Naruto: BELIEVE IT

Naruto believed that although a short period of time passed since his arrival, he's gotten the hang of this new world now.

One, the villagers despised him. However, in contrary to those emotions, they didn't induce a direct harm to him—unless Naruto himself attempted to make a contact with them, or if they were immature kids.

Naruto attributed this reason to the possibility that he was 'special', in a good way. After all, Hokage was his guardian; not everyone gets to have the rank #1 of the village as one's sugar daddy.

'And why would that be the case?'

Naruto thought one day while reading a book, and upon stumbling over one page that detailed the information of the fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato,

'...?'

he understood why.

'Blonde. Blue eyes. Died because of Kyuubi...'

Naruto recalled when villagers repeatedly stopped themselves from spewing out the word 'demon'.

'So, the most likely possibility is that I'm his son, and uh, people think I'm the incarnation of that fox who killed him.'

Idiots, thought Naruto.

'But I can definitely use this as my advantage...'

There was no need to hide. Barging into the Hokage office under the excuse of Hiruzen being his guardian, Naruto blatantly asked,

"Fourth Hokage is my biological dad, isn't he?"

"...How did you reach that conclusion?"

"I freaking look like him, duh?"

"...You cannot ignore the possibility that it may be a coincidence—"

"And that dad of mine probably did something to me about the Kyuubi. And people think I've become the Kyuubi, right?"

"...Where did you gather the information from?"

"Public library."

"To think he actually removed 50% of books from the library that day... heh."

Chuckling as he reminisced over the events that happened, Naruto was currently sitting on the rooftop fearlessly with binoculars in his hands. Periodically looking into it, he seemed to have something in his mind.

It has already been a week since the incident during the taijutsu sparring session within the academy. After barely managing to resolve the situation, Iruka notified that the sparring would happen every first Monday of the month.

Funnily enough, Sakura, Ino, and the others, they didn't stop annoying him since that day. If anything, Naruto's outburst back then seemed to have fuelled their motivation to worsen his life.

"Ew, go wash yourself! Yuck!"

"Where are your parents? Ah, wait! You got none, hahaha!"

There was nothing physical, but they continued to throw words after words at him, and one point, too tired to fire back with curses of his own, Naruto simply turned his attention to them off.

Nonetheless, Naruto dismissed such thoughts. Bringing the binoculars back in front of his eyes, he looked into it.

What he was observing, specifically, were the movements of ninjas who dashed nimbly across the village.

'A short, periodical burst of chakra at feet? Or the enhancement of one's physical strength?'

They performed a variety of feats. Naruto saw one running across the body of water. At another time, he saw them dashing up the vertical wall.

Those feats simply baffled Naruto's mind, especially when he was still bound by the laws of physics. Watching them move brought excitement to Naruto, hoping to replicate their moves.

'If only I had... what was it again? Do... right, dojutsu, the special eyes. I heard that Byakugan can read the chakra flow of others. Or if I was, uh... sensor type, I could've gained some more idea of them.'

Too bad that he could only feel his own.

"Haah? Look who this is!"

Then, Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as someone called out at him from below.

Looking down, Naruto saw... a group of girls, all glaring at him.

"Why, if it isn't Uzumaki Idiot?"

And of course, in front of them stood Sakura.

"..."

Without bothering to speak back, Naruto simply returned to whatever he was doing.

"H-Hey! Don't ignore us!!"

"Haven't you learned to listen when a person speaks?!"

Naruto groaned as the noise continued to boom from down. Unable to focus, he eventually had to return his attention to them.

Then, he pointed a finger to the side,

"Look, it's your Sasuke-kun!"

"S-Sasuke?! Where?!"

The girls turned to where Naruto pointed and found none. Realizing that they've been tricked, they angrily turned back to where Naruto was—except that he was now gone.

__________

"Chakra reserve is limited. A taxing movement requires stamina. Utilizing chakra in combination with that means double the amount of stamina; normal people would run out of chakra extremely quickly."

Now sitting under one tree, Naruto mumbled to himself as he read the note full of his scribbles.

"Therefore, the augmentation of the body is highly unlikely. In fact, augmentation is almost never likely to happen, since it involves a very tiring process of infusing every single system of your body with chakra—be it the nerves, muscles, bones, skins, or others. If you can do all that instantaneously, that alone should make you a top-notch."

'Which means, channeling chakra into feet is more likely.'

What made Naruto wonder though, was how that worked conceptually.

'Chakra has adhesive properties?'

Standing up and placing one foot on the bark of the tree, Naruto shrugged before pushing chakra into the sole of said foot.

Boom.

At the next moment, Naruto found himself blasted off of the tree, due to the force generated from said foot.

Falling and rolling on the grassy plain for a while, he eventually came to a stop before standing back up with bewilderment.

Instead of the so-called adhesive property, he was... pushed away from it.

Naruto gave some thoughts about the phenomenon that happened just now. He eventually concluded,

"I... put in too much chakra...?"

Naruto deduced that the inherent energy of chakra surpassed its adhesive property that he intended to bring out.

Scratching his head, he returned to the tree and found a small crack in the bark.

"Huh."

Naruto believed that he discovered something else instead—a potential attack move.

"What if I combine this with... that augmentation thing I did before?"

Enhance one hand and upon contact, pour in all the excess chakra... theoretically, it had the potential to become a lethal move.

"Let's give it a try."

__________

"...That's where he went to?"

It wasn't that they, Sakura and the other girls, were looking for him.

They were simply on their way to her house to spend time the way many normal girls of their ages did.

It's just that while doing so, they managed to stumble upon Naruto... twice by now.

"What is that idiot trying to do now?"

Sakura bickered as she saw Naruto closing his eyes and holding a fist out.

"Does he think he's cool or what—"

Then, there was an explosive noise as Naruto punched the tree in front of him, and the tree—quite a huge one—broke into two.

Boom.

Watching Naruto splitting the tree into two with a punch, Sakura found herself hiccuping, completely terrified.

She couldn't help but imagine what would happen if that attack of Naruto were to be aimed at her. Her body was more fragile than that tree, so naturally...

"..."

Sakura shook her head, trying to erase the terrifying thought.

"H-He won't use that on us, right...?"

One girl stuttered with a pale expression.

"Just because we badmouthed him doesn't mean..."

They fell silent. Suddenly, picking on Naruto... didn't seem like a good idea.

__________

After the weekend passed, the students, including Naruto, were back in the academy.

Without any ongoing physical exercise, they were listening to the lessons of Iruka which most of them considered boring.

"...And it is said that from that fight, the Second Tsuchikage and Second Mizukage ended up killing each other. Any question?"

Looking around, Iruka felt like sighing as he saw that most weren't even paying attention. However, at the same time, he was surprised to see that Naruto, unlike his past self, seemed interested in what he was learning.

At this point, everyone knew that Naruto changed. Diligent, hard-working, and reserved—he was someone whom Iruka would've considered an ideal student, if not for his past history and... his status in the village.

It wasn't just him. The students too seemed to have noticed Naruto's changes. With the change in his attitude and rising performances, they began to view him in a different light; fear for some and curiosity for others.

"...If not, that will be the end of today's class—"

"LET'S GO!!"

Iruka's fists trembled as Kiba interrupted him with a loud shout of joy. With Kiba's words as a trigger, all students threw away the silence and began talking among themselves, rendering the class lousy in an instant.

Eventually, Iruka sighed as he let the students do as they wished. Before exiting the room, he peeked and saw Naruto reading the notes—ones which he saw Naruto writing during the class.

For some reason, Iruka found a smile on his face.

Initially, he despised Naruto due to his connection with Kyuubi. However, upon coming to teach him personally, Naruto, who attempted to become a class clown to close himself to others and ease his loneliness, resembled who Iruka used to be. Iruka symphasized Naruto. He came to learn that Naruto was a human being, no different from other kids.

Then, recently, Naruto changed. Throwing away his class clown, happy-go-round persona, he's become serious and diligent. He was able to stand up for himself. It was as if he learned how to overcome the loneliness.

Anyhow, Iruka felt proud of Naruto.

'...Keep going, Naruto,'

Thought Iruka before he left the room.

Not knowing what Iruka was thinking, Naruto, after a quick review of what he learned, was now readying to leave the academy as well.

"You think you can get away, huh?!"

And of course. Raising his head, Naruto saw Ino standing with a scowl.

'Fucking childish—right, they are kids.'

But then again, this technically started because he ended up letting his pent-up frustration go loose during the sparring session. Kids are just kids, that's how Naruto decided to cope—not that their words held any meaning to him.

"I see that you are studying with that stupid head of yours for once, huh? Well, you should give up, because I don't see someone as stupid as you getting better! You are hopeless!"

Turning around, Ino shouted,

"Right, girls?!"

However, unlike what she intended, Sakura and the other girls of their group averted eye-contact, confusing Ino.

"...Girls?"

"L-Let's just leave him alone, Ino."

"What do you mean leave him alone?! Did you forget what he shit on us before?!"

Then, Sakura mumbled, which Ino refuted heatedly.

Uncaring of the fact that they started arguing among themselves, Naruto packed up his stuff and began leaving.

"Hey! Where are you going?!"

Ignoring Ino's shout, he exited the class.

And little did he know that the timid girl, Hinata, was staring at them nervously from the back.

__________

__________

Time swiftly flew since then.

Naruto learned, trained, and practice diligently, trying to adapt to the new world as much as he could. And honestly speaking, he was quite good at doing so—at least from what he believed.

"Start!"

After seeing his talent and rapid improvement in the area of taijutsu, he ended up sparring Sasuke, the most skilled one among his peers, most of the time.

"...Hn."

Though Naruto didn't really care much about wins and losses, Sasuke seemed to have grown... a sense of rivalry against him.

Surprisingly enough, as Naruto improved and focused his time on honing himself, his image within the village seemed to have changed for the better. Some began to view him in a new light. Some began to look past the wall of hatred that has grown into something akin to common sense.

"Getting accepted, huh."

Frankly speaking, Naruto didn't have any wants or expectations of the villagers. He didn't have any sense of loyalty, patriotism, or belonging either.

However, he understood that he had nowhere to go. In the end, this village was the safest place for him and will continue to be in the future.

Naruto concluded in the end, that he would simply remain indifferent to them no matter how they changed. He will work within the village. He will complete missions. However, he will do them for his own sake. Sticking to a selfish mindset was the best that Naruto could think of.

"Today, we will start going over the basics of ninjutsu."

Time continued to fly. His time in the academy piled up, and Iruka seemed to have warmed up to him.

Sometimes, they had ramen together. Naruto himself found Iruka's company comfortable; he was truly a warm person.

"I used to be a class clown, you know? A dead last, failure... but attention, regardless of the type, was better than being ignored."

Sometimes, he shared his life story. Sometimes, he answered Naruto's questions regarding the curriculum. He seemed to have resonated with Naruto's own life, which Naruto could understand.

"Say, Naruto, do you have a goal?"

Then, one day, Iruka asked.

"Goal, you ask?"

"Something like 'I will become one of the jonins! The elite ninjas!' Or something like 'I will become the next Hokage!' You know, those kinds of dreams that many boys tend to have?"

"Oh, there are many things that I want, Iruka-sensei."

And Naruto answered,

"Become strong enough to protect myself, get a nice house, and get rich enough to live comfortably without working for the rest of my life."

"That... is surprisingly realistic."

"Well, you probably know as well, but people like us, those who start from minus,"

Naruto shrugged,

"Tend to be satisfied with zero. A start line for someone is a goal for another. Life is unfair, but what can we do?"

"Well then,"

Iruka chuckled at that,

"Good luck, I suppose."

"Thanks, sensei."

...

Time passed. And before Naruto knew, the day for the final, graduation exam of the ninja academy arrived.