Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from the Naruto universe. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

A/N:

To those who read chapters 1-3 of this story prior to September 4, 2013, you may wish to go back and reread those chapters. First because it has been so long since I last posted (sorry about that by the way), and second because I have gone back and re-edited those chapters. The only significant plot change was making Kurama aware that the masked man wasn't actually Madara, though he still told the Hokage it was. Other changes are general improvements to grammar and the story flow. So you won't really be missing anything if you don't reread, but I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the updated chapters.

Chapter 4: Making Friends and Enemies

The period between everyone's introduction to the class and lunch was incredibly boring in Naruto's opinion. He was pretty sure it wasn't even because he had been through it all before during his first time in the Academy two years before either. There just wasn't anything interesting discussed. They went over what they would be learning this term as well as touching on some of what they would be learning in future terms, but Iruka seemed determined to make it sound as boring as possible.

They were learning to be ninja for Kami's sake, not bankers. Surely an introduction to that could be made interesting? Perhaps include some stories of famous battles or emphasize some of the cool things they would eventually be able to do? Iruka seemed determined to just list off what time periods in history they would be studying, talk about math, and describe their training schedule. The man seemed like a very nice person who really cared about his students, and Naruto had high hopes that even he would be included in that eventually. But an interesting and engaging teacher, he was not.

Naruto had spent entire decades staring at cave walls and been content. If he was having difficulty not falling asleep already, he cringed at what the actual eight year olds were going through. One of them - the Nara heir, had fallen asleep almost immediately, though given what he knew about the Nara Clan, that wasn't unusual.

But finally the torture ended and it was lunch time. So he waited for Sakura to grab a bento from her bag and wasted no time in pulling her out to the yard in front of the Academy. Yanking her arm free with a look of slight annoyance, though she did continue to follow him, she asked "Why are we in such a hurry, exactly?"

Naruto grinned back over his shoulder as he responded, "I want to go meet with Hinata-san for lunch." Naruto had noticed her during the introductions, and given their previous interaction, the Hyuuga Clan heir seemed a likely possible ally to make.

"Hinata Hyuuga? Do you know her already?"

Naruto just pointed over at Hinata sitting alone under a tree as she started to unpack her lunch. "Oh, not really. I met her once. She seemed nice, and you two have some things in common. Besides, one of the reasons we are here is to make friends, right?"

Sakura shook her head ruefully at the overly energetic blond as she said, "Well that and learn to be ninja, I guess. But sure. What do we have in common though?"

"You'll see. Come on." He once again tugged on her sleeve towards Hinata until they were standing over her, at which point he brightly said to Hinata. "Good afternoon Hinata-san! How are you doing today? Do you mind if we join you for lunch?"

At his voice, Hinata started so violently that she dropped her lunch, though fortunately it wasn't open yet. As she looked up and saw Naruto's grinning face, she gasped and seemed to forget about her bento sitting on the ground as she blushed bright enough to almost make it look like her face was on fire. "O-oh. N-n-naruto-k-kun. I d-didn't see you t-there. Ummm..." She pressed her forefingers together hard enough to force the blood out of her fingertips before making herself to look back up with obvious difficulty, though her eyes immediately flickered back down after looking at his face momentarily. "Y-you c-c-can join m-me if you w-want."

Sakura just blinked and stared in surprise at the girl whose shyness obviously surpassed hers by a very large margin. Naruto, on the other hand, smiled and nodded happily as he took his seat next to her before looking up at Sakura and patting a place across from him for her to sit. "Thanks Hinata-san. It's good to see you again though. I looked around that park for you a couple times after we first met, but never saw you."

Hinata looked over at him with widening eyes, clearly shocked before once again dropping her eyes to the ground, finally noticing her lunch box, which she quickly gathered back into her lap. "R-r-really? Y-you l-looked for m-me?"

"Sure! We didn't really get much chance to talk the first time. Oh, and this is Sakura-san. She's pretty nice too."

Sakura nodded in greeting as she said, "Hello Hinata-san. It's good to meet you. How exactly do you know Naruto-san though?"

Hinata blushed even brighter than before as her gaze flickered over to Naruto briefly, which was pretty impressive since her earlier blush never really faded. "O-oh. N-n-naruto-k-kun s-saved m-me."

Naruto immediately waved that away as he pulled out a small scroll and unsealed his own lunch to the surprise of the others. Hinata at least had probably seen sealing scrolls before, having grown up in a ninja clan, but Sakura was obviously quite shocked. "I didn't really save her. There were some bullies giving her a hard time about six months ago. Apparently a cousin of hers in their class is kind of a jerk, so they were saying that Hinata-san was arrogant like some of the other Hyuuga. Which was stupid, because you could tell immediately that Hinata was really nice. They might have had a point about some of her family, but you can't judge someone just because of what some family members are like. So I went over and beat them up a little, and told them that they were the arrogant jerks, not her."

Hinata nodded and glanced at both of them before refocusing her attention on her lunch. "N-n-naruto-kun was a-amazing. Th-there w-were f-four of t-them a y-year o-older t-than us, b-but he s-s-saved m-me. N-Neji-niisan i-isn't that b-bad t-though."

"See?" Naruto responded energetically. "She's nice to everyone. Even jerks. Those guys were just stupid."

Hinata flushed brightly and looked down, pressing her fingers together once again, though the dark-haired girl had a hint of a smile now.

Sakura was also smiling as she settled down and opened her own lunch. "Yeah, Naruto-san protected me from some bullies this morning too. I guess you do that a lot?"

Naruto shrugged and popped a piece of chicken into his mouth before responding. "Eh. Not really. Bullies are annoying though. If someone wants to fight someone one-on-one, fine, I guess. Especially if they have a decent reason for it. But people who need to get into groups to push around a single person younger or smaller than they are just to make themselves feel better about their own failures are just pathetic cowards. They pick such stupid stuff to make fun of people for too." He looked over at Sakura and continued, "The color of their hair, or that they're smart?" He then looked over at Hinata. "Or who their cousin is? It's pretty dumb, and if I can show them how pathetic they are, I'm happy to."

He then looked up and around the yard, spotting three new arrivals from their classroom. In the lead was Ino Yamanaka, who was literally dragging Shikamaru Nara while chattering non-stop. Naruto had just pulled on Sakura's sleeve a little to urge her on, but Ino had Shikamaru's arm in a tight grasp and was leaning forward to pull him along with what looked like a significant portion of her strength, if Shikamaru's stumbling steps were any indication. And behind him was Choji Akimichi, who placidly followed, munching on a bag of chips as he walked.

Glancing over at the others, Naruto asked, "You mind if we invite them over? It's a good chance to get to know some new people." Hinata looked very hesitant at this idea, clearly still nervous about just two people eating lunch with her. Sakura didn't look entirely certain herself, but eventually both nodded, so Naruto called out to the three Clan heirs who were passing nearby. "Hey guys! If you want, you can join us. Plenty of room here, and some nice shade."

Ino didn't even pretend that it was a group decision. She paused to think for a couple seconds as she looked at her three classmates sitting under the large tree before nodding decisively and once again dragging Shikamaru along with her, apparently continuing to just expect Choji to just follow along. Though it turned out she was correct, so maybe she had good reason for that assumption. In fact, Choji's only response was to give a shrug and continue to eat, apparently unconcerned. Shikamaru sighed and muttered something under his breath and seemed annoyed but resigned, fighting Ino no more than he had previously as she dragged him.

"Hello," Ino called out as she unceremoniously dropped to the ground near the other three already seated children. "I'm Ino Yamanaka. The lazy one is Shikamaru Nara, and the...hungry one is Choji Akimichi. It's nice to meet you!"

Naruto smiled back at her and introduced himself. "Hi Ino. You probably remember me from my introduction in class, but I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

Ino was at least polite enough to give Sakura and Hinata a chance to introduce themselves, but as soon as they finished, she quickly turned back to Naruto and asked, "So all that stuff about your clan was pretty interesting. I hadn't heard of the Uzumaki before, but it sounds like they were a pretty powerful clan."

Clearly the girl was fishing for information, and not very expertly at that. But it was information that Naruto didn't particularly mind sharing, so he answered, "Yeah, like I said, we were known as powerful masters of kenjutsu, and were especially renowned for our fuinjutsu. So much so that the even the Great Villages began to fear us." Naruto signed at that as he took another bite of his meal before continuing wryly, "Which turned out to be a very bad thing. The Uzumaki clan was powerful, but it was just one clan. Unlike the Great Villages, or even many of the minor ninja villages, the only ninja of Uzushiogakure were the Uzumaki Clan. The individual power of our ninja was at least as high as that of the other Great Villages, but we just didn't have the numbers to stand against them."

Ino nodded sympathetically, but quickly continued her digging for information. Or just gossip. Naruto wasn't quite sure, though he supposed there wasn't really that much difference between the two. "You mentioned that you had a bloodline too? What is it? Or is it a secret?"

"No, not really," Naruto answered with a chuckle. "It's not really well known anymore, but anyone who really wanted to know could track down the information easily enough. Our bloodline is actually pretty simple, but has a lot of benefits. According to the clan records I have found, an Uzumaki has an extremely strong life force. Honestly I'm not entirely certain of what that even means, but apparently it gives us unusually large and potent chakra reserves, greatly enhanced endurance, longer lifespans, and the ability to regenerate from wounds rapidly."

He shrugged as he looked around at the widened eyes of those listening closely to his explanation. "Well, it's probably not on the same level as the great dojutsu or some of the legendary bloodlines like the Wood Release, but it's useful because it pretty much just automatically makes us all around better ninja. And the regeneration thing could easily save my life from something anyone else would die from."

"Yeah, that's pretty awesome!" Ino exclaimed excitedly as she bounced slightly in place, ignoring the food she had laid out in front of her. The others seemed similarly interested in Naruto's explanation to the point of ignoring their own meals. Well, except for Choji, who was methodically working his way through a meal as large as any three of the other children's combined. But even he was listening closely rather than giving his full focus to his food as most Akamichi would.

But in spite of their interest, apparently Ino was the only one outgoing enough to be comfortable asking such personal questions. So Naruto wasn't surprised when she asked, "Can you show us?"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that and responded, "What, you want me to stab myself or something so you can watch it heal?"

At this she flushed guiltily and looked away towards the other children, but Naruto burst out laughing. Quickly reigning in his laughter at her startled expression, he said, "I'm just kidding. I know you didn't mean it like that. But sure, I can show you."

Without any further explanation, he quickly pulled out one of his kunai and just barely slashed his other palm. The cut was just deep enough to allow a few beads of blood to gather at the wound before he could feel his flesh seal shut once more. After wiping his palm off on his pants, he wordlessly extended his undamaged hand for the others to examine.

This time all five of them made impressed comments about his bloodline and how useful that would be. Well, except for the Nara, who just gave a grunt which could have meant anything from 'leave me alone, I'm sleepy' to 'I wish I had a bloodline I didn't have to actually train with.'

Taking this as a cue for a change in subject, Naruto waited until everyone's exclamations of amazement died down and asked, "So how do you three know each other? You three seemed...pretty familiar with each other when you came over."

Ino waved a dismissive hand and replied, "Oh, our fathers have been putting us together since we were little. They were teammates and are really good friends. I think they want us to be teammates when we graduate too." She scoffed at this idea as she explained, "As if I would want to be on a team with people as lazy as them. I doubt Shika will graduate anyway. He's always too busy staring at clouds."

Choji seemed slightly annoyed at this comment, but it was clearly not the first time she had said as much. Shikamaru shrugged, clearly entirely unconcerned.

Ino seemed equally unconcerned with their feelings though, and gained an odd sparkle in her eyes, staring into the distance as she continued, "No, I want to be on someone like Uchiha-sama's team." She giggled excitedly, to Naruto's slight disgust. "Everyone says he's going to be so powerful, and I'm sure he would protect me."

Naruto had to remind himself that he wasn't talking to these children for his own enjoyment, but because information was power and these people could be useful. A gossip and apparently fangirl like Ino would almost certainly be quite annoying to deal with over the next few years, but she would have invaluable information for him, and be able to spread both information and disinformation that Naruto wanted spread among his peers. It was too valuable a connection to throw away because of some minor annoyance.

So Naruto grit his teeth and continued to listen to Ino relay everything she had heard about the Uchiha for quite some time. Maybe there would be something useful in all of that.

The rest of lunch had gone well, especially after Naruto had finally and with great difficulty managed to get Ino off of the topic of Sasuke Uchiha. Even most of the others had seemed thankful, though Naruto was a little worried that Sakura had seemed so interested in Ino's stories about the wonder and majesty that was, at least in her delusional little world, the Last Uchiha.

But other than that, Naruto had learned a great deal about not just the other five he shared lunch with, but many of their other classmates as well. Learning what they believed in and what drove them would be the first step to getting them to trust him and eventually bend them to his purposes, so Naruto was quite pleased with himself. Even if to an outsider it probably would have seemed like a group of gossiping children.

Embarrassment was a human concern though, and not something he was worried about. Or so he tried to tell himself.

But as he slid back into his seat for the beginning of classes after lunch, he found himself wondering about Hinata and Choji. By any measure they were the two most politically powerful members of the group, as the heirs to two of the four Noble Clans of Konoha. But yet they were the quietest and most withdrawn of the group. Even Shikamaru would grunt and mutter how troublesome something was from time to time without prompting. It was unexpected, and Naruto wasn't sure how to react to it. Would that make them easier or more difficult to manipulate?

Hinata clearly had a crush on him, and as disgusting as he found human mating habits, that should give him a relatively easy hold on her as long as he was careful. He couldn't explicitly reject her, which might lead to resentment, but he couldn't give the impression that he was leading her on either. Most likely giving the appearance of being generally oblivious when it came to romance would work well enough for now, and he could always refine his approach later.

Choji was harder to read though. He would have to spend more time with the boy to gain a better understanding of him. And Shikamaru as well – the Naras might not have the political or economic power of the Akamichi or especially the Hyuuga clans, but Shikamaru's father was the current Jounin Commander, which certainly made him a worthwhile contact. Hopefully some time lazing about with the two would give enough of a bond to be useful.

And the occasional break from his rather intense training would be nice too. Even a demon could probably burn out if he pushed himself too hard.

This particular line of thought was rather abruptly ended as Mizuki walked into the room and opened the drawer to the teacher's desk, which immediately caused what was apparently a paint balloon trap to explode, blasting the assistant teacher with red paint.

Even Naruto was shocked. The prank was a pretty good one, and the sort of thing he might have attempted himself on someone like Mizuki, with all of his carefully hidden hatred of Naruto. It was a little juvenile for Naruto's normal pranking tastes, but that sort of thing could be a lot of fun sometimes too.

It was Kiba Inuzuka who was the first to laugh, but this was quickly followed by most of the rest of the class. At least until Mizuki looked up furiously and turned his own killing intent on the students. It wasn't much as adult ninja would measure such things. No more than what he had used on Sasuke earlier in the day, which was almost nothing compared to what he could muster even under his current limitations, much less the heart-stopping force he could manage if he had full access to his youki.

But it was more than enough to shut up a group of inexperienced children. Even after Mizuki turned his attention to Naruto and focused that killing intent just on him, much to Naruto's annoyance, the rest of the class remained still and silent.

"Uzumaki!" the chuunin exclaimed with barely constrained venom. "How dare you do this to your sensei, and on the first day, no less. That's detention for you. For a week!"

Even Naruto was stunned at this. He had sensed the man hated him, but to immediately jump to the conclusion that he was responsible was rather ridiculous. It wasn't even as if he was a well known prankster. Of course he did prank people pretty regularly, but he had yet to be caught, so there was no way Mizuki could know that. He would have thought that a chuunin level ninja could have kept his bias in check and evaluated the situation more rationally. Or maybe he just didn't care who was really responsible, as it gave an excuse to punish Naruto.

Either way, Naruto objected, "Umm...Mizuki-sensei...I didn't do it. I was out in the yard with Sakura-san, Hinata-san, Ino-san, Choji-san, and Shikamaru-san for the entire lunch period. So I couldn't have done it. Actually, Inuzuka-san was the only one who didn't seem surprised and started laughing immediately. Maybe he did it?"

Kiba turned to glare at him for that, but Mizuki didn't even look over at the other boy as he continued to focus his glare on Naruto.

Several of the other children he had eaten lunch with looked like they wanted to speak up, but they were clearly still frightened after their brief exposure to killing intent, so they remained silent. They probably excused their actions by telling themselves that Mizuki would question them specifically if he wanted to know what they had to say.

It was a little disappointing that none of them stood up for him and risked getting in trouble alongside him, but their relationship was still pretty new. That sort of thing would come in time. Especially since he could use the guilt they would inevitably feel for not standing up for him to cement their friendship, with a touch of obligation on their parts. If handled carefully, that could set the tone for the friendship for years to come, so this wasn't exactly a bad thing, as frustrating as dealing with someone like Mizuki was.

And Mizuki probably wouldn't have cared what they said anyway, as his only response to Naruto's explanation was, "So now you are trying to frame other students as well? That's two weeks of detention Naruto. This sort of behavior might have been accepted before, but you need to learn that it won't be if you want to be a ninja. We will keep you here cleaning the classroom and the rest of the Academy as long as is necessary to teach you proper respect."

Naruto sighed at this and responded, "Yes, Mizuki-sensei."

There wasn't any point in arguing further with the man. Clearly the only result of that would be further weeks of detention, which he couldn't afford if he wanted to keep his current training schedule. And Ino would make sure that all the other students knew that it was an unfair judgment from the teacher, giving him their sympathy regardless of what Mizuki said.

So for now, it would be best to remain silent and accept the punishment. Mizuki would receive his reward for such treatment eventually. As with so many other cases in this village, that day of reckoning was not today, but it would come.

It was after classes finished, but before he had to serve his detention that he discovered he had been correct about Kiba Inuzuka being responsible for the prank he had gotten in trouble for. He had been relatively sure based on the boy's reactions, but it was always good to have confirmation. So he had been stealthily following him for the past several minutes.

It had been a pretty easy thing to accomplish. Against an older and more experienced Inuzuka, it would have been very difficult to remain undetected. But for someone with Kiba's comparatively low level of skill, all that was really necessary was to stay downwind and not be obvious about his presence.

This paid off even more quickly than he had anticipated, as the child, like most humans who tried the art of pranks, quickly began bragging about his success. A Kitsune engaged in pranks as either a form of revenge or simply for sake of the entertainment inherent in watching the chaos caused by the prank. Neither of which required anyone to know that they were responsible. In fact, it was almost always preferable that no one know.

But Kiba clearly pranked in a play for dominance, which fit in with what he knew about the Inuzuka Clan. And for a successful prank to give him some level of dominance over those he believed to be under him, others had to know he had been the one responsible. So Naruto had been sure that Kiba would talk about not just his successful prank, but his successful escape from any consequences as soon as he thought he could do so without getting in trouble.

And he was not disappointed as Kiba quickly ended up talking to the same two boys Naruto had knocked down to save Sakura before class that morning.

"So yeah, I did it," Kiba continued, nearly laughing as he boasted to the other two boys. "It was great. Went off perfectly. But that wasn't even the best part! I didn't even have to do anything for Naruto to take the blame."

The other two idiots who's names Naruto hadn't bothered to learn laughed along with Kiba, clearly enjoying that the kid who had humiliated them was getting punished. That Naruto had been innocent probably made it even sweeter to them. To be fair, it would have for Naruto as well.

"I don't know why," Kiba continued, "but Mizuki immediately assumed it was Naruto, even without any evidence. Maybe Naruto did something similar to Mizuki before? It doesn't really matter why though, but it means that I can do whatever pranks I want against Mizuki, and as long as I don't get directly caught in the act, the blame will always go to Naruto! I don't even have to do anything to set him up! It's like an open invitation to prank all I want with no punishment from a teacher! Is that awesome, or what?"

The other two agreed it was and eventually wandered off, leaving a still highly amused Inuzuka alone under the tree and looking around for who else was still in the area. Probably to boast some more to anyone else he could find who wouldn't be sympathetic of Naruto.

But Naruto didn't give him the chance as he dropped from the branch he had been hiding on, appearing to Kiba's senses only a few feet away from his position.

This caused Kiba to jerk back in shock at his sudden appearance, even stumbling back a few steps. It was pretty funny, but Naruto kept a blank face as he silently stared as intimidatingly as an eight year old could manage without the use of killing intent.

And it seemed to work. Even as Kiba recovered his composure, he still seemed rather nervous as he hesitantly asked, "So, uh...Hi Naruto. Did you...uh...did you hear all of that?" As he spoke, he shifted on his feet and failed to look directly at Naruto, exhibiting all the signs of nerves that would eventually be trained out of him. But for now, they made what Kiba felt obvious even if he hadn't been able to sense the turmoil in the kid's chakra.

But Naruto had no intention of going easy on him as he said, "You mean about how you were the one who did the prank I got blamed for? And about how awesome it is that I got in trouble for something you did? And how you planned on doing it a lot more in the future, getting me in even more trouble for stuff you do? Yeah, I heard that."

"Oh, well..." Kiba hesitated, looking at the ground, but finally seemed to rally himself as he looked up and continued, "Well look...You get to enjoy the pranks too. I'll prank Mizuki, and you can be glad that a teacher who is biased against you is getting what he deserves, right? It's not like I'm making him punish you. I'm just pranking him, and he does what he wants. So it's Mizuki's fault, not mine."

"It was Mizuki's fault the first time," Naruto responded with a snort. "But if you are planning pranks with the intent of me taking the punishment for what you do, that's definitely your fault." Naruto shook his head in annoyance at this point as he continued, "Look...Your prank was pretty funny, and you didn't really intend to get me in trouble, so I'm willing to be nice about this and give you a chance to walk away. All you have to do is go tell Mizuki that you set up the paint balloon trap and not get me in trouble for something you did in the future, and everything can be fine between us."

Kiba laughed at that, taking a step back. "No way. I'm not doing that. My mom would be so pissed. All you have to do is sit though a few boring detentions. She would kill me. And besides, there isn't anything you can do about it. Sometimes a lesser member of the pack has to clean up after the alpha. That's just the way life is, and you had better learn to accept it."

Naruto smirked slightly at Kiba. "Well, just remember that you had your chance. I promise you will wish you had taken it in the future, but that's on your head."

Kiba rolled his eyes in return and started to walk away. "Whatever Naruto."

But the smirk never left Naruto's face as he turned around to return to the Academy to serve the first day of his detention.

Because unlike with Mizuki, his revenge against Kiba could begin immediately.

It was Ino who had given him the idea, as the subject of Kiba's older sister Hana came up during their information trading at lunch. Ok, their gossip at lunch. But Ino had known a fair bit about Hana and her relationship with Kiba. He had to read between the lines a bit, but it was clear that as much as she cared for Kiba, like many Inuzuka, Hana could be quite savage in defending her position in the pack over her little brother.

And it was equally clear that Kiba chafed at his lower position in the Inuzuka pack. Which was probably a large part of the reason for his actions today. But the fact that his family was surely aware of how Kiba felt provided the opening for his prank. Though it was malicious enough that some might not call it a prank, but the opinions of such people had never concerned Naruto.

From his own reading about Konoha's clans, he knew of several of the more extreme dominance plays that Inuzuka sometimes engaged in within the clan. One of which was used quite rarely because...well, as similar as they could be, the Inuzua weren't actually dogs. But on occasion, one Inuzuka would use the same method of marking their territory that one of their canine companions would use in order to claim another's territory as their own.

It was about as blatant as an Inuzuka could get in telling another Inuzuka that the other Inuzuka's space belonged to them and they were the dominant one of the pair.

And luckily for Naruto, he had already managed to collect a small urine sample from Kiba after the boy went to the bathroom after classes and failed to flush. Since a sufficiently skilled Transformation technique would duplicate even the scent of the form someone transformed into, it would be a simple matter to briefly infiltrate the Inuzuka clan, identify Hana's room, and mark her room with Kiba's scent.

The fall-out would be fairly predictable. From what he knew about Inuzuka, Hana wouldn't be able to let a challenge of that magnitude pass. And the usual way to reestablish dominance would be to pound the weaker member of the pack until he knew his place. In this case Kiba.

The best part was that Kiba would know he was responsible. Naruto threatened him after Kiba set Naruto up to take the fall for one of his pranks and within days he gets set up to take the fall as part of another prank? Kiba wasn't stupid enough to miss that one. But Kiba would never be able to prove it and no one would ever believe he wasn't responsible.

The only real question was what Kiba would do after he finished healing up from the undoubtedly savage beating his sister would give him. Would he recognize the inevitable and submit to Naruto, or would he try and escalate things further to get back at him?

Either way, it should be interesting.

Because Naruto didn't believe in that 'eye for an eye' crap. No, when someone wronged him, the response might sometimes be long in coming, but it would be wholly disproportionate to what was done to him. And Naruto was perfectly fine with that.

Fortunately there was no one around to hear Naruto's laughter as he re-entered the Academy. Maybe this whole 'regular interaction with his peers' thing could be kind of fun after all.

A/N:

Again, I'm sorry for the delay in this chapter. While this story will continue to be focused on to a lesser degree than A Sage Among Wizards, I won't let nearly as much time pass between updates as I did between chapter 3 and 4.

Also, I want to point out that I'm not trying to bash Kiba in this story. Or anyone, really. But Kiba is very brash, immature, a bit of a prankster himself, and trying to establish himself as the alpha in his class. So there is bound to be conflict with Naruto, but that doesn't mean I'm going to present Kiba as basically functionally retarded, borderline evil, and without any positive traits as he often is in bashing fics. He is a somewhat inconsiderate eight year old with some issues. That doesn't mean he is a bad person.

For those who read my other story, I do find myself comparing Mizuki and Snape in this chapter though. The circumstances are rather different, but the reactions are almost identical. It really wasn't an intentional thing, and I didn't realize that was the way it turned out until I was rereading the chapter for editing. Oh well...They are very similar characters in a lot of ways, so it makes sense they would react similarly.

Anyway, please review! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake, I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You suck, I hope you get cancer" will be ignored.