Chapter 06

Satisfied, Iruka furiously ticked the boy's name off before moving along. "And don't go falling asleep again!" Hoping that the class slacker would at least obey that command, though in all likelihood he probably wouldn't be able too, the man chose to move on with his list. The next name that came up didn't have him holding his breath in the slightest. "Naruto!"

Several seconds passed as the teacher waited for a response. But after a certain amount of time ticked by and nothing was born from his initial inquiry, Iruka looked up at the class with a glare. He'd half-expected this development, yet proceeded on a steady course, "Naruto Uzumaki? Has anybody seen him?"

"No," was the immediate reply from the vast majority.

"Why would anyone give a rat's ass about that idiot?" a random boy in the middle row asked rather unpleasantly.

"He's a slacker and a nuisance. Let's just forget about him," another student, this time a girl, spoke out, earning her a round of nods of agreement from the rest of the room.

Iruka sighed as the mutterings regarding the whereabouts of their most troublesome classmate continued. In his honest opinion, his best guess was probably the most likely one. The brat was either wrecking havoc across the entire village under the ever watchful yet oblivious eyes of the local guard or he was off somewhere gallivanting about, wasting time, and making random proclamations about becoming this community's leader some day. Kami knew what the world would be like if that kid somehow got in command and started signing treaties on his village's behalf in the big seat.

Maybe that was the reason why some of the other teachers had repeatedly failed the kid in a lot of his theory work, because every adult who knew him by nature was unconsciously concerned for the future of the world's wellbeing. This had nothing to do with his umm… 'ahem', baggage problem, mind you.

With the issue highlighted and the mystery established, the Chunin lowered the clipboard with the list of names on it and under the drone that had escalated in volume amongst his students Iruka began scratching his chin in silent contemplation.

"Damn it, Naruto. What in the world are you doing now?"

Was he going to need aspirin after this one?

Based on previous events which have resulted in his summoning to the Hokage's office multiple times and being grilled out by swamps of angry villagers, yes, he probably was.

OOO

About half an hour out from the school, a new type of game was being played out on the busy streets of Konoha, and this time it didn't involve any large number of kids running around with a ball being kicked between them or anything like that. This was purely a test of patience and soon to be physical endurance for a single individual. Naruto had set this particular one up after finding quite a bit of value in knowing exactly how to duck and weave through a series of obstacles when you needed to escape from a band of persistent pursuers.

Come on. One didn't get as good at pulling practical jokes on people as he did without taking in a boat load of other skills to go along with his ability to make paper bombs from scratch and traps out of a few bits of thread and a log. Out of every student in the academy, Naruto was probably the best at setting up traps, and was the fittest and fastest in terms of long-distance sprinting, obstacle runs, and any kind of activity that required the participants to be able enough to pull through the miles. Even when lessons up at the school encouraging these activities were stopped due to time running out on them the blonde was never tired at the end of any of those sessions.

He simply plowed through the physical tests with ease. It was probably his main saving grace in the academy when it came to a usable set of skills for a shinobi… something which he went out of his way to purposely screw around with to mess with Iruka…

But enough with the old war stories; the jinchuriki had even more interesting things to focus on.

The program Naruto was currently investing his time in was one of the reasons why he was as good as he was when it came to pulling his own weight.

Crouching low in amongst the thick brush of an oak standing high above a cluster of apartment buildings, the blonde had his sharp eyes trained on a couple of birds perched on tall picket fence standing on the other end of a nearby garden. The two fast fliers grooming each others' feathers had no idea that something was watching them from the shadows and this time, out of the dozens of animals that could possibly be hunting them, it wasn't a cat. They didn't need to fear cats. They could sense them coming from a mile off.

This one was in a completely different league and class.

Making sure he sat downwind from them as per what he had learned from this routine, Naruto readied himself by grinding his feet into the branch he was on to test the foundations of his placement. It was solid and fixed. The movements of his hands, shoulders and legs were quieter than a leopard's as he crept along at an agonizingly slow pace, making sure to position his form well within striking distance.

Ten feet.

Beautiful.

The blonde grinned and licked his lips, his right hand flexing, "Oh, I've got you this time Swift-chan!"

Without a moment's warning, he pounced, exploding from the tree in a shower of leaves. The birds shrieked loudly as they took off, chirping madly with every flap of their wings. The blonde attacker landed perfectly upon the fence the animals had previously been perched on before giving chase to one…

A fork-tailed swallow with red feathers on its back shaped like a kunai.

The bird dove low for the buildings and weaved around them as well as other obstacles lying in its path including bushes, power-lines, poles, signs and lights at an incredible speed. It was so fast in fact that it immediately held confidence that it would be able to lose its attacker… completely misplacing the fact that when Naruto set out to do something, he would see it through to the end.