Naruto lied in his bed and stared at the ceiling, thoughts swirling around his head. He held the hitai-ate to his chest, clutching it tight as he recalled Iruka sensei's words once more.

"You are a Konoha shinobi, Naruto Uzumaki. Be proud of that name, because you deserve it the most."

He was a Konoha shinobi now. He, Naruto Uzumaki, the pathetically stupid demon brat that was hated by the whole village, is now a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. He wasn't really sure if he deserved this acknowledgement at all, but it was okay for him to want for once, right? After all, he was going to become a Hokage someday.

Come to think of it, why did he even want to be a Hokage in the first place? It seemed like the least possible position for someone with a reputation like his, yet here he is. Who knows, he might even die before becoming someone worthy of the whole village's respect. Who was he kidding, he knows it'll happen someday. Becoming Hokage was never possible, not for him. He's happy to gain the acknowledgement of just the old man Hokage and Iruka sensei. Just that was enough for him.

But just imagine- everyday when you walk down the streets, you are greeted with smiles wherever you go. Everyone welcomes you happily as you walk into their shops, and they probably even give you stuff for free sometimes. It would be amazing if he was able to get unlimited ramen from Ichiraku. That's one hell of a life!

...Well, unlimited ramen from Ichiraku sounds amazing, but...if he had the chance, he wouldn't take free ramen from Ichiraku at all. In fact, when he starts getting his salaries from his shinobi duties, he'll start paying them back for all the free ramen they had given him. That's also one of the reasons why he wanted to become a shinobi, aside from it being one of the jobs that let him take missions far away and out of the village, exploring new places that may be more welcoming to him.

As he turned to the side, he clutched his hitai-ate yet again in excitement, his lips twitching up into a grin. He was given an opportunity, and someone is finally willing to trust him- to love him. He'd treasure this forever, Naruto swore to himself as his eyes slowly closed, drifting off into sleep.

Naruto's alarm clock did not ring. Not yet, no it didn't- but it was about to. The spring is tripped, but a hand slammed onto the clock before it could start ringing. Naruto beamed in delight- The day is here! His amazing shinobi instincts had let him hear the gears turning before the hammer hit, saving his eardrums from aching again.

Shadow clones appeared around him and quickly got to work, preparing all the stuff he needed to go to the academy for their graduation and meeting up with their new sensei while the real Naruto went to brush his teeth and wash up. After that was a quick cup noodle for breakfast before he rushed straight to the academy, ignoring the stares from the villagers. This was the best day he's about to have, and no one will be there to ruin it just yet.

He took a much needed deep breath as he stood outside the doors of his classroom. He had no doubt that his classmates were going to question him about his presence there, but it was understandable. Even he himself couldn't believe that he was actually going to become a Genin now. Like, him?? The dumbest soul alive in this whole academy?

Well, he did do pretty decent on the written tests though...and he's a good student, and he can make a much better clone now.. Maybe things are starting to get better. Ah, he knew it! He was finally getting lucky!

He slid the door open slowly, peeking into the classroom to check who was there. He got here pretty early out of excitement, so there wasn't that much people yet. There was Sakura, Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Shino and Sasuke, with some other people from other classes that he didn't recognize.

'Wow, the shinobi system is kind of fucked up,' Naruto thought to himself as he walked towards an empty seat, thinking deep into random things again, as he always did. The little blonde's brain was always filled with the most random stuff to think about, and maybe that's why he had the attention span of a gold fish. 'I can't believe there are so many Genins graduating in a year, but there doesn't seem to be as much when I go out there. Do they all perhaps....get killed instantly!?'

The thought sent a shiver down his spine. Maybe it was too soon to be a Genin, he still had time to quit and train more first. Oh god, he didn't want to die so soon. The fear of death crept at the back of his brain as he forced a gulp. Definitely, hopefully, his new sensei or old man Hokage would have some common sense right? Sending off 12 year old kids to battle was not the way to go in this peaceful, warless era. Maybe he should talk to Iruka sensei about this, but he's already being enough trouble.

'I'll just sit here awaiting my painful, painful death. Then when the day comes, I'll look back to this day and regret everything I had ever chosen to do,' Images of his gruesome death flashed through his brain and looped over and over as he lied onto his table, face flat. 'Deeeeaaaaaad, dead, I'm sooo dead.'

"Oiii!! Naruto! This isn't the place to comfort yourself!"

A familiar voice came from his right as he lifted his head up to see who it was. There stood Kiba, a wide grin on his face. "Eh? Where'd that headband come from? Did you lie about failing the test??"

"Oh, uhm...." Naruto scratched his head, not sure how to explain. How was he going to tell Kiba that he was as stupid as to fall for a trick that Mizuki sensei set up, steal the forbidden scroll, whoop Mizuki sensei's ass with Iruka sensei's help, have a mental breakdown then receive the headband from Iruka-sensei? "Well, there was a...special test. I totally nailed it, believe it!"

"Ehhh?!? That's not fair! You're cheating your way through with the Hokage, aren't you!?" Kiba pointed a finger at Naruto accusingly who hurriedly denied his claim.

"No, no!! It's just more complicated than yours, because I, uh....W-Wait, I'm not saying that I'm better than you or anything like that!!" Naruto squeaked out quickly in stutters. Gosh, he really sucked at this. If only he wasn't so bad at everything, then he could've passed the normal test and all this wouldn't have happened.

"Geez, chill Naruto! I won't cook you for dinner," Kiba laughed, patting the blonde's shoulder for reassurance. Naruto seemed to doubt his words a bit before shrugging it off. "I know you worked really hard, whatever you did, you definitely deserved that hitai-ate!"

Naruto smiled a bit at Kiba's words that comforted him quite a lot. Maybe he did deserve it a bit after all. Iruka sensei wouldn't give it to him for no reason, especially since he didn't let Naruto pass during the actual test.

"Thanks, Kiba," Naruto smiled at the boy who nodded before sitting down next to him. The Inuzuka clan heir had been his best and perhaps only friend ever since he joined the academy. He knew people didn't like him, but at it's good that he wasn't bullied, at least. Still, his classmates never willingly talked to Naruto themselves, let alone the adults. No one ever bothered to acknowledge his existence.

No one, except for Kiba.

Flashback

"And for the last team... Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki. That's all for the teams, now start studying the Leaf Concentration Technique, I expect a detailed explanation from one of your groups. If there's still anyone who doesn't know how to do it, teammates must guide them."

'Anyone who still doesn't know how to do it.....me,' Naruto thought to himself with a sigh. 'But then again, the teacher doesn't care about me and I doubt anyone would try to help me either.'

"Easy peasy! We just have to be able to do it, right?" Kiba smirked to himself as he placed a leaf on top of his forehead, carefully rotating it with chakra. "Don't tell me you guys don't know how to do it."

"Of course I do," Sasuke scoffed at Kiba, a little smirk of his own on his face. "I know the explanation to the technique as well."

'I memorised it too...! But I suppose it won't be much use if I can't do it...' Naruto sighed as he stared at the lone leaf on his palm.

"Hey, what about you? Do you know how to do it?" Kiba asked, staring straight at Naruto. The blonde boy's eyes widened as he dropped his leaf in panic. Kiba only stared with a raised eyebrow as the boy hurriedly picked up the leaf and placed it on his forehead before watching it slowly drop and drift away.

"Umm...."

"Hey! Don't tell me you seriously don't know how to do it!?" Kiba gaped at the blonde boy who had a blush of embarrassment in a shade of pink dusted upon his face. Naruto slowly nodded until Kiba picked up the leaf he dropped and placed it on his forehead again. "Try again! I dunno how to explain, but just uhh....try to imagine you're pulling onto it with your skin!"

It was a weird explanation, but it definitely helped more than the textbooks in the libraries or the ones at the academy. Naruto could slowly start to get a grasp on how to keep the leaf on his forehead, but he wasn't sure how to rotate it without it falling off.

"Now, imagine you built a wall around the leaf and it can only rotate within that place!" Naruto pictured a small barrier around the leaf and tried to rotate it, but it immediately slipped off. Kiba caught it again just in time before putting it on Naruto's head again. "Geez, you're terrible at this! Try again, imagine a stick going through the middle of the leaf, Like a paper windmill."

Naruto tried it again with that image in his head, but he failed. Kiba continued picking the leaf up for Naruto as he tried it over and over again. Sasuke watched silently on the other side of the table without a word. Perhaps as the best student in class, he should really try to help, but his pride as an Uchiha was in the way. He'd never seen his dad help him like that as far as he remembers, but Itachi on the other hand...

"I'll help you gently hold onto it first while you spin it, but I'm going to slowly let go. You better get it down faster," Sasuke huffed, placing a finger onto the leaf atop Naruto's head. The blonde boy seemed to beam in delight before completely pouring all his focus into getting the leaf spinning properly.

It was the first time, right? First time his classmates had tried to help him with anything...and two classmates, too! Naruto grinned. As Sasuke slowly released his finger, the leaf continued to spin whilst staying on his forehead.

"YEAH! You did it!!" Kiba cheered loudly, Sasuke jumping in excitement for Naruto's success as well. Naruto picked up the leaf from his head, staring at it in awe before smiling back at his temporary teammates.

"I did it, believe it!"

Well, Sasuke was also a part of that, he supposed. Kiba had continued to hang out with Naruto at the academy, but Sasuke never talked to him much aside from that. It never got better especially with the Uchiha massacre happening so soon after. Sasuke hadn't talked to Naruto at all ever since then. His reasons were understandable, and while Naruto felt like he should've went and comforted Sasuke, who was he to say anything? He should just be thankful he was given attention at any point of his life. Besides, he had this feeling that Sasuke would've just pushed him away either way.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door slid open, Iruka sensei walked in with a folder. He gave Naruto a brief glance with a smile before continuing on with his 'little' speech that Naruto was willing to listen to for as long as it took. After all, Iruka sensei was his precious sensei, one of the very first to accept him and understand him.

"And so, I congratulate all of you for becoming Genin. As your former sensei, I wish you the best of luck in your future journeys and missions. Please, take good care of yourself," As Iruka uttered the last few parts of his speech, he stared straight at Naruto with a smile. "Do come and pay me a visit some time when you can!"

He'll become a really, really good shinobi. He might not be able to do much, but he prayed silently that Iruka sensei would someday feel proud of him. But little did Naruto know, Iruka already did.