Chapter 022

"Right, see ya sensei," Naruto said as he walked inside. Looking around Naruto decided to choose a seat in the back right corner, where he could remain inconspicuous. Not that he did not want to be seen by his peers or anything. But he had read in a book called Ninja Basics for Dumbies that a ninja should always remain aware of his surroundings in order to gather information. Naruto figured that he could practice this by using the better view that seat offered so he could find out more about his potential teammates from there. Taking off his staff, Naruto leaned it against the wall, before taking out a book and sitting down.

He flipped the book, which was called Intermediate Level Fuiinjutsu, level one, a book written by a man called Jiraiya, and began to read while he waited for the orientation to start. Slowly but surely people trickled in, giving him a curious glance, but because his head was buried in his book, no one really knew it was him and just wrote him off.

Naruto flipped another page in his book as he continued reading, this chapter being about seals that affected the body, namely training seals. The gravity and resistance seals sound pretty useful. I bet they would work better than my weight bands, since they affect the body as a whole, rather than just one specific spot. Naruto frowned as he read one particular note about the gravity seals. It seems they affect height if used at a young age, so I guess that's out. Still the resistance seals sound useful. While the weights will increase my strength, the resistance seals are specifically designed to help boost speed. He sighed however when he noticed that there was no example of a resistance or gravity seals, and that this chapter was only talking about what seals can do to affect the body.

Naruto continued reading as more and more students came into the class, ignoring most of the conversation around him as he read. However, he paused when he felt and heard an odd rumbling sound that increased in volume as time went on. It sounded almost like a stampede.

He turned his head just in time to see two familiar girls burst through the door. Yamanaka Ino, a girl with long blond hair done up in a ponytail and bangs on the right side of her face. She had a purple sleeveless shirt, purple arm warmers, and a purple skirt with cuts on the side and bandages covering her legs from mid-thigh, which moved down into a pair of blue shinobi sandals.

Ino was a member of the famed Yamanaka clan, which was made famous during the Third Great Shinobi War due to Ino's father Inoichi who had been a member of the Ino-Shika-Cho Trio. A team that had used phenomenal teamwork to defeat enemies and opponents far tougher than they were, making them one of the more feared people during the war. The Yamanaka Clan was also well known for their jutsu that allowed them to invade the minds of their opponents, making them wonderful interrogation experts. Despite the fact that Ino came a powerful Clan, she was just like all of the other girls in class. More concerned with being her hair and dieting to be twig like thin in order to impress the resident Emo Sasuke.

The second girl to appear within the doorway was Haruno Sakura, both held up their hands as soon as they entered the room.

"I WIN!" they both yelled at the same time, causing a few people, Naruto included to sweat drop.

"Hah! Beat that Forehead girl! My foot was in the door first!" Ino shouted with a smirk.

"What are you talking about Ino-pig?" Sakura asked with a sneer. "My foot was at least a quarter of an inch in the door before yours!"

Were they always this loud? Naruto wondered to himself. He watched as the two walked up to Sasuke, who had taken his usual spot at the front of the room in the right side next to the window.

"Sasuke-kun would you like to sit by me today?" Sakura asked as she walked up to Sasuke with a smile that she hoped was cute.

Naruto sighed as Sasuke ignored the girl like she did not even exist. I wish she would look at me like that… he shook his head, he had not actually thought about the girl who he had a crush on this past week. What, with all the time he had been spending with Anko. Anko's more attractive anyways, so is Tenten… Naruto blinked for a moment as he set his book down. Where had that come from?

He shook his head and was just about to start reading when Ino decided to make her displeasure of letting Sakura sit next to Sasuke known.

"You can't sit next to Sasuke-kun, because I'm going to sit next to Sasuke-kun!" Ino screamed, before turning to said raven haired boy. "Right Sasuke-kun?"

Once again the Uchiha ignored her.

"Hah! Sasuke-kun doesn't want to sit next to you Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled. "I'm the only one he wants to sit next to!"

Naruto sighed as he put the book down, finding it impossible to concentrate with all the noise they were making. He had never really paid much attention to it before, but for whatever reason the amount of noise they were generating was starting to bother him. Of course he had also never tried to read before, so maybe it was just that they were distracting him from his book.

Standing up, the blond made his way over to the two bickering girls. "Excuse me," he said getting their attention, as well as that of the rest of the class who, after noticing his whisker marks stared at him in shock. "But you do both realize that there are two available seats next to him." Naruto pointed at the seat on Sasuke's right, away from the isle. "So neither of you has to actually fight for a seat."