LEARNED IT FROM A MANGA
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or the Dragonball series.
Well the poll says it all, most of the Uchihas will stay alive, it's the clan council that will become history, yet that will have to wait about a chapter or two. As for the coupling, I'll start poll focused mainly on Naruto and Sasuke and which girl people would like to see them with. The rest will be explained at the end of the chapter.
It is now lunch on their first day of school and Naruto and Sasuke are sharing it with a few other boys that they met once again, Naruto mostly. During his yearlong training, Hiruzen decided to make sure that Naruto got train in more than just jutsus. With reading and writing, Ayame was more than kind enough to help out. Strategy he learned from Shikaku Nara, where he also met Shikamaru, by playing games like chess and shoji. He also got to meet the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho, Choza Akimichi with his son Choji, and Inochi Yamanaka. Ino he met later, but unfortunately, had a bad start because Ino was more worried about her image in order to become friends with the village pariah. Scary enough, Naruto also met Yoshino, the family matriarch, who was more than capable of putting her two boys in line with a few well aimed headshots with her frying pans, which were cast iron. He also learned a few other things, mainly from cooking, taught by both Ayame and Choza to trying out a few hobbies, like gardening from Inochi and, for some reason, unknown mainly to him, calligraphy.
Naruto and Sasuke also got to meet Hiashi's daughter, Hinata, his brother, Hizashi and his nephew, Neji. Unfortunately, Naruto learned about the Caged Bird Seal that are on the foreheads of the last, meaning that they are now whipped slaves due to the Hyuga clan being divided by a main house and the branch house. They got a chance to hang out together, whenever Hinata would get over her fainting spells, and learn something from each other, especially from Neji who was considered the prodigy of the clan, wither the clan council or not.
Now they are sitting around having lunch, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, who is in the next year up and Hinata, plus a few new friends along the way. One of them is Kiba Inuzuka, a boy with wilder hair, as well as attitude, then Naruto, from a clan that specializes in working with dogs; Shino Aburame, a boy with a pair shades, and a silent demeanor, coming from a clan that are known for being a bunch of walking hives for bugs; both from Naruto's and Sasuke's class. From Neji's class are Rock Lee, a boy who is as energetic as Naruto, yet has some kind of problem with his chakra, and Tenten, a girl with her hair in a pair of buns, and a weapons nut.
Right now they were trying to get to know each other when they felt an ominous wind, at least ominous for a bunch of five year olds. They turned to see Ino with a girl with a large forehead and short, light pink hair. "Can we help you?" Sasuke asked.
"And who's your friend?" Naruto asked another.
"This, loser, is Sakura Haruno and she is better than you."
"In book smarts maybe, but that is about it." Shikamaru said, while looking up in the clouds.
"As well as doing a good job of detecting genjutsu, other than that, what makes her better than Naruto?" Shino asked.
"Yeah because he scored higher than both of you in taijutsu." Kiba said.
"And we still got a long way to go since that was just the first half." Naruto said, "Would you care to join us?"
"Why would we eat with a bunch of losers?" Ino said.
"Yeah, we just came to see if Sasuke would rather hang out with some cooler people?" Sakura said, "Instead of with a bunch of losers."
"I'm fine with these cool people." Sasuke said, "Besides, it's like what brother tells me, cool might sound nice but doesn't mean much in the real world."
"And besides, didn't you just call Sasuke a loser a while ago?" Hinata asked, causing the pair to sweat a bit because of that, "So why would he want to hang out with people who insult both him and his friends."
"There is no way that any of you are his friends!" Sakura yelled out.
"Why not?" The entire grouped asked.
Well because Sasuke is from one of the major clans . . ." Ino started.
"As are I and Hinata." Neji countered.
"Me too." Kiba said, while raising his hand, with Shikamaru, Choji and Shino doing the same.
"And yet you're hanging out with a worthless orphan!" Sakura yelled out, only to slap her hands onto her mouth.
Ino's eyes went wide after hearing that. While she can come off as a self-obsess girl who only cares about her image and her status amongst the Konoha girls, even she would considered that taking things a bit too far. Even though she knows that most of the village despise Naruto for some reason, yet loved by just about every ninja, even she would never go as far as to remind Naruto of the one thing that she herself has, loving parents.
Most of the group was giving Sakura the evil eye, while Naruto himself didn't seem fazed by this, "Who is currently proving to be stronger then you in most of the stuff we have taken before lunch." Naruto said, "Plus I've been train by the Hokage himself and a few clans, and one of the scariest teachers ever, so who is more worthless, me or you two?"
"You're making that up." Ino said.
"No actually I watched some of that training and that's why he is near the top of the class." Hinata said, "Some of the stuff he learned is things that fit him pretty well."
"Anyway, there is always room for more people." Naruto said, "We might not be the coolest bunch, but we believe friendship is way better." He then turned back to the group, "By the Kiba, I remember seeing you being chased by a girl with three pups last week. What happened?"
"Come on, Sakura, we don't have to take this." Ino said, not happy about being blown off like that. When she walked away, she noticed that her shadow was no longer beside her. She looked around until she noticed Sakura sitting between Naruto and Sasuke, laughing with the rest of the group as an embarrassed Kiba explained the reason why.
"So basically you were too tired to make sure that nobody was using the bathroom only to find your sister just stepping out of the shower." Choji said, "That's why she was chasing you while she looked like she just slapped a bunch of clothes on in a hurry."
Sakura was laughing hard enough to start producing tears. She looked towards Ino, who had a look that was a mixture of being betrayed and shocked. She waved her hand, wanting her to join in since she was her best friend.
Ino wanted to follow her pride and leave her would have been ex-best friend if it wasn't for the fact that maybe it would be better to have a bunch of friends then admirers. As soon as she sat down between Sakura and Sasuke, "So now you found something that works faster than coffee." Shino said between laughs.
Hokage Tower
Hiruzen was watching the whole thing from the crystal ball, a rice ball in one hand. He couldn't help but smile at Naruto's abilities to make friends with those who never expect it. Seeing children laughing is something that should be given to every child, especially Naruto who needs to feel the joy of happiness instead of what Suna is doing to their container right now.
With him, making it like a meeting of clan parents in a way, with the Third being the grandfather figure for Naruto, watching as a bunch of mismatched children just enjoying lunch and each other's company. Inochi was the most proud because Ino was able to come out of the drama queen/self-absorbed gotta be cool girl phase early instead of having to learn the hard way that it doesn't have anything to do with being a ninja out in the real world.
"Looks like your daughter has finally dropped the deva early, Inochi." Tsume Inuzuka said, "Way earlier then Cindy ever did."
"Yes and hopefully she won't keep me up all night telling me what she thinks about all this." Inochi said, "When something catches her attention, she makes sure that I hear every word of what she thinks, even if she just thinks about them on the spot."
"Still, at least this group would be just as close with each other as we were with Minato." Hiashi said, "With him and Kushina gone and Naruto growing up having to fend for himself, right now my only hope is that the council doesn't try anymore to interfere with his growth."
"Clan or main?" Shikaku asked.
"Both." Fugaku, Hiashi and Hizashi said at the same time.
"At least I have the clans on my side." Hiruzen said, "Right now I have the civilian council trying to make sure to give Naruto from little to no help at all while also making sure to get extra money from the clans, especially considered how this new class is going to be composed of."
"We did that on purpose." Shibi said.
"Yeah, since Naruto has as big of a heart as Minato does, we thought we join you in doing a few things for Naruto just to give the civilian council a little heart arrack later." Choza said.
"Although knowing you, you are probably already aware." Shikaku said.
"Are you implying that I'm nosy?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yes." Everyone else answered at the same time.
When it became time for the kids to return to their class, it was also time for the people in the office to get back to their work. After giving a little stretch, "Anyway, I think I'll stop by the academy to pick up both Naruto and Sasuke while I pick up Kiba." Tsume said, "Basically playing babysitter until I drop Naruto off at his house."
"You might want to take some extra precautions because the villagers are starting to hate Naruto even more now." Fugaku said.
"Why, what is it this time?" Inochi said.
"Well, since we've been helping Naruto with his training, especially having him get a head start on his chakra control due to his reserves, he's starting to standup for himself." Fugaku said. "Mikoto told me that while she was watching over Naruto and Sasuke, the villagers decided to do their little insults, you know the whole kyubi-brat and all that. Well when they called him a monster, Naruto countered on asking who was the bigger monster, the kid or those who beat-up kids. Apparently, didn't like the comparison, so they tried to attack only for Itachi and Shisui to stop them in the process, while in turn reminding them that the council can't protect them from trespassing and attacking somebody on our land."
"So they don't mind calling a child monster, yet when the same child calls them one, they don't like to be put on the same level." Shikaku said, before saying the clan motto, "Troublesome."
"And for once, we agree with you." Choza said, while everyone got up and started to leave.
"Fugaku, Hiashi, Hizashi, I need to have a little talk with you three." Hiruzen said.
When it was just four of them, "What is it you want to discuss with us, Lord Hokage?" Hizashi asked.
"Right now I want to know what your clan councils are doing," Hiruzen said, "Considering that we already know what is going on in the minds of the main and civilian councils."
Academy
The nine friends in the new class are back in the class room, where after assessing how everybody did so far, Iruka decided to see if anybody was learning something else before the year started.
While he mostly received the usual nothing to clan stuff, when he got to Naruto, was he in for a surprise. "Okay Naruto, tell me, have you been working on anything before joining the academy?" Iruka asked.
"Taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, chakra control," Naruto listed off, Iruka being surprised from what came out of Naruto's mouth, while most of the class, except for his friends, weren't too impressed due to the arrogance passed down by their parents, "And some other things gramps keeps throwing my way like strategy and trying out different hobbies."
"Gramps?" One of the kids asked, a girl with purple hair, brown eyes and wearing a striped blouse, "I thought you are an orphan you little runt."
"And yet he is doing better than you, Ami, somebody whose parents are on the council." Hinata said, without a stutter, causing the girl to get mad. While she might be shy and timid, the one thing that is good about her is her loyalty to her friends, something people said she got from her mother, Hunita, "He's referring to the Hokage."
"Why would he call the Hokage that since they aren't even related?" Ami asked.
"Because he was the first one to look at me with kindness instead of what most of the village gives me." Naruto said, not feeling the slightest bit hurt by that sting, "Anyway, I was taught by some creepy scar-faced how to scare people by looking at them and using your chakra."
'Sounds like Ibiki Morino.' Iruka said.
"And it looks like it works because whenever he looked at a pair of ANBU, a really bad smell seems to come from them." Naruto said.
'Yep, that's Ibiki alright.' Iruka said, "Is there anything else Naruto?"
Naruto thought for a bit, "No, that's it."
"Okay, now that we have all the necessary information, by next week we should be able to find something to work with each of you." Iruka explained, "Although Naruto seems to be ahead of everyone by about a year."
"Not to mention to pick up anything from them." Naruto blurted out, "Especially that freak in the green suit sprouting out 'Flames of Youth' every five seconds."
'Yeah, Gai doe have that effect on people.' Iruka thought, while a cold shiver went down his spine, "Anyway, you all be receiving your books and other things you will need during your time here at the academy."
Hokage Tower
Hiruzen is at his desk, doing the bane of all kage, paperwork. While being called the professor due to how many jutsus he has in his collection, he was seriously considering using a good portion of the attack ones to help ease his headache. 'I bet Minato and Kushina are laughing their asses off if they are watching me now.' Ran through his head, knowing full well who their kid is. Looking at the clock, he knew that Naruto and his friends will be getting out of class within the next hour. Unfortunately he has a council meeting coming up soon and he won't be there to greet Naruto when he gets out.
He is glad that Tsume decided to be there when Naruto leaves the academy because she is the second dangerous woman in Konoha, with or without Kuromaru, making any attacks on Naruto total suicide for one extremely brave and stupid fool. The scariest woman that Konoha has ever produced is his student, Tsunade Senju, one of the Sanin, a capable medic-nin and downright lethal when crossed.
While he knew that he and the clan heads can do so much, the one thing that Hiruzen wished he could do was spend more time with Naruto so that way he would at least know what it is like to be in a more family like setting.
Just as he past the halfway point on the total number of papers, he sensed a very familiar presence outside his office window, "Kakashi, you can come in now." Hiruzen called out.
In through the window came Kakashi Hatake, in his ANBU uniform, his mask at his side. He has gravity-defying silver hair, a mask covering the lower half of his face, his headband covering his left eye and a familiar orange book in his hand. When he looked up to notice that the Hokage was giving a look saying that this isn't the time for his usual be as annoying as possible pose, he put the book away into his pouch.
"So what brings you here to my office, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked, having a good idea on what might be on his top ANBU captain's mind.
"I would like to see if there is any room for me to contribute to the raising of Minato-sensei's son?" Kakashi asked his tone as neutral as usual.
Hiruzen gave him a small smile before coming up with an answer.
Here is the latest chapter, sorry for taking too long. I was pretty busy with college and stuff. Plus I was trying to make sure that this story doesn't follow too closely with the original storyline due to all of the curveballs along the way. I am going to set up a poll to determine the coupling of Naruto and Sasuke, although nothing would develop until somewhere between the fifth and tenth chapter, basically after they join the teams. If anybody has any ideas for other couplings, let me know, please keep them straight. As for the councils, still working out when the best time well be since I decided to not do any clan massacres. Read and Review.