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Senju Naruto by Baal of Yarns

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Chapter 10 - Meeting New People:

Naruto trudged along after his godfather on the way to the old sennin’s favorite inn. Jiraiya glanced back at his glum face every now and then, but he didn’t really know what else he could say to cheer the poor boy up. It hadn’t been difficult to explain exactly what elemental chakra was to Naruto and just how hard it was to go about mastering it – the kid was bright, if not book smart. Jiraiya was sad to see his godson looking daunted by a task for the first time in his, admittedly, rather short life.

There had to be a way to speed up the learning curve. He’d think about it and get him started on the basic wind training, and Sarutobi-sensei had promised to work on the problem too. The bright side was that as soon as he got this knocked out of the way, the Mokuton abilities were likely to pop back into place as immediately and instinctually as they were meant to do in the first place. Instant power boost.

“Hey, Kiddo, it’s not so bad, hey? It’s no better or worse than it was yesterday, it's just that now we know what the problem is and can start fixing it! It’s not uncommon for most people to have multiple elemental affinities by the time they are Jounin, and you’re still going to be an official ninja tomorrow. Don’t be in such a hurry, kiddo. You’re only 11. So what if you have a bit of a handicap with your kekkei genkai, you're still light years ahead of the other kids. You work three times as hard as they do, and because you’ve been doing it for so long while they’ve been playing with dolls and stuff, there’s really no comparison. Just wait until you meet the other brats tomorrow. You’ll see what I mean.”

He perked up a little at that, “Really? They’re not all going to make fun of me because I’m the only ninja ever to come out of Leaf who has to watch out for trees getting too friendly?” Ivy chose that moment to poke herself out of his shirt sleeve and wipe a spot of road dust off of his cheek. He growled irritably and batted her away. She was worse than his mother sometimes!

“Uh, well…they won’t know, will they? Because you’ll be leaving with me right afterwards!”

“…you really suck at this whole ‘comforting’ thing, Jiji.”

“…Er, how about I take you for ramen? Konoha has the best ramen stand in the Five Countries.”

“REALLY?! Awesome! Let’s go!”

Nothing else eventful happened that night, and the next morning Naruto drug Jiraiya up and out of bed in time to eat at Ichiraku Ramen again before he had to go take the test at the Academy. Usually, students were given three tries to pass, but this one was the last test to be held for this batch of prospective graduates, so Naruto knew he’d need a good breakfast so he could do his best.

Eight bowls of noodles and a new best friend in the guise of a ramen chef later, his godfather lead him to a large, busy building with ninja kids of various ages milling around in the yard. Several clumps of them stood together talking or trying to frantically cram for the end of year skill evaluation tests each level was being given that day. Even the littlest kids were only using the playground equipment to lean on while they read over their notes instead of running around like hooligans.

In the far corner of the schoolyard, a dark haired boy with an interesting haircut sat in a tree, rather obviously trying to ignore a a gathered chattering crowd of girls around his own age including one with long pink hair. Naruto had never seen naturally pink hair before, but even if she did give off vanity vibes, he doubted an eleven-year-old ninja in training dyed her hair. It was pretty impractically long though. Come to think of it, a disturbing number of the girls he could see that looked to be around his age had stupidly long hair. Was it part of some secret kunoichi training thing they taught here? Maybe Ero-Jiji’s Hari Jizo jutsu wasn’t as exclusively his as the old man thought?

As they crossed the yard, he almost tripped over a boy lying on his back, staring up at the clouds, and two other boys chasing a dog who had a obviously stolen bag of chips in his mouth. Naruto really wished he’d been allowed to grow up here instead of in all of those dumb civilian villages and retirement communities. It looked like it would have been a lot more fun, or at least more exciting.

“Well, this is it, Punk.” Jiraiya said, turning to face Naruto and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Go to room 204 and give your paperwork to the teacher there. Sarutobi-sensei said some chuunin named ‘Umino Iruka’ was subbing for the normal teacher for that class today.”

Naruto nodded, he’d been there for that conversation. Jeeze, he wasn’t dumb enough to have forgotten it so soon! Jiji seemed more nervous than he was!

“Do your best, and don’t give Iruka-san any trouble. He’s used to teaching as one of a pair and hasn’t given these tests before. His own class doesn’t graduate until next year.”

“JIJI! I’m ELEVEN, not TWO, and I’m about to take a test to officially become a ninja! It’s not like I’m going to sneak off and paint inappropriate things on the Hokage monument when his back is turned. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

“…but you THOUGHT about it, didn’t you?”

“Well…they’re big and no one could miss a prank on that kind of scale.” He sheepishly replied, toe digging into the dirt and hand automatically reaching up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“Baka!” Jiraiya swatted him, and then playfully shoved him towards the building. “I’ll be out here when you get done!”

“No you won’t!” Naruto rolled his eyes and yelled over his shoulder as he jogged towards the school’s big double doors, “I’ll meet you at the bathhouses we passed yesterday, just like always!” He knew his godfather really well, after all. He threw the old hermit a wave without looking back again, and stepped into the foyer.

Wow, there were a lot of ninja kids in this village! He knew there were several classes, all made up of students of different ages who moved up along with the same teacher each year. He wasn’t quite sure how many kids there were per class, or how many years it was typical for someone to attend, but he thought there were probably somewhere between 50 and 100 people in the halls, including instructors, and it was still a little early, so this probably wasn’t all of them.

Despite the press of people and the size of the building, he had no problem finding the room Jiji had mentioned. There were already several people in the seats, including a long haired boy with some kind of weird doujutsu that made his eyes light purple – nearly white, a weird nervous looking kid whose eyebrows were obviously trying to put him out of his own misery by eating his face off, and a girl with a cute Chinese dress and buns on the top of her head who was spinning a kunai rather skillfully. No one else really stood out.

Naruto took in the room at a glance, and then trotted up to the man in the green vest with the prominent scar across his nose who looked like he was trying to memorize a roster at the desk in the front of the room. That had to be the teacher. He seemed like a nice enough guy.

The man frequently fiddled with the strap of his headband and muttered to himself as he read, but he noticed Naruto’s approach right away and looked up at him as soon as he got close. “Yes? Can I help you? If you’re going to ask where your usual sensei is—“

“Huh? Jiji’s probably peeping at women by now—OH! You mean the guy who usually teaches this class? Er, I already know he’s not going to be here. The Old Man said his girlfriend had caught him cheating and fed him bad sushi so he wasn’t going to be out of the hospital for a few days.” Naruto unabashedly revealed.

Iruka blinked in confusion for a moment and reached a hand up to smooth down his dark hair, “that’s – a bit more personal information than I was told. I thought he was just sick. I guess that means you’re not one of his usual students?” The chuunin gave him a look that said he’d thought Naruto looked a little too short to be the same age as the kids in this room, which kind of pissed the blond off. He was only a year younger! His mom said he was just going to hit his growth spurt a little later than most kids his age! Ivy patted his head comfortingly, but the chuunin had glanced down at his papers again and hadn’t noticed.

Naruto shook his head and handed the man the paperwork he’d been given. “I live with my mom and aunt outside of Konoha, but now that I’m old enough to be a ninja, Jiji brought me back to get my headband so I can officially be named his apprentice! It’s my first time in the village.”

Iruka frowned, obviously confused about why a kid who had never been in the village before was being allowed to test into its ninja ranks, especially since it was a year early. He glanced down at the papers he’d been handed and quickly skimmed the information. “Your last name is Senju?” His eyes locked on the first line on the document, “Holy--! That means you must be the legendary Tsunade-sama’s son!”

Naruto grumbled. Why did everyone here have to say it like that? He knew who his own mom was. Jeeze. “Yeah, the old hag’s my Kaa-san. We kind of snuck out on her while she was out gambling though, so she’s not here.”

“Er, well, I guess you can go sit down by Hyuuga-san. My roster says that seat is usually empty. We’ll start the tests as soon as everyone is here.”

Naruto’s respect for the teacher rose a bit when he didn’t press the whole, ‘your mom is a celebrity’ issue. He frowned and turned to look back at the rows of tables behind him, “Which one is Hyuuga?” Ivy curled into a vaguely question-marked shape above his head which drew some curious stares from the kids in the class as well as their substitute teacher.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I’m a little flustered today, I’ve been preparing my own student’s end of year exams for weeks, and now I have to give the graduation test for this class instead while my assistant proctors their test, so I’m a bit nervous for all of them. I guess you wouldn’t be familiar with the Hyuuga clan, if you’re not from around here would you? Hyuuga Neji is the boy with the white eyes in the back row. You can always tell a Hyuuga by the eyes.” Iruka pried his own eyes away from the seemingly sentient plant waving protectively above the boy's head, (as a ninja he’d seen stranger things, though not very many – he’d definitely have to tell his fellow chuunin about this!) and pointed to the boy in question.

Ah, the guy with the doujutsu! “Cool! Thanks!” Naruto bounded over desks and chairs and into the seat he’d been pointed to. He bet Iruka was a pretty awesome teacher. He almost wished he’d had a chance to be in his class – he obviously cared about his students and had managed to tell him something really useful in addition to the answer to his simple question. That was always a sign of a good teacher.

Naruto’s first impression of Hyuuga Neji, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as favorable. The boy didn’t even open his eyes to look at him when he sat down, and his face seemed set in a permanent blank scowl. It was actually kind of neat. He’d had no idea it was possible to look blank and scowl at the same time. He had to reach out to prevent ivy from poking the boy in the face, so he took the opportunity to tuck her back into his shirt.

Deciding the prick beside him probably had a stick shoved so far up his ass he’d never be able to speak around it; Naruto looked around for someone else to talk to. Nervous, Hungry-Eyebrows-Kid looked like he needed a distraction, and he was sitting right in front of them.

Unfortunately, before he could strike up a conversation with the boy, a rather unremarkable looking girl came over to him and planted her hands on her hips while putting out an impressive amount of killing intent. Naruto lived with his mom though, and no one could do killing intent like his Kaa-san when she’d been provoked. This was doubly true because she could back it up by putting you clear through a wall with a casual flick of her finger. He was kind of impressed with how nondescript this girl looked though, that would be really useful on infiltration missions.

“What are you doing in that seat? You’re blocking everyone’s view of Neji-kun!” she growled in what she probably thought was a menacing way, but just made Naruto want to laugh at her. She should cuss in front of ‘Zune if she wanted to hear what menacing sounded like.

“Okay, so I’m not from around here, but I’m pretty sure the front of the class is up there.” He gestured towards Iruka-sensei, “Does Hyuuga do tricks or something? Why do you need to see him?” he asked, as if genuinely confused. Hungry-Eyebrows snorted in amusement and turned around in his seat to see what was going on. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Neji’s face looked like it was struggling to form an expression, but being so out of practice, it didn’t know how, or at least couldn’t decide between amused or annoyed.

Irrationally Angry Girl stomped her foot and growled again, “He’s the number one rookie of our year! Don’t disrespect Neji-kun!”

Naruto’s jaw dropped a bit, “HOLY CRAP!” she started to look smug for a minute, thinking he’d been enlightened to the error of his ways, but then he continued, “You must be what Kaa-san calls, a ‘Fangirl’! I’ve been warned about people like you!” He immediately made evil-warding signs with his fingers, and now the Hyuuga was definitely shaking from trying to hold in his laughter. Hungry Eyebrows was grinning like he’d just seen the best jutsu ever created.

Irrationally Angry Girl looked like she was going to explode all over them in completely average and unremarkable looking bits.

“Alright class, please take your seats!” Iruka-sensei broke it up from the front of the classroom.

“This isn’t over, Blondie!” the girl hissed and went back to her desk.

“Was that supposed to be an insult? It’s not like I’m NOT blond.” Naruto mused aloud as people shuffled to end their conversations and settle into their usual places.

“Wow, that was an amazing display of courage! I’ve never seen anyone face down a fangirl quite like that!” Hungry Eyebrows said, “I’m Rock Lee, by the way!”

“Hey, Lee. Nice to meet you. I’m Senju Naruto, and before you ask, yes, Tsunade is my Kaa-san.” Lee looked confused, but the Hyuuga was shifting in the seat next to him, and when he glanced over, he was frowning speculatively in his direction.

“That’s enough class, do you want to take the tests and become gennin or not?” Iruka growled. Everyone immediately shut up and sat down.

“Good. We’ll start with the written tests. Please get out your pencils, and there is to be NO CHEATING. If I catch you cheating, and I WILL, not only will you not become gennin this year, you’ll not leave these grounds until the training yard is cleaned for the break, and I can see my reflection in the bathroom fixtures. Am I clear?” Naruto revised his opinion a little. This teacher wasn’t mild-mannered at all. He just hid it well.

Jiji had been right, the Academy tests WERE ridiculously easy – Iruka-sensei had been pretty impressed with his three perfect mizu-bunshin created from the liquid in his drinking glass. Come to think of it, that might have been a little too showy. He mentally winced, Sandaime had warned him not to flaunt his strengths. Maybe he should have done an Earth clone? He tended to forget that not everyone could do things like make water clones from a single glass of water. It just came so naturally to him.

Naruto couldn’t believe a bunch of kids who’d had a whole year more than him to practice and didn’t have his natural handicap with his bloodline ability could be so ridiculously bad at the ninja arts. Many of them couldn't even hit the bullseye of the target more than 90 percent of the time during the throwing weapons examination. Didn’t they ever train?! Iruka-sensei hadn’t looked too happy with the results either. Naruto bet that next year a lot more people ended up passing than from this class. Iruka-sensei seemed like a much better instructor than Bad Sushi-chuunin must have been.

He tied his forehead protector loosely around his neck as he walked out into the sunlight. He’d been warned not to wear it traditionally since that’s how his dad had always worn his, and they didn’t want to encourage people to make connections between himself and Yondaime. His mother was always threatening to make him grow his hair long enough to pull back if people started comparing him to Tou-san.

He was about to start wandering through the crowds of parents there to congratulate their graduates and consol their failures, when he heard his name being called. He paused and turned around a bit, but couldn’t spot anyone through the crowd.

“Senju!” Oh, it was Neji. How’d he see him through all those people in the way?

“Oh, hey Hyuuga, what’s up?”

“We weren’t properly introduced before.” The stoic boy slowed until he stood the perfect, polite distance in front of the blond boy and bowed slightly in greeting, “the Hyuuga are an old clan who were close with the Shodaime, but no one has ever spoken of there being a remaining heir to your family besides Tsunade-hime of the Sannin.”

Oh Jeeze, not another one! “That’s my Kaa-san. I’m here with Jiraiya-sensei,“ wow did that sound weird to say, but he supposed he should get used to it, “I’m gonna be his apprentice until I make chuunin.”

He almost thought the other boy looked disappointed for a moment, “so you will not be joining a gennin team with the rest of us?”

“Nope! At least, not for a while. I’ll probably be out of the village again by the end of the week.”

“Oh, “ Neji sounded kind of disappointed too. Weird. “Well, in that case, thank you for providing me a buffer from the fangirls earlier, and it was not unpleasant to meet you.”

‘What a strange kid.’ “Yeah, no problem, and same to you. Er, I gotta go meet Ero-jiji now, so I guess I’ll see you around Hyuuga-san. Jiji and I should be in and out of the village pretty often, and I’ll eventually have to join a gennin team for the chuunin exams.”

The other new gennin brightened up a little and nodded once, curtly, “Please, feel free to address me as Neji, Senju-san. I look forward to possibly working with you in the future.”

Well, Naruto couldn't fault that - he wouldn't have wanted to work with most of the losers from the few who'd just graduated either. “Neji, huh? Well, okay, but only if you call me Naruto!”

He threw a wave over his shoulder as he trotted off to find Jiraiya, but he clearly heard, “Farwell, Naruto-san, I hope it is our Fate to meet again,” from the direction of the other boy. He wondered if all the other ninja around his age were this strange, or if he’d just stumbled upon the weirdest ones.

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