Both Naruto and I ehe Konoha ninja academy when we were six but by no means were we at the bottom of the css. All of my tut had done wonders for my yellow haired friend as he was much to the fusion of our teacher Iruka for some reason actually ahead of the rest of the css slightly. I got in trouble a lot for the first couple years since I was zy and only did the bare minimum to pass. We had a total of thirty four cssmates but I only ever bothered to remember the names of twelve of them.-

  Naruto, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, Tenten, Rock Lee, Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino and Choji. The rest of our cssmates were b and pin so I fot about them as soon as they introduced themselves. Even amongst the twelve I did remember the names of the only ones I really didn't have trouble ign the existence of was Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba and Shino. Naruto for obvious reasons , Sasuke because he ain in my backside after Teacher Iruka pointed out I wasn't taking him seriously in our spars. Kiba and Shino because they were "family" acc to my parents and regurly came over after their own parents learned we were in the same css.-

  Kiba got really mad when he found out my wolf-dog beast was also named Kiba and we had a whole argument about it, I won. Shino was rather introverted and quiet with very little presen any given sario and teo get ignored as a result. He was a big fan of Ren though so we got along just fihis wasn't to say I didn't get along with the others only that I didn't go out of my way to i with them.-

  There was two people however that I tried my absolute best to avoid talking to in the form of Ino and Sakura who were both fangirls of Sasuke and as a result not fans of mi all. Sasuke was from the Uchiha , the patriarchs son no less, and was a female favorite amongst the girls of our year and then some. The problem however was that the boy had this plex about living up to his families expectations and saw me as an obstacle to overe. Some nonsense about not being the best in our css if he couldn't make me fight him seriously.-

  What only I knew however was that much less him I retty sure in terms of sheer strength I had even our teacher beat by a wide margin. I'm not talking skill because I will be the first to admit I was a novi that regard er than any of my other cssmates. No I am talking about my body that had been in sage mode since I was born and as a result had been growing with that as my base.-

  In terms of chakra volume I was just under Naruto who had freakishly massive reserves and physically speaking I could uproot a tree with nothing but my bare hands and some exertion. I know this because I had actually tried it at one point i. pared to Sasuke who paled at a hundred or so pounds of purely physical lifting without using chakra to enhance his strength I was far beyond him. The funny part was that everyone seemed to think I was secretly training all the time or something like that but I barely had the drive to move much less do something as monotonous as train.-

  I didn't really o traiher as since my body erfectly banced and my mind was clear and quick I rapidly improved in all the basija teiques and information with just the minimum effort I o show to get Iruka and my parents off my back. Basic csses, easy. Handsigns and their meanings, piece of cake. Taijutsu, not worth mentioning. Shuriken and ninja tool use, top tier. It had been widely accepted by my sed year in the academy that the only reason I wasn't at the top of my css or skipping grades was because I was too zy to give that amount of effort.-

  As it turned out that drew the attention of someone I really didn't want the attention of, the Hokage. We got a two week break between each year and oernoon while I was hanging out with Naruto he just randomly showed up.

  "Hey Kenzo you think Iruka sensei will try and make you skip a grade again?" Naruto asked between mouthfuls of ramen from Ichiraku.

  *Slurp* "Nah, I'm sure he gave up on ving me to do that by now. It would be weird if he didn't, I only tell him no so many times before it starts to make him look dumb." I said as I finished my third bowl of spicy seafood ramen.

  "Oh ho? So you must be Kenzo-kun then, Iruka has been pining about you to me for a while now." A older voice spoke as the long curtains of the ramen shop rustled from being moved.

  Naruto and I looked over at the source of the void there stood an old man with a spike of hair on his wrinkled and the wide red hat with white sun shade curtains on the side and a white area with the word "HOKAGE" written in bold red against the white.

  "Gramps what are you doing here?" Naruto asked fused and my jaw dropped.

  "Yrandpa is the third Hokage!?" I excimed since my friend had left out that little detail.

  "Ho Ho! Naruto's parents left him in my care before they passed alease just treat me like anyone else." the old Hokage said with a chuckle.

  I frowned however "Then you are the one responsible for his current ditions then?" I asked with a not so friendly tone.

  Naruto lived in a low ine apartment and barely got enough money a month to survive on cheap food and junk. Not to mention that people still gred at him and treated him poorly even after i started hanging around and "kindly" ving them of his good nature. Needless to say learning that someone, Hokage especially, was supposed to be taking care of him yet he lived in that ditio me less than happy, No I was VERY unhappy. My anger must have caused my power to slip out a little as the wood ter creaked and began to crader my grip as I stared the old man down.-

  He smiled though and sat dowo us "Narutos lucky to have you as a friend. I admit that I regret much of what Naruto has had to deal with but much of it was also out of my hands as well. He was orphaned when the ails attacked all those years ago much like yourself. But you o uand that with the fourth Hokage lost I had to pick up the pieces and simply didn't have the time to spend ensuring Naruto got a proper upbringing while rest the vilge as well and I ot apologize enough for it." he said with ho remorse.