Naruto groaned. Only a few minutes ago, he was standing at the Hokage tower but now he was in front of the shinobi academy, introducing himself to everyone.

For the next two years, Naruto had been assigned with an S-rank mission: protecting the one and only last Uchiha, Sasuke.

Hiruzen's words replayed in his head:

"Sasuke's mental state has not improved after the massacre. His only desire is to kill Itachi and to do so, he needs to be stronger. I fear that he may go and seek Orochimaru. We all know his true colours. If the Uchiha is not in the village, Konoha will be left vulnerable and wiped out of the Uchiha clan. Other villages may see it as an opportunity to attack. The future of Konoha is in your hands."

Personally, Naruto thought that protecting someone like Sasuke wasn't worth the time or mission rank but someone had to do it... and that someone was him.

This meant that he always had to be in a close radius of Sasuke. Naruto also had to put a genjutsu on himself was more to hide his real appearance so Sasuke wouldn't get jealous of him being a pure-blood Uchiha and that his heritage wouldn't be disclosed.

Even worse, to make himself blend in like a stupid pre-genin, he had to wear a hideous bright orange jumpsuit.

His sensei, Umino Iruka, led him into the classroom.

Naruto expected to see around thirty children diligently reading books, taking notes or revising but instead, he was met with thirty boys and girls laughing, screaming and running wildly around.

The only quiet ones was a dark-haired boy that Naruto easily deducted as Sasuke by his brooding looks, a girl with creamy skin and cropped violet hair, a Hyuga definitely, a pineapple haired boy that was sleeping (obviously a Nara) and a chubby boy shoving fistfuls of crisps into his mouth, an Akimichi.

It was only after Iruka told them to quieten down at least ten times that they finally listened and returned to their seats.

"Good morning class. We have a new student today," said Iruka, gesturing at Naruto. "Now please introduce yourself."

Naruto sighed and begrudgingly did, remembering to act like a class clown to hide the purpose of his mission, at least that was what Hiruzen told him.

"Yo! My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" the 'blonde' boy screamed. "I like ramen and I'm going to be the future Hokage, dattebayo!"

A few of the kids giggled at Naruto's introduction however they were glared into silence by Iruka who had mix feelings about the boy.

Naruto was the demon brat who killed his parents. He was also very loud and foul-mouthed. Iruka couldn't handle the thought of having Naruto in his class but then it was not Naruto's fault he had the nine-tails inside of him.

And they were already loud enough so having Naruto would add more to the volume.

He was going to have one rough year.

Iruka started the lesson.

"Okay, class, settle down, please. Have you all done your homework on shurikens and kunais?" asked Iruka, earning himself a monotonous 'yes' from the class.

"That's good that you did your work," said Iruka, smiling gently. "Have you all practised throwing your weapons?"

Most of the class eye-rolled and nodded. Iruka just smiled again in return.

"Okay. Naruto, don't worry about falling behind. You will soon catch up. Now, everyone, let's go outside to see if anyone of you has made any progress in your accuracy."

The class assembled, dutifully following Iruka outside.

Once Iruka had finished preparing the targets, he split them into groups of boys and girls. The girls practised throwing the kunai while the boys did the shurikens and then they would swap.

Iruka carried a clipboard to mark their progress.

First up for the girls was Haruno Sakura, a pretty but vain girl with a particularly large forehead, green eyes and pink hair.

Sakura took her time throwing the kunais, hoping desperately she got a decent mark that would impress her Sasuke.

One by one, the girls threw the ten kunais into the target and the boys did so with the shurikens. However, all the girls paused and fixed their eyes on Sasuke when it was his turn to throw.

He picked it up with a flourish and placed them on his 'perfect, beautiful' hands. The girls swooned, some of them fanning themselves and clutching their hearts.

Naruto swore they literally had hearts for eyes.

Sasuke strutted up to the throwing line and took his stance. Quickly but cockily, he threw them, fast and sharp. All of them hit the inner target; six even hitting the centre which resulted in the girls gushing over him.

"Ahhhhh! Sasuke-kun is soooooo coooool!" screamed a brown-haired girl.

"Just kiss me already!" shrieked another.

"Oh my goooooosh! Sasu—" one of the hardcore fangirls screamed, fainting as her 'precious' Sasuke-kun's name was too worthy of her to say.

"Go Sasuke-kun!" squealed Sakura and Ino who glowered at each other when they realised that they said the same thing at the same time.

Naruto, who was at the back of the boys' line, looked at all of this very amused. At the age of three, he could have accomplished this task with ease.

"Okay class!" said Iruka loudly. "Quieten down." Then he faced Naruto. "Do you want to give it a go?" he asked the blonde-haired boy.

"Of course sensei!" screamed Naruto, internally cringing. "I'm gonna beat you guys all, dattebayo!"

Naruto grabbed the kunais and shurikens. Recklessly and sluggishly, he threw them, most of them falling straight to the floor.

Only one shuriken and two kunai had hit the target and they were all hanging on the edge.

Naruto looked angrily at the target with pretence shock. The boys snickered and laughed at him while the girls just looked smugly away, glad that the newcomer couldn't beat their Sasuke-kun. Naruto was not bad. He was absolutely terrible.

"Better luck next time Naruto-kun," chuckled Iruka sheepishly, rubbing his nape.

After the task of throwing task, it was lunch. The class separated into their friend groups while Naruto was left alone, eating his self-made bento by himself. When Naruto was about to eat a piece of his fish, a girl interrupted his lunch.

"H-h-hello N-Naruto-kun. M-m-may I sit w-with you?" asked a purple-haired girl. "My name is H-Hinata. H-Hyuga Hinata."

Naruto smiled, this time genuinely.

"Sure! Sure! Dattebayo! You can sit with me anytime," said Naruto happily, patting the seat next to him.

For an heiress to a prestigious clan in Konoha, Naruto was sure surprised that she would sit with such an inferior and lowly 'demon brat' like him. He had a feeling that if Hiashi was to know of this, he would flip out.

Hinata nodded, blushed and took her place next to Naruto.

Soon lunch was over and they had returned to their usual mundane lessons. After Iruka had finished explaining what chakra was, the class was dismissed.

Naruto watched sadly as he saw his classmates getting picked up by their parents; he had no one. Just as he was about to walk off, Naruto detected a familiar chakra reserve: it was Kakashi!

"Yo Naruto," greeted Kakashi with a lazy eye smile.

"Hey, Kakashi. Why are you picking me up?" asked Naruto suspiciously, although somewhat happy.

Kakashi just gave an eye smile again and beckoned Naruto to follow him. They passed the village square and headed for the border. Then they stopped.

"Ne, ne, Kakashi. What are we doing at a training ground? I haven't even changed out of this kill-me-now orange jumpsuit. lazy. Do you know how ugly this is? I gagged when Sandaime told me to wear this," ranted Naruto.

Kakashi replied with an eye smile again.

"We're not doing any training today. The other jonins and I thought that since you're stuck with this troublesome mission, we thought that you could hang out with us after your academy lessons. This is our hangout."

Naruto grinned.

"Sure! Much better than the stupid academy. It's so boring there. They're already ten yet they don't even know what chakra is. I mean, honestly! How did the standards stoop so low?"

Kakashi hid a sad smile, remembering Naruto's short-lived childhood. He had to grow up quickly to survive.

"Anyways, what do you say Naru-chan, you up for it?"

Naruto nodded.

"Just one question though. Can I hang out with you for the entire day? I mean I plan on sending a clone to the academy unless I want to die of boredom."

Kakashi nodded, saying, "Of course Naru-chan. Hang out with us at any time. We will always be in here unless some of us have other things to do. I still surprised that you have such large chakra pools and yet such precise control. You're truly a prodigy Naruto, better than I ever was."

Naruto blushed at the praise, a rosy pink hue dusting his pale cheeks.

And so the duo spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the jonin shack. They even played strip poker which ended up in Kakashi nearly, nearly taking off his mask and revealing his face while Gai went overboard with his avid and blooming proclamations of youth.

Wisely, they decided to leave their 'Naru-chan' out of the game to preserve his innocence.

When most of the jonins sobered up, which was quite quickly as their chakra systems pumped the alcohol out ten times the speed of a civilian, they decided to play Truth or Dare.

Hayate and Yugao were dared to make out for a full minute which ended up in them flickering away for a fun night in the hotel and Gai was dared to go without saying the word youth or any words containing the word youth for an hour which he failed instantly by saying "I accept your youthful challenge, my blooming lotuses," to which Genma commented, "It would have been better if we dared him to go without wearing his green spandex."

It was now Anko's turn to spin the bottle. And surprise, surprise, it landed on Naruto. Naruto sighed as he saw Anko smirking evilly.

"Truth or Dare?"

These three words were so commanding and dangerous. It was quiet: even Gai had shut up.

"Ummm...Truth?" said Naruto, unsure.

Anko's smirk grew wider.

"Okay, Naru-chan. Out of all the jonins in the shack right now, who would you want to kiss the most?"

Naruto paled at all the pairs of eyes facing him saying "Don't pick me!".

"I don't know. I'm straight so Kakashi, Asuma and Gai and the others would be ruled out. I think...Anko?"

Anko looked quite shocked while Kakashi sniggered, "Told you that you're a pedophile."

"Ne, ne Kakashi," said Naruto in a sweetly dangerous voice, "if you don't shut up I will make sure to find every single one of your shameful books and burn them alive one by one, in front of you."

"You wouldn't," stated Kakashi, faltering a little.

Naruto smirked. "You bet I will."

Kakashi paled: his secret Icha Icha stash was the only thing he loved above the village and his friends.

Everyone else chuckled at how the great copycat ninja was silenced by someone 14 years his junior.

"Kakashi, feels," yelled a jonin while the rest burst into laughter.

Kakashi played it cool and gave an eye smile.

"Sorry, Anko. Truthfully, I chose you out of the girls that I wanted to kiss because you were single," said Naruto bluntly, not even realising Anko was annoyed that someone reminded her of her relationship status, especially that she was double the age of that someone.

The room burst into laughter, along with Kakashi and even Gai who would have said that these playful and snide remarks were rude and 'unyouthful'.

"What about Kurenai?" pointed out Anko to defend herself while Kurenai blushed. "She's not dating anyone."

Naruto sighed.

"I'm telling you guys that Kurenai sucks Asuma's face full-on in private. If they don't right now, they're probably going to start soon enough," he stated bluntly.

The jonins in the room sniggered at Naruto's frank antics and whistled suggestively while a blushing Kurenai and Asuma were pushed towards each other by two jonins.

At this point, Anko wasn't that bitter about her relationship status anymore, even joining in to tease the duo by initiating to sing the song 'Love is in the Air'.

Love is in the air
Love is in the air
Oh, oh, oh, oh

Love is in the air
Love is in the air
Oh, oh, oh, oh

Love is in the air
Love is in the air
Oh, oh, oh, oh

After the song had finished, there was a standing ovation. The rest of the night was full of jokes, teasing Kurenai and Asuma and laughter. One thing for sure, Naruto couldn't have had felt better.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hi again, reader-chans! Hopefully, you have been enjoying my story so far. Any suggestions or ideas for the story, please mention them in the comments or message me.

Is Naruto's relationship with the other jonins good? Please give me advice on how to expand on their characters. Think I nailed the fangirls' characters though ;) Clearly wasn't based off me, hehe.

Look forward to the next update! Bye!