Konoha's No. 1 Most Unpredictable Ninja

[CHAPTER 12]

The rest of Naruto's school years went by in a slow blur. He couldn't remember much of the things he actually did in school since he was usually asleep in his classes. Guy sensei was pretty mad at the complaints he heard from teachers over the years but let it slide since Naruto always had good grades.

Naruto has been training with Guy sensei for almost 4 years now. Last year, when Neji, Tenten, and Lee graduated Naruto finally had kids near his age to train with. Neji and Lee were his main motivators within the team. They helped each other get better, especially Lee since he began to join Naruto's and Guy's private trainings in the mornings and afternoons. Tenten really sparked Naruto's interest in sealing different kinds of weapons for combat, not just kunais and shurikens. Overall it was a pretty fun year for Naruto... excluding all the official business he had to do within the kyubi's little fox cult.

Since Naruto was pretty busy during the day he was usually summoned at night...when he was finally supposed to sleep. This is probably why he was never awake in class. Oh and apparently as part of the fox leaders, or true foxes as Tsuki likes to call them, whenever they hold a meeting Naruto is literally summoned like some summoning animal. It really pissed him off, but at least he could summon foxes like he wanted in the first place. They were surprisingly useful for collecting info, gathering supplies, and other things. They were especially useful to Naruto when he needed supplies to build his safehouse outside of the village. Because of the safehouse Naruto doesn't really use his apartment anymore.

Anyway, the graduation exam was coming up. Most of his teachers thought he was too lazy to graduate a year early so he was held back to graduate with the kids his age. It didn't really matter much to Naruto since that was what he wanted, 4 years of protection against the villagers and free lunch 3 out of 5 days of the school week. Of course Naruto didn't want to get held back either because then he would never make money from missions.

It was Wednesday, the day before the exam. He decided to get some Ichiraku ramen with Choji and Shikamaru for lunch.

"So are you planning to graduate this year?" Shikamaru asked Naruto in between slurps of ramen.

"Yeah of course! I gotta start making some of my own money with my own team if I wanna keep treating you guys to lunch." Naruto joked.

"You say that as if you don't eat 10 bowls of ramen every time we come here." Choji said as he finished his second bowl.

"You're not wrong." Naruto smiled while scratching the back if his head.

"Well if we all graduate I hope we all get good teams." Shikamaru sighed. "I'd rather be with you guys but only two guys per team, it's such a drag."

"For real! Why do we need a kunoichi on every team?! I can do medical ninjutsu just as well as they can... maybe even better." Naruto grumbled.

"I think they do it for some kind of balance. I mean imagine if Ino and Sakura were on the same team." Choji shuddered.

The boys went quiet trying to imagine that catastrophe.

"Imagine if Sasuke was the boy of the team... that would not go well." Shikamaru said.

Naruto began to laugh hysterically. "Actually I would love to see that."

Choji and Shikamaru laughed too, not because of the imaginary situation they were thinking about but the fact that Naruto seemed so happy. He hadn't truly laughed for quite some time now, for the last few months he's been faking his happy personality but the two boys didn't know why.

When they finished eating they paid and ran back to school. All of them lost track of time and were late to their next class. They didn't learn much in that class but Iruka sensei still scolded them for being late.

After school Naruto went to the training grounds. He found team Guy training already which was pretty normal since they didn't have to go to school anymore like him.

"Narutooo! You have finally arrived!" Lee exclaimed.

"Yep and I'm all ready to go." Naruto said as he crammed in a few stretches before he began to run.

"Shall we warm up with 60 laps around the village today?" Lee asked while he began to jog in place.

"I was thinking more like 70 laps." Naruto said.

"I love to see my two students so focused on their training! Oh the power of youth!" Guy sensei suddenly burst into their conversation and hugged the two boys. "Now go on! It's time to begin."

"Yes sensei." The two boys said and began to run around the village.

Today was going to be the last training session Naruto would have with Guy Sensei and his team. By this time tomorrow Naruto would be a full fledged Genin and in two days time he would have his own team.

It was around 8:30 pm when they finished with their training and Naruto gave his final goodbyes. Lee had burst into tears and Naruto had to reassure him that he wasn't going to leave the village so he would still see him around.

Naruto left and headed to his apartment. He left his spare of shoes there last time and he needed to get them for tomorrow since the ones he had on were completely covered in mud

Since he finished building his safehouse outside of the village Naruto hadn't really been to his apartment, much less check on the genjutsu he had placed a few years back. When he got to the door the lock was broken.

Someone must've broke in, typical. Naruto sighed.

He entered the apartment to find it completely trashed. He didn't have any personal belonging there but the cabinets were ruined, the floor was cracked, the windows were shattered, and the bathroom was an utter mess. However the only thing that caught Naruto's attention was the bright red spray paint on his walls.

JUST DIE DEMON

KILL YOURSELF

MONSTER

DEMONS CAN'T BE SHINOBI

Looks like they don't want me to graduate. Naruto sighed. What a mess. I'm gonna need paper towels, cleaning fluid, a broom...

Naruto went on and on about all the supplies he needed.

Just leave it. You don't live here anyway. The kyubi said.

But it's a mess. I have to clean this mess. Everything is out of place, there's no order. I need to fix this. Naruto thought obsessively.

Ok! Damn. Clean your mess kid. The fox huffed.

Naruto spent the night cleaning, with the help of his shadow clones. Everything was cleaned, put in place, and fixed.

This was the first time he lost his cool, at least to this degree. He had episodes where his clothes needed to be clean, no dirt could be on his hands, or his room had to be perfectly organized but it was never as dire as this. For all the kyubi knew those previous obsessions were normal human things, but it may have progressed to something else.

Hey kid are you ok? The fox asked.

Yea I'm fine, just tired. The blonde said.

Well you didn't have to clean all of this. You should've just gone home and gone to sleep. The kyubi reasoned.

You're right. I didn't have to do this. Naruto thought. I needed to do this and I don't know why.