Screw December; I could not help myself but post this story.

Prologue

The Village Hidden in Leaves, Konohagakure no Sato, like the other Great Villages had its own Jinchuriki. But unlike the Jinchurikis of other villages, Konoha's was not trained to be a weapon. He was allowed to live a normal life - normal as it can be. Villages have long used Bijuus as weapons to boost their military power. This was because of their great power. Tailed-Beasts had an almost infinite pool of chakra that no shinobi could rival.

Ever since the times when Hashirama captured the Bijuus and handed them to other villages as means of balancing the power between the villages, Tailed-Beast have been nothing more than weapons for mass destruction. Balancing the power by ensuring that each village had its own Bijuu was a wise decision to avoid other villages feeling weak and threatened by other villages. If other villages felt like this, they would be unrest and villages would start to fight. In the shinobi world, it did not take much for a war to break out. Trivial things that even kids would not fight over could result in earth being fed human blood.

Even when Hashirama handed out Bijuus to other villages, he maintained that Konoha would not have one. It was all in the name of fairness and the idea of looking good. But the village already had powerful Shinobi - more powerful than anyone else. The Shodaime himself was only rivaled by his former best friend, Uchiha Madara. The First Hokage was hailed as the God of Shinobi during his days due to his legendary power. If they were to add a Bijuu on top of that, Konoha's power would surely be greater.

When Hashirama decided to give Bijuus to other villages as means to balance power, his younger brother, Tobirama, had tried to have his brother sell the Bijuus. The man worked his mind in a different way than his brother. Surely something as powerful as Bijuus would be sold at a high price. This of course would strengthen Konoha's economic structure knowing that other villages would pay a hefty fee for the Bijuus. Tobirama knew this. He knew that other villages needed the Bijuus and would pay any price to get their hands on them. The Bijuus held great power and it was near impossible to defeat one. Instead, villages saw them as means to create powerful weapons that will boost the military power of the village. Many villages had tried to capture the Bijuus but failed miserably. Some did succeed. Hashirama though, thought differently than his brother and so he gave the bijuu's to other villages for free.

He knew that the power of the Bijuus was great. But he could deal with the Bijuus if they were used to attack his village. His legendary Mokuton was able to restrain any Bijuu without much trouble. Out of all the villages, there was also no one who could defeat him. Despite all his power, he was not too arrogant to hand out Bijuus because he could defeat them or had the believe that he could not be defeated by anyone. He disliked fighting and tried to avoid it all the times. That is why he gave away the Bijuus for free. Surely one would not think of attacking Konoha after all the village has done. He had used this as an opportunity to get the villages to cooperate with one another, but that failed.

The Kyuubi had been the only Bijuu that had been left un touched as it was too powerful than any other Bijuu. When the other Bijuus were captured, the Kyuubi was not. Some villages tried to capture it, but failed. That was until Madara used his Sharingan to manipulate the great beast under his control. He then took the Bijuu to battle Hashirama; it was during that battle that Hashirama took away Madara's control over the Bijuu.

And then it came to Konohagakure no Sato

The Bijuu was sealed within Uzumaki Mito, the Shodai's wife. The Uzumaki woman became the first Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. But the fact that the Kyuubi was sealed within her had remained a secret that was only known to top village officials for security reasons. Mito carried the Bijuu all her life, even after Hashirama had died, she still lived on carrying the Bijuu. She never used the Kyuubi's power, but merely contained it within her as Hashirama had deemed it too dangerous and powerful to be left alone to roam around the world freely.

The belief only served to make the Bijuu hate humans even further.

When Mito was too old and her body becoming weak - too weak to hold back the Bijuu, someone else was brought into the village of Konoha. Uzumaki Kushina was brought from the Land of Whirlpools, the home of the Uzumaki clan. Kushina had special chakra that could hold back the Kyuubi that was why she was selected to be the Jinchuriki of the beast, the second Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Before Mito died, she passed on the burden of carrying the Kyuubi to the young Uzumaki girl with the words that she could conquer the Kyuubi's hatred through love. Kushina held the Bijuu from her young age into her adulthood never knowing that her only son would one day carry the burden she carried.

Kushina's status as a Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi was also kept s secret from the villagers. Only the high ranking officers within the village were told of this truth. For this reason, she was able to live within the village without suffering the fate other Jinchurikis face.

October 10, the fateful day the Kyuubi was forced to run rampage in Konohagakure by a masked man. Before that, Kushina was giving birth to her first child who was already named Naruto. During the time of childbirth, the seal containing the Kyuubi weakened greatly and with enough force, the Bijuu could break free. To avoid something like that happening, Hiruzen Sarutobi had Kushina transported in the outskirts of the village while being protected by his most trusted ANBU. While Kushina gave birth, Minato helped strengthened the seal. But the masked man appeared and killed all ANBU before forcing Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, to leave Kushina behind so to save his son. He really had no choice though. The masked man took advantage of this and extracted the Kyuubi from Kushina before subjugating it with his Sharingan. Kushina was able to survive due to her tremendous life force.

The masked man then summoned the beast into Konoha. The Kyuubi did much damage to the village and killed many. No one could stop it. No form of Ninjutsu could harm it. The situation seemed hopeless without the great Senju Hashirama to subdue the beast with his Mokuton Ninjutsu. But during that state, the famed Yondaime Hokage stepped up. But not before fighting the masked man. Minato appeared and teleported the Bijuu outside the village before sealing it inside his son, Naruto, who became the Third Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Minato and his wife, Kushina, died during that night without being able to raise their son.

But even so, they died smiling having protected their village. And Minato held great belief that Konoha would treat his son well.

Unfortunately that was just wishful thinking...

Naruto's status was made public and this is how this life turned out...

Chapter one: …should've stayed home

Typical, they all stared at him like they had seen some monster. They looked at him with hatred that burned deep within their hearts. What sort of a monster was he then? When he was younger, he had questioned himself so many times - what sort of a monster was he? They always referred to him as that thing... So he was curious. Some things were better left unsaid, they said. He could see the logic in that. However, people tend to hide things that ought not to be hidden.

He was a curious person by nature. Probing into the mystery behind the hateful stares and the silent treatment had gotten him far. Curiosity was not a bad thing - it never killed anyone. How could it be bad if he was merely investigating a mystery that affected his mental state? He could not possibly remain ignorant, and so he observed to satisfy his curiosity.

The result had been a disappointment.

But that did not matter as he ended up knowing why. It was funny how the world was and how things played out. Konoha looked at him with burning hatred, great loathing, the villagers, young and old, disliked his very presence, even his shadow was dangerous to ''touch''. He walked about the streets oblivious to the truth while everyone else knew. They played him for a fool.

For what reason? Simple, he carried the great Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the destroyer of villages and a force of nature. He carried a beast that could level mountains under its, paws? The Kyuubi was rumored to be a beast of infinite chakra, immortal and its very being was hatred. The beast was said to have hatred that defiled anything it touched, yet he had been tainted with such demonic presence and the hatred had yet to defile him.

Konoha feared the Kyuubi like a little child fears darkness. When a baby is crying because of the fear for what might be in the darkness, Konoha wets her pants, hiding inside the tunnels that lie deep under the Hokage monument. She cries for someone to help her, but her parents are both dead. Perhaps her caretakers may one day wipe all her fears away.

Perhaps

The villagers saw the Nine-Tails in him; they saw the very thing that killed their loved ones, the very thing that nearly destroyed their village, the very thing that took away their beloved Yondaime Hokage. They loathed the Bijuu more than anything, yet at the same time feared the Bijuu more than anything. It was laughable that even the thought of the Bijuu gave them unspeakable nightmares.

They say that he was a disease, and his presence in the village did not do them any good. Yes, he was no longer a child, he was not Uzumaki Naruto, he was not just a 13 years old boy with no parents, he was just a thing - a thing they wanted nothing more than to get rid off. They spoke about the Sandaime not caring about their wellbeing for keeping him in the village. Yes, they wanted him gone.

If he suddenly disappeared, they would probably throw a heap of celebrations.

Despite the fact that they hated Uzumaki Naruto more than anything, they could not do anything to him, they could not touch. It was not the Sandaime's law that forbade them from speaking about the Kyuubi, it was not that they feared what the Sandaime would do if they rebelled. The Sandaime would be forced to side with them if they rebelled against his law. They knew it and the leaders knew it too, that the villagers made Konoha. Without them, there was no Konoha.

Even with all that, they could not touch the parasite in their mist, they could not touch him. Why? It was simple; they feared him. No rather, they feared the Kyuubi. They feared what he would do if they pushed him too far. Even in their blatant ignorance, they could still see danger when they see it. Not even shinobi dared to hit him or lay a hand on him. He was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails after all.

The reality must truly make them feel hopeless. It was laughable to him; they hated him and would love nothing more than to see him gone, but at the same time, they could not touch him. ''Could'' may be not the correct term to use; the truth was that they fear the power of the Kyuubi and would not do anything that may awaken its power.

Ignorance; it worked well for him. They did not know that the power of the Kyuubi was safely sealed inside of him. Unless he felt some extreme emotions or forced it out of the seal, it could not come out. Yes, the seal of the Uzumaki worked wonders. Minato might have been the one to place the seal on him, but it was the Uzumaki clan to devised the seal. Yes, they were that good in fuinjutsu.

If they knew this reality, he would be dead by now, or perhaps living somewhere. The Kyuubi would surely not endanger itself by allowing him to be killed. If he died, it meant a temporary death to the Bijuu. He doubted a prideful beast such as the Kyuubi would like it being dead. It was already an insult to its power and pride that it had been sealed within an infant. The other Bijuus would surely have a feast about it if the great Nine-Tailed Demon Fox died.

As it was now, he would not worry about such things.

Perhaps when he was ignorant and oblivious to the cold hard truth that was right in front of his eyes, he would be worried about his safety. He stopped getting worried and afraid when he was five years old. He could walk within the streets of Konoha, carelessly, without being worried about anything or anyone. He could protect himself after all and he carried the strongest Bijuu.

Naruto sighed as he walked through the streets of Konoha towards the Ninja Academy. His footsteps were slow and were put down the ground like any lazy person would. Perhaps today was not a good day to go to the academy, Naruto thought mildly. He should have just stayed inside his apartment and spent the day reading something useful. He really did not enjoy most of the time he spent at the academy.

It was still early in the morning, he always woke up early. 5 or 6 hours of sleep were enough for him. But sometimes he did sleep more than that. As long as he knew that his body rested and was afresh, he did not much more sleep. He could spend his time doing something productive. But lately he has been lazy to do most of his activities. He would have to remedy that before it became a serious problem.

Naruto looked at the heavens, 'There is still about 30 minutes before class, I could get some ramen before class.' But it did not matter if he was late or not. Iruka would probably just give him his lectures before allowing him to take a seat. He never really did listen to each lecture the man gave, and that always worked wonders in magically giving the teacher a vein on the forehead.

He shook his head, slightly - it was barely notable. 'I will get some ramen later,' he thought, proceeding towards the academy. But his movements became even slower, he had to kill these 30 minutes so that he does not bore himself when he gets to class and finds the seats empty.

'Ah finally,' Naruto thought as he finally reached the entrance of the shinobi academy. He looked around the place, and saw that it seemed to be nearly empty of his peers. But he senses told him otherwise, he knew they were in class. Perhaps they had changed the time for when the academy starts.

He put his hands inside his pockets and increased his pace, albeit slightly. The hall was just empty; he really did like it when it was empty like this. He could sense everything happening around him and could also think without having to fend off a glare coming his way. While he could ignore the glares, they did not make things easy for him because he could feel them trying to make holes on his back.

It was not a matter of the glares being too much for him. He had gotten used to them that they no longer bothered him at all. Seeing a villager glare at him changed nothing of his mood. It was the usual business and nothing too surprising. He would probably freak out if they started smiling at him. Surely, that would make him uncomfortable.

The matter was that he could feel the glares because his senses were honed expertly like those of a top shinobi. While he spent much time in the streets and forest of death, he needed to have such skills. The Forest of Death was a dangerous place if you were not a shinobi. One had to be always on alert for the forest that was alive could eat one alive. He used the place for surviving dangerous encounters. Perhaps he just liked the thrill of being in a place where he knew he could die.

Having the Kyuubi inside of him did not mean that he could not die. No, it only meant that he could not die because of things that would kill normal people. He was not a normal person, thus he could not be killed easily. The Kyuubi could apply those high regeneration healing abilities to heal deep wounds that could kill him in seconds. He had always liked to see the expression on the beast's face when it healed him of those wounds.

But the fact remained, he could die like everyone. The Kyuubi could only postpone his death, and when time came, he would disappear like everyone. Nonetheless, he was not worried about death. He did not even fear dying. He knew that death was part of life and as anyone can be born into this world, anyone could disappear.

A minute or two passed and he finally reached his class; he did not bother to knock on the door. He merely lazily opened the door with his right hand before placing it back to its rightful place.

The class was packed always, and the others looked somewhat serious. Iruka was holding a stack of papers. A test? He really should give this thing some much more time. But he, he was going to graduate soon. How he did during the year did not matter, what mattered the most was passing the graduation exam. He had no doubt that he could pass something that silly. He had seen the exam before, and knew that it was not even a test for him.

''Morning, Naruto.'' Despite the happy tone in the instructors' tone, his narrowed look spoke other volumes. ''How nice of you to finally come to school. I hope it is not much of a bore to you, but we are having a test today. So, if you could so kindly take a seat, others would like to start with the test.''

Naruto ignored the rest of the words. ''Morning to you too, Iruka-sensei,'' the blond haired boy said smiling at the chunin. This did nothing but to make Iruka glare at him even more. Naruto's smile became nervous, ''I will take my seat then.''

The rest of the class was oddly quite. Perhaps they did not want to forget what they had read. Taking part of this little occurrence would not have been much of a new thing for them. They usually did so when he came late or slept in class. It would be until Iruka quitted everyone down so that he could do the job he so loved without much noise to disturb him.

As Naruto walked up towards his seat at the corner of the class, he felt a familiar stare coming towards. He looked at the culprit with a smile, and the girl looked away, red-faced like she had been caught stealing. It was the normal occurrence; she would stare at him while he was not looking and when he stared back at her, she would quickly look away, looking flustered.

Perhaps he enjoyed seeing the look on her face.

''Nice of you to finally show up, Naruto,'' Kiba said, in a low tone so that Iruka would not hear him. It would not be pretty if Iruka caught him talking while they were preparing for a test. He envied the fact that Naruto could come to school when he wished but he would never admit it to anyone. His mother or sister would drag his ass if he decided to slack off.

''If I did not come, I would miss Kiba-chan ace this test,'' a bit sarcastic as he responded. He too, in a low tone that only the Inuzuka heir could hear. His remark only earned him a heated glare from the boy.

''At least I am going to pass the test. I doubt you even know that there was a test today,'' the boy grinned madly. But the smile on Naruto's face did not go away. Kiba grinned because he knew the blond was probably going to fail this one. ''Good luck, you will need it.''

Naruto smile widened slightly. ''Thank you, Kiba-chan for the wish of good luck. I can now write with confidence because the great heir of the Inuzuka clan has wished me luck,'' obviously, the remark was purely sarcastic. To add to the insult, Naruto gave the boy a small bow of his head.

Before Kiba could come up with a retort, Iruka spoke, in a slightly tired tone, yet firm. ''Naruto, I am waiting for you to take a seat so we can begin,'' the instructor said looking straight at the blond.

''Let us just start without him. It is not like it will make much of a difference, we all know he is going to fail anyway,'' a boy said, deciding to break the peace within the room. This of course earned some laughter's and snickers headed towards Naruto, as the comment was being referred to his record.

Iruka glared at the boy. ''Shinji, you should not be the one talking,'' the chunin stated in a stern tone. ''You also failed your last two tests.''

Another round of cheers

Naruto ignored it all as he went towards his corner. He took his seat and looked at the peaceful sky through the window. Iruka started, talking, giving the instructions for the test. Naruto was not listening. He looked at Shikamaru who always sat in front of him. ''Why did you not warn me?''

''I wanted to tell you yesterday, but you did not come to the academy. I could have looked for you at the usual place, but when I got home after the academy, I fell asleep and woke up today,'' that came the reasonable response from the Nara heir.

Naruto nodded. ''This is going to be troublesome,'' the blond said, releasing a sigh. He placed his hands on the desk before resting his head on them.

''I hear you,'' Shikamaru agreed with the blond.

Naruto released a yawn, 'I really should have stayed at my apartment,' he thought as he looked at Iruka, who had started handing out the question papers, as well as the answer sheets. The blond took the question paper and looked at it with a bored look. He sighed. ''Wake me up when there is 10 minutes left,'' he said to Shikamaru.

The Nara heir merely grunted in response.

Naruto closed his eyes. 'I am seriously becoming a lot lazy these days. I sleep during the day more than I should be,' he thought as he drifted to sleep.

Hokage's office

The Sandaime frowned as he watched Naruto drift to sleep. This was becoming a problem. He had noticed lately that nothing seems to interest the blond that much. Lately, he wore his bored expression mask more often than he wore a smile. What kind of a 13 year old did not become interested in passing academy tests? Other kids studied hard because they wanted to become shinobi. But Naruto has not been showing interest in passing the tests or even performing well.

The boy's attitude towards academy work was dismissal. Who the hell takes a nap during a test? Those things stayed on your record. To a kid good grades meant a lot. It made him happy when he was just a brat to do well in the academy. But Naruto was showing no interest in doing well. But then again, he had his parents to make proud. Naruto had no parents, even if he did well, there would be no one to congratulate him.

The thought made his frown deepen.

'If only Jiraiya was here, the boy would have someone to look up to,' Sarutobi thought mildly as he put his crystal ball away.

He would have to do something to get the boy motivated. He recalled that the boy did not even want to enter the academy. He had even started late than his age group. He had just pushed things through so that Naruto could graduate with those in his age group. There were some young fellas. The villagers had not been pleased with his choice, but he did not budge. He was the Professor after all.

''Is there any other way I can become a ninja without having to attend the academy?'' Naruto had asked the Sandaime after a week of attending the ninja academy classes.

He had been curious as to why the blond would ask such a question. His curiosity got the best of him and he asked why the blond would ask such a question. The response he had been given by the boy had shocked him. Within a week, the happiness of the boy had been sucked out by the walls of the academy.

He had told the blond that he had to continue with the academy if he was going to become shinobi. But now things were not getting any better. He would have to do something quick, without drawing the villagers' attention. The council would surely give him a headache if they knew he was interfering or giving Naruto special treatment. Well, he was special, and he deserved it. But the damn fools did not have the same eyes as he did.

And it was a damn shame that they did not see the potential he saw in Naruto.

If Minato had not died, none of this would be happening. But it had happened, and there was no returning back. He just had to make the most of the situation and ensure that Naruto became a shinobi, a good one for that matter. He would ensure that he did not fail Minato and Kushina. But he was running out of options. Naruto's class would go through the graduation exam soon. He was sure that Naruto would pass the exam.

He did not believe that the blond was stupid despite his awful academy record. Most trouble was caused by the hatred people carried for the Kyuubi. He knew that even some academy teachers were willing to sabotage his education, although they seemed to fail. They settled abandoning his training. But he had done well in making Iruka Naruto's teacher. He knew the chunin was a good person.

He thought Iruka would be a good influence on Naruto. But that was not bearing much fruit as Naruto did not appear to take interest in anything, from the academy. What made him smile was that Iruka did not treat the boy like other teachers he had assigned to Naruto before. The chunin taught Naruto the entire things he taught the other students. The rest was really up to the boy.

An Anbu made his appearance known to the Hokage. ''Sandaime-sama, I have brought the surveillance report you have requested,'' the Anbu said in the same monotone voice that all Anbu were famous for.

Hiruzen held out his hand as the Anbu handed him the report. Once that was out of the way, he waved his hand, dismissing the Anbu. The masked man did not say anything as he disappeared into thin air.

The Sandaime Hokage wasted no time in opening the file. He flipped through the first page - it just held the name, rank and status of the subject. He already knew all that information. What he was interested in was the report itself. He looked through the each page with a critical eye. After all the reading, he closed the file and put it on his drawer.

The Hokage then leaned back on his chair. ''As expected; there is nothing out of the ordinary,'' he muttered to himself, before sighing. 'This is all going to kill me one day,' he thought, releasing a bitter chuckle.

Shaking his head, Hiruzen looked at his paperwork, he frowned. 'The paperwork can wait, but Touka-chan cannot,' the thought, digging his right hand into his robes.

Back at the academy

''Naruto!'' Iruka yelled straight at Naruto's ear. He was glaring down daggers at the blond. How dare he sleep during a test?! This was not playing for god sakes. This was serious life and he was just sleeping. Not even Shikamaru could do that...well he would after he finished writing. But that was not the case; Naruto had yet to even start answering his questions.

''What?'' Naruto woke up abruptly as he suppressed a wince from the tone of Iruka's voice. It was really loud and not healthy for his ears. He settled for smiling when the chunin hardened his glare. Sometimes Iruka could be scary when he wanted to be.

''Seriously Naruto, You have to start taking your studies seriously.'' Iruka spoke in a soft tone, never losing his death glare. The chunin then shook his head. ''Start writing and I won't give you extra time. If don't finish, you will fail, again.'' With that said, the chunin went down so he could observe each student.

After Iruka had made some distance, Naruto looked at Shikamaru's back. 'He must be sleeping with his eyes open,' the blond thought. ''I should have done that from the start, and I was having a nice dream,'' he mumbled quietly before taking a look at the questions.

'History? Who are the founders of Konohagakure no Sato? Which two clans first settled in Konoha?' Naruto groaned as he read the questions. This was stupid. If you got the first question right, you could not fail the second - Anyone who got the first question and failed the second as an idiot. Well, he could understand why the question only carried few marks.

'I should have stayed at my apartment. This is boring,' Naruto thought as he browsed through the questions to look for questions that would be worth his efforts to answer. It was plain stupid to ask him who founded Konoha, to make it worse, in a test of all things. Everyone ought to have this kind of knowledge, it was common. Anyone who did not know it was just playing ignorance.

''I better start answering the questions before Iruka says time is over,'' Naruto said to himself as he looked at the clock. There was only two minutes left before the time set could be over. He had two minutes to write something. Well, it was more challenging this way. He then started writing.

Two minutes later

''Okay, students! Your time is up,'' Iruka said smiling at his students. He was sure that he had set more than enough time for them to finish writing, especially when the answers were easy. He could admit it to himself that he had set an easy test for his students. He just wanted some who have been failing to get a morale booster by passing this one. He just hoped that Naruto had written something.

None of the students complained about anything. They brought their papers to his desk before taking their seats again.

''Ah, crap,'' Naruto muttered. ''I forgot to write my name on my answer sheet,'' the blond said looking through the window. He knew Shikamaru was listening. Normally, he wrote his name before answering anything. But this time had done things differently.

Shikamaru sighed. ''I did not hear you,'' the Nara heir said burying his face on the desk. Getting into this kind of conversation would only be troublesome, and he would rather avoid anything troublesome. Naruto was just a troublesome person.

The blond raised up his hand. Iruka was quick to notice it. ''No, Naruto, you can't go home now,'' the chunin said with a bit of impatience.

''Where did that come from?'' Naruto asked himself hearing Iruka's response. Was the man thinking that he had raised his hand to ask if they could leave? Sighing, Naruto spoke. ''That is not what I want, Iruka sensei.''

''What is it then?'' his impatience had now become visible to everyone in the class. Naruto could be so much annoying and troubling sometimes. He had many students to deal with, but he had never met anyone who could be as frustrating as the blond.

''I forgot to write my name on my answer sheet,'' Naruto said scratching the back of his head while he gave Iruka was nervous smile. There were a couple of snickers and some mutters of idiot or something along the lines. But the blond ignored it all. He did not care much for what the kids thought. They understood nothing, and only played the ignorant children.

''Fine. I will write it for you when I mark the papers,'' Iruka responded quietly. He knew Naruto's handwriting and would never mistake it. He also knew that he would be able to find Naruto's paper easily given that there was bound to be gaps of unanswered questions.

Iruka sighed as he looked at Naruto - the blond was already looking through the window. ''You can take an hour break. You will return to class after that, and don't take much time. Everyone can go now, except for you Naruto. You have already taken your break.''

Naruto sighed as he watched his classmates leave class through the reflection on the window. It was still morning; there was no need to go outside. He would leave if he had to take some time to eat, but he knew the mates who went outside were just going to be babbling about this and that. Sometimes he thought he was stuck in a 13 year old body. He was could not find himself enjoying the usual conversations his age group had. They bored him more than anything.

Well, given this time, he may as well read something.

''You are not going out...'' Naruto said to Shikamaru who was still sitting behind his desk. He looked like he wanted to get back to sleep more than anything. He noticed that Chouji had also not left the class. Then again, Chouji was wherever Shikamaru was.

''No,'' the Nara genius responded, lazily. ''If I go out, I won't return. And my mom is going to be troublesome if I end up ditching class because it was too troublesome,'' Shikamaru said quietly. Even the thought of his troublesome mother gave him a headache.

''You will never stop fearing your mother, will you?'' Naruto questioned, smiling at his classmate. It was amusing that out of everything in this world, Shikamaru feared his mother more than anything. It was also apparent that even his father was afraid of his mother. The Nara heir had no shame in making mention of that.

He would probably never know since there was no mother in his life - his mother was already dead. So there was no experiencing any of that. Shikamaru was not the only one who was afraid of his mother, even Kiba was afraid of his mother. Well, he could understand why the Inuzuka would fear his mother, the woman was crazy. He had seen her couple of times. And she had no problems embarrassing Kiba in front of everyone. Sometimes he felt pity for the Inuzuka... No, scratch that, he did not.

It was downright amusing to watch.

Overall, the kids say that mothers were scary. He did not know any other, and would never see any of that. His own mother was resting in the afterlife. He could only hope that she was at peace.

''Maybe you should see her one day, and you will know what I am talking about,'' Shikamaru said in a low tone. He was careful not to say anything that would remind the blond that he had no parents. It would not be a good thing to sadden his classmate. But then again, he had never seen the blond sad before, never. There was always a smile; sometimes it was neither happy nor sad. His eyes only reflected boredom, sometimes curiosity.

''I will pass on that,'' Naruto said as he took out a small black book and started reading it. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the book; its cover was just pure black, and had nothing written on it. He had never gotten a glimpse of what was inside it. One thing was obvious though, Naruto always carried the book wherever he went. ''I thought you would be out eating, Chouji,'' the blond said, his eyes firmly on his book rather than on Chouji.

''If I went out to eat now, I won't have anything to eat in the normal break,'' Chouji responded calmly.

''But you are eating right now...'' Shikamaru pointed out looking at his friend.

Chouji shrugged. ''These chips are just the extras I came to school with just in case Iruka sensei gave us a break after the test. And it turned out I was right to bring this bag along. My stomach would have been throwing a fit of groaning if I did not have this bag.''

Nothing further was added to that. Shikamaru merely closed his eyes as he prepared for napping, again. He had nothing to do. A nap was the best he could do. Chouji continued eating his chips calmly, and in silence. As for Naruto, he continued reading his book silently. He read it until the others finally came back and took their seats. Iruka then came back to class, wearing his usual smile.

''Okay class, we are going to return to the usual schedule,'' Iruka stated looking at his classroom. ''I am waiting for Mizuki to get here so we can begin,'' he paused for a moment. ''He was supposed to be here by now,'' the man said to himself than to anyone.

That did it for the class. They started making noise as they waited for the assistant to arrive. Mizuki was usually the one to assist during test and practical exercises, in the training ground. Naruto held no love for the chunin - the man hated him. He could see through that fake smile he always plastered when he looked at him. There were times when he hated smiling at the man. His hatred was blatant, and he could not hide a damn thing. Some people did better in hiding their hatred. But the man was a failure in that regard.

''Mizuki will teach you for the next hour,'' Iruka said.

The man then started talking, he was teaching more history. Sometimes he thought that Iruka only gave the man an opportunity to teach history just to mess up with the man. History was damn boring. He hated learning it, especially since he learned all of Konoha's history when he was just seven and that was 6 years ago. Spending his time listening would only bore him. The worst part was that the man taught history wrong. He did not even bother to make it worthwhile.

And so, Naruto drifted off to sleep.

Later

He looked at around the streets with a bored look on his face. They looked as lively as always. Deep inside in that liveliness was deep hatred that disgusted him. Of course, the hypocrites of this village did not please him at all. He felt disgusted just by looking at them, and if it was not for the fact that he embraced the hatred, he would have very well spat on their good for nothing hypocrital faces.

Someone hit him. He had sensed the person coming towards him, but he had not thought the man would actually bump into him. The hit was enough to send him tumbling backwards. But of course, he could have manuvaured that. However, people were not expecting a 13 year old to actually do something like that. And so he hit the ground on his back before looking at the man.

''Watch where you going scum,'' the man ground out with as much as venom as he could muster. Naruto raised a ghost brow, the man had been the one to hit and and actually moved towards him, hitting him on purpose.

For a second he was tempted to curse the man and give him a chilling glare. But he settled for scratching the back of his head, while smiling nervously. ''Sorry, mister.'' he said apologetically.

''You better be,'' the man said, walking away.

Naruto almost looked amused when the man said that. He knew that behind the growl was barely hidden fear. He could swear that the man might have breathed a sigh of relief when he walked away from him. They seemed to like seeing him crawling beneath them. They were a bit sadistic sometimes. But it was okay, he did not care.

He looked around to see that almost everyone was ignoring him. But he did notice that someone gave a discreet apologetic smile. He nodded at the man and dusted himself as he stood. It was nothing new. He knew that not everyone in the village loathed him. He may be a social outcast but, there were some people who were at least kind. But they showed their kindness discreetly.

Sighing, Naruto made his way towards Icharaku.

He went around this time because he knew he would have the place to himself. By this time people did not usually come to the ramen stand. He liked it because he could eat peacefully without driving away some of Teuchi's customers. He knew that some people would not stomach eating next to him. Yes, he was that disgusting thing that made their stomachs reject their meals.

''Naruto my boy,'' Teuchi said as he watched the blond take a seat. ''How are you?''

''Good,'' Naruto replied smiling, ''and you?''

''I am good,'' Teuchi responded. ''How was the academy today?''

''Same old boring,'' Naruto said with a nonchalant shrug. It was boring for him. But in order to become a shinobi he had to attend, well at least it was going to end soon. He just had to endure for a week and would finally leave the academy and become a genin.

Teuchi sighed. ''You should at least be enthusiastic about it like other kids, Naruto.'' the old man said, knowing Naruto's dismissive attitude towards the academy. He had tried to get the blond a bit more excited about the academy but nothing had worked so far.

Again, Naruto shrugged. ''Well, the graduation is coming soon. I will get through and become a genin!'' he held a large smile as he said those words.

''Do you think you will pass the graduation exam?'' Ayame asked as she came from the kitchen.

Naruto nodded. ''It is easy; only an idiot and one without acceptable chakra control for an academy can fail,'' the blond responded calmly.

''I will get the usual order while you kids talk,'' Teuchi said walking away, towards the kitchen to get Naruto his food. He already knew what the blond would eat, so there was no need to ask him what he wanted to eat.

The atmosphere changed, completely.

''I-I am going to see if father needs help,'' Ayame said, before she hastily left the blond alone.

Obviously there are a lot of things that need to be explained. But I will not explain them now.

However, since there is a change in appearance with Naruto, it will be better if I explain it to you; in this story, Naruto's hair style is put in the same way as Nagato's. This means that it covers his right eye completely – his hair is still blond. He has no whisker marks – some people do like them, but I do not. There is a reason why his hair is put like that. I won't say it now – it will be revealed as the story progresses.