Naruto: Wolf of the Hidden Leaf

Just a couple of days after I formed my bond with Umbra, my father left for a B rank mission. Surveillance and tracking. He said it'd take a couple of months. I just hoped Kurama's attack would happen while he was away.

Does that make me selfish? Hoping a disaster hits just so my family avoids it?

Maybe. But I didn't care. I'm weak. And the weak don't get to make noble decisions. I can't fight fate—I can only try to duck under it.

Besides, today's my first day of school. I wasn't going to let some moral dilemma stop me from enjoying it. That being said, I was more excited than I actually should be.

Umbra wasn't thrilled about being shown off in public, but after some convincing (and a lot of ear scratches), he agreed to come with me.

I thought we'd get weird looks. Turns out it's normal for Inuzuka kids to stroll around with their ninken. One guy even complimented Umbra's fur. He growled at him. We're working on his social skills.

Ruffling his fur once more, I entered the Ninja Academy. The Academy was big. Bigger than I remembered. Built right beside Hokage Mountain, it wasn't just a school—it was practically a checkpoint for the entire village.

I had completely forgotten that the Hokage's office was in the same building. Which also resulted in the presence of way too many Jonins than usual. Each of them were as intimidating as I remembered.

I wanted to explore the compound even more but didn't have much time to roam around as my class was about to start soon.

Class 1-C. As I opened the door and looked at my peers, I could actually feel the subtle hostility coming off of them. My father isn't exactly a humble man. He has started bragging about me throughout the village ever since I displayed my taijutsu talent at age three. So, yeah, not everybody was my fan.The tension in the room practically screamed "Oh look, it's the prodigy's brat."

They were all older than me. Seven or eight, while I was only five. Well—almost all of them.

Sitting near the window, watching me with calm, calculating eyes, was Itachi Uchiha. His presence was… sharp.

Itachi Uchiha might become a lot things in the future. But for now he might be the coolest looking five year old ever. Other than me that is. It might be my narcissism talking, but I really did look awesome with Umbra by my side.

What can be cooler than having a wolf as your companion?

Anyways, Itachi being here just proved that I was having some effect in this world. Itachi was one of my favorite characters and I practically had his whole life memorized. And my memory clearly told me that Itachi started going to Ninja Academy after the Kurama attack.

The only difference was my presence. I don't know if it was because of his father or whether or not he himself truly wanted to start earlier than usual. But him being here was good for me. I liked him. I hope that we can be friends. I told myself that I'll try and talk to him after the classes are finished.

I moved to the back of the class. Umbra curled up beside my chair like this was all beneath him. "You handle the human stuff," he said in his usual sleepy tone.

After sometime, a boy and a girl joined us. But before I could talk to them, our teacher entered the room.

She was a beautiful young woman in her late-teens. With her long black hair and unique red eyes, she exuded confidence.

Even though she looked younger than she looked in the anime, I recognized who she was instantly.

"Hello aspirant shinobi. My name is Kurenai Yuhi and I will be your homeroom teacher for the remainder of your time here in the academy." Kurenai continued in her serious, composed tone.

"Before I start teaching you anything, I'll first go over what you will learn in the academy."

It was pretty simple really. There is the academic portion, the written exams on different subjects and there were the physical portion. That consisted of taijutsu, ninjutsu, ninja weapon training and of course genjutsu.

We didn't exactly need to learn genjutsu, more like how to defend against it. Kurneai was going to administer that class personally. Which was only natural, considering how that was her specialty.

I hadn't wanted to learn genjutsu before, but with the addition of Umbra by my side, it'll be much easier for me to learn advanced genjutsu. At least that's what Umbra told me.

Now, I was kind of curious.

"Okay class, now that the basic stuff is out of the way, our topic for today's class is chakra. Today we will learn what chakra is, how it works, what we can do with it and how to properly control it."

Just liker a normal class, I tuned out my teacher completely and wandered within my thoughts. I did not really need to learn about chakra. I've been learning about it since I was only two. I seriously think that my first words were 'chakra'.

Chakra fascinated me.

It was such a unique energy and the sheer versatility of its application baffled me entirely. It's quite accurate to say that I was a bit of a nerd when it came to chakra.

I really wanted a Byakugan so that I can see how hand signs changed the flow of chakra to create jutsus. I wanted to experiment with different hand signs to find out if new jutsus could be made and if there are any patterns in the existing jutsus. I wanted to mix modern scientific theories with the application of chakra to figure out more cool things. But before I could do any of that, I needed to master a wide range of jutsus myself to understand how the flow of chakra changes the nature of the world and how it had the ability to create something from nothing. I might not have Byakugan, but I had my advanced senses. And I will use what I have to achieve my goal.

That is exactly why I have postponed finding out my affinity is yet. I knew myself and I knew very well that if I find out my affinity before the time comes, I'll only focus on my affinity based ninjutsu. That'll result in me having a weak foundation on a wide variety of jutsu. Variety can be the key for winning battles.

I will learn the basic jutsus required to learn for graduation. And at the same time I'll try to learn as many E-ranked and D-ranked jutsus as I can.

One year. I'll learn all that I can for one year. And then I'll gradute. Itachi will most probably get out earlier than me, but that's fine. I'm here to learn all that I can. And I will do just that.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted as my senses flared with danger like never before. Someone just teleported at the back of the classroom.

Animals had a sense of danger unlike any humans. And after my bond with Umbra, I shared that sense too.

My sense told me to get the hell out of there. It told me that the person that had just arrived was on whole another level than anybody that I have ever met before. They did not exert any killing intent nor any spiritual pressure. But I knew what I smelled. Blood. In an intense level that defies common sense.

A killer.

With extremely quick and precise movements, I grabbed the kunai I always hid on my sleeves and threw exactly where this person was standing.

Then, many things happened all at once.

I jumped back and turned around to face this new variable. I had already taken out the spare kunai I had in my pouch. Umbra, quickly understanding my intentions and moved right behind me to protect my back.

As I was jumping, I saw another projectile, a shuriken, flying towards the same spot that I had threw my kunai at.

Itachi. He had sensed it too. Our eyes met and an understanding passed between us. Both of us rushing to take a combat stance.

Just as soon as I took my stance, two distinct 'clang' sound echoed through the room. My eyes met the eyes of this new person and everything became clear.

"It's good to see that the young shinobis of our village growing up fast." He said with a smile, "But at the same time, children really should not play with sharp objects."

Minato Namikaze stood there with his humble yet confident smile, dressed in his Hokage outfit and his striking blond hair that strikes fear on the whole ninja world. In his left hand, he had his custom made kunai. And just behind him, I noticed a tiny mark that almost seemed like nothing to the naked eye. A mark for the Flying Thunder God technique. I should've noticed it sooner.

If I had, I wouldn't have attacked the Hokage on my first day of school.