Hidden Underneath the Underneath

Chapter Two

Naruto groaned. Only a few minutes ago, he was standing at the Hokage tower but now he was in front of the shinobi academy, introducing himself to everyone.

For the next two years, Naruto had been assigned with an S-rank mission: protecting the one and only last Uchiha, Sasuke.

Hiruzen's words replayed in his head:

"Sasuke's mental state has not improved after the massacre. His only desire is to kill Itachi and to do so, he needs to be stronger. I fear that he may go and seek Orochimaru. We all know his true colours. If the Uchiha is not in the village, Konoha will be left vulnerable and wiped out of the Uchiha clan. Other villages may see it as an opportunity to attack. The future of Konoha is in your hands."

Personally, Naruto thought that protecting someone like Sasuke wasn't worth the time or mission rank but someone had to do it... and that someone was him.

This meant that he always had to be in a close radius of Sasuke. Naruto also had to put a genjutsu on himself was more to hide his real appearance so Sasuke wouldn't get jealous of him being a pure-blood Uchiha and that his heritage wouldn't be disclosed.

Even worse, to make himself blend in like a stupid pre-genin, he had to wear a hideous bright orange jumpsuit.

His sensei, Umino Iruka, led him into the classroom.

Naruto expected to see around thirty children diligently reading books, taking notes or revising but instead, he was met with thirty boys and girls laughing, screaming and running wildly around.

The only quiet ones was a dark-haired boy that Naruto easily deducted as Sasuke by his brooding looks, a girl with creamy skin and cropped violet hair, a Hyuga definitely, a pineapple haired boy that was sleeping (obviously a Nara) and a chubby boy shoving fistfuls of crisps into his mouth, an Akimichi.

It was only after Iruka told them to quieten down at least ten times that they finally listened and returned to their seats.

"Good morning class. We have a new student today," said Iruka, gesturing at Naruto. "Now please introduce yourself."

Naruto sighed and begrudgingly did, remembering to act like a class clown to hide the purpose of his mission, at least that was what Hiruzen told him.

"Yo! My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" the 'blonde' boy screamed. "I like ramen and I'm going to be the future Hokage, dattebayo!"

A few of the kids giggled at Naruto's introduction however they were glared into silence by Iruka who had mix feelings about the boy.

Naruto was the demon brat who killed his parents. He was also very loud and foul-mouthed. Iruka couldn't handle the thought of having Naruto in his class but then it was not Naruto's fault he had the nine-tails inside of him.

And they were already loud enough so having Naruto would add more to the volume.

He was going to have one rough year.

Iruka started the lesson.

"Okay, class, settle down, please. Have you all done your homework on shurikens and kunais?" asked Iruka, earning himself a monotonous 'yes' from the class.

"That's good that you did your work," said Iruka, smiling gently. "Have you all practised throwing your weapons?"

Most of the class eye-rolled and nodded. Iruka just smiled again in return.

"Okay. Naruto, don't worry about falling behind. You will soon catch up. Now, everyone, let's go outside to see if anyone of you has made any progress in your accuracy."