"Lord Hokage, there's a new refugee who appears to be from Kumo," Inu, an ANBU black-ops operative relayed. Raising his eyebrow, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third hokage of Konahagakure no Sato turned to face Inu with a questioning look.
"Well?... Bring the refugee into my office," he ordered.
The old kage was met with a shunshin out of his office, but seconds later returning with a small, white-haired youth.
"Hokage-Sama," Inu kneeled. This gesture was met with a wave towards the loyal shinobi from the kind old man.
"That'll do, Inu. Is there anything you can tell me about the boy?" Hiruzen questioned with an even gaze.
"The boy seems to be from Kumo, however he claims he has no recollection of a place matching the description of Kumogakure no Sato, parents, or even his own childhood. Hokage-Sama if I may-" Inu halted waiting for approval. Once the green light was given to Inu, he continued "I believe he may be a victim from his experiments" Inu concluded, with the utmost clarity in his words. The hokage took a long sigh, the mere thought of Orochimaru giving him trouble from beyond the borders always got under his battle-hardened skin.
"My greatest failure," Hiruzen took a deep breath, then motioned for Inu to leave the office. After examining the boy for a short period of time, he decided giving him citizenship in the village is the least he could do for failing to stop Orochimaru's nefarious deeds against mankind.
"What's your name, boy?" The old man kindly questioned, seriousness never leaving his tone.
"Lu. My name's Lu, sir hokage-sama," The boy replied affirmatively. Hiruzen's eyebrow rose again.
"No need to be extremely formal with me, you can just call me "lord third", no need for both a sir and lord in the same sentence, wouldn't you agree?" Hiruzen chuckled. His amusement was met with a slightly flustered child, likely due to realizing his own mistake. A few minutes later, the boy was escorted to an apartment (more of a duplex) with basic necessities. Later Lu was informed that Hiruzen would be periodically sending money and paying for the bills monthly.
A year later Lu was finally eligible to join the shinobi academy. Previously he couldn't do so because there was a "one year of citizenship in Fire Country" requirement for children to ensure that no intruders would get into the school system, or atleast if they did they'd be high on the suspect list for any spies from foriegn lands. His first day began in a classroom filled with noise as kids talked amongst eachother with little control over their volume. Examining the room , there was one boy who was sitting alone. He was blonde, wore run down khakis, a black shirt with the print of a narutomaki on his shirt. Lu decided he'd approach the lonely kid seeing as he was the only quiet one in the room save for three or four other kids who were surrounded in groups of loud banter. The classroom door opened and with it, a teacher walked in, quite irate.
"HEEEYY! SETTLE DOWN AND SHUT UP, YOU'RE DISTURBING THE OTHER CLASSROOMS!" The teacher shouted. His head seemed to comically expand with his screaming fit, but it got the job done. Lu sat attentively, bored , but waiting for instruction to begin.
"As you all know, we have a new student," the teacher began, motioning for Lu to come to the front of the classroom. In a clutzy manner, Lu tripped at the final step of the stairs, but immediately got up and dusted himself off to save his remaining dignity. "Why don't you introduce yourself?" The teacher suggested to Lu. What caught Lu's eye was the nameplate on his instructor's desk. "Iruka Umino" was the text, which Lu assumed was his teacher's name.
"Uh… hi?" he awkwardly began. "My name is Lu. Just Lu. I like ramen, specifically boiled in chicken broth and I enjoy eating onigiri too," Lu concluded, impressed with his clarity. He expected to stutter. He looked around the room and saw two kids had their ears perked up specifically at "ramen" and "onigiri". The first one was the blonde kid he sat by and the other was a kid with raven eyes, jet-black hair, and a blue tee with a crest of some clan or affiliation on his left shoulder and back. After introducing himself with the class, Iruka organized a class assignment for the students to get to know eachother. Lu chose to get the names of the two kids that interested him the most : the blonde and black haired boys. He began by apporaching the blonde and asking a simple question :
"Hey, do you like ramen, too?" Lu asked the blonde. Lu was met with an almost animalistic burst of energy from the blonde, which caught the attention of some students who responded to the blonde's energy with mild annoyance. Lu noticed this and pointed at some students while whispering "Maybe we should keep it down".
"Oh right… sorry. I just love ramen," the blonde rubbed his head with a slight chuckle. "Oh, by the way, I never gave you my name, it almost slipped my mind. Naruto Uzamaki is my name and I'll be the future hokage, dattebayo!" he announced with yet another burst of energy.
"Yeah… sure, Naruto" the white haired-boy deadpanned. In a comical fashion, the energetic boy quickly deflated like a balloon only to recover just as fast.
"Well, well, well… yet another loser to add to the list," a brunette girl with short hair commented slickly.
Lu slowly turned his head to face her, but decided she wasn't worth it and grabbed Naruto's hand before the already ticking time bomb of energy exploded on the poor girl. Offended, she marched to Lu's side, smacking his hand from Naruto's and shoving Lu in the process. Lu, stunned for a second, just looked at her with utter dissatisfaction, but something else caught Lu's eyes. The look on Naruto's face. The blonde looked like an abandoned puppy, as if this exact situation had occurred before. Before Lu could act, a voice called out at the girl.
"Why don't you find something better to do, instead of picking on people who choose not to defend themselves," the black haired boy from before remarked.
"B-but Sasuke-kun, these two trash were in my way," she whined, backing away from the black-haired boy, then running across the classroom in shock and embarrassment.
"Thanks, duckbutt," Naruto commented, rubbing his hair in amusement. This comment was met with an eye twitch from the noirette.
"You know, for someone who just looked like they were gonna crap their pants like a duck would in a pond, you really seem to enjoy pointing out duck-like features," Sasuke giggled. In a weird sense of irony, a pair of kids came to talk with Naruto. One was a chubby boy with brown hair and chips in his right hand and the other kid lazily strolled with his hair in a ponytail similar to Iruka sensei's and a casual grey vest.
"Sup, Shika?" Naruto greeted. He was met with a wave and the pair of students sat along Naruto, Lu, and Sasuke.
"Shikamaru, I don't know how you do it, being lazy and all… I mean you're literally a textbook genius and you spend most of your time sleeping of all things," Sasuke commented.
"Well, fair, if I was older I'd do something, but seeing as we're all 5-6 years old, doing anything but sleeping would be such a drag" Shikamaru lazily replied.
"I..*nom*..guess…*nom* you have a *nom* point, Shika" the chubby brown-haired boy agreed, eating handfuls of potato chips.
"I guess it's time I formally introduce myself. I'm Sasuke Uchiha, the future leader of the Uchiha clan and the commander of the Uchiha Police force," Sasuke, in unusual excitement, asserted.
"I'm Shikamaru Nara, of the Nara clan. I love cloud-watching and sleeping, anything else is just a drag," Shikamaru added.
"I'm Choji Akamichi and I like chips and being with Shikamaru," the chubby kid added while searching for another bag of chips to eat.