Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I own none of it.

Summary: A wife's plea answered, Their son would not be raised alone. Raised by the Toads Naruto is bound to become a fearsome Toad Warrior

Chapter 3 - Academy Days

Authors Note: Writing for children is hard, but I'll do my best

Back at his apartment, Naruto was seemingly quite distressed. Pacing to and fro as he vented about his troubles to a casually knitting Shima. "And not only do you have to write Kanji over and over for "practice", but you have to stay in your same spot all day! You can't even go to the bathroom without asking! The teacher got upset with me when I got up to go during History to go, you know, go!" Naruto turns towards Shima as he puts on a face and strikes a stern pose before mocking. "Naruto! Where, do, you, think, you're going?" He draws out comedically as Shima croaks in laughter before Naruto switches back to his usual posture and voice. "Um, I gotta go pee unless you'd rather I go here?" He makes a gesture of exasperation. "And then! Everyone starts laughing and Iruka's head explodes as he shouts at me for being disrespectful to him and the village history!" Naruto shakes his head in frustration. "He even gave me detention! On my first day. Which was just writing more Kanji!" He grimaced before smiling darkly. "But just you wait Iruka-sensei, I got you back, just you wait and see I got you back."

Shima laughter only grows at the thought of Naruto's antics, a long standing favourite of the residents of Mt. Myoboku for anyone not found on the receiving end. "Ah-ah Naruto-chan. Best be careful not to start too much trouble during your first week. It was only your second day, besides you'll just have to get used to working within rules, shinobi life is full of them." She waved the boy down. "Now tell me about the good parts of your day, Naruto-chan, life is about balance after all." She nodded sagely, as Naruto sighed and settled into a seat.

"Well, I guess other kids are alright. The girls I sit next to giggle about everything but they're nice enough. And Kiba's cool I guess, he sat with me at lunch today and we talked about living in Animal clans. The Inuzuka seem cool, he says he'll get partnered with one of the clan ninken when he turns 8. Will I get a toad partner Ma?" He looked at his toad caregiver with wonder and excitement in his eyes.

Shima looked pensive for a moment. "Perhaps Naruto-chan. There are many tadpoles in the streams of Mt. Myoboku that could become Toads in the next few years." She shrugged "The great toads of the sage lands don't age normally you see. We can live for many hundreds of years, grow to all sorts of sizes, and develop a variety of unique traits. All because of the abundant nature chakra in the land we call home. But it can be hard to predict the timeline of the life of a toad." She chuckled. "But yes Naruto-chan, when a young toad arises that will suit you You'll have your toad partner."

Naruto nodded along somewhat confused. "Oh, well…. I guess I understand?" He didn't look like he did. "But anyways. I was gonna see if Pa would take me and Kiba to try some sort of rotisserie pit he was telling me about. I guess I kinda forgot yesterday." Shima waved it off, sure it would be fine as Naruto continued. "Anyways, Kiba was also saying that apparently Shino's part of an animal Clan too, A bug clan! No wonder he stays away from me, toads eat bugs Ma! He's probably terrified of me…" He sighed out as Shima chuckled again.

"Ah Naruto-chan. I'm sure Shino is just shy. You should try approaching him, I'm sure you'll get along fine once the ice is broken."

Naruto looked confused. "What Ice? How do I break ice?" He cocked his head to the side.

Ma croaked louder. "Just a turn of phrase Naruto-chan, worry not. What about the rest of your class?"

"Umm…" Naruto looked pensive as he thought about his classmates "Hinata and Sasuke are both really good at school. Like all of it, they can answer all the questions, they follow all the rules, and they're just as good at the fitness class as me and Kiba. They're both kinda standoff-ish, but it looks like they pay attention to each other while acting like they're not. Sasuke seems nice though, he shook my hand for keeping up with him in the race. Kiba's too. But he kinda faltered at Hinata while she just stared at him before they walked away from each other."

Seeing Naruto's confusion, Shima filled in. "Ah, her father likely told her not to be friends with Sasuke. Their clans have a history. It doesn't sound as though she's being mean though. I'm sure they'll work it out."

Naruto nodded, deep in thought. "I guess. Can I practise toad summoning tonight Ma?" He made puppy dog eyes at her.

She supposed it was normal. They'd always said he'd learn how to summon when he left the sage lands. "After dinner Naruto-chan." He groaned as she started laying out a bug stew.

"But Maaaa, we're in the human world now can't we eat human food?" He begged once more.

She croaked sharply. "Now Naruto, I won't have you talking that way about my cooking, you're a growing boy you need protein!"

After dinner, they sat outside in the woods to explain summoning to Naruto.

"So Naruto-chan. What do you know about the art of summoning?" She began.

"Um, I use chakra to bring toads from Myoboku to help or hangout with me?" He rubbed the back of his head as he squinted nervously.

She nodded. "That's a start. Summoning is a complicated jutsu that most don't understand. But the core of it is that through a sealing contract bound by your blood, you are able to perform a jutsu that links you to the toad clan and bring forth its members. Reverse summoning is when a toad summons you, as you've experienced." She could see he wasn't following much but continued. "There are two ways to actually perform the summoning jutsu, both require a bit of your blood. You can perform the hand seals and form your chakra to form the sealing matrix that you then activate with your blood. Or you have a preconstructed matrix in the form of fuinjutsu that you activate with your blood. Both have pros and cons."

Naruto nodded, following along more. "I have a summoning tattoo right? The Oil Kanji above my Jinchuriki seal right?"

Ma croaked in agreement. "Indeed Naruto-chan. And that's how I'll be teaching you to summon tonight. Your summoning tattoo is linked to the eight-trigrams seal to provide chakra. By default myself or Pa will be summoned, as Minato wanted us to care for you, but if you think of a toad clearly you can summon anyone you want. Just picture them in your mind and think their name saying it outloud can help focus too. For now try summoning Gamakeiho, the Toad that woke you up every morning. Just bite your thumb for a little blood, rub it over your tattoo and Kyuubi's chakra will do the rest."

Naruto grimaced at the choice in toads but complied. Flinching a bit at biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood before lifting up his shirt, smearing the blood on his tattoo before a small poof of smoke appeared before him. The eight trigrams seal appearing as a small amount of Kyuubi chakra could be felt for just an instant, disappearing as fast as the smoke from the jutsu. In its place a small blue toad with a hard to look at pattern appeared. Croaking in surprise as it looked around.

"Ah, Naruto-chan. You've learned to summon. It is my pleasure to be of assistance to you." The mug sized toad hopped up to Naruto's hand.

"Um, hi Gamakeiho. Thanks for helping me practise!"

Shima took the chance to interject. "Naruto-chan, Gamakeiho can do more than help you practise. She's an alarm toad! Perfect sense of time, and a sensor. She can watch over you while you sleep, monitor a perimeter, and stay out of sight while she does it. And she'll always wake you up on time!"

To punctuate, the small toad let out an impossibly loud croak for a toad its size, able to be heard from far around while still sounding like just a toad.

Naruto flinched at the loud noise but smirked at the possibilities of his first jutsu. "So… I can summon any toad right? I just have to think of them! This is perfect, oh I can pull so many pranks with this... " He trailed off all but drooling at the potential before Shima interjected.

"Of course Naruto. But you can't summon anything bigger than me or Pa or people will feel Kyuubi's chakra. And never more than one at a time for the same reason. Unless it's an emergency. We'll teach you the jutsu to use with your own chakra once you're a little older and develop some control. Understand?"

Naruto nodded firmly, while she was sure he would abuse the jutsu she was also sure he wouldn't break the rules she set. They raised him in preparation for the life he would have to live, to be able to keep up the story they'd made.

The next day at the academy was off to a seemingly easy start. Everyone got settled, Iruka got them started on some arithmetic work and went to sit at his desk. This was the point in the morning when things would begin to go astray, as the chair crumbled into its component pieces as every peg, screw and nail in the chair had been replaced with chalk.

The class burst out laughing as the teacher shot back to his feet, face bright red at being fooled so thoroughly on the third day of school. Embarrassed, that had this been an enemy and not a student, he would likely be dead or imprisoned now.

In fact it would have been a perfect prank if not for the smirk on Naruto's face. "Naruto Uzumaki! So excited to be back in detention already!?" His head seemingly expanded as he bellowed.

Only before Naruto could get up to try and defend himself Kiba was on his feet. "Hey! You don't know he did it! You're just punishing him 'cause you two got off on a bad foot!" Naruto looked shocked but had a little smile on his face as he felt some of his first feelings of friendship.

Of course he had done it, but that was besides the point. It was nice of Kiba to land himself in detention with him. It certainly wouldn't be the last as Iruka had invited a prank war at this point.

Eventually it came to be lunch, and Kiba joined him once again. But before they started to dig into their lunch, Naruto stood up abruptly. "Sorry Kiba, there's something I need to do first." He begins to march down the yard.

Right up to Shino Aburame.

The reclusive boy visibly shrunk as Naruto stuck out his hand. "Shino, right? My Ma said I might be a little freaky to you but I just wanted to let you know I think being friends with bugs is cool, and neither me nor my toad friends will eat any of your bug friends. We cool?"

Shino seemed to relax a bit as he digested what Naruto said. Eventually shaking the odd boys hand. "I find this agreeable. Why? Because you have acted with respect for my clan and my kikaichu. We… Cool." He bowed lightly to the yellow haired boy, who returned the gesture.

"In that case, how would you like to join me and Kiba for lunch? Not eating any bugs, promise." He smirked playfully at his potential new friend.

"That too is agreeable."

Shino then joined them for lunch. Once they were seated and conversation struck up again. "Man Naruto," Kiba began. "That was a good one you got on Iruka-sensei this morning. How'd you get the chair to fall apart like that?"

Naruto mocked an aghast face. "What, I did no such thing. You even defended my honour!" He smirked playfully. "But if I was gonna do it I'd use a mix of white glue and chalk powder pressed into all the joints after removing the screws and pegs."

The two hyperactive boys laughed as Shino adjusted his glasses and interjected. "While humorous, I believe in the future it would be more impressive to avoid detection, and subsequent… detention." He deadpanned.

The other boys only laughed harder as Naruto fell onto his back. The beginning of a lifetime of friendship now clearly marked.

Later that day, after they got out of attention. Fukasaku was waiting for Naruto and Kiba at the entrance to the academy grounds. "Oi! Naruto-boy! This must be your friend Kiba." The toad and the young inuzuka bowed to each other. "Ma told me there was some restaurant you and your friend were hoping to go to, yes yes? So we sent a toad to the Inuzuka to let them know we were borrowing their pup and off we go!"

He set off at a brisk walk for his tiny legs as the boys gave each other shit eating grins and high-fived

Eventually they got to a restaurant and were seated, though Fukusaku drew noticeably less reverence here then the ramen stand they were still well received. The restaurant had a large brazier pit in the back of the dining room with rotating spits on racks that were regularly being moved around the fire, or carried off and carved at the table. A variety of different meats were offered, cooked in different seasonings, and the variety of sights and smells was almost overwhelming to Naruto. Even Kiba, who had been here before, was drooling slightly.

"Man, I can't wait, it's so good. You just get a table and they keep bringing you meat as long as you're there! Totally bottomless." Naruto looked sceptical at Kiba's claims, but looking around it seemed true, but before one of the meat carvers made it to the table a seemingly teenage server came to their table to take their orders for drinks and sides. Pa ordered water and roasted veggies for the table, knowing the boys wouldn't order any on their own.

When the waitress asked the boys if there was anything else they wanted, Kiba spoke for both of them as Naruto shrank into himself. "Two sodas please miss!"

She smiled at the boys as she took their order, assuring them it would be out soon. Naruto just shot a look at Kiba. "So what's soda?"

Kiba looked aghast, as he clutched his non-existent pearls. "You've never had a soda even? Man you've missed out on all the best parts of life. It's like a sugary bubbly thing, you'll love it trust me."

And while he giggled at the whole thing. Naruto was starting to trust Kiba, especially as the first round of meat started hitting the table. Beautiful ribeye roast, cooked perfectly medium rare over an open fire, a beautiful crust of seasonings accompanied by a succulent smoke ring. Served sprinkled with coarse flake salt and nothing else.

It was like nothing Naruto had ever tasted, it was even better than the soda which he of course loved much to Pa's chagrin. But even the roasted veggie skewers were fantastic when they came around, onions and peppers with mushroom and tiny tomatoes, all marinated in herbs before getting the same rotisserie treatment as the meat.

As they ate they shared details of their lives. Tales from both Mt. Myoboku and the Inuzuka clan. Kiba told stories of his Mom Tsume and her partner Kuromaru, a wolflike ninken that could talk just like people for the most part. In turn Naruto told stories of the toads and their various exploits. About toads that could talk, breath fire, spit oil, disappear, do kung-fu, even about when Gamabunta and his Uncle-raiya got together to drink too much sake.

They both laughed at each other's tales. Enjoyed all the food, and all in all had a fantastic night.

Naruto was sad to see his friend go when they dropped him back off at the Inuzuka compound, big smiles and waves all around. It would be the first of many things Kiba would introduce Naruto to.

The academy was largely uneventful in the following weeks. Shino, Kiba and Naruto would spend lunch together. Pulling the odd small prank on Iruka when Shino could be reasonably convinced it wouldn't land them in detention. Of course it still did from time to time, only it wasn't so bad with the three of them together.

In fact on one such day, as they were leaving, they noticed Hinata was still waiting to be picked up. Only she wasn't alone, some boys from one of the older classes were surrounding her hurling insults.

"What's wrong white eyes? Servant couldn't pick you up today?"

"Aw, even your cousin doesn't want to walk you home. At least he can fight, you're just pathetic."

"Yeah. The great Hyuuga clan heir is a sniveling brat that can't even walk herself home."

"I mean, why even bother picking her up from school? It's not like her father wants to see her anyways!"

Naruto had heard enough, a quick look between his crew let them know he was gonna do something. But from the look of Kiba's clenched fist and the low buzzing coming off Shino they weren't far behind.

Unfortunately for the bullies. Naruto had studied the toad kata under Gamarza, while usually a defensive style it focused on explosive movement and was great for an opening shot. Falling to a low crouch he explodes forward with a frog kick, flipping around mid air to land a two foot flying kick to the chest of the last bully that was just raising a knee to kick the downtrodden heiress.

The bully flew away even as Naruto kicked off of him, turning mid air to land an overhand haymaker on the next closest bully, an action that was seemingly mimicked by Kiba, who'd just arrived. The last bully moved to defend his buddies but as he raise his fist he noticed it was covered in beetles, with a quiet voice behind him chilling him to the bone.

"I recommend gathering your friends and departing. Why? My kikaichu would devour the flesh and muscle from your hand before you could land the punch." Shino monologues, earning a cry from the boy who ran off, abandoning his friends that were slowly dragging themselves away.

For a moment after the bullies left everyone just stood around awkwardly staring at Shino. Naruto eventually spoke up. "Okay… Um, yeah. Round of applause for Shino everyone." he clapped slowly. "Yeah that's terrifying dude, sorry for all that Hinata." He held out a hand to the shaken girl. She took it gingerly as he continued. "I don't know why you let the bully's treat you like that. You're as good in fitness and kata as the best of us. You could have taken those punks."

Hinata blushed. 'It's… It's not worth fighting. I don't want to hurt people. Besides, they're right. Neji's better than me…" She sniffled. "That's all the clan cares about." She looked at her feet, not wanting to look at the boys while she was tearing up.

Naruto looked at his friends, not sure what to do. Luckily Kiba spoke up. "Yeah, pressure from the clan can really suck. The Inuzuka don't look at blood when we choose a leader. But my Mom is the clan head right now, and there's a lot of pressure on me to be the next one. Even though there are tons of older guys that are way stronger than me." He cautiously puts a hand on her shoulder. "But just like your cousin they're older than me, and that means when I'm their age I can be better then them if I train hard. Just like you can." He gave her a sincere smile as she looked back up at the boys.

As she wiped away her tears she saw two of the boys smiling at her, Naruto giving her the thumbs up and Shino giving her a nod of approval.

"Besides," Naruto interjected. "You got us now! So no one else is gonna push you around at school, and we'll see how tough that Neji is after we start training together dattebayo!" He pumped his fist in the air as he exclaimed.

Hinata just smiled shyly.

She'd never have to worry about walking home again.

Later that night, Naruto was having dinner with Fukasaku and brought up something that'd been on his mind. "Pa, I know I have to keep up with studies and stuff, and we were gonna do most of my training on the mountain on weekends. But could we train with my friends after school? Maybe study too?"

Pa smiled at the boy, happy he was making friends. "That sounds like a swell idea to me, Naruto-boy. I'll talk to your friends' parents about setting up a little study group. I'm sure we can get something set up for a little time after school. As long as you stay out of detention."

"Thanks Pa!" Naruto cheered. "We're gonna grow up to be the strongest shinobi ever dattebayo!"

For the rest of the year after that, Naruto's schedule was pretty straight forward. Weekdays he went to school, then he and his friends would meet up at one of their places and study for a bit. And sometimes one of their parents or caregivers would teach them a little of the ninja arts. On Fridays they would go for dinner, often as not trying to go somewhere Naruto had never been. Then on the weekends Naruto would spend his time back on Mt. Myoboku, learning the names and abilities of all the toads, perfecting his toad kata, and learning the toad arts. Starting of course with chakra control, and meditation.

AN: So I started the academy at 4, with an 8 year curriculum. I figure it takes 5+ years for a normal person to earn a normal blackbelt, so add in ninja tools, jutsu, and a basic education and I think it makes sense. Next chapter will be a four year skip to halfway through school. Then we'll move on to graduation year