Ch17. Naruto Uzumaki

Ren turned toward the voice, only to see Naruto Uzumaki. This was actually the first time he interacted with him. For various reasons, he tried to avoid Naruto like a plague but having a late lunch at Ichiraku was clearly tempting fate.

He knew about Naruto and saw him quite frequently in the village. He just never approached him.

Ren was about to refuse the kid's generous offer to take care of his ramen for him, when Naruto's expression brightened as if a lightbulb had just switched on in his head before he loudly exclaimed while rudely pointing at Ren, "Ah! You are the suspicious uncle who escorts that weird girl to the academy!"

'Sus- Suspicious uncle!?' Ren almost choked on his spit, his mind stuttering worse than Hinata when he first met her while the cute waitress behind the counter started madly giggling.

Naruto didn't mind the atmosphere, though. "Ugh... Hibaba? That's her name, right? The really gloomy kid who faints a lot!"

Hearing him, Ren involuntarily snickered, his previous dismay momentarily forgotten.

Oh, what Ren wouldn't give to have Hinata sit right next to him at this moment so he could see her expression upon hearing that.

Now, he could correct Naruto, but where would be the fun in that?

"Yes... Hibaba." Ren nodded, having a fierce inner battle against the massive grin that wanted to split his face.

"Is she alright? She isn't sick, is she? Come to think of it, she doesn't faint that much anymore. Not since you started to bring her to the academy. Did you do something weird to her to fix her, uncle?" Naruto asked as he threw Ren a suspicious look.

There was a lot to unpack in the word vomit he had just heard. He was sure he was accused of something ridiculous too. But Ren decided it was not worth the brain power to think about it and ignored most of the brat's questions. Instead, he focused on the most important issue.

"Why are you calling me uncle? I am seventeen." He asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh?" Naruto scrunched his face as if thinking too deeply about something while staring at Ren. Eventually, he just tilted his head in puzzlement, "Are you sure?" 

"Brat." Ren retorted with a smile, making Naruto scowl at being called that, "Here, have my ramen and shut up for a second." Ren said in a friendly tone and rolled his eyes as Naruto instantly cheered up, impatiently grabbing chopsticks.

"You are not that bad!" Naruto grabbed the bowl in front of Ren and put it in front of himself before digging in.

Naruto probably did not remember but they actually went to the same orphanage. Back then, Ren had just found himself in Narutoverse as a three-year-old kid so he was obviously scared shitless.

He didn't dare to approach Naruto. They had been in the same orphanage for four years but Ren never even spoke to him. He was too afraid of Danzo.

The old mummy could not get his hands on Naruto. But Ren imagined that having Naruto's childhood friend under his command was probably one of Danzo's wet dreams.

Ren decided to avoid that scenario by simply not becoming said childhood friend. Then again, maybe Ren just had a too vivid imagination. Maybe it would have been fine. Still, befriending the village pariah, and a jinchuuriki to boot, was not a smart thing to do. It would have put Ren on the radar of far too many influential people and he wanted to avoid it.

He promised himself that he would make it up to Naruto later. Only, Naruto didn't need help. The kid didn't have as hard of a life as the fanfictions tried to make people believe.

Deep down, Ren expected Naruto to have a miserable life. But that wasn't exactly the case. There were no beatings or mobs. And when Ren put a bit of thought into it, it made sense.

Naruto was a jinchuuriki and nobody knew how the Fourth Hokage's seal functioned. Jinchuuriki, however, were known to go ballistic when angry or threatened.

Nobody who knew what was at stake would let Naruto get hurt because nobody knew if it wouldn't make him go all Kyuubi-sama on the village's collective ass.

So, Naruto wasn't physically abused. He was mostly just ignored by everyone out of fear. He was like a walking and talking nuclear missile and nobody knew if he would go off at the drop of a hat. 

Ren knew the seal was safe because that's how it was in the anime. But the villagers? They had no clue. Not even the ninjas knew. And that just made the civilians more uneasy. It was only natural that people would avoid him and try to keep their kids away from him.

And no. The shops did not overcharge Naruto either. Ren did see Naruto pay for his groceries a few times and the price was correct. That said, no civilian would have the balls of steel to try something like that in Konoha.

Everybody knew that it would make Sarutobi very angry and while a civilian council did exist, they listened and obeyed their Hokage. After all, nobody wanted to be suddenly disappeared and if there was one man in the village who could effortlessly disappear people from the comfort of his office, it was the dictator of the village full of hired killers.

That said, not even the dictator could force the villagers to be nice to Naruto. Indifference was the limit he could manage.

"You are an academy student, right?" Ren asked Naruto, watching him slurp the noodles with gusto.

"Hm? Yeah." Naruto said, barely paying attention to his surroundings as he inhaled the noodles.

Ren suddenly smirked, deciding to tease him, "I heard you aren't very bright. That true?"

That made Naruto stop eating for a moment as he threw Ren a quick irritated look. "Who cares? It's not like some stupid tests would help me become a Hokage." He animatedly protested before stuffing his cheeks with more noodles.

Ren snorted but didn't comment further. "Maybe you could ask Hi- Hibaba," He involuntarily snickered again, "for help with the academy work? She is quite smart unlike you."

Naruto threw Ren an annoyed look but nodded nonetheless.

There. That was the most help Ren could give Hinata. The rest was up to her.

Contrary to the popular belief in his previous world, Naruto was not sabotaged in the academy. His abysmal grades were simply because he was stupid as fuck and did not even try learning anything that he deemed unimportant.

Not even Mizuki would dare to teach Naruto wrongly. Because all it would take was Naruto off-handedly complaining about it once to the Hokage, and Mizuki would have an instant invitation to T&I.

The teachers mostly ignored his presence during their lectures, leaving the responsibility for his learning to him. It wasn't illegal, but it was definitely a dick move. And because of that, Naruto formed many bad habits, preferring to skip learning what did not interest him.

With nobody to push him to learn, he naturally preferred to play or slack off instead of paying attention to lectures he considered boring.

The longer this went on, the more behind he became until he was so behind his peers that not even Iruka could help him without Naruto honestly wanting to fix the issue. Which... he didn't. Because he didn't see how knowing how many ninja villages existed would help him become a kick-ass Hokage. After all, he was still just a kid.

His answer to Ren's question pretty much perfectly showed his attitude when it came to academics.

Worse yet, because of Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki and a Uzumaki, the first year of taijutsu classes was far too easy for him. He was always either first or second in that class. So, he didn't bother to properly learn the katas. Ren saw that train wreck himself. He was in the academy too back then when this was happening.

Why would Naruto put in the effort to learn a proper taijutsu style when he could just punch his peers in the face or outlast them in the ring thanks to his bullshit endurance?

Then, the other kids got older and learned a proper fighting style and Naruto's ranking suffered. He was still in the top ten, though, even with his crap taijutsu skills. So he still never saw the need to learn proper taijutsu.

Using his natural resilience worked well against the kids in the academy but real life was going to be very different. Ren hoped Naruto would approach Hinata and she could help him with his basics.

But he also kinda didn't think it would happen. Even if Naruto approached her, Ren doubted he would learn from her. Naruto could be extremely determined and focused when something caught his interest. But catching his interest was the problem in the first place. At this stage in his life, he wanted badass cool jutsu. He didn't want to learn how to throw a punch properly.

That was not cool!

Naruto was a kid. Immature, unruly, free-spirited, one that was very rarely properly disciplined. One that hadn't yet gone through so many life-changing experiences that forced him to grow up like the canon Naruto did. Ren knew Naruto was going to grow up and be great. But the kid was not there just yet.

Glancing at the fourteen-year-old blonde from the corner of his eyes, Ren had to admit... maybe this Naruto would be far more mature and competent by the time he graduated. He would be older than his canon counterpart and he was at the age when kids started maturing fast.

It was just a pity Ren could not directly help him. Approaching a jinchuuriki would still make his life troublesome.

Not to mention, Ren simply didn't know if making Naruto competent and overpowered wouldn't prematurely set off the Akatsuki. If they sent just four of their S-rank ninjas in a serious attempt to capture him before he learned Senjutsu, Naruto would be screwed. And then the world would be screwed shortly after.

Ren had no idea what to do about this problem. So, he decided to do nothing for now.

Honestly, fuck Sarutobi Hiruzen and his academy reforms. Why couldn't things be simple?