I do not own Naruto

Talk now – normal talk
What now – normal thoughts
Speak – biju, higher being talk
Listen – biju, higher being thoughts

Chapter 8 : Insolvable solitude

The night before the start of the academy Naruto had felt very nervous about the whole thing, luckily the trip to the god realm had helped to calm his nerves down, and now in the morning he had a feeling of anxiety about starting the academy. He had awakened earlier than usual and managed to watch the sun rising from atop of his building, it helped to calm him down to a degree. After finishing his morning routine, Naruto checked himself over and nodded, he took a small notebook, some pencils and a bag with him before leaving for the academy.

The speech the academy head master gave out was in one word plain in Naruto's opinion, oh it went on about the will of fire, about what a great honor it was for them to attend such a prestigious place and to take their first steps on becoming shinobi for the village, it all sounded so plain to him, it was like something that had been written down many years ago in hopes of influencing young impressionable minds, and by the looks of it he saw from the others it had worked.

There was he believed some fire in the speech of the head master, the man looked to actually believe what he was saying; Naruto actually spotted an older shinobi shedding a tear at the speech while the others had a more neutral expression. The speech even included how the Yondaime Hokage had passed through the academy as well and sat on the same benches as they would sit.

As the head master continued his speech Naruto looked around, he couldn't see any clan members in the current batch, maybe I just don't see them; he chuckled when he remembered what the admission requirements were, one must love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity, something that I didn't care about, have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work, oh you have no I idea the kind of hard training I've endured and can endure, be healthy in mind and body, I'm certain I'm more healthy then most people here on both accounts.

Only if those conditions were met would admission to the Academy be granted, he honestly laughed at that when he got back home, it was so easy, no different then joining some sort of club, at least they had the body requirements, though a sports club would have a similar requirement. All in all it must be to give everyone a chance at becoming a shinobi for the village, it certainly makes it look like a viable career path and it's easy to enter the Academy.

Naruto cast another look at the Academy, it was quite large and it was composed of several buildings which looked to have been were erected over time; the buildings had the odd design choice similar to the rest of the village. He assumed he was in front of the main building of the Academy, the building had a the tree in front of it which had also had a swing on it, and a giant sign with the symbol for Fire on it.

Wouldn't the village have built a new building entirely by now? They should have the funding for it. By the looks of it, new buildings were added as time passed and the need arose; why not build a new one, based on the existing building but with a few changes? It has been a long time since the rule of the second Hokage, plenty of time in which to construct a new one, and they did have some time between all the wars, could it have been the Kyuubi attack that set their finances back so much? Perhaps another suitable location hasn't been found. Well it's something to investigate should I have the time and desire, perhaps I can use it as a cover for something else.

After the head master finished his speech they were all divided into separate classes, he did a quick head count of everybody after they were all lined up, they were six classes and roughly thirty students per class, the last two classes were each missing a student, they were one hundred and seventy eight in total. I wonder how many will pass the first year much less graduate at the end, looking around Naruto cringed as he saw a few of the children from the orphanage in the lines, worse some were in his as well. Great it's going to be an uphill battle, rather silly of me to have expected it to be something else. Chances are the teacher will be against me and now a part of my classmates will be as well.

After the all of the students were separated into their future classes and gathered around their teachers who introduced themselves they made their way to the classroom that had been assigned to their group. The classroom was large and had a high ceiling, even the blackboard itself was rather large, the walls were painted white and there were a few plants near the windows. In front of the blackboard was the podium, situated far from the students' desks and put in a position where the teacher could view everyone at once.

The floor was elevated towards the back, and it looked like one needed to climb a small hill to get to the last bench. Maybe that's normal. The wooden floor looked to be worn out, it's once brown color was now replaced with a dirty grey, the benches themselves looked to have taken a beating or two and had old markings on them, all in all the classroom reminded him of his apartment building, functional but in need of a renovation.

He remembered what Yukimura had taught him about social circles and how a hierarchy would eventually form in the classroom, he would scout out everything and make plans before acting, rather then placing himself at the top of one, it was best to just sit back and watch events unfold for the time. He could if the need arose trample the leaders of the hierarchy later and take their place or watch the others run around trying to repair the damage; that he realized sounded amusing to him.

Naruto quickly sat in the front at the bench near the door; he turned and looked at the two teachers that would be responsible for his group, the two had told them to think about the kind of shinobi they wanted to be and answer when their names were called. The first teacher he laid eyes on was Katsue Miwa, a young woman of medium height she had an oblong shaped face, hazel eyes, a small nose and long brown hair that was kept secure with a headband.

The second teacher was Kafu Okuma a tall middle aged man with a diamond shaped face, tan skin, shoulder length black hair and a thick mustache, his eyebrows Naruto noted were very well kept and even thinner then Katsue's, the man appeared to have problems with his left hand and leg from what he could observe.

"Naruto Uzumaki". It was Kafu who had called out his name.

Finally, it's my turn."Here" he raised his hand and in a cheerful tone of voice continued "I want to become a legendary shinobi and create my own clan."

The reactions that he could observe from his classmates varied, some looked at him strangely, and some bewildered, a few neutral, and from those at the orphanage came snickers and crude glares. His teachers reactions is what caught his attention, judging by the way Katsue scowled she must have wanted to burn him with it's intensity, while Kafu had started getting red in the face and he could see a vein on the man's forehead throb, it looked like the man would explode before he calmed himself down.

"Well then" the man began in a steady voice "anybody can dream" Naruto smiled, maybe he isn't so bad, maybe I just misjudging him, "no matter how utterly unrealistic and impossible that dream is." Naruto's face fell. Or maybe I'm an idiot for believing such a thing.

Naruto's smiled dropped for a moment before a fierce determined look crossed his face. "I will still become one just watch."

The man looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Kid the day you become a legendary shinobi is the day I eat my own boiled underwear." That elicited a round of laughter from the others in the classroom.

Naruto smiled "I'll hold you to that one day sensei. Just you watch!" he pointed an arm at his teacher while smiling.

The man rolled his eyes. "Sure you will child, you can think about your future legend during detention"

Naruto's eyes widened. "What did I do wrong I just answered your question?"

The man looked at him like it was the simplest thing in the world "You aren't the brightest one are you kid, hit your head one too many times while still wearing diapers?" that got another round of laughter from the class. "And judging by your looks that was just yesterday"

Now the classroom exploded in laughter, even Katsue had stopped scowling to laugh at him.

Naruto grit his teeth and tightened his fists under the bench, he was sure they were white under it.

"I never told you to tell us what kind of shinobi you wanted to be just to think about it, and the fact that you mouthed off to a teacher, that just adds to your detention." The man shook his head in a dismissive manner. "Congratulations for getting detention on the first day of the Academy future legendary shinobi" Another small round of laughter could be heard in the classroom, Naruto noticed how Kafu turned towards the students. "Now, don't laugh at your fellow student, no matter how deserved such a thing is, even he can become a shinobi. Not an important one mind you, like a gate guard, such a thing is still important, but perhaps with hard work, persistence and a great deal of time he could become an assistant to those who maintain and repair the training fields." Another round of laughter followed, this time more hushed, Kafu turned towards him again "Why you could become a ninja toilet cleaner, truly a legend amongst legends" the man raised both of his arms to emphasize the point, that broke the dam, as the class was filled with laughter again.

By now Naruto was red in the face, and he had shed a few tears, he was gritting his teeth, and knew he had drawn blood from his fists. I will become one just to spite him, and then after he lays there beaten at my feet, then and only then will I kill him.

Kafu made a sign for everybody to calm down. "Now now we've had our fun for the day, just deserved as it was, it's time to continue, I'm sure our future legend will entertain us again some other time as well."

Naruto closed his eyes and calmed down, breathing steadily again. One day, just you wait.

After two months, Naruto knew that continuing the academy, judging by the way things were going, would be a waste of time on his part. Almost all of the teachers he meet seemed to be bothered by his presence to a degree, a few showed down right hatred, others animosity to some extent, he guessed that three percent treated him neutral, but even those refused to say anything if the other teachers were around and acted against him.

Apparently a part of the new teachers were shinobi who had been wounded in the Kyuubi attack and only took the job because of the need to pay the bills. Now they apparently thought that this was their chance for some long overdue payback. So much for professional conduct, I wonder if they acted like this during missions.

The two teachers responsible for his class, one C as he found out they were named, were amongst the worst of the known lot, Kafu had been a skilled taijutsu user and was regarded as an up and coming shinobi, his start had been rising, but it never got of the ground as he was wounded in the Kyuubi attack and never recovered, the difficulties he had with his left arm and leg certainly lent such a thing credence. Katsue did not have any visible wounds, he guessed that she lost someone important in the attack; she looked far too young to have been an active shinobi at the time of the attack, but he could be mistaken.

Answering a question during class would have Kafu turn the damn answer around in ten ways to make him look stupid, one way or another, Katsue looked to take great pleasure in grading his test papers as harshly as she could. Not writing a complete answer, well a complete one from her point of view which he didn't know how it looked like, would get his answer cut. Writing a short answer would yet again get it cut, not enough or too much space between words had points deducted as well, and he got points cut for not being able to properly orient the words in the middle of the test page.

He had managed to get a look at some of his classmate's test papers and the differences were huge between them, some still had misspelled words, and incomplete answers, and yet they still got higher marks than him. He wanted to take those papers that he had saved, and shove them down the woman's throat.

The worst thing about the test papers though came later, and this he realized was something that added to his less than stellar academic reputation, it was that some of his test papers were forged. He wasn't sure if Katsue had done it, but it was a possibility, someone had managed to forge his handwriting and made plenty of changes to the test later on. Crossing out words and writing other ones above them, cutting answers out entirely, and then rewriting the whole damn thing making with different answers. They were so bold that he had seen them after a test switch out his test sheet with another one they had written out beforehand, he only got the score for that one, a miserable one of course. After he realized this Yukimura started giving him lessons about forgery, it wasn't his best subject but he helped in what way he could. Sayaka had made it clear that heads would roll when she got out followed by more words that he did not believe should be repeated.

Sadly with the mask of a more innocent persona and he wouldn't say stupid but it wasn't that far of the mark he couldn't do anything about it, being able to spot the mistakes the teachers made would just raise too many questions now, he had to handed it to them though the way the sabotage was conducted could be explained well enough, they made sure to cover their tracks so only a long and serious investigation would be able uncover something.

The teachers even started making a paper trail that if one followed and believed would make him out to be a bad seed that caused trouble in the classroom, was lazy, and refused to learn anything no matter how much the hard working teachers tried, that he was a general disruptive element in the classroom that dragged others near him down to his level. For this one he tipped his hat to Katsue, it was well done she had started moving the students that had low test scores and were troublemakers near him so it indeed looked like everyone near him was getting dragged down by a disruptive element, namely him.

The final blow came from his classmates, who were all older then him, it was bad enough trying to make friends with someone older then him, but after seeing how the teachers treated him many choose to stay away fearing equal treatment, it didn't help that some that the teachers noticed those being some what friendly to him and subsequently those students got asked more questions during class. He couldn't begrudge them for staying away given the teachers treatment, he could however begrudge them the words of his dear old friends from the orphanage who started bad mouthing him, a few he observed had parents who seemed to beam when they bad mouthed him. Subsequently his reputation was in the toilet, even children from the other classes were wary of him having heard of his less then good reputation.

His consolation was that from what he had observed almost none of his fellow students had any true potential and thus weren't necessarily worth the time he would waste with trying to befriend them, even if he badly wanted to make some friends. A lot of them were civilians, with a good dose of orphans whose parentage was unknown, those who came from a ninja family or had a ninja relative stayed far away from him. Sadly besides a few none seem to take things seriously, they were treating the academy like a joke, like being a shinobi would be some easy job that they would get the hang of easily enough. Perhaps some could eventually gain enough skill to reach and hold a low key position or perhaps a middle one; from what he had read making and disarming traps didn't require a lot of chakra, those rare few that had a genjutsu thrown into the mix were the ones that required some skill in detecting and dispelling genjutsu.

The only use he could see for most of his classmates was that of a meat shield and cannon fodder, with the way they had acted he wouldn't hesitate in sending some in a trap to disarm it by springing it. A shame that there aren't any clan members present this year they would have been useful to gauge their clan's reaction to me, perhaps with a few of them present things would have been different in some way or another.

He realized that while at the academy he wasn't getting anything done, he had two goals that he wanted to accomplish at while at the academy, to make some friends and get a good education, while Yukimura and Sayaka did their best they didn't have knowledge about an education from his world. The two had gone over the books from the library and others Yukimura had read and were doing their best to fill in the holes the teachers created.

He smiled if it weren't for two he could almost see himself becoming what the teachers made him out to be, their treatment of him would have made him become an academic disaster, he was once again grateful for their presence. He had hoped to learn about the shinobi arts of his world, Yukimura and Sayaka had managed to mesh together a shinobi training program for him from the different shinobi arts that Yukimura had learned from the various worlds he had visited. Mixing chakra into them was the real hard part that the two of them had problems solving, a few of the other shinobi arts had magic thrown in it and the two were attempting to replace it with chakra as well.

Personally he rather enjoyed the arts that didn't require the use any chakra or magic, pure old fashioned skill seemed best for him, some of the skills Yukimura taught him were certainly like that. Even if he himself didn't have chakra to enhance his skills while training, Yukimura and Sayaka used their superior senses to spot and correct him during stealth training, Yukimura had recreated whole cities that he had visited and had him train there in various ways, from sneaking around and making it from one end of the city to the other while avoiding the guards and people, to robbing stores and people. All in all he found their teachings superior to what his world could offer, but the two still insisted he try and get an education with the shinobi arts of his world.

His only real success came from two weeks ago when after a prank that had targeted the teacher's library which resulted in coloring one of its walls with some paint, he had used it as a cover and while standing still cleaning the wall, Yukimura had channeled his magic through his feet and copied all the instruction manuals the teachers had, the fact that he also copied the entire current school curriculum as well as the future one from the older classes, manuals and old tests that were given, and mostly likely would be given from the older classes, was just an added bonus for him.

Yukimura had discovered that best students of all the classes would eventually be moved together to form a new class, then the second best and so on until they reached the last class that were often considered failures with no real hope. Along the years quite a few of students dropped out of the program while others were dropped from it because of the lack of abilities shown in any field or because of their personality. The best class was considered the only one really worthy of having a jonin sensei, and with a few exceptions some from the second class as well, the rest would get assigned to various divisions and chunin would aid them in some way or another.

Getting into that class would usually be on merit alone, usually, but bribes and connections helped things along just as well. Who wouldn't want their children to have a better chance at succeeding, sadly for that it meant pushing those who actually deserved the spot but didn't have the connections to the second class. Unknown to many was that usually clan members would be placed together in the same class almost automatically and their class would be seen as the best class as well as the first one from the start, the people in the know often waited until the children from clan members attended the academy to send their own as well.

He had also managed to gain accesses to the library the academy had and he did the same thing he had done at the normal library in Konoha, currently both Yukimura and Sayaka's were going through the books to extract any useful information and find a way to use it, which required trial and error and their part.

Sadly the down side of most of the books which handled the more important subjects was that they required direct supervision from someone with practical experience in the matter and for the student to have a good grasp of the basics, which he didn't have. A lot of the basic and practical subjects were taught without the help of textbooks, apparently it was considered more efficient for a teacher to show the students how the exercises, such as chakra molding, were done rather then let them read about it which they may not understand.

Books with theories on the matter existed but again Yukimura and Sayaka still needed to go through them to find the heart of the subject and cut out the irrelevant data. They were attempting to reverse engineer some more exercises that used different forms of magic and other kinds of energy in hopes of adapting them for use with chakra, so far they had made some progress and were tweaking things, the both of them had blown themselves up a few times while attempting the experiments so he wasn't in any rush to try those exercises until they had worked out all the kinks.

The place he really wanted to visit was the shinobi library that he believed had detailed guides for beginners, unfortunately he couldn't get in until he made genin, nor could he stay close enough to the building for Yukimura to use his magic as the place was guarded and someone would come and shew him away. While his thiefs skills were good now and he had taken to robbing a few people for some extra money and he had even managed to enter a few civilian houses and apartments he didn't know what kind the security measures the place had, one small seal that he couldn't see and he would get caught.

Naruto gently lowered his head while pondering about what to do next, he had other projects that he occupy himself with, Sayaka and Yukimura were working on the shinobi books they had gotten. He briefly thought about the academy curriculum, they were taught a core curriculum of reading, writing, mathematics, science and geography, and these lessons were typically framed in a ninja-context, and in fact were all learned in order to facilitate later instruction in tactics and strategies.

The students were asked to learn the Shinobi Rules, which made both Yukimura and Sayaka laugh when they read them. The students were also supposed to receive special lectures from veteran shinobi, and learn how to clear their minds, he hadn't seen any veterans yet and mostly likely wouldn't.

The classes were broken into the basic levels of taijutsu classes that served as the academy's equivalent of physical education. In taijutsu class, they would engage in physical activities to help train their bodies and develop their stamina, sparring was common, or in his case that often meant taking a beating.

For all his faults Naruto could honestly say that Kafu Okuma knew his taijutsu, after so many hours spent training with Yukimura, Sayaka and the large variety of opponents they created for him he could see the mistakes his fellow students made and how Kafu easily corrected them, his observations were always sharp and correct pointing out the existing flaws and closing whatever openings existed. That of course wasn't done for him, oh no, for him the stance he was taught was always a bit more open, just a bit more wide, just enough for a punch or a kick to slip through, nothing life threatening just yet. Whenever he made a good block, his dear sensei would instruct his opponent how to get around it, he was told to consider it a learning experience. A shame the man would probably drool is he showed his skills with the K'tara, Echani and Steel Hand martial art, he clenched his fists, one day he would definitely show his dear sensei his actual skills.

He slowly unclenched his fist and breathed to calm himself down, his mind returning to the curriculum, the ninjutsu classes were supposed to provide the bulk of what potential ninjas learned at the academy. Students were supposed to be taught about chakra, how to manipulate it and use hand seals, and ultimately how to use techniques such as the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique. Katsue was responsible for that part of their education and it had yet to get of the ground, in her defense everybody needed to draw out their chakra first and then get used to it.

They were also shown how to use the basic equipment such as shuriken and kunai, he still wasn't sure why more weapons weren't included in later years, to at least give them a small taste of what it would like be to use a different weapon and then to defend against an opponent with such a weapon while they only a kunai to use.

Genjutsu classes had not gone passed the theoretical part just yet, but they were supposed to focus less on how to create the illusions and more on how they worked. Students were to be taught how to determine if they were trapped in a genjutsu, and then how to release themselves from it.

An amusing tid bit was that girls had to attend kunoichi classes, where they were taught about other cultures and how skills such as flower arranging would help them to blend in during an infiltration mission. The infiltration part was skipped for the boys for some reasons, even though men could handle the flower part as some had a business related to them.

Graduating from the Academy, Yukimura had discovered from the some of the documents the teachers had, usually consisted of taking both a written exam and a practical exam, administered by a chunin instructor, the student had to earn enough marks to pass. Upon graduating, the students received a forehead protector as proof of their achievement; just how unique such a thing was still a mystery to him. Couldn't such a thing be easily subjected to forgery? Is there some sort of special seal on it? Or does it have sort of unique registration number.

Later on graduating students were then separated into squads of three genin and assigned to a jonin-sensei to instruct them further, it seemed lax in his opinion and both Sayaka and Yukimura agreed. Still from the paperwork they had discovered that after meeting their jonin sensei the teams would yet again be tested this time by their jonin teacher to assess whether they would be able to handle the demands that would be made of them as ninja. If the students failed they return to the academy for a time for more classes before being allowed to try again, if they failed again they would usually be assigned to a division or another, rarely was someone dropped from the program at that point.

All in all while things were somewhat lax, it had its problems the students that applied themselves would make progress, it was watered down to a degree but not entirely, the standards were lowered from before during the war period curriculum that Yukimura had discovered in the teachers lounge, whether this was because Konoha's arrogance or the peace time still remained to be seen. Personally judging by the teachers attitude he leaned more it being the fault of Konoha believing it could withstand any storm sent its way.

It looks like during wartime they throw the students into the meat grinder and then revert back to simpler methods, I can understand that during wartime those who couldn't make the cut were dropped quickly while the rest would see battle in one way or another. During peace they took longer to teach everything and to the sort out who had potential and who didn't, it gave more students a chance to graduate. Because of the peace time they also restricted the higher skills so those who ended up failing the program wouldn't be able to cause any problems.

It was understandable, why would anyone want to have a bunch of civilians who know how to use chakra and know ninja skills that can start committing crimes.

Yes, my best choice is to fail this year and then attempt again next time, preferably when the clan heirs will be present, he had heard that a few were close to his age, only a few months apart age wise and they will prove useful connections for the future. He just needed to be careful and make sure that he got the grades needed to fail the year and not get kicked out, he doubted the Hokage would ever let him quit being a ninja, and he would rather not have the Hokage force his readmission if he failed the year badly enough, no that would be his last card to play and only used if the teachers made things so worse that he could not repeat the academy year.

He would simply do enough to meet his target and nothing more then that, once he reached the year with the clan heir he could show some more of his skills and take some action if the teachers attempted to flunk him that time, of course he would keep a few of his and his fellow students test papers, as memories of his time at the academy, and if the Hokage should find them and see how harshly they were corrected well it wouldn't be his fault at all.

Naruto realized that he could use pranks as a way to showcase his stealth ability, even if the teachers had been angry for the prank he had done at the academy they had talked about how he had managed to accomplish it as no one had seen him do it. Best of all he could use pranks as a cover in case he got caught while trying to break into a shop or house, yes, a few every now and then won't hurt.

He thought for a moment if the Hokage would intervene at the academy, he must have gotten reports from the academy; the only explanation he could come with was that the Hokage believed the reports from the academy about him. In which case for some reasons he was willing to let the village weapon remain unskilled rather then placed through a harsh training regime.

The Hokage could send someone to investigate the matter at the academy if he thought there was something suspicious occurring and wanted to observe if the reports were real. If I was that important for the village he could have gotten me a tutor or thrown me to the wolves and be trained by Anbu. He reacted rather badly when I asked for lessons before the start of the academy perhaps he believed I'm an idiot and have little skill that would mean that he had a defective weapon on his hands. He could be trying to treat me fairly and just like any other person in the village, but after the incident with the merchant not sending someone to investigate the academy is criminally negligent. Bah I'll set this matter aside; mostly likely the old fool believes that I'll have a normal childhood and that his beloved villagers won't act in a manner that would endanger that.

Naruto's face took a devilish smile when the plan came together, he would also create the image of victim in the minds of a few people and make a story as to why he quit the academy should the Hokage ask for more details. He had also found the perfect mark to help him with the scheme; it would be his going away present for the rest of the class, taking down one of the so called tough guys.

All the while scoring points with the rest, Yukimura's lesson rang through his head again, Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim, he had found out when Katsue's birthday was by overhearing a few teacher talk about it and could use that and include it into his plans, it was an excuse to get the woman some flowers, for my favorite teacher. A small act of kindness to make a crack in the wall, even if she throws them away all I need is for a chip to be made in her defense.

She would be his second target, he was already acting dumb and his trick of making the people around him smarter than he was had worked, they were to his joy, convinced of this, the teachers were especially convinced of this, they would never in a thousand years believe that he would ever be able to outsmart them. He still needed to be careful and get the others to play with the cards he dealt them, his victims needed to feel that they were in control after all, but not actually his puppets, he would stir up the waters a bit. He would make his first mark angry so he would surely jump at a chance to rat him out, he already knew the chink in that one's vanity through which he could rattle him and play him like a puppet.

The last part of the plan would inadvertably, work on the hearts and minds of others, at the end of the scheme he would look like the innocent victim in all of it, the scheme would help soften up Katsue and some of the soon to be former classmates of his by removing an annoying element from their mists, conviently it would also give him a good reasons to withdraw temporarly from the academy becouse of it.

He chuckled sinisterly when he thought about what he had done to the merchant he targeted, those poor fools thought he hadn't heard them back then and that it had all been just and accident and not something deliberate. It was a short time after he had started the academy and he had invited the Hokage over for another meal that he had cooked in order to celebrate him starting the academy. He had of course bought the products from a merchant he had chosen before and that he knew would sell him expired food or food very close to the expiration date, all the while overpricing him, the man considered himself a top dog and that he was more powerful then others.

Flashback

Four men were talking as they looked at the shop of one of Konoha's most successful and influential merchants the man's shop was also one of the biggest in the village. Takenao Toma had temporarily closed his shop and joined the small group of fellow merchants that were discussing the commotion at the shop.

"So does anyone know what's going?" he was still on very thin ice with a lot of his fellow merchants after he had sold good products to the jinjuriki and worst still continued to do so, he was still terrified he could hurt the Hokage and bring his wrath down on himself.

"Just a few bits from here and there" answered Tomiichi Kawaguchi, a baker.

"There's been a lot of activity at that store for a while now, the people looked to have been thrown out, heck even the people working there, exited the place." Answered Ninsei Onishi a fellow merchant that owned a small store as well.

This time it was Tetsui Shinsato who spoke "Looks like Kobo really fucked up big time, rumor has it the merchant guild representative is there and he's out for blood."

Takenao cringed, Kobo Mochizuki was a well connected merchant and someone you didn't want to anger, it was odd considering he supposedly had a good relationship with the merchant guild representative, it was one of the reason people were wary of him. "Isn't he on good terms with the guild representative?"

The last man there, Takanobu Hamasaki spoke up. "Yeah he is but apparently even that can't help you if you piss of the Hokage"

"He did what?" Takenao asked shocked.

Tetsui Shinsato looked at the others mulling things over before speaking again. "You know how I have a nephew?" that got a round of nods. "Well the boy works at the hospital and he told me this morning when he came by that the Hokage arrived at the hospital towards the morning with some terrible stomach problems." The group cringed guessing what would follow. "The man had food poisoning" Takenao took in a deep breath, that was extremely bad, no the word bad couldn't do the situation justice he realized. "The guild representative got brought in by some ninja a while later, still in sleepwear and all that. My nephew doesn't know what they talked about, well more like the Hokage talked and the guild representative listened from what some of the other people that did hear tell him. And" he motioned towards the shop "this is the result, a little while ago, some ninja also went into the store."

None of the men noticed a small blond boy walking behind them.

Takanobu Hamasaki was the first to speak after that "There's no way Kobo would sell something rotten to the freaking Hokage!"

Takenao's eyes bulged and he felt like lighting had struck him when he realized what actually occurred. "No, not to him no, but if it was someone else, someone with whom the Hokage ate with and Kobo didn't know that the person was close to the Hokage!" He smashed his fist into his one palm. "I told you guys" he stopped for a moment and cringed when he realized what he almost blurted out loud, he cleared his throat for a moment before continuing " I told you guys that he was close to the Hokage and that they had dinner together! This just proves it!" He felt excited, finally the other merchants couldn't call him a liar anymore, he had proof here, it had actually happened to someone. Takenao's hear skipped several beats, realization hit him quickly. That could have been me instead, oh thank Kami that the kid was stupid enough to mention it before or I would have been in deep shit now instead of Kobo.

The other men present all gave him a round of nods. "That could well be, it would make sense, look's like were going to have be more careful around the...boy."

Another round of nods followed, the men were about to start talking again when a voice from behind the group all but had them jumping out of their shoes, they quickly turned around, one person from the group already knew who it was.

"Heya mister." Naruto waved at Takenoa. "I went to the store and saw that it was closed, but then I saw you here, are you going to open the store today?"

"Yeah" Takenao began in a shaky voice, "sure I am I was just talking with some friends of mine"

Naruto looked at the other with a goofy smile on his face "I don't really know how to greet more then one mister, so" he rubbed the back of his head "sorry that I can't greet all you group of misters"

The group quickly exchanged a few glances, before Takanobu Hamasaki spoke up "Don't worry about it kid, it's no problem, you'll learn in time"

"I wanted to ask if you knew anything about that store" he pointed towards Kobo's store.

Naruto nodded. "Oh yeah I know it! I bought some stuff from there for the dinner I made for me and old man Hokage" After the last part was uttered one could almost hear how the people's muscles tightened and their hearts skipped a beat. Naruto looked towards Takenao "It was more expensive then the stuff you have and wasn't as tasty as yours either, and the man there was mean to me, but he had more stuff, it made me sick though" Naruto rubbed his stomach. "I think it made the old man sick as well, someone from the Hokage came by later and took what was left of the food I bought from there, he probably wanted to get rid of it cuz it was bad."

Takenao nodded. "Probably, how about we go to my store so you can get your shopping done, sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds great mister, let's go!"

Flashback end.

The stomach problems and diareah was well worth it, my food problems all but disseapeared after that, Naruto thought about the merchant, the poor man has certanly fallen on hard times. He chuckled again remembering Yukimura's words, strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. And the sheep certanly scattered, I'm in a much better position then before with the merchants, one of the so called untouchable, big and well connected men was taken down before their eyes, that has put fear into their hearts.

Naruto had managed to change a few of the Hokage's seals around the village, adding a bit of Yukimura's magic to give him a heads up for when the Hokage used them, in theory it should also add a foggy effect before revealing him, thus giving him a few precious seconds to act beforehand. He wandered around Konoha while not in the academy and changed a few of them, not all of course, just one or two in clusters of them, to his secret joy he had discovered quite a few parks and forested areas in Konoha that didn't have the seals and were safe for him.

To his joy with the weather finally warming up he managed to dig up some earth and create a small garden in his room, he had managed to procure the seeds beforehand and he only ended up buying the pots he needed. Creating a small garden on the roof was the next step but he needed to be careful in case someone destroyed it when it was discovered that it was his, there weren't any rules, that he was aware of regarding creating a small garden on the roof of the building. He had managed to start a few garden patches in some of the forested areas of Konoha, as much as he wanted to make it all in one place, he couldn't take the risk of someone finding it and losing everything in one swoop, it was best to divide things for now, Naruto couldn't wait for the summer to make syrup from the roses he had planted.

Yes I have other things to occupy myself with; I still need to find a place for the opening to the god realm. It was a very dangerous thing to create such an opening as other people could stumble open and it would open a whole different can of worms if that occurred but both Yukimura and Sayaka wanted him to enter the good realm with his psychical body to better continue his training. Now all I need to do is work out the kinks in the new plan.

Naruto smiled as he lay on his bed drinking tea and thinking about his recent success, his scheme had worked perfectly, he had framed his classes self titled cool guy and great ninja, a boy named Minoru for shoplifting, he doubted anyone would really miss the boy, some would be grateful for his removal from the program.

First Naruto had bragged about his own shoplifting skills to a group of students that he wanted to befriend, he explained that he used a fake school book to do the deed, the fact that Minoru was nearby and heard everything was something he was counting on, the boy went to the teachers with all kinds of lies about what Naruto done and got recognition for it while he got detention, there wasn't even a small chance for him not to go immediately to the teachers or maybe even take it to the authorities.

Of course after that, predictably, Minoru showed up to watch Naruto get caught stealing a few items only for the store employees to find that he had only a regular book and nothing stolen on his person. Naruto claimed that Minoru was the real thief, and when Minoru was grabbed, he dropped his book and the items fell out. Naturally he had made the switch between the books a while back before making the move, and had stolen items from shops that Minoru had recently visited and planted a few stolen items in the boy's house as well.

The shocked faces of his teachers were now some of his new favorite memories, Katsue's reaction was even worse, the flowers he had given her and telling the woman how she was his favorite teacher had indeed made a dent in her armor. He told the authorities that he desperately wanted to make friends and that he heard how Minoru bragged about doing something similar and hoped that he could get friends that way but in the end he couldn't bring himself to steal anything, hearing that had made Katsue from what he could see visibly cringe. Dear old Minoru got kicked out of the academy and was in a lot of trouble for the stolen items.

He used the excuse that he couldn't make friends in the academy no matter what he tried and how everybody were convinced he would actually steal something and accused him of it as an excuse to stop going to the academy. He had put on a small show of appearing downtrodden while in public to show just how sad he was about the whole thing, that was especially true the few times he had seen his old teachers at the market. An unexpected bonus was that even the Hokage believed him and had told him to try harder next time and that he was sure things would go better for him. The Hokage had taken him to Ichiraku's a few times to help cheer him up; he drank a bit more of his tea and smiled. Everything went better then I planed.

A knock at the door interrupted his musings, it was late and he wasn't sure who it could be, beside the Hokage and very rarely the landlord no one visited him, he placed the tea cup on the table slowly making his way to the door and placing a knife near it, just in case he needed it. Naruto drew in a breath before he opened the door and his eyes widened at who he was there. His old teacher Katsue Miwa stood there in front of his apartment door, she looked drunk, her cloths were a mess, her hair was unkempt, her eyes were red like she had been crying and she had bangs under them. Naruto tensed preparing for the worst, before the woman burst into tears and got down on her knees and hugged him tightly.

"I'm so glad you're alive." she managed to get out between sobs. "I thought I had gotten you killed as well!"

Katsue stopped for a moment and it looked like she was running out of breath. "Please you have to forgive me; I didn't want to drive you to suicide."

The woman hugged him tighter while crying; Naruto stood frozen and didn't move a muscle. What the hell is going on? What is she talking about, this...I... never planned for something like this. He breathed in and calmed down before a demonic smile formed on his face and using his arms as little as he could wrapped them around the woman and nuzzled his head against her neck. "It's alright sensei I forgive you." He told her in a sweet and innocent tone of voice.

"You do?" The woman asked breaking the hug.

Now that they were close that Naruto felt like he had gotten hit in the face from the woman's breath, how much has she been drinking? "Yep, I'm sure you didn't mean it."

The woman burst into tears again "Oh thank you Gengyo!" She quickly placed a hand over her mouth and she looked like she would throw up.

"The bathroom's that way." He motioned towards the bathroom and Katsue quickly ran towards it wobbling slightly. Naruto let out a breath he had been holding in, he looked outside the hallway before he closed the door and took the knife from the doorway. Tsk I should have adapted faster to the change, oh well this is good enough; I know I can work this into my plans. He heard retching noises from his bathroom. Well time to go and play the good guy card.

When Naruto reached the bathroom he saw Katsue down on her knees and vomiting above the toilet, he slowly made his up to her and held up her hair so she wouldn't vomit on it more then she already had. What did surprise him were the bandages on her wrists that were red in some places. Did I drive her to suicide? He stayed there holding her hair up and padding her on the back from time to time until she finished.

"Sensei can I check your bandages?" He asked holding one of her hands after the woman was done vomiting and was sprawled out on the bathroom flour.

Katsue looked at him with squinted eyes. "Morikawa-san is that you?"

Just great. He got the first aid kit and managed to look over her wounds, they were self inflicted he realized.

"I …thought I hurt someone else like did you Morikawa" Katsue rubbed her eyes, "I" she swallowed her own spit. "I didn't want to live with myself anymore." Katsue began crying again.

What in Kyuubi's name happened to her before all of this? It look's like her past experience together with my actions she was somehow driven her to suicide.

"That's alright, everything is fine, and I'm ok". He quickly checked her bandages and did what he could to make sure her life wasn't in any danger, he was grateful that Yukimura and Sayaka had taught him about how to apply first aid, Katsue looked to have done a good job of treating her wounds as well. I can't let her sleep here like this, ugh, I guess she can sleep in my bed this time, but not dressed like she is now. "Come sensei you need to get some sleep, take off your shoes and flak jacket."

The woman nodded and complied numbly, he took her by the hand and brought her to his bed, he planed on sleeping on the flour, sadly the woman had other plans as she caught him in a tight embrace and didn't let go of him.

"Don't leave you might hurt yourself!" She tightened her grip on him.

Well crap. "Its ok sensei I won't hurt myself I just want to shut the lights off."

"No!" The woman all but shouted. "You'll hurt yourself just like he did!"

Damn it, well let's play this out to the end then maybe I can find out what happened. He snuggled closer to her, "It's alright sensei I won't go anywhere then."

Naruto lay awake looking up at the ceiling, Katsue still had him in an iron grip, the light was still on in his room and sadly he hadn't been able to open a window and the room smelled of vomit and alcohol from the Katsue. He guessed that it was around two or three, definitely past midnight, it had taken a while for Katsue to calm and down and with some small encouragement from him told her story, he had managed to put all the piece together after the woman fell asleep, and it is quite the story all right.

Katsue Miwa had worked with a friend of hers, Mai Kujaku, and seduced an academy teacher, Gengyo Morikawa; they had worked rather hard on the matter and then claimed that he had tried to rape them. Both women had a reason to target the man, an interesting tid bit was that Katsue and Mia were lovers and the relationship continued for a time, the way she described it Naruto guessed that Mia was the one that seduced Katsue for the plan. Hearing that Mai also slept with one of one the men who would have some say over Gengyo's career, did not help make their romance any better, apparently the man would help to block Gengyo's career advancement thanks to his position and the influence he had.

The reasons for the two women varied, in Mai's case it was revenge as a very good friend of hers that had died on a mission because Gengyo had abandoned her. With Katsue it was because she was terrified of returning to field work, she had been involved in a string of missions that gone wrong and ended up with a lot of bodies pilling up, her last mission had gone horrifyingly wrong and she had been scarred by it.

Unfortunately her track record was still good, she was far too young to retire, and the other posts that she could fill out in the village were already occupied, the woman was terrified of ending up in Konoha's mental health institute, so when Mai came up with the plan it was like a god had smiled down on her. After the teacher was removed she would take his place, the excuse was that she would do a better job then him and fix whatever damage he may have done to the young generation.

Their plan had gone well, the charges brought up against the man had certainly held up, why a Yamanaka mind reader hadn't been brought to solve the matter was beyond him though, Gengyo had been suspended from active duty and was seen to be depressed and downtrodden when in public, something that he himself had done as well after leaving the academy, the charges of rape together with his abandonment of a comrade before and a visit to a mental health specialist seemed to had finally ended his career and any friendships the man still had.

The big victory that Mai claimed was when Gengyo committed suicide, the man had hanged himself and the trial ended there, apparently that was seen as his admission of guilt, why else would he have committed suicide if not because of the guilt he felt. In either case Mai got what she wanted with Gengyo dead and his reputation destroyed, Katsue did as well with the teaching job ending up in her lap.

Things were looking up for the two women, the downside was that Katsue had been to one to find Gengyo's body and took his private journal, Katsue had went to visit the man in prison after the man had asked her to visit him, Naruto believed that Katsue was feeling guilty about the whole thing and decided to visit the man because of that. Katsue admitted that she had wanted to the have man ruined and thrown in jail but never considered that he would commit suicide and regretted it.

What Katsue read in the journal however slowly pushed her towards the edge, while Gengyo admitted to abandoning Mai's friend and getting her killed, he started drinking because of that and fell into a depression from which he was barely able to recover, the man had been close to committing suicide before but with therapy he had managed to recover. He had resolved to become a teacher and help teach the next generation to ensure that none of them would be cowards like he considered himself.

After finding that out together with her oh so steamy relationship with Mai becoming more casual, had driven Katsue into a depression, and she had soldiered on only to keep up appearances. Mai's death a year ago ensured that no one would ever find out about their plan and that she was in the clear, but that did little to help her recover. When he started attending the academy Katsue started to sabotage him because the other teachers were for it, she had not lost anyone important in the Kyuubi attack but was still wary of him. Rather then go against the tide of hatred against him she just went along with it, doing her part in his educational nightmare.

The big change was that he kept his mask on which the teacher actually believed to be true and had to plow through her feelings, apparently keeping his mask on had slowly chipped away at her, the flowers on her birthday and his subsequent innocence in his ploy had a bigger impact on the woman then he had calculated.

When Katsue saw him acting in a similar fashion to Gengyo before his disappearance and subsequent suicide she had thought that it was happening to him as well and that she driven someone else to suicide. Her teaming up with Kafu reminded her of her planning with Mai, thinking that Naruto was innocent but deciding to still go against him to help herself also reminded her of time when she had worked with Mai.

Adding some heavy drinking and Katsue had slashed her arms a few times, nothing to serious and she had managed to patch herself up nicely, before deciding to seek him and see if he really did commit suicide and the rest was history.

Well I have to admit I never thought my plan would turn out like this, accidentally driving her to suicide and her own dark past was something I never factored into my plans. Still I can use this new development to further my own plans, if I play my own cards right and play on her guilt I should be able to get a good education out of her, the tricky part will be to get her to keep her mouth shut about it, difficult but not impossible. I just hope I can get a few good hours of sleep and wake up tomorrow before her. Who would have thought this day would end like this?

When Katsue managed to wake up her head felt like someone had hit her over it with a shovel several times, she opened her eyes and rather quickly realized that she wasn't in her apartment. Where am I? However after seeing a small bundle of blond near her chest she calmed down as memories of the previous night came rushing back, oh thank Kami he's alright, she hugged him a bit. I remember starting to make my way towards him after the finishing another bottle of sake. Did I say anything I shouldn't have? A small voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Sensei are you awake?"

"Naruto-kun, you're awake as well" She let him out her embrace.

Naruto straiten up. "Yes I got up a little while ago."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why didn't you get up then?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I tried but you were holding me really tight sensei."

She blushed slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry about that."

Naruto shook his head and lowered it. "It's alright; no one's ever done that for me before."

Katsue could feel the sadness in his voice. Damn, at least I had my parents before they died. She tried to compose herself. "Naruto-kun do you remember what I said last night?" Kami please don't let it be something bad.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Just that you were sorry about something or another, you hugged me really tight and didn't want to let go of me."

She let out a relieved breath. Oh thank Kami for small miracles. "Um well I may have been a bit inebriated last night."

Naruto tilted his head to a side looking at Katsue. "What's inebriated mean?"

Katsue laughed nervously and coughed nervously in one hand. "I may have had a few drinks that affected me a little."

Naruto gave her a deadpan expression. "Sensei you vomited in my bathroom for a while last night, I think you had more then just a few drinks."

She laughed a bit at that raising an arm to cover her mouth. Oh the little…

Naruto face suddenly took on a concerned look. "Sensei what's wrong with your arms?"

"What?" she asked startled looking at her arms.

Naruto sent the woman a worried look. "I was really worried last night you were red at your arms and used some of the stuff I had in the bathroom on them."

"I…" damn it "I hurt myself by accident before coming here last nigh Naruto"

Naruto sent the woman a concerned look. "Oh ok I was worried when I saw you like that."

Katsue felt like crying seeing Naruto's concerned look. Damn even after the things I did he still care about me. "It's alright I'm fine, I'll check on them right now ok?"

Naruto nodded. "Ok"

Katsue went to the bathroom and quickly checked over her wounds. Well even drunk it looks like I managed to patch myself up rather well. Kami I was close to jumping of the edge last night, by the look of things I was getting ready to jump. She took a deep breath before stepping out of the bathroom. She found Naruto was at the table in the room and eating, a small kettle with water was boiling on an electric stove Katsue took a seat on the bed again.

"I have food if you want sensei." Naruto motioned to the table.

Katsue waved a hand at him to dismiss the notion "It's alright I don't want any right now" She wasn't sure how to approach the subject of why she had traveled to his place.

"Oh, um sensei why did you come here last night? Was it because of the academy?"

Yes, bingo. "Actually yes Naruto, it's about that I realized I made a mistake when teaching you during the academy and I wanted to fix that."

Naruto gave her a confused look. "Um, I already quit the academy sensei."

"You what?!" she asked startled, she knew he wasn't attending anymore, but she didn't know he had quit just yet.

Naruto nodded and furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah, almost all the people there are mean."

Katsue quickly consider the options she had given the situation. "Oh, well maybe if we both try hard you could manage to pass the year; I'll help in whatever way I can." I know I can get his grades higher with the tests and switching the seating arrangements back around.

Naruto shook his head. "I'd still be with all the mean people, old man Hokage said I that can try again next time."

She felt a tinge of relief at his words. "Oh he did?" It make's sense the Hokage would want to keep him at the academy to continue his education, why we hasn't taken a better look at the place is still up for debate. I know a few people thought that he didn't care much for the boy either and was giving his own taciturn approval for the treatment.

"Do you still want to teach me?"

Katsue could hear the nervousness in his voice "I…" I will get into the trouble with the other staff members at the very least, she looked at Naruto's face, he looks so innocent, she thought about things for a moment chewing her lower lip, maybe I can find some repentance with this. "Yes I still want to teach you." Katsue noticed how Naruto's seem to brighten after her words.

"That would be awesome sensei with your help I'll be a kick as shinobi in no time!"

Well he certainly has enthusiasm, how did I not see this before? No I did see it but I chose to ignore it.

"Ano can I ask you to promise me something sensei?"

She furrowed her eyebrows "What is it Naruto?"

"Can we keep our training a secret?"

"Why would you want such a thing Naruto?" Katsue had to admit that she was surprised at his statement, she didn't expect that.

"Because I want to surprise the Hokage with my skills later on, and I remember the mister who helped teach me how to read and write Goda I think it was, said that shinobi don't want always the glory and prefer to get the job done and knowing its success was enough for them." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I think that's what he said."

Katsue blinked considering his words. Keeping it a secret would definitely keep things stable at work. "That's a surprisingly mature thing Naruto and very true."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah I wrote it down here somewhere!" He motioned around the room.

Katsue almost hit flour face first when she heard his reply. Well at least he's trying. Yes, this could definitely work. "Very well Naruto I promise to keep our training a secret."

"That's great sensei." Naruto jumped from his chair and hugged her. "Old man Hokage said it was really important to keep your promises no matter what."

Katsue smiled as she hugged Naruto. "Don't worry I will defiantly keep my promise." Maybe there's some salvation for me after all.

She didn't see the glint in Naruto's eyes or the smile that crept on his face.

Over the following weeks Katsue and Naruto established a schedule to meet up for her to properly teach him, the schedule revolved around the little free time that she had at her disposal. A few times the two meet at her apartment, and once at Naruto's apartment, most of their meetings however occurred in the forested areas in Konoha.

Katsue had started with the basics that were supposed to have been taught at the academy, the same she and her fellow teacher had sabotaged to make sure he didn't understand them properly. What surprised her was just how skilled Naruto turned out to be, she realized that he was a kinesthetic learner, her ex student need to carry out a physical activity rather then listen to a lecture or watching a demonstration to properly learn something. Katsue cursed herself when she remembered reading about the different learning styles, she had read about the topic specifically to be a good teacher.

The progress Naruto made bewildered her, she seemed to soak in everything like a sponge, after cutting out some of the more irrelevant parts Naruto had managed to be up to date with the rest of class and she would soon need to go into the more advanced subjects. Because she wanted him to work more on chakra molding Katsue had decided to start teaching Naruto some of her other skills such as forgery, worth evaluation, ninja wire and basic first aid. This way Naruto would have something else to work on while still doing the chakra molding exercises, while he still did the exercises she realized that he needed something else to do during the day when he took breaks from chakra molding.

One thing that had made her both proud and saddened her was after seeing just how hard Naruto worked, it was after an exercise for his forgery skill that she had shown him, she asked him to try and imitate the hand writing she had given him on a piece a paper. Naruto had ended up doing three times the amount of work needed, even after he succeeded he kept going, thinking that it wasn't done right just yet. She realized then that Naruto was a hard worker but that sadly she and the academy teachers had done a great deal of damage to his self esteem, that was seen in his belief that she couldn't get things done right the first time or easily, it was something that she started to work on in hoped of fixing.

Taijutsu had proven another surprise for her, she remembered the day she got thrown down on her ass by Naruto with a simple sweeping hand move and leg turn, Naruto admitted that he started working on his own style after having faced so many opponents that were bigger then him and not having any luck with the academy style. She cringed when she heard that, she knew that Kafu had made sure to punish Naruto during sparring as much as possible, the man may have indivertibly helped to create a new taijutsu style.

From what she saw it had potential, it focused more on using the motion and kinetic energy of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on, it required very little physical strength as the practitioner guided the attacker's momentum using entering and turning movements. Considering how his opponents were bigger then him and he had very little muscle on him and wouldn't have for many years the style was ideal for him, creating something like it because of necessity showed her just how great his potential was. She realized that what she and the other teacher attempted to do was criminal, she knew that Kafu would be willing to sell his soul to help someone developed a new martial arts style with such potential, sadly she also knew that he wouldn't help Naruto and going to him would break the trust Naruto had placed in her.

At the end of the day Katsue was extremely pleased with Naruto's progress he was a hard worker and just needed the right guidance with it he was revealed to be a very talented child, Katsue couldn't help but smile she enjoyed the time she spent with Naruto he was bundle of sunshine that helped to brighten up her day, she wanted to make sure that he would be better prepared for when the day came for him to go on filed missions.

Her own career had been a bloody one, the missions she had been on had plenty of bodies stacked up during them, exterminating bandit groups that were causing problems in some regions, only to find that the group they were after had allied with another group and had grown in size, but still fit the mission description meant more people for her to kill. Most of her missions ended up with more people that needed to die, or coming across places were a lot of people died.

The last mission she had gone on before enacting Mai's plan still gave her nightmares, it had her and her team chasing down a small group of wanted criminals that led her and her team to a slave trafficking ring, her team had gotten trapped inside the building and the group ended up having to plow through the small army of thugs there. A quick move on her part of sending a kunai with an explosive tag in the middle of a group of enemies had her applauded by the rest of the team but she had been horrified at the results. She had been scared then and did what she had to survive, her movements had been a blur but some things remained, the feeling of shoving her kunais in the thugs there, the sound a thug made when she had used her ninja wire to strangle him and the man's eyes had popped out.

At the end of the mission arms and legs littered the ground in the hideout with mangled bodies every, her handy work at the start with the kunai and explosive tag had killed four people. She had been battered and bruised worst then ever before in her life, she had a concussion, plenty of cuts, three broken ribs, a lose tooth and a multitude of fractured bones.

Her final tally had been around twenty people, she had been horrified by it all, and the others praised her for the slaughter she unleashed, whispers were of her making jonin, she knew what that meant though, just more killing and more difficult missions.

No she didn't want a promotion that would have been far worse, Mai coming along had been a god send, she had helped her forget the horrors the world had spat out, the chance to land of more normal position inside the village safe from the killing had been to appealing to her. She eventually started liking the idea of becoming a teacher to help the next generation be more prepared for what awaited them. With Gengyo's death and finding out the truth from his journal coupled with the end of her relationship with Mai, had sent her into a small fit of depression were she didn't care anymore of teaching she was content to be safe.

Now things had changed, she had regained some of her former spark and put a lot more effort in her teaching she would help the others prepare for what awaited them outside the village walls and hoped their luck would be far greater then hers but if not they would have the skills to see them through the day. She knew Naruto would eventually have to confront the darkness of the world, with his status he could eventually land in the thick of things, she didn't know why the Hokage didn't want to train the boy early, she figured that he probably wanted him to have a somewhat normal childhood and later assign a good jounin that he had picked out to properly train the boy.

Katsue smiled again she had a surprise for Naruto, it was something that she had begun to work on for while and it would come to fruition soon enough. With enough time and the right guidance Kafu may just have to eat his underwear.

Naruto was smiling and singing a tune as he left the forested area that had been chosen as the opening for the god realm, it had taken a lot of searching for the right place, but now he had finally succeeded, with both Yukimura and Sayaka agreeing that the place he had found was ideal. It was farther away from the beaten track and it looked like no one had wandered through it for many years, in Yukimura had poured his magic through the place and given the initial agrement.

His time since leaving the academy had been bliss, he had taken to cooking and eating some new foods from other worlds that Yukimura had showed him how to cook or storing the ingredients to make them. His secret training with his favorite teacher was going better then expected, with her providing the basics that he needed to properly learn the ninja arts of his world. Katsue wasn't aware that he was using her and her training to show moments of his so called brilliance and give her the impression that he just needed the right guidance to be able to shine.

It had been tricky avoiding the Hokage's eyes but not impossible, one trick was that he would leave a T-shirt with the Hokage's seal along with other folded cloths near the bathroom and leave the shower running when he left the apartment to give the impression that he was in the bathroom. He had done the same thing before when the Hokage had been watching him to properly set things up; luckily the Hokage had stopped sending Anbu to watch him long ago and hadn't placed any seals in his bathroom. Avoiding the seals around the village along with the public eye had been tricky at first but eventually he got the hang of it, the sneaking around certainly helped out with his stealth skill.

Things were going well for him, with the basics of the shinobi arts learned from Katsue, Yukimura and Sayaka were having an easier time understanding the more advanced parts, apparently they had still been a long distance from finding the correct way, they had mentioned that the way taught to him was number one hundred seventy seven on their list of potential ways.

With the basics now in their grasp they had also been making head way in reverse engineering

magic spells and using chakra instead, it now involved a lot less blown up avatars. Their experiments with chakra seals, using the small bits of knowledge from the books and other seals of magical nature brought the number of exploded avatars back up though.

His other studies continued unimpeded, with the free time he had and without the Hokage's supervision he had managed to work on his own taijutsu styles while in the real world as well, his sword styles had been another matter as he still didn't have a practice sword, something that he hoped to fix soon enough.

The only thing that he wasn't happy with was the fact that he still didn't have any friends, well he had the people at Ichiraku's but he still suspected them as working for the Hokage, and he wanted someone he could be himself around. Katsue was a teacher and not a friend, but even the small interactions with her were something that he ended up cherishing.

As he was making his way back to the apartment he entered the market place, he froze when he saw someone he had barely been able to recognize, in the real world not even a year had passed since he had last seen her, however in the god realm time passed at far different rates. Even with the passage of time he could still recognize her, the girl was sitting on box near a shop with some other children near her, she was wearing a ragged pair of dark red pants and shirt, her hazel eyes were just as he remembered along with her twin hair buns. She must have worked there today with the others, by the looks of it she ended up in orphanage as well. Damn I'm not sure how to approach her.

The girl as if feeling his gaze him meet it with her own and he ended up waving at her awkwardly, she to his joy waved back as well. He just stared at her unsure of what to do, the girl however took the initiative as she got of her box and came over to him leaving the others behind, he noticed how with the sunset they were bathed in shadows.

The girl smiled. "Hey little whiskered blond long time no see."

Naruto cracked a smile as well. "Hey panda-chan!"

The girl growled and clenched her knuckles. "I really don't like that nickname."

Naruto waved his hand in front of her. "I'm kidding Ten-chan!"

They both smiled and stood quietly after that unsure of what to say.

"So, you ended up at the orphanage in the end huh."

"Yeah, things happened and…" she trailed off not finishing the sentence.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah"

"I searched for you there after I arrived there, but couldn't find you." She stopped for a moment before continuing. "Um congratulations on getting adopted."

"Adopted?" he asked surprised. "I never got adopted."

The girl looked surprised at him. "What but you weren't there and no one knew were you where I figured you got adopted when the caretakers were changed."

Yeah changed, the Hokage either ran them out of the village or killed them. "Um I had an accident and got hurt while there so the Hokage gave me my own place."

"Really, that seems odd?"

He could tell that she was suspicious. "Yeah, I know right? Hey, do you want to visit and check the place out?"

"I don't know" she looked back towards the shop "I was helping out at that store and…"

"I know how to cook and I can make dinner"

Tenten hit her lip. "I usually have to work to get paid"

"How much are you going to get paid for the work?"

"Well I…"

Naruto searched in one of his pockets and retrieved a sum of money.

Tenten's eye widened. "That's a lot more then I usually make."

A small plan was forming in Naruto's head. "Tell you what I'll pay you to come over and help me out with some things you'll still be able to say that you worked for the money, then when you're done you can stay over for dinner, how does that sound?"

"I…" she hesitated for a moment "alright"

"Great!" Naruto grabbed her hand "Come on this way"

At the end of the day Naruto had to admit that he had found Tenten's awed expression of his apartment amusing, the two of them had moved a few sacks of earth that he needed for his future garden to the rooftop. After that while he made dinner Tenten took a shower and he gave her a change of cloths, she had been grateful as the luxury of a shower wasn't present at the orphanage.

Between the work she had done, the hot food, the tea that Naruto served her and talking until late into the night, Tenten had gotten very tired and it didn't take much effort on Naruto's part to convince her to sleep at his apartment that night. After Tenten had fallen asleep Naruto got into bed as well, he quickly hugged her, placing one of his arms on top of her head and then started to call on Yukimura's magic as hard as he could. No matter what he wasn't going to lose his friend now that he had found her again.

The sound of someone clearing his throat awoke Naruto from his slumber, when he opened his eyes he found himself back on his bed in his room in the god realm with both Yukimura and Sayaka at the foot of his bed looking none too pleased, both had their arms crossed and wore serious expressions.

"Naruto can you please answer me you started calling on my magic like there was no tomorrow and why there's a little girl in the other room? Especially since it wasn't time for you to return here?"

Naruto didn't say anything he just looked at the window.

Sayaka looked at him with narrowed eyes. "We're listening Naruto-kun."

"I…" the words died in his throat.

"You what?" Yukimura asked his voice louder this time.

Naruto let out a tired breath. "I wanted the loneliness to end."

Both Yukimura and Sayaka stopped at that.

"I have you two at the end of the week and Katsue during it but I wanted a friend, I failed to make any friends at the academy and I failed to make any outside of it. I just wanted to make a friend so I made a choice. From what I can remember of my time at the orphanage only she, Tai and his little sister treated me normally, they were the only one's I could call friends, and even then I realize now that I was closer to her then Tai and his sister. I just didn't want to loose her again now that I've found her. You both mentioned how I would need friends and allies for the future and how I could bring someone I trusted here as well one day, well then she's my choice!"

"And are you sticking with that choice?" Yukimura asked as darkness spread from behind him.

"Yes!" he answered without hesitation.

"And you are willing to pay the consequences for it?" The darkness now looked to oppress the room.

"Consequences?" he asked gulping.

"You didn't think there wouldn't be any for calling so hard on my magic?" Yukimura's voice seemed to thunder through out the room.

Naruto thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. "Yes I'll accept whatever they are and face them head on!"

"Well then" Yukimura's body looked to grow until Naruto felt like he was staring at a mountain "alright as long as you understand that!" and like that everything returned to normal.

"WHAT?!"

Sayaka chuckled "Yes, it's alright Naruto-kun, we did say that you could bring someone you trusted here, and we we're worried about you not making any friends as well. Making such a choice isn't as unexpected as you may think."

"Were you testing me?"

Yukimura waved a hand at him. "Nah I was just busting your balls a bit."

"You were what?"

Sayaka gently elbowed Yukimura in the ribs. "I mean yes I was testing your resolve, likewise there are some consequences for coming here early, you won't be able to come here at the end of this week."

Naruto let out a breath "It's alright if she accepts to join us it will be worth."

"That's a big if Naruto."

"Yes." He nodded his head.

Sayaka made her way to him and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry Naruto-kun we will do our best to show her how great we are"

He smiled and nodded. "How long will I able to stay this time?"

Yukimura rubbed his chin. "Almost a month, she will be able to stay two months, but we will push it a bit. If she accepts then we would be able to match her time to yours."

"Great!"

"Have you thought about where she will live Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked at the two confused. "I was thinking about having her live with me."

Neither Sayaka or Yukimura said anything.

"The apartment is big enough, and I don't think she can get enough money to rent an apartment by herself."

"An interesting idea Naruto-kun, but have you considered what the Hokage will say?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "No, why should he say anything?" he could tell that there was something more to the subject.

Both Yukimura and Sayaka shared a meaningful look between themselves.

He narrowed his eyes looking at the two. "What aren't you telling me?"

"We will discus the situation later, Tenten will wake up soon and seeing you and Sayaka will be imperative."

"Alright then."

In a white ethereal plane Yukimura stood cycling through different large floating panels in front of him, Sayaka appeared not far from his position.

"Well what have you discovered?"

"A few interesting details." Yukimura moved one of his hands and grabbed a panel from in front of him shrinking it down and handing it to Sayaka.

"Her body won't need as much aid as Naruto-kuns."

"True."

Sayaka moved a finger across the panel "A shame that she doesn't have any shinobi relatives, her chakra reserves would have been larger" she paused for a moment "it will be a much more difficult journey for her compared to Naruto."

Yukimura let a small bit of mischief enter his voice. "Oh is someone intimidated?"

Sayaka waved her hand in an overly dramatic manner. "Perish the thought; I look forward to making her a legend" Sayaka looked away from the panel in her hands "what of her memories?"

Yukimura stopped for a moment. "Her mother abandoned her in Konoha not long ago, and she has problems because of it. Her father died a year ago, I believe her mother left her here in hope of her having a better life though I doubt that she will see it that way. She lived on the streets for a time until getting caught and sent to the orphanage."

"Ah, I see, then you will handle the initial meeting with her, she may be distrustful towards a mother figure."

"Yes, one of my avatars is there already, I'll set a few contingencies in case she rejects our offer and wants to talk to someone else about it."

"Nothing to serious I hope." She asked with a slight edge to her voice.

"No, I just did something to help lower her guard."

"You what?" Sayaka hissed. "Do you remember free will?"

"I do, don't worry about it, her experiences have made her more distrustful, all this will do is to help her keep an open mind, I won't force things."

"See that you don't."

"This seems rather hypocritical of you considering what we have planed for the landlord of his building and some of the other people."

A look of disgust crossed over her face. "There is a difference between her and a piece of trash who can't contribute to the world except as fertilizer."

Yukimura shook his head. "Whatever you say."

Sayaka looked intensely at Yukimura noticing how he kept his gaze locked on the panels in front of him. "Have you found something else? You seemed rather entranced."

Yukimura nodded. "Yes and it's something rather grave, it's something that I missed the first time around with Naruto, and only spotted now because I wanted to make a comparison between their bodies. I doubt any human in this world could spot the differences the first time around, or even the second or third time." Yukimura made a grab motion and took another panel then shrunk to a smaller size before handed in it to Sayaka whose eye widened after looking at data on it.

"This is most disturbing; it just adds more to an existing mystery. I presume you already have some theories about it. "

"Just theories for the time, and don't act like you don't have any ideas about it either."

"Indeed" She dismissed the panel "well it looks like Kushina's heritage did more then give him a good starting advantage in life, it managed to stabilize him at a genetic level."

"Yes" Yukimura looked back towards the floating panels "Who would have thought that the Yondaime Hokage wasn't fully human?"

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

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Chapter 8, wow I got 13026 words done in two days, I had hoped to finish the chapter on 20 04 2014 but it grew too big to finish then. Chapter completion date 21 04 2014, with a total of 14879 words, without the AN or the stuff at the intro, this is officially the largest chapter with Dream's End following it with 14455 words (AN included). Originally it was intended to be chapter 4 but the story grew beyond that rather quickly.

Can anyone guess what Katsue's surprise is?

That ending huh, does anyone have an idea about what the truth is regarding Minato? I can tell you that I don't think anyone has done it in fanfiction before, well at least I haven't read it so maybe it's out there, anyone who thinks they know send me a message with your answer.

- Parts of the academy are similar to Destiny is a hazy thing, though I tried to rework it and make it my own, however it is still similar to it. Likewise at first it didn't have so much crap from the academy, a few bits of him doing other things were sprinkled in between before it got cut.

- Yep the academy buildings looked cobbled together

- Did the students learn about different weapons they could encounter? How about a small taste of it?

- Ended up skipping the part were Naruto enacts his scheme, it had dialogue and stuff but it ended up getting cut as I wasn't satisfied with it. I had Naruto buying the products but in the end it didn't seem that important, the cooking and dinner scene with the Hokage also got cut.

- I did have a small scene with Naruto doing some other things before Katsue show's up but those got cut to work better with the earlier skipped part were Naruto enacted his scheme.

- Funny note, when I cam up with the idea for Katsue I wanted to have it to end the chapter on after she hugs Naruto in the doorway.

- Katsue scene got rewritten a few times before I just rolled with it, I can't write a drunk person that well and ended up skipping the dialogue part with the explanation about her past.

- Yep I changed Tenten's back story, but does she actually have a back story at all? Does she even have a last name? I checked the wiki and it doesn't state one for her. Now this great as it allows authors to change her past in any way they want, she pretty much an open canvas for people to paint. I've read stories where she's actually from a ninja clan from Suna, Danzo's daughter or granddaughter, Sarutobi's granddaughter, a Senju descendent, freaking Zabuza's daughter, just a simple civilian, and very common the daughter of blacksmith.

- Ended up having to rewrite the scene at the apartment with Tenten because the dialogue didn't feel good enough.

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