Chapter 8: The goal

Naruto could do nothing but smile sheepishly and scratch the back of his head as he saw the looks of pure shock and awe on everyone's faces. He had no idea what just happened or why his chakra was black like that, but he had a suspicion that Kurama was behind it somehow. The looks from the class made him feel uncomfortable as even his sister was staring at him with widened eyes. All he could do was slowly back up to his seat and sit down while Iruka tried to get the class back on track. Even she was in awe at what this boy had just done, and everyone in the class had a varying degree of reactions afterwards.

After class

The entire day was just uncomfortable for our blonde hero as he was mainly stared at the entire day. When he went to lunch with his sister, everyone was staring at him. Word had reached the entire academy that Naruto, only son of the Hokage, had large chakra reserves enough to be a ninja, and that his chakra was black. The fact that he was allowed to attend the academy was already shocking enough. The black chakra was a whole other story that Minato heard rather quickly. She read the report sent in by both Iruka and Miyame and already had her theories on the matter.

Naruto and Aoki had left class and proceeded to make their way home when they were confronted by more than a few girls from class. Chief among them was Satsuki as she had practically marched over towards him with a hard scowl. Also with her were Sakura, Shika, Chouko, Ino, Shina and Kisa with her dog resting in her jacket. Far off behind a tree was the shy Hinata watching from a distance.

Naruto saw Satsuki marching towards him and instantly felt uncomfortable once more. Out of everyone in the class, she was the one who kept watching him no matter what he did. It was awkward for the boy as this girl looked to be analyzing his every move.

"Um, hi." Naruto started with a wave as Satsuki stopped in front of him.

"I want you to spar against me." Satsuki just outright said in a no-nonsense tone.

This caught everyone off guard as this was only the first day of the academy and someone was already challenging someone to a sparring match now. Though it shouldn't have been too surprising as Satsuki is a rather competitive type of girl. She most likely sees Naruto as a new challenge to her to test her strength against. She clenched her fist as she prepared for his eager response, same as the other girls behind her who were also eager to see just how skilled the son of their village leader was. So imagine their surprise when Naruto simply scratched the back of his head and answered her challenge.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to decline." He smiled at her while he said that to her.

"What?" All the tension inside her vanished once he said that. "Why not? Don't tell me you're too scared to fight a girl." She said in a slightly smug way to get a rise out of him. It worked on Aoki who was about to tell her off, but that was when her brother intervened.

"It's not like that. I just know that right now I'm nowhere near anyone else's level. Yeah, I was able to summon that large amount of chakra, but I have no idea how to maintain it as long as the rest of you can." His answered surprised the group. "I also haven't trained in any sort of fighting style yet, so it really would just be a one-sided match." He smiled once more. "How about when we're close to graduating that we pick this up again." He held his hand out to her. "Deal?"

Satsuki was taken aback by his words as he knew it wouldn't be a fair fight if he accepted then and there. She had always assumed that the male population trained to fight in order to impress the women of the village and show that they were strong enough to take care of themselves. Satsuki sighed as she could see that Naruto may be an exception.

She reached her hand out and shook his. It was at that moment that she actually looked at Naruto and saw his warm smile and felt his firm grip in her hand. She blushed at that smile as he seemed to genuinely mean what he said and what he meant. She quickly let go of his hand and turned so none of the others could see her blush.

"A-alright." She stuttered a bit, catching them off guard for a moment. "But once we get ready to graduate, I'll be waiting for you."

With that, Satsuki quickly left without so much as a glance back towards them. She raced away and was out of sight in moments. Naruto figured this was a perfect opportunity to gain insight on just how he should train now that he had a goal in mind for the academy. Looking to the rest of the girls and his sister, Naruto steeled his nerves and asked them.

"Is it okay if we can all train together sometime?" This gained everyone's attention as even Hinata practically ran up to join in the conversation. "I know I have a lot to learn, and I was hoping if I could get some help for the time we'll all be in the academy. Unless you all have other important things to do, I understand if-"

"YES!" They all said in unison as this would be a perfect opportunity for the other girls to know the only male ninja in their village better. For Aoki, any time spent with her brother would always be a great time. She could only imagine how jealous Natsumi would be when she heard this news.

Gonna end this one here. Yeah, it's short, been having some serious writers block with my current stories recently and I have a bunch of other stories I've been writting that I want to publish later on.

There will be a time skip in the next chapter to the sparring match between Naruto and Satsuki.

Stay awesome, and as always...

PEACE!