7Chapter 3
'102, 103… ah! 104, right.'
He was slightly late – the door was already closed and he could hear the teacher starting on a lecture inside. Was he talking about chakra theory? How basic were these lessons anyway? He knew this was going to be a bit of a strange experience, as he'd never sat in a classroom before, but he hadn't known it was going to sound this boring! Perhaps he should just walk away while he still had the chance…
But he wanted to become a ninja, and to become a ninja, he had to graduate the academy. If he wanted to graduate the academy then he should at least enter the classroom. Was it possible to be bored of something you'd never tried before? He sighed and raised a hand, rapping his knuckles sharply against the wood.
Within a few seconds the door slowly crept open, the teacher multitasking as he continued to talk to the class.
'What would he do if I were actually an enemy? He'd be slaughtered!'
Mentally shaking his head, Naruto stared up into the face of his teacher-for-two-days and (he realised with a barely concealed grin) the same teacher who had walked in on his welcome-home prank. The brown haired academy instructor – Iruka, Jiji had told him – met him with a welcoming smile and ushered him inside.
"Ah, Yes? Are you Naruto? Come in."
Iruka had a calm voice and trusting face, he would have made a good infiltration specialist; were he so inclined. It was a shame, Naruto mused, that he had settled for being a teacher. He held out Jiji's scroll for the man to take, examining the whitened scar slashed across an otherwise perfectly tanned face as it was read through.
"You're perfectly on time – we just finished the register. Would you like to introduce yourself? And then there's a seat just over there by Hinata you can take."
Naruto glanced behind Iruka to lock eyes with the speaker – a silver haired teacher … or perhaps an assistant; he wasn't sure. The words were spoken kindly, and made Naruto feel like a child – not the ninja he would soon be. He smiled slightly nervously and nodded his head. If they were going to treat him like a child then he might as well act like one.
He could make a good infiltration specialist too. Now, how to play this…
He turned to face the class. Some students looked at him with undisguised interest – had they not been taught the benefits of hiding their emotions? Others looked bored or were asleep – Jiraiya had told him all about the Nara clan – and one more was simply staring out the window, not even paying attention. Ah, that was the kid from earlier – the one who hadn't even been able to sense his weakest illusion; pathetic.
"Umm, hi. I'm Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto…"
It would be interesting to see if any of them managed to work that one out.
"And…" One corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "I'm training to be a ninja of Konoha."
With that he took off up the stairs towards the aforementioned student, giving her a timid smile just as he tripped over the last step. Hearing chuckles, he blushed slightly and hurried into his seat; not missing the narrow eyed gaze that followed his short trek up the classroom. He sobered up as he reminded himself to look underneath the underneath; he wasn't likely to be the only one with a brain.
"Settle down please everyone, we don't have much time before your exam, so you all need to listen closely. Now, Chakra pathways are woven throughout your body, but they require a strong mentality to activate and use. Can anyone tell me why?"
As a few hands went up in front, Naruto groaned and rested his head on his arms. He had thought this was going to be the fun job, but now he wished he'd pulled the straw for the scouting regiment or the ward cadets. What he wouldn't give to be blasting holes in the village defence system right now…
"Come on guys! Oyaji put these here over 12 years ago, there's no way we can be beaten by such outdated scribbles!"
Of course, they all new that even Jiraiya had no clue how half of Minato's seals even worked, let alone how to take them down. As a new wave of clones took over the brushes and ink of the recently deceased, Tojiru shook his head in despair. How could they ever beat big Daddy?
Currently, the original Naruto was walking around the town as a busty brunette he called Suki. He was popping in and out of all of the clothes shops, looking for anything of interest to both himself and his female alias. A Henge was easy to pick out if you were on guard, so Naruto preferred tangible disguises over ninjutsu.
He had sent another clone off to replace his kunai set, with special orders to try and track down the tri-pronged kunai his father had been famous for. He was certain that he'd soon complete the fourth's most famous technique – Hiraishin – but he refused to go any further without the perfect anchors to bind it to.
Jiraiya hadn't helped him at all on this project, telling Naruto that – like his dad – this was something he would have to work out on his own. He wouldn't have it any other way.
Finding a suitably revealing kimono for suki and a decent Jacket for himself, he left the shop and headed to the apartment; planning to dump the stuff and move onto some training. He was just hanging up his clothes when –
"Aren't you supposed to be at school?"
"Aren't you supposed to be in a council meeting?"
He turned around to face his Godfather, who's faced had morphed into a bored pout.
"The only interesting subject in there was you. And if it was that boring then I clearly didn't need to be there. Those old coots can sort out their own sewage problems, or whatever they were moaning about. You do realise you can't leave a shadow clone to take the exam for you right?"
"Well yeah, but the exam isn't for two days! I mean, they're recapping basic chakra theory. Basic chakra theory!" He shuddered violently. "I had better things to do thank-you-very-much."
"But you sent a clone in on your first day." Jiraiya pointed out in amusement. "You had no idea what they would be covering."
"Haven't you figured it out by now?" He lowered his voice closer and leaned towards Jiraiya, who sub-consciously copied his pose. "I read minds." He kept up his serious face as Jiraiya rolled his eyes.
"Well then, I guess you already saw this coming!" Jiraiya reached into his backpack and pulled out –
"No. No way in hell. Last time was bad enough! Your grammar is terrible!"
Jiraiya set the wad of paper aside and grabbed for his head, driving his knuckles into naturally mussed blonde locks. "I'm not bad squirt, you're just picky!"
"Geroff! Proofread your own smut, I wanna train."
Jiraiya let him go and adopted a thoughtful look, eyeing Naruto assessingly. "Weeeell… I suppose it might be time to teach you that…"
"That?" Naruto asked, only confused for a second. "Oh! You mean… really? You'll teach me? Wait… this is because you'll be going away isn't it?!"
It was Naruto's turn to pout now, as he thought about the impending separation. His Godfather had only ever left him for short periods of time in the past; a couple of week's tops! But now… now it could be months as he checked up on his network and gathered information from all four corners of the earth.
Having helped his Godfather on several occasions, Naruto knew very well how time consuming the job was. And this time he would be stuck in Konoha, forced into menial labour for pocket money.
"Oi, you know as well as I do that this is necessary. Besides, it's getting a bit dangerous out there for you, and I would hate to see my poor Godson meet his inevitable match." Jiraiya grinned, trying to lighten up the mood; although it did nothing to ease Naruto out of his funk. Giving up on talk, Jiraiya sighed and blurred into motion. The next thing Naruto knew, he was 5 stories up and soon about to make a painful reunion with the ground.
"Ack!" He twisted around and channelled chakra through his hands and feet, slapping them against the wall to slow himself down, instead of stopping immediately. When he had reached a less dangerous height he pushed off from the rough surface, flipping over and landing lightly in a crouch.
Before he could retaliate, Jiraiya was leaping past him; a cheeky smile on his face.
"Training ground 8! If you get there before me I won't make you do 500 push ups!"
Oh, it was on.
Instead of leaping after the old man, he created three groups of four clones. Two to go after Jiraiya and one to help him. His helpers rushed into position and he raced towards their waiting hands, letting out an invisible jet of chakra as they propelled him into the air. From there he used an imitation of the Kawarimi to boost his speed, lassoing his chakra around fixed objects as opposed to moveable matter so that – instead of using the momentum of another object to conserve chakra, he exerted more energy and continuously accelerated; resulting in a faster (but more exhaustive) mode of travel.
Jiraiya allowed this in their races because it was a good method of building chakra reserves (not that he needed them) and control (which he could always do with a bit more of).
Despite his awesome mode of travel (and the creator of unbeatable techniques like the 'Naruto Bakudan') he'd never yet beaten Jiraiya in a race. He hadn't lost hope though; his father had been faster than the old man… so he could be too!
Maybe today would be the day.