Another Day in Konoha

"Ren, how did you manage to have a conversation with that douche without him lashing at you, you a wizard or something?" Naruto slurped on some ramen while speaking to his friend.

The two had decided to go eat some ramen after a tiresome day at the academy. It was getting decently late as shown by the fact that the sun was no longer present and moonlight dominated the village of Konoha.

"I don't get what's your deal with him. Sure, I will not deny that he is an asshole and can be very annoying most of the time, but it's not like he's unapproachable for the right reasons."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. He still couldn't comprehend why Ren wanted to become acquaintances with Sasuke so badly. To him and surely many of his classmates Sasuke was an unfriendly and cold person who only cared about himself.

"I mean, we've been in the same class for what now, four to five years? The only reason he's considered popular is because of his 'fangirl' club. Bah, they should be admiring for me, the future Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure dattebayo!"

His speech only attracted an amused look from the other Uzumaki who started to eat his own bowl of Ramen.

'Ichiraku Ramen sure is as good as always…'

Bliss overcame his expression the moment he savoured it. Ichiraku Ramen was one of the few places which could make him feel like this. Few people's cooking was as miraculous as this one.

"Ayame, thanks for making us such great ramen. Make sure to thank your old man and I hope his health improves quickly. Him missing on being in such an awesome place to work must make him feel really bad."

Ayame smiled brightly at the compliment behind the counter and continued to wash the bowls and dishes which had been collected due to previous customers. She had been feeling a little bit down since the work was overwhelming when she was all by herself since her father had orders by his doctor to rest at home.

While not as much of a ramen fanatic as Naruto, Ren did enjoy a bowl of ramen every once in a while. The blond-haired boy immediately nodded in agreement and expressed his own prayer for Teuchi, so he could heal as fast as possible and make him even more ramen.

Ichiraku Ramen was the best there was and will ever be – that was Naruto's ironclad opinion.

By the end of their visit there, Naruto had devoured over ten bowls of ramen while Ren merely a few. Normally Naruto would hold back more, but Ren had offered to pay for anything he ate there so he did not hold back as much.

After Ren paid for their ramen and they said goodbye to Ayame who was nearly done with her job for tonight and decided to walk around the village. Under the illumination of moonlight the village looked very enchanting.

But alas, even the greatest of moments and time could be ruined by the simplest of acts others might see as normal.

Many villagers of an older age kept staring at Naruto with eyes which could be only described as hateful and enrichened with various negative emotions. Ren made sure to register every single one of them to his memory.

"Naruto, do you want to move in with me?"

The question came as blunt and sharp. Ren did not want to waste his time with pleasantries. He knew very well in what sort of conditions Naruto lived. His apartment often had something break and was not pleasant at all to live in.

Ren had been inside that apartment once or twice during the last four years and he knew that there was not enough space for an aspiring soon-to-be shinobi like Naruto.

The only reason he had not asked this previously was that he was also being considerate of his caretaker for the last several years. She had lost her many family members to the Nine Tails incident and while she might not blame Naruto, it probably would serve as a reminder to the event.

So, Ren being Ren wanted Naruto to move into his own house now since he had full ownership over his house. If anyone asked why he lived with Ren, the blond could simply tell them because they were both Uzumaki's and wanted to be closer to each other for family reasons.

For a moment, Naruto froze; his countenance showed a small but very clear faux smile which Ren couldn't help but notice.

'I guess this must be pretty difficult for him, to be in this sort of position. Not many can just take the hand which is being extended to them. I guess I'll just try to persuade him a bit by a bit.'

Making up his mind, he raised one of his hands and smacked the back of his companion with enough force to earn a cry of surprise from him.

"Why are you being so hesitant? All I want is to have my possibly last clansman near me. I've seen in what sort of place you live and with all due respect your landlord barely gives a damn if there's anything broken there. My house has all the adequate equipment for ten people to live in it for god's sake."

Naruto's eyes narrowed and a cold gleam shone for a silver of a moment inside of them.

'I am so going to prank him one of these days, dattebayo!'

"Fine, fine. Since you are being so forcefully, who am I to refuse your offer?" Naruto rubbed his back and sniffed.

His friend chuckled in response. "Whatever, your majesty."

Both of them laughed out loudly no care given to the occasional stares the moving villagers gave the two.

xXx

One week had passed since that fated day.

Naruto and Ren had moved most of the former's stuff to the latter's house. Ren had even made sure to give Naruto plenty of space for his flowers and plants which he took care of at his old apartment.

The landlord despite 'trying' to hide his happiness, made it quite obvious to Ren at the very least that he was very willing to let Naruto not pay last month's rent due to the fact he was moving out.

Which meant Naruto could spent the allowance the Third gave him on… ramen.

*groan*

Ren shivered every time he was reminded of that day. Naruto had gone and eaten over fifteen bowls of ramen, and if not for him forcefully stopping him, he might have not have been done at just that. His obsession with ramen was unrivalled, that Ren had realized ages ago.

"Now, if only you could put that obsession into shinobi-related stuff." Ren groaned while putting a scroll on a table which he and Naruto were sitting around.

"Hey! You know that's just not true. I do train my ass every day at every time I can." Naruto refuted him mercilessly. The two were sitting on a couch which was comfortable enough for the two of them to be very relaxed.

This was the living room of the house. A decently-sized room which also did not contain that many items. There were two shelves, a table and it was also connected to the balcony.

On top of the table laid several scrolls left untouched. They were what Ren was going to use to practice his fuinjutsu for today.

Fuinjutsu was a tedious process which took years to master. Even to Ren who held the blood of Uzumaki's and had inherited their incredible talent for the art, it was still difficult.The fact that he also enjoyed such activities merely served to increase his work rate.

The same could not be said for Naruto.

To put it plainly, he was absolutely terrible at fuinjutsu and should not be allowed to be near any type of seal without a fuinjutsu master's presence – that was the conclusion he had arrived at upon seeing the blond try to handle a seal.

Ren attributed most of his failures to his incredible chakra reserves – dwarfing even his quite easily – and rather lackluster intelligence. He and Iruka and tried their best to make the blond focus on his Chakra Control with minimum success.

Fuinjutsu rarely used a lot of chakra, unless you were using some sort of complicated seal like those used on Jinchuurikis. Ren was nowhere near the mastery of making seals capable of creating jinchuurikis and he did not want to learn such seals in the future, however it was still fascinating to know how powerful seals could be.

For example, you could use barriers together with seals and create formations which could keep even the strongest of the Tailed Beasts powerless for a certain amount of time; such were the wonders of seals.

It was not a surprise that it took 3 of the 5 great hidden villages to take down Uzushiogakure. Although just seeing the sheer raw power behind the hidden villages you'd just assume they overwhelmed Uzushio, that sort of linear thinking made him frown.

Uzushio lied in a chain of islands which was furthermore protected by whirlpools which could be manipulated by the clan using seals. Few had the key to turn it off or possessed the guts to do it, lest they made the Uzumaki Clan their enemy.

How in hell did the villages go through the whirlpools?

Even with water walking, it would still be a feat rendered impossible for the thousands of shinobis to pass through like that. Using Earth Style jutsus would not have worked since Uzushio had hundreds of seals limiting chakra usage.

Only explanation was that there was a traitor amongst them. A traitor who had failed at even surviving at that too.

Ren might be willing to ignore the catastrophe which had struck his true home, but he wasn't going to pretend like it never happened.

One day, he'd avenge his ancestors.

xXx

Iruka massaged his temple as he continued to mark the exam sheets in front of him. 'This is unexcusable, how in Madara's name do they not know who helped oversee the village's creation a century ago?'

"Ren Uzumaki-Senju - 100 Points"

Iruka's expression could only be described as one of slight astonishment. He was not a chunin for nothing, so he knew that Ren never really gave it his all in class, but for some reason Ren almost always aced the actual exams and quizzes.

Being a teacher was truly not the easiest thing to happen to Iruka during his shinobi career. Back when he had been very young, he had hoped to become a jounin; Here he was, years later and just a chunin.

Sure, it was because he wanted to spread the 'will of fire' to the young generations of Konoha and the will to become a jounin had long since extinguished, but it had once existed.

Granted, he was a very respected chunin but said respect did not exist when it came to his students.

One name struck out in particular; Naruto Uzumaki.

If you had asked Iruka a few years ago if he'd come to both equally hate and like that brat so much, the obvious response would have been no.

Just like many others he was blinded by hatred. Being a jinchuuriki did not mean you were the Tailed Beast itself. Iruka wanted to find a hole to hide himself when those thoughts resurfaced, it just sounded so childish.

Just because a seal was used to seal a kunai, it did not mean the seal was the kunai, unfortunately the majority of the non-shinobi population of Konoha were too scared by the destruction the Nine Tails had brought that one fated day.

Merely its appearance had forced Konoha to execute every Uchiha ruthlessly due to the fear of a revolution.

Iruka was split in two. One part of him could understand why the villagers hated Naruto and feared him. After all who knew how many of their family members they had once cherished had perished at the hands of the Nine Tails?

But… blaming a kid for all of tha destruction was something he could not forgive!

…

And somehow people thought Naruto – the very annoying at times but nowhere capable as the Nine Tails – was somehow the incarnation of hatred itself!

A warm smile appeared on his face as he continued to mark the exam sheets. Naruto's words of how he was going to become the Hokage in the future always made his day brighter. The Will of Fire shone brightly in him.

"Naruto, I hope one day you can achieve that dream of yours…"

'Naruto Uzumaki – Sorry Iruka-sensei :P, was too sleepy and forgot to study for this exam. Forgive me will you?'

Iruka breathed deeply as he read the note on the sheet.

"NARUTOOOOOO!"