A Family Of Foxes & Snakes: Rewind!

"Hey Shikamaru, how about a game of shogi?" Naruto asked. Choji almost dropped his chips after he said that. Shikamaru was now aware of things. He sighed and pulled out his shogi board. Naruto grinned and sat down in front of him. Shikamaru didn't understand what he was so happy about. This would not take long. When everything was set up, Shikamaru made the first move. Naruto quickly made his move and waited. Shikamaru made another move and Naruto made another quick move. This continued for five minutes and a small crowd appeared.

It would be another five minutes and the two were still playing. The crowd had gotten a little bigger and it included Iruka. Everyone was amazed that the dead-last had lasted this long against Shikamaru. The young Nara had a very annoyed look on his face and was glaring at the board. He couldn't understand how it got this way. This was supposed to be quick victory. Naruto didn't have any plan. He would just move a piece as quick as possible. He barely gave the move any thought. Still, he was gaining some sort of ground and it frustrated him to no end.

Naruto was have the time of his life. When Hinata had first showed him how to play, he was bored. He decided to put his own spin on the game to suit him. It wasn't actually a strategy. He would just move his pieces quickly and without thought. It was how he did his pranks after all. He kind of enjoyed the frustrated look on Shikamaru's face. It only made his grin wider.

After a while longer, Iruka told them that the lunch period was over. He looked over the game and saw that the two were in a stalemate and there would be no clear winner. Naruto stood up and held his hand out. Shikamaru looked at the hand.

"That was a good game. We should do this again." Naruto said happily. Shikamaru looked at the hand before shaking it. He gave a small grin.

"Sure, we should do this again." Shikamaru said. It was from there that Naruto and Shikamaru became friends.

Present

With Shikamaru's friendship, came Choji's friendship. It was an added bonus that he loved ramen as well. Naruto had also made two acquaintances. One was Inuzuka Kiba. Their partnership started after Naruto took him with him to escape one of Iruka's lectures. He sweeten the deal by pranking his elder sister, Hana. Kiba still didn't know how he was able to do it and Hana could never catch him. The other acquaintance was Aburame Shino. Naruto just told him that his bugs were cool and Shino acknowledged him. The two were not really friends but they had his back should things go south for him.

With the good, came the bad. His crush on Sakura was over. He had observed her and he didn't like what he saw. She was totally devoted to Uchiha Sasuke and barely did any physical work. Then one day, she came up to his face and demanded that he stopped hanging with Hinata. When he heard the reason, he was disgusted with how shallow she really was. He responded in kind by painting her whole room in neon orange. Ino was another person who he could not stand. She always thought that she knew everything and liked to brag way too much. She was also a fan-girl of Sasuke's. He would just ignore her which turned out to be the best way to deal with her.

Uchiha Sasuke was a pain in the ass and the most arrogant bastard in the class. He thought that everyone was beneath him and mostly kept to himself. Despite the waves of girls that kissed his feet, he was still cold to everyone. Naruto thought that he had the ego the size of the monument. They never got along and never would. He would call him his rival but Naruto began to see him as an annoying person who didn't like being overshadowed by those he deemed weaker than him. Naruto didn't really care if he hurt his feeling and made it his goal to overshadow the jerk sometimes.

In all, he was have a much better year at the academy than he ever did. The teachers no longer tried to sabotage him but he had a feeling that was Anko's doing. He improved in his schoolwork and in his training. He was staying out of trouble, or rather; he wasn't getting caught as much. He had friends and acquaintances. He couldn't wait for graduation as he was sure that he was going to pass for sure.

X-X-X

Anko looked at the Hokage with surprised eyes. That quickly changed into worry, which was caught by the Hokage and his advisors.

"Is something wrong Anko?" Hiruzen asked.

"I don't have an issue with the mission but I was hoping for something that could be done within a day or two. The mission that you're sending me on will take at least a week." Anko said.

"You never complained before about time. Is there something more important than this?" asked Koharu. Anko bit back a remark to the elder woman. She was pretty sure that she knew about how close she was to Naruto. It wasn't that much of a secret anymore that the two were seen having lunch sometimes. Many, who have crossed the blond, had to deal with her. It was something that both of the elders did not like. They especially knew that graduation was in one week.