru. His muscles were lean and wiry, like most of his classmates.

So why was it that everyone had such warm and friendly eyes for his classmates, but horrible, cold eyes for him? What was wrong with him?

He was so distracted, he didn't notice the tinge of red in his eyes.

There was a mirror in his room.

He stood in front of it, arms crossed over his shirt. He was supposed to have gone to take a bath almost an hour ago, but his reflection had distracted him. It wasn't his own face that kept him looking into the mirror, though. It was the faces beyond his own. His parents, standing right behind him. His father's stern gaze, the perfect example of proper ninja attitude, but the hand on his son's shoulder was still gentle. His mother, a soft smile on her lips, kindness in her eyes, proving that not all shinobi had to kill their emotions to stand out from the crowd. Beside them, Uchiha Teyaki and his wife, Uruchi, who Sasuke was close enough to that he called them his aunt and uncle. They had not been shinobi, but simple bakers, and they had never even manifested their Sharingan. But they were still family, still important to him. More and more were there, dozens of Uchiha, some smiling, most stoic. And there, looming over them all, were the eyes of his older brother. Uchiha Itachi, the man who had destroyed his world and his innocence, who had taken everything from him, left him nothing but an empty shell. Sasuke lived for vengeance, and for nothing else. Oh, he told people that he would resurrect his clan. He might even try, one day. But all he wanted, all he truly needed, was Itachi's death by his own hands.

That was why he couldn't stand the people around him. The squealing girls at the academy. The teachers. The interrogators. The Hokage. They didn't understand. Nobody understood. They all sympathized with him, put on their smiles, and none of it was real. The stupid girls just wanted him like some kind of trophy and said whatever they thought would get his attention. The interrogators talked about how hard it was to lose loved ones, but had they lost all but one of the people they ever cared about, by the hand of the last one alive? The Hokage...no, Sasuke believed it when the Hokage expressed sympathy.

But the rest of them were pathetic. They didn't understand how much it hurt. Most of them would never understand the loneliness, the sense of loss...the hole where his heart used to be. He focused on all that he lost, reflected in his mirror like ghosts.

He was so focused, he didn't notice the tinge of red in his eyes.

It had been two weeks since Ibiki had become a guardian to the last survivors of two different clans. And thus far, things had not been going well.

Since Sasuke's outburst on the first day, Naruto had not tried to befriend him again, which seemed to suit the raven-haired youth just fine. The last Uchiha actively avoided them both, staying out until late to train on his own. He was following the letter of the Hokage's command, but not the spirit of it. If anything, he'd become even more withdrawn and surly since being forced into something that he felt was going to hold him back. Nobody could get a reaction out of him, and Naruto had all but given up trying.

The blonde youth, for his part, also stayed out late to train himself. However, in his case, it seemed more likely that Naruto had forgotten that Ibiki was supposed to aid in his training in the afternoons. Naruto often seemed to forget small details that were told to him, but careful observation revealed that he rarely missed visual clues, and his tactical ability was downright scary for a seven-year-old. He never played the same prank twice, never escaped the same way, and never forgot how he was captured when someone inevitably managed it. In fact, Ibiki was fairly certain that Iruka's track record at catching Naruto had less to do with the teacher's competence (though competent he was), and more to do with Naruto's awareness that it was safer to be caught by Iruka than someone else.

It was just another footnote in the list of ways Naruto had been neglected, that he was considered a poor student. He was a tactile learner—that is, he learned through action. And he learned fast when in his element. This, combined with his extreme determination, his tactical and strategic foresight, and his surprising observational skills, afforded him a much more promising career as a shinobi than his academic reviews would have anyone believe. He should have been given a private Jounin tutor by now—by the time he was twelve, he would easily be at Chuunin level, if his skills were trained and honed.

Instead, he continued to stagnate in a classroom setting, deprived of the hands-on experience he needed to excel and training in simple techniques like the Transformation Technique. He had yet to master that one, and he was hopeless at the Clone Technique. But that was because these techniques required very precise chakra amounts, something Naruto couldn't do in small quantities, because he was an Uzumaki. Like his mother and a few other standout members of his clan, his chakra was comparable to a tailed beast, both in quantity and potency. And that was before you even factored in the Kyuubi's chakra. Even at age seven, he could run most Jounin ragged with pure stamina and practice chakra techniques for hours nonstop. In another few years, Gai and his favored student would be the only ones in the village able to keep up with the blonde.

Sasuke had the opposite problem. He was constantly being recommended for private Jounin tutoring by eager teachers, which the Sandaime turned down every time. Granted, his ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu were all number one in the class, but he was dead last when it came to teamwork and social skills. Normally, this constituted being forced to stay in a classroom setting to learn these skills, but the teaching staff seemed to not care where the elite Uchiha was concerned. In contrast, Naruto ranked fairly high on the teamwork scale, hampered by the unwillingness of the other students to work with him and his showboating for attention. The real problem, however, wasn't that Sasuke had problems working with others; it was that he didn't think he needed to work with others. He was arrogant, a fact fueled by his need to be strong and by the attitudes of those around him. Ibiki knew that Sasuke looked down on the many people vying for his favor, but their attitudes still affected him, making him feel superior to his classmates. That he really was a natural-born genius only compounded this problem.

A problem that had, to date, been left unchecked. Sasuke had created the gap between himself and Naruto on the first night, and Naruto was too used to that treatment to bother trying again. So it would fall to Ibiki to bridge the gap between the two of them.

Fortunately, he had a plan. He was just waiting for the right opportunity.

And finally, it came.

"All right, all right, line up now."

Umino Iruka was in his element. He loved teaching, loved helping students become better, seeing the joy on their faces when they performed a difficult shot with a kunai, or mastered a new technique. And he enjoyed the challenge of molding himself to fit the strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of his many students. This was something the Jounin squad leaders couldn't do, because learning on the job was much more pressing than learning in a classroom—in the field, you listened to your Jounin, or you died. That was why, despite being fully qualified for promotion to Jounin, Iruka had chosen to remain at Chuunin rank and continue teaching at the Konoha Academy. This was his calling in life.

And this year was truly a bumper crop. So many strong prodigies were distinguishing themselves above the rank and file, even this early. Of course, everyone could see Uchiha Sasuke's power, he flaunted it shamelessly, determined to make sure his family name remained a source of pride. But beyond that, there were others as well. Aburame Shino, the quiet son of Shiki, was an analytical and tactical genius. Yamanaka Ino was proving to be talented in every area of the ninja arts. And Haruno Sakura, despite her quiet, shy attitude, had a talent for chakra control and memory retention that lent itself to a promising career as a spy in the future.

Of course, for every student applying themselves, there was one who wasn't. Hyuuga Hinata, the heir of the strongest clan in Konoha, was as quiet and shy as Sakura, but where Sakura threw herself into learning with a silent joy, Hinata seemed to believe the worst of herself. She never came out and said it, but Iruka could tell she had a complete lack of self-confidence and expected to fail. The same could be said of Akamichi Chouji, who was discouraged by his larger size and lower agility compared to his teammates. It was hard to blame him: many of the Academy teachings leaned toward speed and agility, as the basis of combat was not to get hit, especially when anything an enemy ninja does might be far more fatal than it appears. But the strength, size, and resilience of the Akimichi clan was one of the strongest weapons Konoha had. The Akimichi and the Hyuuga gave the Land of Fire an unmatched front line in open warfare. Nobody from the other countries, nobody, wanted to fight these clans on open ground, which left them only the option of trying to fight from within the dense forests, where they had a severe disadvantage in terms of terrain knowledge. One day, Chouji would understand this. But it was little comfort to a seven-year-old boy who was kind to everyone and was treated badly in return. At least Nara Shikamaru was good friends with Chouji, though he seemed to not have the energy to even be hostile to others. Still, despite his laziness, Shikamaru was definitely a good kid.

And then there was Naruto. Iruka didn't understand the boy. He seemed eager to please and learn when you offered, but this attitude vanished quickly once you actually sat him down to lecture. Iruka would have chalked it up to false bravado or merely Naruto telling him what he wanted to hear long ago, except the behavior was consistent across the board. The little blonde runt always wanted to learn, but then he always complained that he didn't get it, no matter how many times you explained it. But he was never discouraged and he always came back for more. It was…hard for him to pin down. He only ever saw Naruto at school, only ever saw him eager but uncomprehending, so he felt as though he was missing something, some key fact that, if he could discover it, would reveal Naruto to be a much better student than he seemed.

Iruka couldn't fault the kid's work ethic, regardless; he seemed to have boundless energy, and practiced hard for hours. More than once, he'd come across the blonde in one of the training areas around the village—he seemed fond of a small training area located in a copse of trees southeast of the Hokage's tower—sweating and swaying from exertion. Which, of course, made it all the odder that he continued to flounder with the simple theories and techniques that the Academy taught.

Of course, being the container of the Kyuubi probably affected him. Iruka had been around him long enough to know that the Kyuubi wasn't influencing Naruto towards malevolence (not that that fact could keep him from having to suppress shudders on occasion), but it was entirely possible that the Kyuubi's presence was affecting Naruto's physical and mental development nonetheless. He was certain that the demon fox had at least some sway over Naruto's health: the boy recovered from training injuries and "accidents" from outside of school at an alarming rate. Once, the boy's leg had been broken in four places when a girder fell on him, quite on accident of course, and he was up and running around like nothing had happened in a week. Occasionally, during class sparring matches when Kiba or Sasuke taunted Naruto too much, those moments when his teeth clenched in a shadow of the anger that flashed through his eyes, he would recover so quickly he wouldn't have a mark on him when the fight ended—and in those situations, it usually ended in a draw. Naruto's stamina seemed endless, and it was nearly impossible to keep him down. He always got back up for more.

Eyes swept over the assembled students of the advanced class.

"Today, we're going to go through shuriken throwing. You were all told to practice for the last week, and now we're going to see how you're all progessing. First up, Aburame Shino."

Iruka jotted notes down as the advanced class took their turns aiming shuriken at a pole with eight targets lined up on it. Shino hit the outer or inner bullseyes of all eight in two throws, unsurprising for the boy. He was quiet and efficient, both in his personality and in his combat skills. Choji nailed five outer bullseyes and hit all eight targets in three throws, but took a little too long aiming, his lack of confidence in himself subtle but evident. Sakura managed seven out of eight within the outer bullseye. Her physical ability was low among her peers, but her brainpower and degree of control more than made up for it where shuriken were involved. Hinata managed only three within the outer bullseyes, and took six throws, but her last throw was a perfect bullseye. She was far and away the least confident in her skills and the least willing to hurt others among Iruka's students, but underneath that exterior, she displayed occasional flashes of great strength.

Ino butted in line next, skipping the alphabetical order they were going by. She'd wanted to go directly after Sakura, as the two were good friends, but Ino was an extremely perceptive young girl, and had clearly not wanted to make Hinata do worse by just jumping in front of her and perhaps killing her confidence. Ino got all of her shuriken within the outer bullseyes, half of them nailing inner bullseyes, in two throws. In terms of pure combat skill, only Sasuke was ahead of Ino, and only barely. Meanwhile, Ino was also top of the class in every noncombat skill, none of which the Uchiha even managed to be in the top two thirds of. Kiba was next—he nailed seven outer bullseyes in two throws, but missed one target entirely, his eagerness messing up his aim. He grimaced in irritation at himself.

Shikamaru landed eight on the targets in eight throws, but as usual, he wasn't interested enough to try. Given that Nara Shikaku was the hidden weapon of Konoha, seeing his son not care enough to do more than the minimum annoyed Iruka. Still, Shikamaru had never backed down from difficulties when something beyond his own future mattered, so Iruka let it slide…this time. Sasuke, as usual, landed eight perfect bullseyes in two throws. If he hadn't been so awful at anything requiring the involvement of other people, he'd be able to graduate the academy by next year.

And that just left…

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."

The short blonde moved forward, face a mask of concentration as he pulled four shuriken into each hand. Iruka watched with bated breath as he took his stand—good form, well-balanced. But when the shuriken flew, they went in every direction. Three managed to hit the outer bullseyes, but five missed entirely. The class laughed for a second before Iruka's glare silenced them. The teacher saw Naruto's face, a mix of dismay and confusion, before he started rubbing the back of his head and laughing. His eyes narrowed. Iruka knew that look. He'd used that look, before, when he failed at something in class. And as much as he hated to be strict now, when Naruto could use a kind word—he did not want to see the boy walk the same painful road Iruka himself had once taken. "Naruto. You haven't done enough shuriken training."

The flinch of anger and betrayal was almost enough to make him stop. Almost. "We're going to repeat this test next week. I expect to see some improvement by then." Naruto looked like he wanted to say something, but he gave up, eyes squinting until they looked closed again as he put his head down. It seemed at times that he was trying to avoid seeing something.

If Iruka could catch him later, he'd invite him out to ramen.

Ibiki sat calmly in the sitting room of his home, waiting for the two boys. They should be home from the academy any moment now. It was time to force some interaction.

Sure enough, the door creaked open—but it was Sasuke who walked in. Normally Naruto was the first through the door, bounding up the stairs to grab training equipment and back down in a flash, while the Uchiha moved at a more sedate pace. "Where is Naruto?" he asked calmly. The raven haired boy turned to glare at him for a moment. "I saw Iruka stop him after the academy let out. They went off together." Sasuke's words were bitter; not at Naruto's treatment, but at having to answer a question at all. But Ibiki saw an opportunity. "Wait here."

Ignoring the Uchiha's mix of disbelief and annoyance, Ibiki made his way up the stairs, opened the door to Naruto's room, and picked up a thick leather satchel from the floor. Then he made his way back down the stair and toward the front door. His original plan obviously wouldn't work without Naruto, but this presented an opportunity of a different sort. "Come with me. I wish to take a walk."

This, apparently, was the last straw for Sasuke. "I have training to do! I don't have time to accompany you on whatever—"

"Sasuke."

Ibiki hadn't raised his voice—but the word immediately cut through Sasuke's tirade and stopped him cold. Ibiki turned, letting the boy see just a shadow of the murderous pressure that Ibiki could put out. The staring contest didn't last long before the Uchiha blinked. "I want you to take a walk with me. Now."

Ibiki swept out the door, noting that Sasuke did whiny teenager better at age seven than he had as an actual whining teenager.

Kids these days.

Sasuke followed on in sullen silence for a quarter of an hour, trailing in Ibiki's wake. He had no idea what the old man wanted from him, but he knew that disobedience would just see him taken before the Hokage. And even though he was only seven, he was a clan head technically. That gave him rights, but also responsibilities. And while most people wouldn't dare step up to challenge him, Ibiki had made it clear that he would call every bluff Sasuke made, and that the Sandaime would take his side. Part of him respected the man for it—there were too many sycophants around him—but right now, Ibiki was wasting his time, and that was unacceptable.

Ibiki stopped and turned to look at him. Sasuke took note of where they were for the first time: a training area in the forest, one meant to learn projectiles. "What are we doing here?" he demanded angrily. "I don't need your help. I can train on my own."

"I'm not here to train you," Ibiki responded matter-of-factly. "I'm here to educate you." He pointed over at a line of trees wiith targets on them. The targets were all but shredded, hundreds of notches in them where shuriken or kunai had landed. They had been overused to the point that the central bullseyes could no longer be seen on most of them, hit so often that the painted wood had splintered away to nothing. "What about them?"

Ibiki turned and tossed the satchel at Sasuke's feet. "Those are Naruto's targets."

Coal black eyes darted back up to the targets, reevaluating them. "Naruto's? He's such an awful shot. With this much training, that shouldn't be possible. By now he should be at least….in the top third, based solely on the training he's done."

"You're right. That should be the case. Look in the satchel."

Eyeing Ibiki for a moment, Sasuke bent down and opened the leather bag. He pulled out a kunai, blanching at the look of it. Scarred and cuffed, and terribly dull on one of the edges. "The fool doesn't take care of his own equipment. No surprise from someone who's all talk." But the words didn't bite as hard as he wanted. Something about those targets made him doubt his own thoughts.

Ibiki confirmed those doubts. "Look again."

Reaching in, Sasuke produced another kunai. This one was in immaculate condition, but hefting it, he realized it was a little too top-heavy, which would badly affect throws compared to a norm—wait. Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise, then looked up to meet Ibiki's. He stared inexorably back, demanding that Sasuke seek the truth, even if that truth flew in the face of all his beliefs. Demanding that he see underneath the underneath.

Sasuke pulled more kunai, as well as shuriken, from the satchel, first carefully, but then more frantically as he put things together. This kunai was forged from an inferior metal. The imperfections in that shuriken made it catch the wind, rather than cut through it. Another shuriken was too light. Over, and over… "All of these are defects."

Ibiki nodded. "That is correct. Most of the shopkeepers, like most of Konoha's villagers, do all they can to avoid Naruto, ignore him, or drive him off from their place of business."

Something ran down his spine. "Why?" Sasuke asked.

The look Ibiki gave him was significant, but he didn't answer the question, merely moving on. "However, some shopkeepers have learned that Naruto trusts those who seem to be nice to him. After all, he has few other measuring sticks to go by in his life. And he has no parents, and until recently, no guardian, to help him understand when he's being deceived. Such as being sold inferior goods."

Ibiki turned to look at the targets now. "Naruto takes meticulous care of his ninja tools. They are his most prized possessions, what he believes he needs on the road to being the strongest ninja. He has few to call his own, and those he has, he takes very good care of, because it is not easy for him to go out into town and buy new things."

Sasuke wanted to ask why again, but didn't. He knew Ibiki wouldn't answer him, not yet, but that wasn't what stopped him. No, what stopped him was a nameless fear, inching its way into him. He didn't know the answer—and now, he felt like he might not want to know. Ibiki seemed to sense this. "He does not know that his weapons are inferior. There has been nobody there to tell him. The few adults who might be able to find out do not go out of their way to learn. Iruka's policy of having his student supplement his lessons with their own personal training is backfiring, here. He sees himself in Naruto, which is not wrong—but Iruka was already training to become a ninja when he lost his parents. Naruto has been alone his entire life. It is likely that Iruka simply forgot that some of the most basic things he knows were because he had parents in his life."

Sasuke stiffened in anger. Ibiki seemed to sense it, and held up a hand. "That was not directed at you. It is merely a statement of fact. How can Naruto know his weapons are inferior? He's never known to look at that, and because it's so basic, nobody who cares has thought to tell him. I only realized it two nights ago. There are a number of shopkeepers who will be having conversations with me in the near future."

Ibiki sighed. "But that doesn't solve the problem. I will teach Naruto to look for balanced weapons, but this sort of thing will continue to happen to him. I can shield him from it with my presence, but unfortunately, I can't always be present."

Sasuke scowled for a moment, debating internally with himself. This wasn't his problem. He had more important things to focus on. And he wasn't about to become Naruto's lookout, no matter how much the blonde brat needed one. But…knowing that his poor skill with shuriken wasn't his fault changed things. It wasn't right, especially for someone trying so hard. He remembered his own struggles at pulling off a more complicated target course that his brother could do. If someone had been sabotaging him then…

This wasn't his problem. But…there was something he could do about it. "Ibiki. I want to stop by the Uchiha compound."

Ibiki turned to him, expressionless. "Certainly."

When Naruto came home from Ichiraku, he was in high spirits again. So what if he failed? He just had to try harder, that was all! He took the stairs two at a time, sweeping past that rooster-headed jerk without even a glance his way, and grabbed his leather bag to head off. If he wasn't training enough, he would just train more! Nothing was going to stop him from achieving his goal, and that was that.

Naruto noticed later on that his kunai and shuriken had all been replaced by smoother, freshly-oiled ones that felt better in his hand for some reason. But that night when he got back and asked Ibiki about it, the scarred man had merely shrugged and told him that if he had received a gift, he should take good care of it.

You could have heard a pin drop.

Iruka nearly dropped his pen, in point of fact. Seven perfect bullseyes, and one just outside, in two throws. Almost as good as Sasuke had done. Naruto had never shown this degree of skill before! Whatever training he'd done over the past week had certainly paid off better than anything before. Iruka smiled. "Full marks. Well done, Naruto."

He was expecting the boy to jump around, cheering, with that ear-to-ear grin of his.

He wasn't expecting a hint of blush and a smaller, shyer grin as Chouji and Shikamaru congratulated him.

Iruka looked over at Sasuke, curious to see what he thought of "dead last" doing so well, but the boy's back was turned to them all.

Ibiki was watching from a nearby rooftop as Kiba slapped Naruto on the back and grinned. It was always a coin flip with them to figure out if they were friends or enemies on any given day. But he also had a view of Sasuke's face as he kept himself turned away from the rest of his class.

So only Ibiki saw the proud little smirk crossing Sasuke's face.

He'd hoped to let Sasuke see what Naruto had to deal with. He'd never expected the boy to plunder his clan's stores of weapons in order to help Naruto out, and certainly not without being asked.

Ibiki smiled.

There was hope yet.

Author's Notes:

Surprise! Bet you guys were never expecting to see me again :3

Sorry, real life's been a cavalcade of annoyances for years now, and any time I actually had time to sit and write, I was so tired I wasn't up to it. But I never forgot about what I started, and now I think I can come back to it and hopefully finish it.

To those who have been waiting, I thank you for not giving up on me, and I'm sorry to have taken so long.

I feel like I trimmed down on details the farther I got into this. I'm thinking that MIGHT be related mostly to me REALLY wanting to get this thing up and running again, but I also liked the flow that came with fewer words and descriptions there at the end. I dunno, it felt right. I guess we'll find out if I was just impatient or if it's my writing style ^^;

Fun fact: According to the data books, Ino was the top graduate of her class, not Sasuke. Sasuke was top of the class in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. But Ino was second in all of those ranks, and she was also first in assertiveness and second in cooperation and attitude, all subjects that Sasuke did poorly at.

A lot of things about Naruto don't make sense if he was being given fair treatment. How was he still with students of his own age if he failed the academy test three times? You'd think he would be older than those around him from having to repeat years. My only guess is that either he was allowed to take graduation tests, or any student could apply for a graduation exam, and that they kept letting him go and fail. Also, given the small size of Naruto's class relative to how many ninjas each hidden village has to produce (given that ninja are the military and workforce combined for each village), it seems unlikely they were the only ninjas of their age in training. Likely, they would be an advanced class—I feel like I read this as fact somewhere, but I can't recall where so I refuse to declare that.

But it makes sense—everyone in Naruto's class were members of prominent clans, save Sakura, who was established as being incredibly intelligent. An accelerated class makes good sense to put students who clearly also learn their trade from their clans at home, or have the intelligence to keep up. So why then was Naruto in the advanced class? My guess is, he was dumped there on purpose to make his life more difficult, but the Sandaime allowed it because Iruka was the class instructor, and Sarutobi probably felt that Iruka would give Naruto a fairer shot than anyone else (and, being fair, he did nothing in the first chapter that Naruto did not deserve except maybe making the final about his worst technique).