Positive Intervention

by StolenHawk22

Jiraiya takes over as Naruto's guardian when he's 7, taking him from the village till he's 12, changing Naruto's life for the better. Stronger and 'Smarter' Naruto, but it will be a reasonably paced build-up. Slight AU, more Uzumaki, a stronger bond between Naruto and Sasuke, but my goal is to keep the core feeling of their characters the same.

9. The Academy

This chapter will cover the final year of the academy, right up to the team selections. Next chapter will have the genin exam test, and probably some missions/interactions with other teams leading up to receiving their first C rank mission. If you have any suggestions on Jonin sensei or teammates for Naruto, let me know. I considered having him as a solo apprentice with Jiraiya, but I figured in-story Jiraiya would have to make up for some lost time from having Naruto with him as far as the spy network goes. I'm considering either Sakura or Hinata as the Kunoichi (but still no ships decided). Obviously Kakashi is strongly being considered but I also thought that maybe he's a little too close to Naruto and Sasuke to effectively lead them on missions, and thought about just having him help them train, and having somebody else be their sensei. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to have a Jonin sensei, and a special sensei for training them considering they would have the Jinchuuriki and last uchiha on the same team. Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments, or PM me!

Thank you for all the comments, I really appreciate all of them! And we're almost at 200 follows! Special shoutout to user: thtadthtshldntb, I believe they have commented on every single chapter, either complimenting, suggesting/teaching, or encouraging the story, I appreciate it!

One reviewer had some issues with Naruto's abilities not being jonin level after 4 years with Jiraiya, here's a long author note that explains why he's not there yet, feel free to skip!:

He's not even 12. I know Itachi and Kakashi both were younger than that when they became jonin, but they were also at, or had seen war, and had the sense of urgency to develop quickly. Itachi is also a generational genius, and while Naruto is a genius in his own right here, he still has to work hard, it's more that his instincts with chakra allow him to learn things extremely quickly, but he still has disadvantages like his gigantic chakra pool, and having to keep the Kyuubi sealed, that mess with his chakra control. He also hadn't quite learned the sense of urgency needed to throw everything he had into training until the end of the last chapter. In addition to all that, if he had focused on a couple of things that he was good at, say physical abilities, ninjutsu, and chakra control to improve his ninjutsu, he probably would be approaching or at jonin level. However, Jiraiya has had him focusing on things he's not so good at, or just okay at, trying to shore up his weaknesses, and turn his average skills into advantages. Fuinjutsu takes a long time to learn, as does working with weapons and learning several taijutsu styles. I'm also not doing the typical Naruto sends 80 clones off to read and is super smart in a week because the clones can actually focus. He's 12 and has a short attention span, so imo his clones shouldn't be able to sit there for 12 straight hours and read and automatically remember. This will obviously improve with time, but it's not supposed to be easy, he is going to have to work hard to develop his skills, as the only thing he's really a genius at are chakra related and misdirection, and he's spent very little time on this compared to the other things. Jiraiya understands he's being hunted, but he also believes they have some time, and it's best to be more than competent at every aspect, before becoming great at one or two of them.

Sorry for the long response to that, but I figured if one person commented, then a bunch of people were at the very least wondering. I've also included class 'rankings' at the end of the chapter so the difference between this story and canon can be clearly seen.

Three months later - end of August - Naruto is 11, Sasuke just turned 12

If there was one thing that Naruto knew for sure… it was that school was boring. Three days into the academy and he already wanted to get back on the road. No amount of ramen was worth enduring this torture. All Iruka-sensei talked about was village rules this, history that, blah blah blah. He had promised Jiraiya he would try his best, but he wasn't sure he would survive. Why did Pervy Sage have to go back on the road anyway, it's not like he actually does anything besides peep on women and drink too much Sake.

Naruto laid his head down on the desk and drifted off to sleep.

"NARUTO WAKE UP!" Iruka shouted.

Naruto startled awake, looking surprised, made the cross seal, and smacked his head back down on the desk as a shadow clone sprung to life in the empty seat next to him… only to smack his head down to fall asleep too, though the force popped him.

Iruka put his hand to his face, the blond may be his favorite, and he seems to have learned quite a bit with Jiriaya, but he was the worst student he'd ever had. By far.

Iruka lazily flung a piece of chalk at the boy, aiming to hit the crown of his head and wake him up. Naruto had other ideas, and snapped up out of his fake sleep, sped through hand signs, and suddenly his hair hardened and wrapped around him. The chalk shattered against the newly erected shield. Iruka sighed, at least he had good reactions.

Naruto on the other hand was smirking very smugly at his sensei, well aware of the effect he had. He didn't lay back down though, knowing that he'd just get in trouble again. Instead he got out a scroll to work on some Fuinjutsu. He was currently trying to separate the Hiraishin formula down to individual pieces so he could learn them, and then put them back together to make his own, albeit different, formula. His father's notes were very clear that using pre existing markers was more difficult than coming up with your own.

While Iruka-sensei droned on about proper customs while visiting a foreign village, Naruto was working on making a mark that he could sense. He'd already succeeded in this, but the range was limited to his sensing abilities, which weren't that far. While Jiraiya had discovered that he was a natural sensor, and had the chakra to be molding and sensing all the time, his range with the ability wouldn't even cover the whole village unless he sat down to meditate. He needed the mark to be easier to feel, and easier to distinguish from other stuff.

While he worked, Sasuke sat to his other side, cycling his sharingan in and out, practicing on doing it quicker and quicker, and then on holding it longer and longer without running out of chakra. He had eventually discovered that all he needed to do was channel chakra to his eyes to activate it. It seemed so simple that he never would have even thought of it if it weren't for Naruto.

Kakashi (he still wasn't calling him big bro) had mentioned that Naruto seemed to hone his senses by channeling chakra to different parts of his body, like nose, ears, etc. Sasuke, never one to like being in second, had immediately tried it. He could smell a little better if he channeled some to his nose, hear better better if he channeled to his ears, but when he sent some chakra to his eyes, it was different. It was like the whole world changed. Time and people's movements seemed to slow down, and he could see Kakashi's chakra flow.

When Kakashi made a facial expression in reaction to him doing this, he actually saw it, could read the movements of the muscles under his mask and saw he was surprised. He had never seen Kakashi surprised before. Actually, he'd never seen Kakashi do anything but that dumb eye-smile. Sasuke knew from clan scrolls and from what he'd heard from his relatives that this is what the sharingan was supposedly like, so he ran. Ran to the nearest mirror to confirm if it was true. Red eyes stared back at him spinning lazily, and suddenly he wasn't in Kakashi's apartment anymore. He was in the street outside the Uchiha district, tears streaming down his face, staring at his brother. Pleading with him to tell him that it was all a lie, a nightmare, just a bad dream. He'd even take a genjutsu, he just didn't want it to be real. He wanted Itachi to tell him that his family wasn't dead, and that his brother hadn't killed them all. As fast as it started, it was over, and he felt Kakashi's hand on his shoulder, steadying him.

In the almost two years since that time, he had developed a second tomoe in his left eye, giving him two in both. He wanted to undergo the grueling training to develop a third in each, but Kakashi told him he wouldn't help until he was at least a genin. Sasuke's first thought had been that Kakashi was trying to hold him back, but he was the only one in the village who had bothered to check on him, and teach him some shinobi arts. Sure, the rest of the village loved him, their precious loyal Uchiha, the last one left with the special eyes. But they didn't even know him, not really. Their infatuation with his sharingan only reminded him of the fact that there used to be a whole clan of them. Now they were dead, all but two. He refused to use his Sharingan out in public walking around, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing it.

Sasuke was brought out of his brooding by Iruka saying that it was time for the first spar. Both he and the no longer sleeping blond next to him both grinned.

Sasuke of course had spent the last four years, never losing a spar at the academy. In fact, the only two people that he had lost a spar too were Kakashi, who refused to even use his sharingan on him, and Naruto.

Naruto had spent the last three months getting crushed by Jiraiya day in and day out, and he was anxious to fight somebody his own age and actually have a chance to win.

When they got outside to the sparring ground, Iruka-sensei explained that it would be taijutsu only, which suited both boys just fine. Sasuke was hoping to fight Naruto, but he ended up fighting Choji instead. The fight lasted three exchanges, Sasuke rushed and threw a slow punch, Choji caught it, and Sasuke used him as leverage to leap off the ground and kick his larger opponent in the stomach with both feet, sending him sprawling out of the ring. He never even activated his sharingan. All the girls cheered when Sasuke was declared the winner. He ignored them and returned to his spot next to Naruto.

A few fights later, and it was Naruto's turn, and he would be fighting Kiba. Unlike when Sasuke had fought, everybody was extremely quiet when Naruto stepped into the ring. The other students so far had been cordial to the blond, though he hadn't really made any other friends besides Sasuke, or the occasional quip with Shikamaru and Kiba.

Iruka started the match, and Kiba immediately began boasting how he was gonna kick Naruto's ass since he had been the dead last several years ago. Before he could continue, Naruto seemed to blur and disappear. The last thing Kiba remembered about the fight was a pressure on the back of his neck, and then everything went dark.

He awoke to Naruto waving his hand in front of his face, trying to wake him up. He was a little bit out of it, but let Naruto help him up anyway.

"Sorry about that Kiba, I thought you would be able to keep up with my speed, Sasuke told me you were fast ya know." Naruto said once Kiba had regained his bearings.

"Yeah yeah, it was just a lucky shot, I'll get you next time." Kiba replied, though he was upset that somebody wearing wooden sandals had beaten him. Akamaru yipped his agreement from the sidelines where Kiba had left him.

Sasuke knew Naruto was fast, they'd been training together the last couple of days, but they hadn't outright sparred, so he didn't know exactly how fast he was. If it hadn't been for the sharingan, he suspected that he would have had trouble keeping up with the blond's movements.

Those that had been paying close attention in the class, mostly the boys, and a certain Hyuuga heiress, had seen little more than a yellow blur, and then Kiba had dropped with Naruto standing right behind him. They were all shocked, they had never seen anybody their age move that fast. Not even Sasuke.

The year went on like this, Naruto would surprise everybody with just how good he was at the shinobi arts. He even demonstrated a clone jutsu that he claimed he had invented, though the kunai didn't really do anything when the clone stopped working, they just dropped. This was all compounded by the fact that he rarely paid attention to anything in the classroom, except the one unit on Fuinjutsu, where he had made several corrections to Iruka's 'boring' lecture. He also had a tendency to start fires within the classroom, and they always happened to be on test day. These fires always somehow managed to light his test on fire and burn it to ashes before anybody knew what was going on. Iruka didn't know if he was using a fire jutsu, or just some matches, but it was impressive that he hadn't been caught yet.

About one month into the academy year, it was officially made public that Naruto was the heir to the Uzumaki clan. The clan had never had a large presence within Konoha to begin with. There were never more than 10 or 11 members within the village at once, most permanent, some temporary. Their relationship with the Senju, however, had given them a good amount of prestige within the village, especially to the older generation who could remember their fighting prowess. Because of the lack of members in the village, and how long it had been since the last one, there wasn't a lot left for Naruto to take over.

There was a decent amount of money, nothing like the Hyuuga clan, or any of the other prominent clans in the village had, but enough that Naruto wouldn't ever have to take a mission if he didn't want to. He had the rights to a Fuinjutsu shop that was closed, and without anybody to run it had lost their physical shop. There was however, a stockpile of merchandise. Brushes, inkwells, blank scrolls, beginner guides, everything a ninja would need to get the basics of Fuinjutsu down. There were also more expensive items, like a few weapons and pieces of armor with seals on them. There was even a stockpile of basic kunai and shuriken that were sold alongside the more prominent Fuinjutsu stuff items so shoppers wouldn't have to go to two stores for the basics. Most of this stuff wouldn't last Naruto more than a year, but it was a good start, and made it so that he didn't have to go to the shops very often, which he was grateful for. Everything else that had been left to him had already been sent to him in the scroll the Hokage gave him.

The most important part of Naruto becoming the heir to a clan, was the status the being a member gave him. Konoha loved it's clan and special abilities, hence why they loved Sasuke so much. The council was also made up almost entirely of clan heads, save for Sarutobi's advisors, and a few civilians. Now Naruto would join them shortly when he earned a promotion to chunin. The council didn't decide a whole lot within the village, but they were allowed to input their advice to the Hokage on important decisions. They were also allowed to rule on smaller things that didn't affect Konoha's military aspects, such as shop regulation, taxes, zoning issues and a few minor minor things. Because of this, the clans tended to favor themselves. This meant that Naruto now got a discount on anything he tried to purchase for his clan, and was given access to purchase certain lands that could only be bought by clans. He could also barter and trade with other villages as a separate entity from Konoha, which could gain him special deals on trade. The political influence the boy would be able to wield would be astounding, and extremely important for becoming Hokage.

While Naruto's new status wasn't announced, anybody could find out in the archives, and many shinobi would see the order as it made its way through the proper channels. Because of this, word had found its way to Ino Yamanaka. That was essentially as good as announcing it to the whole village.

All of the sudden, the girls in class were starting to treat Naruto the way that they were treating Sasuke. Of course, some of the civilian children still seemed to be afraid of Naruto and would ignore him at all costs, but it was about 50/50 now. Having not been in the village the last four years, meant that many parents hadn't bothered to tell their children to avoid him.

Naruto wasn't really a fan of the 'fan-girls' and their ridiculous actions. Jiraiya had successfully impressed upon him how dangerous the life of a ninja was. While he still liked to have fun, he had taken him seriously. These soon to be Kunoichi however, didn't seem to understand that. It was time to change that.

Naruto was living in an apartment, as he wasn't allowed to move into his parents house until his father was declassified. Because of this, he invited his class to a training ground that he had the Hokage reserve for him. It was one of the hospital's training grounds, and because of that it was safe. It was away from the more dangerous ones, and no traps were allowed. It was meant for newly minted genin to meet with their jonin instructors, and also for ninja that were rehabilitating injuries. There was no way that an outside influence could harm any of the students, which was good, because a decent amount of them were pitiful at best.

25 students showed up, and Naruto was sure that was because he had told them all Sasuke was going to be there, and wanted them there. That was only stretching the truth slightly. Sasuke didn't really like most people, but if it would make them stronger, and possibly get the fan girls to leave him alone, then he wouldn't mind it too much.

Naruto had seen the fear in the eyes of the two classmates that didn't come show up. Despite his best effort to smile warmly and sound kind, he could tell that they weren't going to come. He guessed that their parents had been affected greatly by the Nine-Tails attack. Though he knew that it couldn't be helped, it still frustrated him. Why couldn't they see passed what they'd been told? Surely his actions, besides the occasional test catching on fire, didn't warrant being terrified of him.

When everybody had gathered, Naruto suggested they play some games. They started with tag, which of course the boys dominated. They moved on to cops and robbers, and a few other games that didn't last long. They were still young enough to play and have fun, but they were getting to the point where they thought that they were too grown up for games.

Luckily the catered lunch arrived just as people seemed to be losing interest. Coming around the corner carrying stacks of ramen bowls were Teuchi, Ayame, and 4 shadow clones of Naruto. Everybody seemed very happy to be getting free lunch, though not as excited as Naruto to be getting ramen. They all sat around in the grass and chowed down on the ramen.

It was Ino who asked the question that he had been waiting for. "Naruto, why don't we play ninja next?" She asked expectantly. She was hoping to score some points with him.

The blond set his finished bowl in a stack with the other 3. His face became serious, and his presence became known. All the other academy students looked up at him, except for Sasuke, who already knew what was coming.

"Because it's not a game Ino." He said calmly but firmly. This had been the reason for inviting them all, especially the girls. He would have brought it up regardless, Ino just happened to get the wheels turning.

"What do you mean?" It was Sakura who asked the question this time. She was curious and her thirst for knowledge was always high, she couldn't leave an unknown like that out there.

"Being a ninja isn't a game. You don't play it." He explained. "Ninja fight for, and lose their lives every day, it's a part of their way of life, and I think that's something everybody here needs to learn.

All of the girls, and many of the boys had their mouths open in surprise at this. They thought that they had seen Naruto get serious before during some of the skill lessons and obstacle courses, but that had just been him focusing. Now they say a different side of him. It was both serious and calm, yet there was a sadness there too.

Naruto shot Sasuke, who was now looking at him, an apologetic look before continuing. "Sasuke and I are both from near extinct clans, extremely skilled clans, who were the best at what they did. Yet our relatives and ancestors were completely wiped out." Naruto said. Some of his classmates didn't seem like they were ready to hear this, but he had already decided that they needed to hear this. He'd rather they be shell shocked and unsure, then ignorant. He didn't want them to die young, and the best way he could protect them was to inform them. One of the lessons that Jiraiya had imparted on him was that shinobi, and the Hokage especially, had to make hard decisions that would upset people for the good of the village. This would have to be first if he wanted to become Hokage.

Sasuke looked at him neutrally, not showing a single emotion on his face. His eyes betrayed him though, as they were shining red as Naruto looked into them. Naruto hadn't told him that he would bring that up, but he hadn't said he wouldn't either.

"If you're not ready, you will die. If you get surprised, you will die. If you're not strong enough, if you're a split second too slow, you will die. Worse than anything that I just said, if you're not good enough, your comrades could die. You could be the reason that anybody here dies if you don't take it seriously. Look around and see if you're okay with being the reason somebody here loses their life. We in the Leaf value our comrades above the mission. You can complete a mission and lose a comrade, so you have to be good enough to complete the mission and protect your comrades, protect each other."

He made eye contact with every classmate as he spoke, trying to impart his urgency on them. Each of his classmates felt it. They didn't know what it was, but they felt it. They could feel that Naruto was telling the truth, and that he was right. Some of them didn't like it, some of them didn't understand it, a few looked like they were going to cry. He marched on.

"Sasuke and I couldn't save our clans. He was too young, and I wasn't even alive when the last of mine died." He paused, thinking about his next words carefully. They were the most important. "We are strong though, because we understand that loss. It's not his eyes that make him special, he was kicking everybody's butt before he unlocked them, and it's not my clan that makes me special, I was the dead last not even a few years ago. We have become strong, at least for academy students, because we understand. We know that you can lose your loved ones in a second, and we're determined to never let that happen. Both of us would protect any of you with our lives out on a mission. It's the reason I fight." Naruto said.

There was a long pause, one minute, two minutes. Surprisingly enough, it was Sasuke who spoke first.

"He's right. Most of you don't understand what it's like." Sasuke said quietly. The hidden words in the sentence made it through though. They didn't understand what it was like to lose everybody, and to not be strong enough to do anything about it.

"Sasuke, perhaps a demonstration would help the words sink in?" The blond asked. The raven haired uchiha just nodded.

When everybody was off to one side of the training ground, a safe distance away from the spar, they began.

They were a complete blur to most of the students, Naruto having the speed advantage, threw the first punch, using the Uzumaki style that he had painfully learned the forms for. It was generally designed to get opponents off balance so a seal or chain could be applied easier in order to immobilize them. The style was generally balanced, and let opponents make mistakes, but Naruto knew Sasuke was unlikely to make one, and he preferred to be the aggressor anyway. Despite his speed advantage, Naruto couldn't land anything on Sasuke due to the latters whirling sharingan, but Sasuke was having trouble getting a counter attack in due to the sheer speed of the blond.

Sasuke knew that they could keep going like this forever, and Naruto would win out because of his stamina, so he broke their taijutsu battle by leaping back from the blond. Naruto smiled knowing what was coming, so he himself leapt back giving the two a large gap between them. They both ran through hand signs simultaneously.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!/Water Release: Gunshot!" They shouted simultaneously. The name of the technique didn't necessarily have to be said, but it helped focus, and the two wanted to emphasize their abilities, and maybe show off a little.

Sasuke's fireball was larger than Naruto's mass of water, but Naruto had the affinity advantage, so the two jutsu collided and created a large amount of steam.

Their classmates looked on in awe. Some had seen some of their older siblings, cousins, or parents do things like this, but they were all 15 or older at least. Others had seen random ninja perform this way, but didn't know anybody who could. A few had never really seen anything like it, and only heard of things like this.

When the steam cleared enough that Naruto could see Sasuke, Sasuke could see 4 Naruto's, and he was no longer naive enough to believe that there weren't more than that. One Naruto was charging at Sasuke with a sword in hand. Another threw kunai and formed hand seals, with the one next to him forming his own seals. The last Naruto just stood there, holding his hands in a ram seal.

Sasuke was seeing this slowly, and processing this quickly. He heard Naruto say the technique names, shouting "Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu! And Wind Release: Gale palm" Sasuke cursed, because of the steam he hadn't been able to see the first hand seal on either technique, and thus wouldn't be able to copy it. He dodged the sword of the first clone, and spun him around to take the brunt of the wind aided kunai, sharingan spinning to insure he didn't get hit. The two Naruto's who had made the combo technique had dispelled upon using their jutsu, leaving just one (visible) Naruto left. Sasuke wasn't worried about him, as he could see him, so he instead tried to fine tune his senses to find the inevitably hidden Naruto. His distraction was costly, and he felt the chain wrap begin to snake his way up his legs before he saw it.

Sasuke was confused, he'd been wrapped up by a chain before, but that one had been cold and silver, this chain was glowing gold and warm, and it looked like it was made out of chakra and it was moving as if it were alive. The chain was beginning to wrap itself around his torso, and he could feel his chakra being suppressed. As he began to fall over due to the chains influence on him, he quickly grabbed several shuriken before it could secure his arms, and flung them at Naruto. The blond had been dawning his concentration face, and cursed and flung himself out of the way, losing the focus on his technique. The chain disappeared from Sasuke, but his red eyes had spotted the same gold glow coming out of Naruto's foot when he dove out of the way. Did the chain come from his body?

The two reset themselves, eyeing each other up. This time it was Sasuke who attacked first, beginning a taijutsu bout. This time though, Naruto began to use a different style that appeared to focus on speed and evasion. The Uchiha grew angry as he couldn't land a blow on his friend, and pressed harder. After 20 straight seconds of dodging, the blond finally made a mistake, and Sasuke punished him with a hard roundhouse kick to the head. Hard enough to pop the clone. Sasuke was furious that he'd been tricked yet again by Naruto's clones.

It was quiet for a whole second, before an explosion of dirt came from just in front of Sasuke, followed by a blond head of hair. Sasuke leaned back, avoiding a potential fist to the face, but Naruto was also carrying a sword, and was swinging it around at Sasuke's neck. There were gasps from the sidelines as he did so, the other students thinking that Naruto was going to try and kill Sasuke. Both Uchiha and Uzumaki knew that Naruto would stop the sword in time, but Sasuke didn't intend to let it get that far. Naruto had locked eyes with him, and that was all it took to put him in a basic sharingan genjutsu.

It only took the blond a second to realize what had happened and break the genjutsu, but when he did, he felt the cold metal of a kunai pressed against his neck.

"Dammit I thought I had you. If Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu wasn't so difficult for me to do I would have had you!" Naruto said

Sasuke moved the kunai to the back of his neck and nicked him with it, drawing blood.

"Ow you bastard, what was that for!" Naruto shouted.

"Had to be sure you weren't a clone." Was Sasuke's short reply.

Naruto was pissed, more so that he had lost than anything, but he couldn't fault the Uchiha's logic. Then Naruto remembered why they had sparred in the first place. He'd lost himself in the adrenaline of a good fight, and forgotten his purpose. He turned to the rest of the class.

"See what levels you can reach when you take being a shinobi seriously and train hard? Do any of you think you could have kept up with us?" Naruto asked.

Not even Kiba said a word, despite the fact that he was always the most boisterous.

"I thought so. That was just a spar too, neither of us were going completely all out because we didn't want to hurt each other, otherwise I would have kicked Sasuke's ass."

"Hn."

"See, he agrees." some of the light and playfulness was returning to Naruto. He didn't like acting all serious like that, but as far as he was concerned, his friends' lives were on the line. It surprised him a little bit at how easily he had considered these people his friends, most of them were just there because of Sasuke or because he was a clan heir. It didn't really bother him though, he knew the alternative was that they didn't come at all, and he enjoyed being around them anyway.

"I know some of you have clan techniques and training that you do, but if any of you want help taking this more seriously, come to Sasuke or I. I promise he doesn't bite if you approach him about training and not about how cool he is." Naruto said.

Naruto was extremely pleased to see how serious his classmates seemed to take their warning/demonstration, and he even had a few talk with him after everybody started to leave. The most surprising was Sakura, as she was Sasuke's biggest fan.

"Naruto… do you think that maybe you could help me?" Sakura asked.

"Sure Sakura, but why aren't you asking Sasuke? I know he's your favorite." He replied.

"I-I don't want him to see. I can't do any of that stuff you guys were doing, I could barely even see you guys. I never knew that ninja could do all that, but I don't want Sasuke to think I'm weak because I can't." She said, eyes planted firmly on her feet.

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "Of course I can Sakura," Naruto said reassuringly, "but it's going to take a lot of work, and you'll probably have to quit that diet you keep saying you're on or you'll never survive ya know."

"Whatever it takes. I don't wanna look weak to Sasuke-kun" Sakura said firmly. She had raised her head to say it, and Naruto could see the determination in her eyes. She probably still didn't understand, he'd never seen her do anymore than the basic academy fitness test exercises, and those were easier than her warmup. Still, he wouldn't turn her down for being from a civilian family and not knowing any better.

"Alrighty!" Naruto cheered, "I'll see you tomorrow morning at 6 am! We can meet in front of the academy!"

Sakura blanched at that. She was really hoping a different Naruto would jump out of the ground and yell "SIKE", but it never happened. What had she gotten herself into.

Sarutobi looked into the crystal ball in the Hokage office, absolutely beaming with pride at Naruto. It might have been a little harsher than some of them were ready for, but it would soften the blow coming from somebody their age. He truly was an inheritor of the Will of Fire, perhaps the strongest since Hashirama himself.

—

By the time graduation rolled around, almost everybody in the class had grown immensely. All 24 students passed easily and Iruka was sure that this was the best class the academy had had in a long time. He had a sneaking suspicion that a certain blond had something to do with it, as he'd seen him working with some of the other students on their shinobi arts.

Every single student had improved more than he had ever seen from graduation year students, at least on average. Strangely enough, despite their already large gap, Naruto and Sasuke were the two who improved the most, both getting faster and stronger, while sharpening up their current skills. Iruka had been sparring with Naruto the first month or two just to help him out and spend some time with him. He had to claim he was too busy too and stop because he was afraid that Naruto would soon be able to beat him, at least sometimes. The kid was seriously good, and so unpredictable. Iruka had never been more proud.

Naruto was extremely happy with his comrades' progress, even if three of them had quit before graduation. It was better that they faced the music now and not make it through, than die as a genin on their first real mission later because they couldn't handle it. Unsurprisingly, the three who had quit were the two civilian boys who never came to his class meeting, and one civilian girl who realized that she wasn't cut out for this world.

Sakura had made the biggest jump out of all of them. She had near perfect chakra control and some natural strength to go with her big brain. Naruto had helped her work mostly on the physical aspects of being a ninja. Going on runs, doing strength exercises, and practicing throwing kunai and shuriken on the run, more like it would be in a real fight. He also taught her tree walking and water walking, although taught is a bit of a stretch. It took her less than an hour and a half to learn both, and most of that time had been spent finding a source of water to walk on. She was getting better at using the academy taijutsu style too, and was beginning to modify it to fit her a little better. She had even learned a genjutsu, although despite her chakra control, she didn't seem to like them that much.

Hinata too had made great strides, although Naruto already thought she was pretty awesome, definitely better than all of the other girls. She was becoming much more aggressive in her fights, not afraid to do a little bit of temporary damage to her classmates. Naruto insisted that she use chakra against him when they sparred, because he claimed it was "awesome and helpful, ya know" whenever she struck him and his arm would go numb. He also suspected that she might be working with Sasuke a little bit, though he had no proof, and the Uchiha only grunted at him when he asked.

The biggest surprise was probably Shikamaru. Nobody really knew if he actually was getting better because he never actually did anything before Naruto's speech, but he was actively participating, and he was actually quite good. His physical side of things needed work, but when he tried in a spar with ninjutsu, he was extremely hard to beat.

Ino, Choji, Kiba, Shino, all went to their clans and requested more or harder training. Ino making the greatest leap of the four, learning her clans taijutsu style, and Shino making the smallest, as he had already been taking it seriously as it was just logical to do so.

Naruto elected to put his black headband around his waist as he had seen other shinobi of the village do it, and he thought the toads might be upset if he didn't wear their forehead on his head. Plus they had accepted him first, and Naruto was nothing if not loyal.

He was extremely excited to find out what team he would be placed on, and who his sensei and teammates would be. He knew Hokage-jiji's son and Kakashi were supposed to be Jonin sensei this time around, and he was hoping to get either of them since he didn't know any others and they were both strong.

Hope you like the chapter! Sasuke activating his sharingan like that may not be the best way to have it happen, but he had already unlocked it and just couldn't use it. Whether that was because it was suppressed from the trauma, or he just didn't know is up for debate as far as I'm concerned, and I didn't think Kakashi would want to push Sasuke hard enough to unlock it again. Also Kakashi wouldn't have been able to help him specifically with this since he himself can't activate or deactivate his sharingan.

I hope Naruto's speech show's how much he's grown socially. Jiraiya really put the fear of God in him in their training, and that coupled with finding out who his father was, and his goal of Hokage made me think he would step in and spur his classmates along.

Here's the ratings, they're not really necessary to the story but I wrote them out anyway.

Canon best in class in the academy, not counting Naruto or Sasuke from my best recollection/guess:

Speed - Kiba probably, Naruto obviously isn't last though

Strength - Choji, same as above

Book smarts (not the same as intelligence or tactics) - Sakura, shikamaru is probably up here if he tries but I guess we'll never know. Naruto is obviously dead last

Tactics - Shikamaru and Shino to a slightly lesser extent, Naruto is probably last here

Taijutsu - Probably Kiba, idk I haven't read the data books but he's fast and strong. Naruto's technique is nonexistent, though he puts up a fight because of stamina and guts

Ninjutsu - Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Shino all have clan techniques that they use effectively, all Naruto had was his Sexy Jutsu which has never technically been used in the field

Weapons - Honestly probably everybody is mostly better than Naruto

Genjutsu - I'm pretty sure canon is that Sakura is good at it because of chakra control, and Hinata can obviously see the chakra as far as detection/breaking. Even after his training trip with Jiraiya, Naruto struggled with it. He probably didn't even know what it was in the academy

Chakra control - Sakura's thing obviously, Naruto is definitely last here.

Stamina/chakra - Naruto, woohoo!

Fuinjutsu - nobody really, and definitely not Naruto

Positive Intervention best in class including Naruto and Sasuke:

Speed - Naruto

Strength - Naruto

Book smarts - Sakura is still first, Sasuke is probably second, and Naruto is probably in the upper half here. He likely has more important/obscure knowledge about being a ninja/the ninja world after traveling with Jiraiya, and likely doesn't know what Jiraiya would consider worthless that would be in the academy lessons like the physics theory of throwing shuriken since he can do it instinctively

Tactics - Still Shikamaru, Sasuke is about the same as Shino, but Naruto is close to them, and much more unpredictable and good at misdirection. Naruto is better in a fight at getting the opponent confused to land a blow, Sasuke is better analytically at breaking down what the opponent can and can't do, and Shikamaru is better at planning ahead and working with what he has, and larger scale tactics with multiple people.

Taijutsu - Sasuke (w/Sharingan), without Sharingan, he's still better than Naruto, but Naruto's speed and strength will allow him to win. Hinata is probably third due to the gentle fist being able to shut people down so fast, Kiba and choji wouldn't be able to win if they couldn't use ninjutsu

Ninjutsu - Naruto, Sasuke is close, but doesn't have the variety, they're both leagues ahead. Also Naruto can obviously do way more ninjutsu before running out of chakra than Sasuke can.

Weapons - Sasuke, but Naruto is close, and has a much wider variety of weapons he can use

Genjutsu - Sasuke, but Naruto can effectively dispel them, and is okay at detecting them. I would probably put Hinata above him because of this

Chakra control - Sakura still, it's her thing, Sasuke is also much better than canon here and above Hinata, but Naruto is probably 4th or 5th, and leagues ahead of where he had been. (That doesn't mean that anybody ahead of him can walk on water or up a tree, because even though that's strictly chakra control, it still takes practice to learn even if it's a skill you're good at)

Stamina/Chakra - Naruto, and it's not close, then Sasuke, and it's not close, both have more chakra than in canon at this point due to their more extensive training, then everybody else. Ino is probably last of the Rookie nine, as Sakura's extra training with Naruto would have her just edging Ino out

Fuinjutsu - Naruto. Sasuke has tried to learn how to make storage scrolls because he hates losing to Naruto, but he hasn't figured it out yet

Sorry for all the long author notes and whatnot, it's my first time writing anything so I'm still learning how to write all this stuff into the story instead of having to explain it before or after each chapter.

Please leave a review if you feel strongly about it, have suggestions, or questions!