Chapter 023

Naruto looked at everyone as they stared at him, surprise and recognition in their eyes. He would have smirked but held the urge in, it would not be cool if he gave them the impression that he enjoyed seeing the surprise on their faces.

"Naruto!" Sakura asked as she noticed his whisker marks. It quickly changed to a sneer of disgust as she decided to berate him. "What are you doing here? In case you didn't notice this is only for people who graduated, gra-du-at-ed, not for failures like you!"

As the class laughed at Sakura's words, Naruto frowned. He had expected this, to be honest, but had kind of been hoping that with his new look it would change her opinion of him. Guess not. He sighed lightly, before deciding that he didn't want to put up with her abusive words right now, especially since for whatever reason they hurt more.

"If you had used those two eyes stuck in your orbital sockets to look up you would see that I have a head band." Naruto pointed to his head where Iruka's head band sat. "So I have graduated, thank you very much, perhaps you're not as smart as I thought."

Naruto walked off and moved back up to his seat, leaving a stunned crowd behind.

Did he really just insult me? Asked Sakura as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. That had never happened before, Naruto would always ask her out, and she would always hit him because it made her feel better about herself. Sakura felt an odd sense of emptiness as she wondered if Naruto had decided that he didn't like her.

HE'S JUST TRYING TO MAKE YOU FEEL BAD SHANNARO! Sakura's inner persona shouted. Getting Sakura to snap out of her shock.

Your right! I bet Naruto-baka's trying to make me feel bad for him so I ask him out on a date! Well it's not going to work! Sakura sat on Sasuke's right as her and Ino once again began to fight over said Uchiha.

As the rest of the class got back to what they were doing one girl kept her eyes on Naruto. I- I had thought that N-n-Naruto-kun had f-failed. Hinata looked at Naruto, who had gone back to his reading with a blush.

I- I'm glad he didn't.

In the special spying room located within the Hokage tower, Sarutobi and nine Jonin were gathered around the crystal orb. These Jonin were the ones who had been assigned as the jonin senseis for the newly graduated genin. Though only three would end up getting that position.

"Well that was slightly unexpected." One of the jonin in the room said, a man with spiky silver hair, wearing the standard jonin attire named Hatake Kakashi. He looked into the spy orb with a lazy expression, though if one looked close enough they could see him analyzing everything. "Hmm… and that one must be Uchiha Sasuke, the most promising student and Rookie of the Year."

"Yes the one with the dark hair and blue shirt is Uchiha Sasuke." Sarutobi replied evenly. Truthfully he did not think Sasuke was deserving of his title, especially when the teachers in class handed the boy everything, but he would not deny the boy was at least mildly talented.

"He's the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan." Spoke up a jonin with curly black hair and exotic red eyes. She was a new jonin, but had quickly risen as the most prominent genjutsu expert. Her name was Yuuhi Kurenai.

"Hmm… at least the only Uchiha still left in the village." Sarutobi countered, making the red eyed woman wince.

The crystal ball changed view to close in on some of the genin, one such view showing Naruto who had gone back to his seat and picked up his book.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi muttered to himself.

Naruto frowned as he continued to read his book, doing his best to ignore the new stares he was getting. Why did I do that? Naruto wondered as he thought about what he had said to Sakura. He had never actually insulted anyone before, and Sakura was the last person he would have expected to insult.

Yet something about what she had said jus then had rubbed him the wrong way. Her words had hurt of course, even more then it normally did. But he couldn't just chalk it up to that. Maybe it has something to do with learning about the Kyuubi… he considered that thought. After learning about Kyuubi being sealed inside of him the villager's hatred made sense. However, that still couldn't quite explain why he had been rude to Sakura, after all, from what Jiji said only the adults knew of his status as a Jinchurikki.

Like most of the kids in his class, Sakura often berated him. In fact, out of all the people in the class she was the one who treated him the worst. But it had not always been like that. The first time he had met her she had been getting picked on by some bullies due to her large forehead, and Naruto had seen it and chased them off. After that she had spent the day with him.

It had been his first and only time he had gotten to spend with someone his own age, and the first time he had really had any fun in his childhood. Sakura had even promised to be his best friend during their time together. However, when her mom had seen them together, she took Sakura away and told her to never go near the blond again.

Sakura had followed her mother's advice and Naruto had not seen her after that until he entered the academy. When he did see her gain, the blond had been ecstatic at seeing his first friend. However, she had either not remembered him, or had become heavily influenced by her mom, because the first thing she had done when he had tried to say hi was to hit him and tell him to leave her alone.

That had of course not stopped him from trying to get his friend back; he had tried again and again to no effect. Eventually, despite the amount of abuse he had taken, Naruto had become so desperate to get his first friend back that he developed a crush on her. After that he had begun asking her out on dates, not really understanding what the difference between a date and a get together with friends were since he had never had 'the talk' because he was an orphan. This only seemed to further aggravate Sakura who had started developing a crush on Sasuke; this in turn caused her reactions to become more and more violent. Now she was easily the most abusive person in class, at least to him. No one really liked him, and everyone made fun of him, but she was the only one who had ever actually hit him.

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