//------------------------------// // Horsing Around in School // Story: Friendship Contract // by Demeristraz //------------------------------// "Now you're sure you have everything?" Twilight asked, the Naruto in front of her was a far cry from the child who had arrived only two years earlier. His body was no longer scrawny or malnourished. He was well groomed, wearing dark blue sandals, dark blue cargo shorts, and dark blue gloves. His shirt was a dark orange, with a long orange jacket over top. The outfit wasn't ideal of course, it had taken a lot of convincing to get Rarity to agree on the colors. Twilight had learned as much about the ninja world as he had over the past two years, and insisted that Orange colors would get him into endless trouble, but in the end his stubbornness won out. The other suggestions for his outfit were luckily passed over, things like having fake wings, or a horn on a headband. Other ideas were to incorporate his six best friend's cutie marks onto his jacket, which was promptly vetoed in favor of his clan symbol. "We should go through the list again. A set of 10 blunted training kunai, and 20 training shuriken?" She listed off. "Got them here, weighed and tested, to make sure they are accurate, and my name is engraved on each one." He replied on autopilot, he had been through the list twice already. "Boxed lunch that Applebloom packed for you?" She read off, ignoring the look of boredom from Naruto. "Yep, all my favorites." He patted the box attached to his right hip. "Emergency first aid kit that Fluttershy packed?" She said, small smile on her face for reminding him yet again. "Yes, yes, I've had it on me since the quarry incident. I swear, you help the CMC try for their blast mining cutie marks one time and suddenly I'm treated like an accident prone idiot." He grumbled, the small yellow metal tin was attached to his belt across his back, it even had little pink butterflies on it. "Can I go now?" He interrupted, before she could get into the break-down of what went into the first aid kit. "I'm going to be late on my first day." He knew she hated the idea of being tardy for everything. "Okay, good luck, have fun, and no pranks! Remember we're going to Canterlot on the weekend, Shining Armor agreed to let you shadow him for a day!" She called as he ran through his favorite hand signs and disappeared. O~O~O~O~O Appearing in his bedroom in Konoha he took a quick glance at the clock, since Equestria's sun was controlled by a princess getting the times to match up was kind of tricky. As expected he was about 5 minutes behind schedule, so he took to running most of the distance. After years of routine exercise the run to the academy was nothing tough, and he had barely gotten winded by the time he arrived. The two year extended absence helped curb the hatred of the general populace, although showing up at the academy quickly blew some of that away. Already murmurs of ' It's really back' and 'They're really letting it be a ninja?' started up among some of the parents. The children, catching the emotion behind the muttering gave Naruto curious looks. "Oi." Came the rather loud cry of a boy behind him, he had brown hair and red facial markings, with a grey furred hoodie. "You new here too? I'm in Iruka's class. Name's Kiba." Naruto instinctively responded with a fist bump, rather than a bow or handshake, but the boy didn't seem fazed. "Yeah, I'm Naruto, first year, Iruka as well. You from a clan?" "Heh yeah Inuzuka, I haven't got my dog yet, but I will before I graduate, what about you? You smell kind of like horses." He said, leaning in and sniffing like a dog would. "Well its better than having dog breath. I'm an Uzumaki, last one if I've got it right. Means you probably have an advantage over me right? I'm no civilian, but having ninja parents must help." Naruto grumbled, despite all of his physical and intellectual training over the past two years, none of the library books available to civilians had anything on chakra or how to use it, barring the whole 'find out if you've got it.' The only reason the summoning technique was there was because it's generally assumed most people can't do it. "Yeah, I'm the son of the clan head, so I get a bunch of special training, already know a bit of the family taijutsu." The boy bragged, as the two headed for the classroom. "I hear there's going to be a lot of clan head's children in our class, seems like everyone was trying for kids around the same time right?" "That likely has to do with recovering from the 9 tailed fox attack." Said a boy in monotone as they approached the classroom. it was hard to make out much about him, between the massive coat and sunglasses. "Uh yeah, that makes sense." Naruto stalled, before remembering Pinkie's advice about making friends. "I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, are you in this class too?" "I am Shino Aburame, I am in Iruka's class as well." He nodded, and opened the door for the other two boys. The class was mostly empty by this point, there were a couple other children present, nobody obviously recognizable to Naruto. He hadn't spent much time in Konoha lately, and had rather given up on making human freinds for a time. There was one girl with pink hair, it reminded him of Fluttershy, and he subconsciously touched the tin on his back with a smile. He made to go speak to her, until he heard her speak to the girl beside her. "That's the one, the guy my mom warned me about." She whispered, gesturing in his direction. "Yeah, mine too, she said he'd try and befriend me, and then do terrible things when I least expect it." The other girl whispered back. Naruto flinched, the two years away had taken the edge off of his immunity from this sort of stuff. He made for a seat near the other two boys, and waited a few minutes before the last of the students trickled in. Eventually a brown haired scarred man and a shorter white haired man entered the room, and introduced themselves as Iruka and Mizuki, respectively. After a quick role-call, where Naruto memorized any important names, they started right in on a history lesson. "Who can tell me when Konoha was founded?" "Boooooooooooooring! When do we learn how to be Ninja? This is a Ninja academy isn't it?" Naruto called, to the amusement of some of the students. "Uzumaki, despite what you may think, knowing the history of your village is an important part of being a ninja." Iruka glared at the child, he knew coming into this that the boy would be a problem in his classroom. "I already know all this sensei! All of this is available in the library. The civilian library, where anyone can go and look it up? I'm here to learn the stuff that isn't in the civilian library." He said mater-of-factly. "Well good for you, but we don't get into actual ninjutsu until third year. We will start on taijutsu practice twice a week in the afternoon later this week, and do throwing practice once a week." Iruka replied tersely. "If that schedule is too slow for you I'm sorry, but if you know all of this already I expect top marks from you." Naruto fumed but returned to his seat, four years of this, and he'd learn next to nothing, if it wasn't necessary to become a genin he would walk right out this moment. Still it was necessary to sit here, at least for the tests, and he really should attempt to make human friends. If the civilians wouldn't talk to him maybe some of the clan heirs would. Lunch came slowly, and with the bell the students scrambled out into the school yard to fight for a spot in the shade, Naruto, by virtue of taking the window outside, was first to the big tree. Settling down with his box of food he waited a moment as the other students burst out of the doors, seeing the looks on some of the students was priceless. He waved over at Kiba and Shino, and the two were followed by two other boys. Shikamaru was an interesting guy, in that he ate his lunch quickly and lay down to watch the clouds. Chouji was rather large, but he was an Akamichi, which meant he needed his weight for his clan techniques. Shino simply sat near the tree, seemingly talking to the ants, and Kiba kept up conversation, pointing out the classmates and what he could tell about them by smelling them. "Your lunchbox also smells like Horses." He said, gesturing at the blue box with three apples on the lid. "Ponies" Naruto mumbled between bites of food. It was foreign stuff to those present, sandwiches and pastries instead of the usual rice and meat. "Why does it smell like ponies, and don't you eat Meat?" The other boys glanced over at this, and sure enough there was no meat present in Naruto's lunch. "Eh, I don't really have a taste for it." Naruto shrugged, still not letting them in on the big secret. "Right, well... Who's Applebloom? What kind of name is that anyways? She's a civilian right? Probably a farm-girl, who raises ponies, and wants her big strong Naruto to teach her ninja tricks." He snickered, waving a hand-written note in front of the boys. Naruto made to grab for the note but Kiba jumped backwards with it. "Naruto, Best luck at your Ninja school today, ahm shore you'll be the best in the class, what with all that studyin you do all the time. Maybe you can teach the CMC to be ninjas like you. Lots of love, Applebloom." He taunted. Naruto grinned at the opportunity to fight, seeing the ribbing as the good natured challenge that it was. He quickly dropped into the stance that Rainbow Dash had taught him, it looked odd but the straight jabs and strong kicks of 'Pony Style' was surprisingly effective. He figured he could incorporate any advantages the academy style had, such as the actual use of chakra. It was frustrating that it would be years before they threw chakra use into the style, if they really did at all. Kiba dropped down low, into the more dog-like fighting style his clan was famous for and lunged forward. The other students made a ring some of them thinking they were serious egged them on, the others seeing the grins just watched with smiles of their own. Kiba lunged again, Naruto took a great leap into the air, rotating out of Kiba's reach and spinning into a heel kick to the side of his opponent's head. Hoof to the head! he thought, pulling the kick enough that Kiba took a tumble but didn't break any bones. "Alright, alright, break it up you two." Came the voice of Iruka as he pushed through the crowd. Kiba popped back up onto his feet, rubbing his temple as he fist bumped Naruto. "There is to be no fighting on academy ground without instructor supervision." he glared at Naruto specifically. "Ah c'mon sensei, it wasn't a real fight honest, we were just roughhousing, sizing each other up ya know?" Came Kiba's response, but he fell short when the glare was turned on him. "Since its almost time for taijutsu practice anyways, everyone line up. We're going to have a quick set of matches to see where all of the students are." He called out, the Naruto's classmates rushing over to quickly line up beside him. "Sensei, isn't that, once again, blatant favoritism for those with ninja family?" Called Naruto. "Or any family at all?" Jeered a black haired boy at the end of the line. "What's that supposed to mean." He glared at the boy. "Oh I think we all know, you don't have anyone to teach you, even Iruka sensei refuses. You're just a civilian here, a well read civilian, but compared to someone from a clan like the Uchiha, you're just the strongest ant." The boy walked forward into the ring, showing off the insignia on his back to his adoring fans. "Iruka, let me start things off by facing the orange loser." Iruka looked torn for a moment, but seeing Naruto already entering the ring he decided to allow it. "Alright, taijutsu only, I'll step in if I feel it's getting overboard." The two combatants stared each other down across the yard, the other students watched in eager anticipation. "You know Sasuke," Naruto began calmly, settling into a stance. "You shouldn't mock someone for being an orphan." Iruka flinched a little, remembering his childhood. "Face it loser, if you come from nobody, you won't ever be anybody." Sasuke dashed forward, flowing into the uchiha's famous style, a style that relied heavily on the sharingan as a crutch. Information like that was conveniently available in the civilian records, if you could read between the lines. "Intercepting fist." Naruto commented idly, dodging strikes and backpedaling slowly around the ring. "An Uchiha style designed to counter attacks using the sharingan to react rapidly and predict movement." "Shut up!" Yelled Sasuke, angry that his attacks weren't working, each punch was easily blocked or dodged as his opponent continued talking. "Without the sharingan the style is vulnerable to attacks too quick to react to. While most users of the style would train their reaction speed, Uchiha tend to rely on the fact that they will eventually gain their bloodline limit, in the mean time they go on the offense, meaning the #1 cause of death among Uchiha genin is..." Naruto paused as the furious Sasuke swung with a hay-maker right. Naruto dropped to the ground on his hands, quickly spinning the rest of his body around as Sasuke stumbled and fell forwards. "Over-extending in taijutsu." He grunted, using the full force of the rotation to land a double-foot kick on Sasuke's ribs with enough force to knock apples from a tree. The crowd was silent as the Uchiha was sent sprawling out of the ring. Even if he somehow got up from such a hit, the fight was over, Naruto won. Sasuke was in for a set of bruised ribs, it would have been worse if he hadn't been airborne, most of the force had been dispersed to send him flying, rather than being concentrated on his ribs. Naruto calmly got up and dusted off his hands. He was a little upset with himself, for goading his classmate into that sort of thing. Part of the reason he did so, admittedly, was his rude words about the value of family, there certainly was value in having a family, but it wasn't what Sasuke seemed to think. Mainly he tried to draw attention to Sasuke's anger problem, had this not been a friendly fight, that sort of thing would get him killed. Iruka was giving him an odd look as he stepped over to where Sasuke lay panting. The black haired boy growled at him, warning him to stay away, but Naruto had done the same sort of thing, tending to the injuries of a manticore before, an injured 8 year old was hardly terrifying. "Shut up." Growled Naruto back, pulling the yellow tin off of his belt. "I've been kicked like that dozens of times, this stuff helps a bunch." "Why..." Growled Sasuke, still fuming from his loss no doubt. "An eternal rivalry over a single academy match seems silly doesn't it? I don't have a family, but I do have friends, and I wouldn't mind one more." Naruto said quietly, laying out cloth bandages before him, and coating them with a medicated balm. Sasuke eyed the incredibly girly set of items for a moment, before relenting and raising his shirt. "More items from 'Applebloom'?" He asked, hissing he exposed his already bruising chest. "Fluttershy, actually. She won't let me go anywhere without it, just because I got knocked off a cliff due to my own explosion, one time." Naruto responded jokingly. Sasuke let out a sigh as the bandages wrapped around him. "You're a very odd person, you know that?" "I'm very odd for a pony as well, for what it's worth." Naruto replied, grabbing new ' friend's ' arm and hoisting him to his feet. Sasuke just shook his head, passing it off as more madness of the orange variety. The two of them retook their position in line with the other students as the fights continued, occasionally mentioning flaws they saw in their classmate's styles. "Kiba's getting too low to the ground." Naruto muttered. "It's his family style, once he starts using chakra his spine will adjust to compensate for the changed center of gravity." Sasuke replied, as if it were obvious. "In the mean time he's weak to overhead strikes, just like you have the issue with speed." Naruto rebuked. "You keep bringing that up." Sasuke growled. "It's better to acknowledge these things and work around the weaknesses. Would you respect me more if I just agreed with everything you said." Naruto casually replied, watching Kiba easily take apart some civilian kid's 'style'. "Hn," was the eloquent response from his black haired friend. School continued that way for the remainder of the day, nobody else was severely injured, and the instructors promised to actually start 'teaching' the academy style of taijutsu two days from now. The bell rang and the children headed for the door of the school. "Hey, Sasuke, one more thing." Naruto called as Sasuke prepared to leave. "Your clan is famous for having tons of techniques, do you think I could borrow some books on chakra manipulation? To read ahead?" Sasuke shook his head at that "You really are a bookworm you know that? I'll see what I can get, my dad is kind of uptight about that sort of thing, if he found out I gave anything to a non-clan-member he'd rip me a new one." Naruto shrugged and thanked him anyways, they said their goodbyes and Naruto raced home. Once inside he quickly performed his only technique and left the Elemental Nations for Equestria. Sasuke was wrong about one thing, Naruto did have a family, and they waited eagerly to hear about his first day of school. O~O~O~O~O It was late, the sun was down, and the moon cast barely any light upon the village of Konoha. It was hardly a high class stealth mission, but the boy in question took his orders seriously. Nobody was to see him do this, nothing about this was allowed to link back to her. If he was caught, she would deny any involvement and he would take the full punishment, and he'd take it gladly for all the kindness she gave to his family. Reaching the unassuming door to the apartment, the ninja lay a rather large package on the doorstep. Knocking twice he quickly dashed away into the darkness. Nobody was home to hear the knock, the target was still far away, celebrating his first day of school, but in the morning he'd leave his apartment to discover a vast collection of books on chakra manipulation on his doorstep. His grin in school that morning was almost enough to make a certain girl faint.