The Lonely Scarecrow (Naruto)

"I would like to be placed in the senior class." you declared. The Hokage, to his credit, offers up an almost imperceptible nod. Almost as if he was expecting you take the promotion in the first place.

Not that you can blame the man, learning chakra theory with your age group seemed dreadful, never-mind that your father has taught you the basics since around the time you could walk. Sure, you didn't really understand it all that much at the time, but tapping into chakra was like second nature.

"I'm glad you're seizing the opportunity," the Hokage smiled. "I just have to find a few papers somewhere in my desk, and will be able to get started."

What followed was an almost five-minute search as the man rummaged through his desk, and the sound of shuffling papers bouncing off the walls. You could even hear the man swearing under his breath, and complaining about how being reduced to dealing with paperwork was beneath the Hokage.

"Ahh, here it is," the Hokage blew out a breath of relief. "I apologize about that, generally, I don't find much use for this paper you see, not many people actually get promoted during the academy," the Hokage smiled, handing you the papers.

"I figured," you replied. "So what exactly what do I do with this?"

"Put down your personal information, sign it, and I'll take care of the rest with my signature. You just have to take the top sheet to Ryota-sensei, and you'll be all set."

You are almost glad about how easy the Hokage is making this for you, but it does you no good to get turned away at the door because Ryota-sensei thinks you belong with a bunch of five-year-olds.

"When does orientation start," you asked. "I know that I was supposed to start at nine in the morning originally, but what time does the senior age group start?"

"7 a.m."

"Anything else," you asked, it would be best if you understand what exactly you were getting into, like what was Ryota-sensei like, how the class was, or what exactly you needed to do to graduate, but a lot of that probably would be answered in the orientation anyways.

"There is one thing," the Hokage drawled, "I would be prepared to do a demonstration in front of the class, Ryota-sensei has been around for the while, so expect him to see how the promoted academy students do, he generally wants to see how you do before taking my recommendation."

Well it looks like you were getting your feet thrown straight into the fire, but you could probably handle a nine-year-old. The best bet was to probably to play up the fact you were five, and bait your opponent into making a stupid mistake.

"I can see you are already thinking of how to beat someone who's almost a half-decade older than you," the Hokage smiled. "But please be gentle, you might have to fight my son, and it would be a shame if he beat you."

"Hokage-Sama," a voice called out from behind the door. "May I come in?"

"Oh ,he's here," the Hokage smirked. "Yes, come in Minato."

Yellow, that was the first thought that came to your mind, a mop of yellow hair. The man, no scratch that, calling him a man was stretching it, he didn't even look like he was 20 yet!

"So you're Sakumo's son, ehh" the man smiled down at you, ruffling your hair and earning himself a glare in the process. "I'm Minato Namikaze, jonin at your service, and you are?"

"You know my name," you replied offhandedly, the man clearly was aware of you beforehand, no need to go over the same beats.

"I know," Minato smiled skipping over the obvious. "But, introductions are always nice even if we have the information beforehand, right?"

He was being surprisingly mellow about this, especially considering that he looked a little young to be looking after a child. He was probably more interested going on missions than playing house.

"Kakashi Hatake," you sighed. "I'll try not to be a burden."

The man laughed, his voice seemed so warm, "Kakashi, it's no problem, the Hokage told me about everything, I'm here to help you along with your training as well."

"What do you mean," you asked. "Shouldn't you have a genin team already."

"Kakashi, Minato is only 18, we figured he could use some extra practice before taking a team under his wing once your group graduates this upcoming year," the Hokage interrupted.

"So, he's bad at teaching?"

Minato barked a laugh despite the insult, "I don't think I can bad at something that I haven't even done yet, who knows you might turn out to be a bad student."

The Hokage cleared his throat, "Now that we have that out of the way, Kakashi it's time for you to turn in for the night, I have things I need to discuss with Minato. Just a reminder keep that sheet, and show up at the academy at 7 a.m. on Monday. I've already arranged movers to place your things at Minato's who will take you to his place after class."

"Thank you, Hokage-Sama," you bowed heading out of the office. "Have a good night, you as well Minato-sensei."

"By the way, Kakashi, will be sharing a space with my girlfriend," Minato called out from behind the door. "Don't worry, she's mostly harmless!"

Unfortunately, sleep would have to come later, you needed to grab your father's scrolls back at the compound. While basic kenjutsu scrolls weren't worth all that much, you still needed a base to work from, and these certainly were the best bet. Moreover, who knows how long you would have to wait before you would be able to go back inside your home.

Traveling through the village at night was surprisingly relaxing, no crowds and sweet silence. Really, it only took about twenty minutes from the Hokage's office to your family compound, and all because the local market was now empty.

Stopping at the iron gate of your compound, you almost laughed at the absurd amount of yellow tape wrapped around it. That was certainly one way to ensure people got the message, it wasn't much of a deterrence to a shinobi considering you walked up the side of the heavy stone walls with ease. You would have to tell the Hokage about that, it would be pain if someone stole your stuff.

You house was a mere twenty feet away from the gate, a small two story family house, surrounded by an empty training ground, except for the one tree where you spent your days trying to walk up it, but that was irrelevant, you needed to get those scrolls. Now was not the time to reminisce.

You couldn't open the door to your house though, the key shouldn't have suddenly stopped working. Pulling on the sliding caused your hand to hand start to burn, pulling your hand away with a gasp of pain you noticed something up with the floorboards by the steps. Looking closer you realized that somebody hollowed out the floorboard. Opening it up you found just the scrolls you were looking for.


You've unlocked E-Rank Kenjutsu
Iaidō
Moonlight
Heaven Cutter

"Come on," you yelled out to the sky, uncaring if anybody heard you.

This was ridiculous, you hated being babied.

You were going to be a shinobi.

People die all the time.

Just because your dad died in your house didn't mean you couldn't go back in there, you weren't some fragile little flower.

You know what, training always helped.

The Body Replacement Jutsu was one of the tenants of Ninjutsu, learning it was required to graduate the academy. Your father planned to teach you the basics once your chakra control was up to par. He was always a stickler for the fundamentals.

Body Replacement Jutsu
97/200

Taking your scrolls, you lined the three of them up about five feet apart. Then you ran through the hand signals: Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake came easy enough. Then came blending the spiritual and physical energy. And, now it was time to bring all together.

The first scroll transformed into you, well half of you, with the bottom half ending up being the scroll. That wasn't a bad first attempt, you thought to yourself. Just a little tweaking, and you would have it right away. Even then if it wasn't done right, you could still pass it off as real in places where the underbrush was heavy enough.

The second attempt, oh man that was hideous, it looked like you and the scroll had gotten chopped to pieces and put together haphazardly. That was no good.

And, on the final attempt, well it was like the first attempt. Except, your head wasn't supposed to look like a scroll. Still it was better than the first attempt, you even managed to get closer to a perfect replacement.

You continued for another couple of hours. You certainly did well enough, but perfecting this probably would take at least another week or two. Sweating you realized that it was probably around midnight, spending all that time in the compound made time fly.

Sneaking back to the inn, you crashed onto your bed, sleep quickly overtaking you.

What followed the next couple of days was just biding time for the academy to start, and it was mostly filled with perfecting the Body Replacement Technique, and getting ready for the move. But, today was the day.

The walk to the academy at 6:30 in the morning was interesting, sheet in hand, you watched as the village slowly came to life. The market was getting prepped for the rush that would inevitably happen mid-day. Looking up at the roofs, you spotted shinobi bouncing around like pinballs. The village was coming alive.

A few minutes later the academy came into view, the village symbol plastered on the front made it easy to spot. Surprisingly, you were one of the first few there, ignoring the weird looks from the older kids you spotted up against one of the trees by the entrance content to wait until the day was ready to begin. Once more kids arrived it became apparent you could just blend into the background as they started to chat amongst themselves.

"Everybody shut up," a voice yelled out, any chatter died as the students snapped to attention. "Get inside, I want to get this orientation on the road."

Taking your cue, you followed the students in, unware of the other boy following right behind you.

"Ohhohohohoho," an excited voice called out. "Have we met before!"

Oh no it was him, what was he doing here? You would remember those eye brows and red scarf anywhere. Might Guy, ugh.

"Umm no," you tried avoiding him, hoping he would move on.

"I swear my youthful friend, your face seems so familiar," Guy yelled out hoping he would do the rest of the work.

"How are you so bad with faces," you complained, cursing yourself for acknowledging him.

"It's a quirk, it highlights my personality," he replied smiling, offering you a thumbs up.

"Well it's annoying, what are you even doing here, aren't you a little young for the senior class," you grumbled.

"I could say the same thing about you my tiny little friend," Guy continued his annoyingly cheerful smile. "Shouldn't you be in the baby class."

Ignoring the vein that was threatening to burst out of your forehead, you decided that best bet was just to keep walking into the building.

"Wait, where are you going," Guy called out as you ran straight into the midsection of a much larger man.

"I'm afraid your little friend is right," a man with a bushy red beard along with a facial scars laughed. "Your parent's should drop you off in a couple of- "

"Are you Ryota-sensei?"

"Yeah, but still where are your-"

Saving him the trouble you shoved the sheet of paper the Hokage gave you into his face, the less time you had to deal with people treating you like a kid the better.

"Ohhh sensei," Guy called out running up next to you holding a similar sheet to yours as well. "Here's mine too."

It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to be in your class too? He could only do Taijutsu, what was going on?

"So your my little prodigies, I was told about," Ryota-sensai mumbled glaring down at the sheet. "Follow me, I'll take you to class. And, Keep up!"

The man pulled a complete 180 in mood, so it was most likely an act you thought to yourself. After a few minutes, you came to a classroom door, Guy was surprisingly mellow throughout the walk, for that you would be thankful.

"Alright, you two wait here, I'll tell the class about our new students," Ryota-sensei grumbled before opening the door.

"Ohh no, where is he, I told him to be here by 7 a.m.," some girl cried out from behind the door.

"Nohara," Ryota-Sensei barked. "Where's Obito!?"

"I don't know Sensei," she whined. "He said he'd be here."

"If he's not here that's his problem!"

How could someone be so stupid to be late to the first day of class? I mean at least you could have an excuse because you did this all on your own.

"Kakashi," Guy poked you in the cheek.

"Wait, I thought you didn't know who I was," you grumbled. It was official this kid was a loon.

"I spent the walk trying to figure out who you were," he smiled. "Anyways, look, another one of us," he pointed to a kid with goggles sprinting down the hallway.

"I think that's Obito, Guy," you replied, the kid stopping in front of you, chest heaving.

"Wait, did I go down the wrong hall," the kid gasped out, before the door was slammed open.

"Obito," Ryota-sensei growled out grabbing the kid by the scruff of the neck, yanking him into the room. Obito let out a small yelp before the door closed.

What followed was some inarticulate yelling, before the door opened again, Ryota-sensei glaring at you and Guy.

"Get in here," he grumbled, as you two followed him in he declared. "Alright class, we're getting a couple of new kids, a pair of prodigies blessed by the Hokage themselves, go ahead and introduce yourselves!"

"I'm Might Guy," Guy yelled snapping himself to attention. "Please take care of me!"

"Kakashi Hatake," you sighed.

"Anyways, pick a seat you two, will have some early spars to see where you two are at later today," Ryota-sensei ordered.

Who do you sit next to? (Pick your first social link)
[] The girl with the red eyes talking animatedly to the tan boy next to her
[] The boy who was looking at the red eyed girl with doe eyes (ugh be subtler)
[] The boy who was looking out the window, chewing on a senbon
[] The girl with the purple facial tattoo's looking at you like you were a teddy bear
[] The girl with the bob cut who was making doodles of a pig with a pearl necklace
[] The boy who had a facial scar on the side of his face with a serious look on his face
[] Obito, who was hiding in the corner trying to avoid the sensei's gaze
[] The boy with pitch black sunglasses who was looking at you and Guy smugly
[] Oh you were going to regret this, but you guess you could sit next to Guy