Thank you all for reviewing, I'm glad that you're enjoying my fic. I just want to say that I'm really sorry for how long it has taken me to update, I've had a lot of problems with my CPU and I had to send it back to the shop to get it fixed, so I couldn't work on this chapter until recently. Please let me know if it seems a bit rushed, I just wanted to get this chapter up. For all of the people who are worried about the pairing Hinata is not going to end up with Naruto. The only reason that I wrote the last chapter like I did was to give Naruto a stronger connection with Konoha so that he would have a believable reason to return.
Enjoy the chapter.
The Academy
"Okay class, settle down now," Iruka waited as the last few whispered conversations ended and then he continued, "We will be receiving a new student today, I expect you to treat him with respect and I don't want anyone to spoil his first day at this academy… Is that understood?"
"Hai Iruka-sensei!" was the reply that he received. There was a knock on the door, and Iruka smiled, "This boy is also new to the village, so I expect you all to help him settle in," Iruka walked to the door and opened it. He was faced by a tall blond boy with whisker marks on his cheeks. The boys sapphire blue eyes had cat-like slits and Iruka was sure that he could see fangs just pointing out from under the boy's top lip.
"Welcome to the academy, my name is Umino Iruka and I will be your instructor for the next six months," while Iruka spoke he took the opportunity to study his new pupil, the boy was wearing black combats with extra pockets for ninja tools, a black fishnet vest, black shinobi sandals and a long black trench coat; which he wore open. Around his neck was a wolf tooth necklace, his ragged hair was held out of his eyes by a black strip of cloth and he wore a belt around his waist which held two sheathed hunting knives. There was a kunai holster on both of the boy's thighs and Iruka spotted the handle of a katana over his right shoulder.
The boy bowed, "My name is Ookami Naruto, it's a pleasure to meet you Iruka-sensei," Naruto straightened up, "I presume that the Hokage told you about my companion?" Iruka nodded, "Good, then I would like to introduce you to Moonfang." Naruto took a step to the right to reveal a white wolf that had been standing behind him.
Moonfang walked up to Iruka and sniffed him, before turning back to Naruto, 'This one is stronger than his rank suggests. We would do well to learn from him.'
Naruto nodded, 'Then learn from him we shall!', "Is it ok for us to come in now sensei? I don't want to hold up your lesson any longer."
Iruka smiled, "Sure, come right in."
Once Naruto had introduced himself to the class he was seated next to quiet boy who was wearing sunglasses and a high collared coat that covered the lower half of his face. The boy said that his name was Aburame Shino. There were quite a few people staring at Moonfang, some in amazement, some were frightened and there was one who seemed to be interested; a boy at the back of the room with a small dog on his head.
The class became quiet as Iruka began his first lecture of the day, "Today I'm going to talk about other ninja villages in different countries, starting with Kirigakure. Kiri is the most unstable of the ninja villages; it has been in a state of constant civil war for 20 years." (1)
A pink haired girl put her hand up, "How did the war start sensei?"
"Good question Sakura, no one knows for sure. The most popular story is that the Seven Swordsmen, Kiri's elite ninja, attempted to assassinate the Mizukage. The assassination attempt failed and most of the swordsmen fled, however some of them stayed and gathered followers from Kiri's ninja force so that they could challenge and overthrow the Mizukage. This is the most believed story because it was the Mizukage who announced it; however as no one from Konoha was there to confirm it we prefer not to assume that it is the truth just because it came from the Mizukage."
"Why not?" The boy with the dog seemed confused.
"The Mizukage was widely known as a power hungry, paranoid control freak, Kiba. It is entirely possible that the Mizukage was scared of the power that his elite ninja had and decided to frame them so that he could remove them without protest."
Sakura wasn't entirely convinced, "But sensei isn't that just guesswork? The Mizukage actually stated that the Seven Swordsmen tried to kill him, so why shouldn't we believe him? It is a lot more reasonable than a conspiracy against the Seven Swordsmen, isn't it?"
"It is, however our information has been recently updated by a new jonin ninja. It seems that this ninja actually met and talked with a member of the Seven Swordsmen who told him about the conspiracy in the hope that the ninja would help to overthrow the Mizukage. So you see Sakura, there are two sides to every story and without a Konoha ninja actually being there when the 'assasination' took place how can we say which story is true?" This effectively stopped Sakura's argument.
A blond girl raised her hand, "How do you know that you can trust this new jonin?" Moonfang growled at this question.
"How do you know if you can trust the Mizukage? Do you know him?" Naruto spoke in a quiet but dangerous tone.
"No, but…"
"The new jonin is my adoptive father and I was there when he met with Zabuza, the demon of the mist, who is not only an A-rank nukenin, he is also a former member of the Seven Swordsmen. I know that my father wasn't lying."
Sakura snorted, "How do you know that Zabuza wasn't lying? How do you even know that you were speaking to the real Zabuza?"
"I'll answer your second question first; the ability to converse with wolves is part of the bloodline that my father gave to me. It is all but impossible to lie to a wolf and there were two at the meeting with Zabuza, Moonfang was one. The other was my father's wolf Silverfang, it is therefore impossible that Zabuza was lying. As for your first question, because Zabuza is a missing ninja he appears in the bingo book, which is like a ninja encyclopaedia. All c-class and higher missing ninja are automatically placed in the bingo book which is constantly updated to provide ninja with up-to-date information on both missing ninja and ninja from other villages; including what they look like. Zabuza also carries a rather unique sword; this makes it quite easy to identify him."
The whole room was silent as even Iruka was left speechless at Naruto's knowledge, but Iruka was a good teacher and it did not take him long to recover, "Thank you for that information Naruto, I'm sure that everyone has learnt something valuable from you. I'm sure that everyone is curious about your bloodline and how you got it from your father even though he is not related to you by blood, would you mind telling us about that?"
Naruto nodded and stood up, "In some ways my clan's bloodline is similar to the Inuzaka's; it gives my clan the ability to speak to wolves like they can speak to dogs. This means that my clan can fight alongside wolves like partners and even create unique jutsu that can only be used by us. That is however where the similarities end, my clan's bloodline is strange in that it can be passed on to anyone even if they are not born into the clan; this is made possible by a clan technique developed by my father. This technique is strange because not only does it pass on the traits that I described it also creates a wolf from the person's soul; we call this wolf our inner wolf. The inner wolf becomes our main partner, although my clan can partner up with other wild wolves we tend not to, Moonfang is my inner wolf. The advantage of being partnered with an inner wolf is that, because they come from your soul, you can read their thoughts and they can read yours, this gives you the element of surprise against most opponents as you can perform perfect teamwork without spoken commands."
As Naruto finished a bell rang and Iruka, who had sat down during Naruto's explanation, stood up, "Ok everyone, enjoy your break and remember to be back in the classroom in 15 minutes." The class rose and filed out.
On the way out Naruto was approached by the blond haired girl who had questioned his father's reliability, "I'm sorry if I offended you Naruto…"
Naruto grinned showing off his razor-sharp fangs, "Don't worry about it, you didn't know that he was my father. I would have asked the same question if our positions were reversed," the girl smiled in relief, "What's your name? I feel kind of embarrassed that you know mine but I don't know yours."
"My name is Yamanaka Ino, I'm sure that we'll be great friends."
Ino held out her hand and Naruto shook it, "I think that we'll get on just fine Ino. Introduce yourself to Moonfang Ino."
Ino turned to the white wolf, "Erm…hi Moonfang my name's Ino," Ino turned to Naruto, "Can I stroke him?"
"Sure, he likes to be scratched behind his ear." Naruto advised Ino, who began to scratch Moonfang's ear. Moonfang growled in contentment and Ino giggled, "I have to go look for someone Ino, you can come with me if you like."
Ino nodded, "Who are you looking for?"
"Her name's Hyuuga Hinata, she's like a sister to me."
Ino looked puzzled, "But I thought that you came from another village…how could you know Hinata that well?"
"I was born in Konoha and Hinata was my first and only friend here, neither of us had anyone to play with so we played with each other. I never had the chance to say goodbye to her when I left with my father seven years ago."
Ino nodded, "Hinata usually sits under the tall tree by the pond, follow me." Naruto nodded and let Ino lead him to his long lost sister.
(1) (I don't know how long the war has been going on so I'm just making this up.)
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, please review and tell me what you thought!