A Different Life

"Speech"

"Thought"

OwO OwO OwO

Naruto was nervous. He knew he had no reason to be, he knew all the academy jutsus Iruka had tought him. His tai-jutsu was above average, and he knew how to recognize and dispel gen-jutsu. So what what was it about the genin exams was that made him so nervous?

Finally Iruka and Mizuki entered the classroom, both were holding a clipboard whith some papers on it. Iruka cleared his throat, and the early morning chatter died down as everyone hurried to their seats.

"Now that I have everyones attention, I will explain the exam", it was deathly quiet in the room as Iruka shifted through his papers.

"The first test will be a written exam, you will have 45 minutes to complete it. After the exam there will be a 20 minute break, followed by a weapon-accuracy test. It will be held outside. After this there will be a 40 minute lunch break, followed by a nin-jutsu test. It will be on the bunshin no jutsu."

Naruto gave a relieved sigh, he knew there was nothing to be worried about.

OwO OwO OwO

The written test was over, they had finished their break and were waiting to be told if they had failed or passed.

Iruka and Mizuki once again entered the room, papers in hand.

"We are both very proud of all of you, no one here failed this test", Iruka said whith a smile. There were alot of relieved sighs around the room.

"We will now hand out your test and then we will move on to the weapon-accuracy test", Mizuki told them as he and Iruka began handing out the tests.

They were all gathered outside for the next test. Iruka had told them to line up in front of the targets, in rows of ten.

"You will get ten shuriken and ten kunai each. You must hit the target whith at least five of each to pass" Iruka explained.

Naruto was at end of his row, and were watching how the others were doing.

Nara Shikamaru was at the front of his row. He went over to his table whith kunai and shuriken, and picked up some kunai. Naruto thought he heard him mutter a 'troublesome' before he threw his weapons. In the end Shikamaru hit his target whith eight kunai and six shuriken.

In another line Uchiha Sasuke was next. He picked up some shuriken first to throw at his target. He managed to hit whith ten kunai and nine shuriken.

"Very good Sasuke" Mizuki commented.

"Hn" replied Sasuke, before he walked over to a tree a little distance away from all the others who had completed the test. Making all the girls he walked past swoon.

"I don't understand what they all see in him. He's emo, cold, never nice to anyone and all he does his brood" Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto looked back to see who's turn it was. During his thinking one row of students had finished, and he could now see Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino standing at the front, arguing about who was best for Sasuke.

"Oh brother" Naruto thought as he rolled his eyes. Sasuke was one thing, but he absolutely couldn't stand fangirls. Especially when they were fighting over Sasuke.

But the matter was, that he knew Ino was no fangirl. During a meeting their fathers had when they were younger, Naruto and Ino had gotten a chance to know eachother. Naruto smiled at the memory.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- Flashback-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Naruto and Ino were sitting on a swingset in the park outside of the Hokage tower, waiting for their fathers to finish their meeting and come pick them up.

"So whats it like to have the Hokage for a father?" Ino asked as an attempt at conversation.

"Well, he's pretty busy much of the time, but when he's home he's just like any other father i guess", Naruto replied as he gently started to rock the swing back and forth.

"How about you, your father is the clan head. I know the Yamanaka clan isn't very big but still, clan head is clan head, right?"

"He is altso pretty busy, as both clan head and shinobi, so me and my mom don't see him much", noticing she was beginning to get a little depressed, Ino quickly tried to lighten the atmosfair.

"But when he is home we have alot of fun too. We go on family outings and picnics, and sometimes me and dad have father-daughter days!"

By now they both had big smiles on their faces.

"Thats good. It's important to be with your family", Naruto said as Ino nodded.

After that it was quiet for a while, untill Naruto asked something he had been wondering since he met Ino.

"Why do you like Sasuke?"

The question had been so sudden and unexpected in the silence that had fallen over the park, Ino almost fell off her swing.

"Wh-why do you ask that?" Ino asked him.

"I was just wondering, I mean you seem like a nice person, and Sasuke... well he is more of an emo teme. So I was just wondering what you see in him thats all" Naruto answered her.

Ino looked at her feet, and Naruto began to wonder if he had offended her. He was about to apologize when Ino spoke up.

"Ano, Naruto? Can you keep a secret?" Naruto looked at her for a bit, and nodded.

"What am I doing, why am I telling him this?" Ino thought as she looked up at him. "I know I can trust him, just by looking in his eyes"

"I've never liked Sasuke" Ino smiled, it felt good to tell someone.

Naruto brilliant answer to her revelation was "Huh?" He was confused. Why would someone pretend to like someone?

Ino giggled a bit at the expression an his face.

"Me and Sakura have been friends for years, but we don't have that much in common anymore. So I pretend to like Sasuke, we might argue alot and don't hang out as much as before, but we're still friends. Our friendship didn't dissolve" Ino explained and Naruto smiled at her.

A little while later their fathers came and picked them up.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:- Flashback end -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

They had been ten at the time, and since then they had developed a friendship. Ino had also helped pick out an outfit for him, saying that if she didn't he would wear some horrendous orange jupsuit or something.

He now wore a blue longsleeved sweater, whith a red t-shirt over. On the back of the t-shirt there was the kanji for kitsune, in black. He had dark blue, almost black pants that reached just under his knees, whith many pockets. And normal blue ninja sandals.

He noticed that once again he had gotten cought up in his thinking, and had missed the result of not only Ino and Sakura, but Choji, Shino and Kiba as well.

"Damn" Naruto thought. "I really wanted to know how everyone did."

At the moment it was only him and Hinata left. (AN: I'm lazy so I'm not going to include the rest of the class in my explanations, but they are there)

Naruto walked over to the weapons table for his row, and picked up some shuriken. He ended up hitting his target whith all the shuriken, next were the kunai. He hit the target whith nine out of ten.

"Nice work Naruto, you did good" Iruka said as he wrote down Naruto's score.

Naruto smiled, happy whith his result.

He looked over to Hinata to see how she did. Eight of her kunai and six shuriken had made it to the target.

"Hey great job Hinata-chan, you passed!" he smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

Hinata blushed profousley and began pushing her index fingers together.

"Th-thank you N-Naruto-kun. You did very good a-a-as well"

"Okay everyone, good work. Meet in the classroom in 40 minutes for the nin-jutsu test" Iruka announced as he and Mizuki went inside ,with the results of the test.

OwO OwO OwO

After Naruto had gotten his lunch from the classroom, he went to the swing across the academy school yard. He was almost instantly joined by his pet kitsune, Tsuki. She didn't like the stuffy classroom, so she always met up whith Naruto at lunch.

About one year ago Naruto had found Tsuki ,wounded in the forest, when he was training. He had searched for her parents, but after a couple of hours of searching he had decided to take her to his mother.

Namikaze Kushina had been an ANBU medic-nin. But when his sister, Arashi, had been born ,Kushina had decided that she would rather take care of her child, than run around and kill people.

Naruto had decided to name Tsuki after her eyes. The pale blue, almost silver slitted eyes of the little kitsune, reminded him of the moon

Her fur was golden, whith orange tipped tail and ears. Her paws being black.

After sitting on the swing for a few minutes, he was joined by Ino and Shikamaru. Naruto had gotten to know Shikamaru due to him and Ino already being friends. They had for the past two years hung out almost on a dayly basis.

"Hey guys"

"Hey Naruto, so how'd you do on the tests?" Ino asked him as Shikamaru sat down against the tree. They hadn't gotten to talk in the previous break, because Ino had gotten into a fight whith Sakura. Naruto had to run home and get his lunch. And Shikamaru had fallen asleep.

"I nailed the wepons test!" Naruto half shouted happily. "But I think I just barely passed the written one" he continued as he blushed a little, and scratched himself behind his head sheepishly.

"How about you two, how'd you do?" he had already seen Shikamarus test, and knew he was a genious, so the question was more for Ino than Shikamaru.

"I passed, it's to troblesome to tell you anyhing else"

"Really Shikamaru, you're to lazy for you own good" Ino threw up her hands in an 'I give up' motion for effect, as she glared at Shikamaru, who looked like he had fallen asleep.

"So Ino how'd you do?" Naruto asked again.

"I kicked ass in the written exam!" Ino told him as she did the victory sign.

"And the weapons test?" Naruto asked after she paused.

"Um... well I have to pass the nin-jutsu test to pass" Ino answered as she looked at her feet.

"Don't worry Ino, I know you can do it" Naruto said and gave her a reasuring smile.

"Yeah it's not like you don't know the bunshin no jutsu" Shikamaru suddenly said, startlig the other two.

Shikamaru glanced at them. "You thought I was asleep, didn't you?" Nods. "Troublesome."

The rest of the lunch break were spendt just talking about random stuff, and watching Naruto try to keep his food away from Tsuki. When they were called back inside the boys felt confident they would pass, and Ino felt reasured.

OwO OwO OwO

They were asked to sit in their seats untill they were called into the test room. It was a long wait, and currently Naruto was bored out of his mind. He turned to look out the window and spotted Tsuki playing whith a butterfly. (More like trying to eat it)

"So lucky" Naruto thought whith envy, as he looked at the little kitsune, playing and having fun.

He must have dosed off at some point, beacause the next thing he knew it was his turn.

OwO OwO OwO

Naruto was standing in front of Iruka and Mizuki, who were sitting behind the table holding the new hitai-ates for the graduates.

"Okay Naruto, to pass you must succesfully create 3 bunshin" Mizuki told him.

Naruto nodded and began concetrating on molding his chakra. He always had to concentrate harder than everyone else did when he were doing a low level jutsu. His father had told him it was because he had so much more chakra than most people.

He carefully did the seals, and five perfect clones popped into existence next to him. Naruto looked at the clones, smiled and put his hands behind his head as he turned back to his teachers.

"So how'd I do?"

"You passed with flying colours Naruto" Iruka said, with pride in his voice, as he handed Naruto his new hitai-ate.

"Yatta, I'm a ninja!" Naruto yelled happily. He quicly gave Iruka a hug before he ran out of the room. His hitai-ate proudly displayed on his forhead. Had he turned around, he would have seen the angry sneer Mizuki sendt him.

OwO OwO OwO

When the exam was over, Naruto was once again sitting on the swing outside of the academy, as he always did when he waited to be picked up.

He was surprised to see his father there though, because he was always so busy at the Hokage tower that he never had time to come pick him up. It was always his mother or sister who would meet up whith him.

There were many murmurs as to why the Hokage were at the academy.

"Perhaps he is here to congadulate the graduates."

"He probably heard the Uchiha passed, and is here to take him on as a student"

"I knew they weren't just gonna let the Kyuubi pass, he must be here to take care of it"

"Ah finally, he's going to rid us of the monster"

Theese were just some of the comments made by people around the yard.

Naruto picked up Tsuki from where she had been plying at his feet, and placed her on his shoulder. He took off running towards his father just as Minato saw him.

Just as he was about to reach him, a man stepped in between him and his father.

"Stay awy from the Hokage, demon!" The man brought his fist up to hit, but just as he was about to bring it down someone grabbed his wrist. Hard.

"Did you just call my son a demon?" it wasn't a question, but an accusation. And it was followed by so much killing intent, the man wet himself.

The fact that the Hokage had just called the demon his son, sendt most of the people there into shock.

When Minato let the man go, he ran as if his life depended on it. And it probably did.

As he turned to Naruto to see if he was okay, Minato saw that he was laughing. In fact Naruto was laughing so hard he had trouble standing. Minato was puzzled by this. His son had just been called a demon, and now he was laughing as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"You should have come to pick me up a long time ago, that was damn funny. Did you see the look on that guys face?"

Minato was still disturbed by the fact that Naruto took this so casually.

"Naruto, does this happen often?" Minato asked as he kneeled down, so he could look Naruto in the eye.

Naruto had stopped laughing, and were wiping some tears that had appeared when he was laughing.

"Does what happen often?" He asked his father.

"People calling you things, or trying to hit you?"

Naruto's smile fell from his face as he went quiet, and turned his head away from his father. Studying a loose pebble that had suddenly become very interesting.

Naruto's silence was answer enough. Minato was horrified, how could anyone do that to his son. Didn't they know he was the only thing keeping the Kyuubi from destroing the village?

"We'll talk about it when we get home, okay?" Naruto nodded.

"Good. Okay then, onto other matters. Did you pass?" Minato asked as he got back up.

Naruto smiled proudly and pointed to his hitai-ate. He had moved it from his forehead to around his neck.

"Great job kiddo! Now lets get going, I have a surprise for you" he said as he ruffled his sons hair. Making it even more unruly than it was before.

"Ano sa, ano sa, what is it?" Naruto asked exitedly, as he and his father started walking away from the academy.

"If I told you if wouldn't be a surprise now would it?"

OwO OwO OwO

Kitsune: Yay, my first multichapter story! Ima so happy!

Arashi: You're always happy...

Kitsune: And thats a bad thing?

Arashi: It is for my headache, you're so damn loud.

Kitsune: Oh, sorry...

Arashi: --sigh-- Anyway, Arashi Kitsune-sama does not own Naruto

Kitsune: Yeah, she's not a dude!

Kitsune: And I would like to give a BIIIIIG thanks to tha ero-neko (Deidara-is-the-best-fuck-the-rest on ff), for being our beta. THANK YOU!!

Arashi: Damn you're loud...--holds hands over her fox-ears--

AN: I really didn't like the ending, but I tried some different angles and this was the best I could come up whith. I wanted a little father son moment in here, it's very little though... But there will be more family fluff later in the story. So what do ya think? Love it, hate it, whatever just don't flame. They will either be ignored or laughed at depending on my mood. Although constructive criticism will be welcomed. And just so you know it, this will NOT be a NaruIno story. But if you have any pairing suggestions please tell me. Any tips you may have, will be welcomed with great joy. I will also try to answer any questions that comes along

Ja ne

Arashi Kitsune-sama