The Academy – Part 4

Part 4

Three years later, on the day that Naruko and Naruto had their first academy day, they finally moved out of the orphanage … and into their own little apartment, which was to be sponsored by the Hokage/village.

"Old man! Will you finally let us move out of that place?" Naruto asked the third hokage.

Naruto and Naruko did not have any fond memories of the Orphanage, or rather, the people in there. The workers hated them, just like the rest of the villagers did. And the children were taught to ignore them.

"Hmm, I guess you are old enough to live by yourself now?" Hiruzen asked while keeping one of his eyes closed and smirking at them.

Naruko just kept quiet during this conversation, as she stood next to Naruto while holding his hand. She did not like the old man. He just seemed weird to her …

"Yes, that's not really a reason to dislike someone right off the bat, but I know from my memories, that he tolerates the cruel things that Danzo does. And I just cannot forgive him for that." She thought.

She did not remember the exact reason as to why she disliked Danzo, but she couldn't help but feel familiarity in that feeling. It was deep-rooted hatred.

She only knew that she considered him and his organization as a second "Anbu". However, she couldn't seem to remember his organization's name.

After the hokage brought us to our us home, we moved the little stuff we had in the orphanage into it.

We didn't have too much time to sort things out though, as we needed to be at the academy in around two hours.

We did, however, decide on who would take which room.

It is a very simple apartment. Quite small, even, but I don't dislike it.

Having a smaller house means having less to clean.

It has a kitchen, a very small one, though it was clean, so that's something. Not that I really know how to cook complex things, but the future is limitless.

For once, I couldn't help but smile at the thought of my future in this world.

I enjoyed living with Naruto. I enjoyed his care for me and after some time, I was able to show an equal amount of affection towards my brother. He definitely became Naruto-nii to me. He is not just Kurama-nii's host anymore.

The apartment does have two bedrooms and one bathroom, so we will manage.

The bedroom are right next to each other, so it'll be easy for us to wake each other up, should one of us sleep too long (though that will probably be Naruto hehe).

I'm used to sleeping a lot and during my time in the seal, I have been able to create something like an inner clock inside of me.

I when to wake up, so it's a huge help. I'm rested no matter how long I sleep, so I'll be fine even if I stay up till the early morning of the next day.

"I'm my own alarm clock!" I thought while giggling to myself.

After we finished putting the not yet opened boxes with our stuff to our respective rooms, we decided to eat breakfast and then slowly move towards the academy.

I can tell that Naruto is excited, he just cannot sit still and wait for his ramen to finish cooking.

"Just a little longer … a little longer …" He mumbled while pacing around the pot of ramen.

"Patience, brother." I smiled at him.

I've kind of taken a liking to ramen too.

And, honestly, thank god I do not gain any weight. I mean … can you imagine the amounts of ramen we are eating?

Just like in my memories, Naruto loves ramen sooo much. And I'm happy that he does because just a few cups of ramen can cheer him up most of the time. He sometimes really feels down because of how the villagers treat us. He only gets angry when they hit me though, which makes me love him even more.

One thing I noticed is that they seem to be especially harsh on him? Maybe because he is seen as the older sibling? Or maybe it is because they consider me as frail because I'm a girl?

"Though … in some way, it makes me happy that they don't focus on me much. I haven't really found motivation to train my body, as I know that it'll become entirely useless in a few more years. I've decided to pretend starting that during the academy days, since the sparring and weapon training would become highly bothersome otherwise. Essentially, once my body is fully made of chakra, I can infuse my hands or feet or whatever with as much as chakra as I want and thus strengthen the impact they would have on others." I thought while also waiting for the ramen pot to finish cooking.

I can't exactly figure out their reasoning behind bullying us.

They accuse us of stealing something almost weekly, though they do not beat us as often anymore. Perhaps because we've grown older? And Naruto can actually beat grown men by himself, even though he did not have any real training in taijutsu. (He actually said that he uses their beatings as training to become stronger. *snicker*)

It must be my brother's influence on his body that is making him stronger. I mean, why wouldn't it? It is already making him heal quickly after all.

My chakra has already taken over most of my body, though I still cannot use any of my abilities.

I'm predicting it to take a few more years until I can finally use all my power.

Perhaps when we graduate from the academy?

Anyway, Naruto and I fed on our ramen and left the apartment, making our way through the village and towards the academy building.

Naruko and Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha, enduring gazes filled with hatred.

Naruko was holding Naruto's hand.

It always calmed her thoughts when she did so, especially when walking around the village.

Holding her brother's hand made her feel safe. The warmth made her realize that she is not alone.

They could hear the shopkeepers and villagers talking amongst themselves.

Some whispered, while some talked loudly enough for them to hear it.

Perhaps they did that deliberately.

"Demons …" They heard.

"They should die … give us back the fourth."

"Damn foxes …"

And these are just a few examples of the insults that Naruto and Naruko had to bear every time they went outside.

Naruto clearly felt saddened at the villager's unfound hatred towards himself and his sister, but … he did not know what to do against it.

No, he knew, one thing that would change it. He needed to become strong enough to be Hokage, then they could never insult him again! He would make all of them rely on him!

Naruko saw his saddened gaze turn into one filled with determination and resolve.

She giggled at the sight, clearly knowing what he was thinking about.

"Hehe, if I'm correct, he, right in this moment, set himself onto the path to become Hokage. It will become his dearest dream and most important wish. I'll help him, I guess. I mean … of course I will, how could I not? Crowds still make me feel unsave, especially when they are looking at us with true hatred inside of their eyes. In my former life, my mind fooled me into thinking that they were looking at me like that, but in this life … it is actually true. And they do that, just because they fear my brothers and me." She thought to herself.

Naruko focused only on her brother and ignored the gazes of the villagers. She grasped his hand tightly and moved next to him.

Her brother was so much more important than these villagers.

"These insec- … no. I shouldn't … I do not need to. They are so much less important than my brothers, I shouldn't even need to care about them … but still, these gazes make feel uncomfortable and I'd rather not need to face them …" She thought, making herself seems smaller and hiding one half of her body behind her brothers back.

There is no way in hell she was ever going to willingly, without compensation, protect these villagers from any kind of threat.

It's not like she was going to go and seek revenge for all they did, but she would certainly remember who beat her and her brother.

A few minutes later, they reached a familiar looking house with a red roof.

The big red door, through which one could see inside, was wide-open. Many parents were already here, sending off their children for their first day of school.

Naruko recognized some of the parent's faces but couldn't connect them with any names.

She did, however, know who the children of Naruto's class were that graduated with him.

Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Hinata, Kiba, Shino and Sasuke.

Everyone present had their parents and family with them, except for the twins.

But they didn't actually feel too bad about that. They had each other and they've come to feel that keeping each other company is enough. They did not desperately need a father, or a mother.

Especially Naruko felt that she might not have been able to accept any person as her new, genuine parent. But especially not Minato and Kushina. She did, kind of, dislike them for what they did to her furred brother.

They sealed him again and she did not even hear his voice once in the past 6 years.

She also decided not to tell Naruto of his parents yet. She would, someday, do that. But … while doing so, she would have to tell him about herself too. She couldn't keep lying to him about herself at that point.

He needed to know what happened to his original sister and that she was only someone that took over a nearly dead girl's body.

Of course, she believed that her brother would still love her and care for her, but it would be a huge change in their relationship, and she wanted to have things stay the way they were for a while longer.

She missed her brother Kurama, but she knew that he was safe.

The hatred would not control him again, ever.

She guessed that he was sleeping away the days, waiting for Naruto to finally enter his mindscape for the first time, or to ask him for power.

I think that my brother will help Naruto. If Naruto's reason to desire power is not spitting on Kurama-nii's ideas about what is right and what is not, then he will help. I feel that Naruto-nii and Kurama-nii will get along really well.

I couldn't help but smile to myself at the thought of them happily conversing in Naruto-nii's mindscape.

It was then that Naruto looked back at me and took my hand.

The twins walked into the building and soon found their assigned room that the Hokage had told them about in the morning.

They knew that they would be in the same class as many clan children.

Especially the ones from the more well-known ones like Yamanaka, Hyuuga or Uchiha.

They also knew that the child of the Uchiha that would enroll into the academy today, is already known as a genius, though not as much as his older brother.

They didn't know their names, as they really did not care enough to listen in on conversations the villagers had about them.

The twins stepped into their classroom and found it to be nearly empty.

Only a kid with black hair bound into a high ponytail was inside of the classroom.

The kid laid his head onto his desk and seemed to be asleep.

Naruko could see how he opened one eye as they entered, to observe them, but soon closed it again to resume resting on his desk.

"He is … isn't that the boy from the Nara-Clan?" Naruko thought.

She didn't dwell on it, however, as Naruto pulled her hand and walked with her to one of the seats in the back of the class.

Naruto sat near the window and motioned for Naruko to sit down next to him, which she did while flashing him a gentle smile.

As they waited, some other kids slowly filled the room.

Naruko recognized some of them because she had seen them outside with their families.

She did not bother to study any of them much further though, as she knew that most of the kids here would drop out of the class and move to other, easier, classes.

This was the class for clan-children and geniuses. The academy tried to especially groom them into the next top ninja.

Soon, a grown man in a green jacket came into the room and closed the door behind himself.

He stood in front of the blackboard and wrote down his name.

It read: Iruka Umino.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Iruka Umino and I hope that we can all grow together in the next six years. How about we all introduce ourselves first? That way we'll get to know each other." Iruka said.

Instantly, a blonde-haired girl (no, not me), spoke up: "Iruka-sensei, what do we need to say?"

"Ah, yes. Please tell us your name and … hmm … for starters, how about things that you really like and dislike. That should be good." He smiled while motioning for the first child to start.

"My name is **** and my likes are ****, *** and ****. What I really dislike is ****." The first child said.

Honestly, Naruko and Naruto couldn't be bothered to even remember most of the children's names, so why would they even care about their likes and dislikes?

There were, however, a few interesting people … mainly those who were heirs of their respective clans and of whom Naruko already knew that they would graduate with her and Naruto.

Ino, Shikamaru and the rest all gave their introductions, and all named their likes and dislikes.

Though … one person caught Naruko's interest.

A dark-haired boy with the Uchiha's Clan Symbol on his back.

He said: "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I really, really love my Nii-san and my mother and my father. What I dislike are people that don't work hard enough on their skills and I also dislike being compared to my brother!"

While speaking about his family, he had a bright smile on his face, which caused almost all of the girls to blush and stare at him in wonder.

"What, do they like him? How come I don't feel anything then?" Naruko wondered.

As he finished speaking and slowly sat down, she couldn't help but think that something was wrong. She couldn't pinpoint the exact reason though, so she stopped thinking about it.

It was her turn soon after all.

"I hate introductions … they make perfectly sure that I'm the center of attention, even if that's just for a few seconds. I already hated doing these in my past life …" She mumbled quietly.

She then looked up and caught everyone staring at her. Iruka motioned for her to stand up.

And she did.

Naruko felt her face heating up … blood ran to her cheeks and caused her to blush.

"Awkward." She thought.

"Embarrassing." She thought.

Then she suddenly felt a hand grabbing hers and squeezing it tightly.

She turned to her left and saw Naruto smiling at her.

She slowly breathed in and out and said: "My name is Naruko Uzumaki. My likes are … animals, my Nii-chan and sleeping. My dislikes are things that my brother dislikes and people that hurt the ones I love."

After saying that in one single breath she swiftly sat down while Iruka smiled at her warmly.

He then motioned for Naruto to stand up.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" He shouted, causing all the kids to look at him with slightly widened eyes.

Naruko noticed the Nara sighing. He was probably thinking something along the lines of: "What an idiot …" Not only probably, his whole demeanor practically screamed of his dislike towards her brother for being too loud.

Naruko turned back to her brother … her embarrassment having already faded.

She smiled gently and looked at him with a kind gaze.

"My likes are ramen, my sister … and the old man! My dislikes are those who hate me and those who mistreat my family. Oh … and I'll surely become Hokage!" He said the last part especially loudly, causing some more people to wince in displeasure.

Some children shouted in protest against his exclamation, claiming that he was arrogant and stupid for thinking that he could achieve something like that, but Iruka only smiled at Naruto and told him to sit down again.

Naruto looked at Naruko and smiled while, again, grabbing her hand.

"His hand really calms me down." Naruko thought as she smiled at her brother.

The rest of the day was filled with Iruka telling the class about the curriculum for the six years they were going to spend in the academy.

He told them about the reason why they were schooled. The academy's philosophy in training both the student's mind and body through team activities.

He told them about the history lessons they would have, about the taijutsu lessons, the weapon training lessons and the kunoichi lessons.

Most of the time they would spend on the history of the shinobi world.

Who the hokage were, for example, what they did and how they served the village.

They would also learn how to read and write, though it was expected from everyone in this class to already know of that so they could quickly progress towards the actually important parts of the curriculum.

Practical lessons would happen once a week and tests on every subject would happen once a month.

This was done to decide on who would stay in the class and who would need to leave.

This ignited some of the student's will to learn and study in order to stay in the class for the "elite".

Naruko didn't care as long as she was with Naruto.

She couldn't care less about which class she was in.

What did annoy her, though, were the Kunoichi classes she would need to take.

"Sure, I like flowers … but I don't know anything about them. I just think that they are beautiful and come to think of it … I don't like tea at all!" She thought, already feeling the boredom these classes would bring her.

But … there was no getting around this, so she resolved herself to at least pass them. Iruka said that they could choose out of a pool of many different subjects for the Kunoichi class and that one didn't need to take all of them.

She would choose those that interested her and ignore the rest.

With that, the first day of school ended and the children gradually left the academy only to be taken home by their parents.

A/N: The next chapter will feature the Uchiha massacre.