A Thirst For Power (Naruto Neglect Story)

Chapter 6 - Academy Days I

It had been over a year since that had happened. The academy was going to start tomorrow and Naruto was not excited. Unlike his two siblings, he did not have any friends. Sora was distant, and even hostile towards him, as if he had majorly offended her. Sure, he had Shikamaru and Choji, but they would only hangout with him if his siblings were there, and if they were there, Naruto did not want to be anywhere nearby. He also knew the academy would further boost the already large egos of his siblings. This would make them even more annoying then they already were. Naruto already knew he would completely destroy the academy if he tried. This is why he decided to not try at the academy. He would still get good scores, but he would make sure they were just off that it wouldn't bring much attention to him. He would rather his siblings be big-headed jerks then everyone suddenly paying attention to him and his siblings resenting him for being better. Not that he would care, but as a certain Nara would say, it would be very troublesome.

The blond sat in his room, practicing his seals. He would have been outside, at the training ground, but he wouldn't be able to get much done. He couldn't train with more weight, as that would stunt his growth. Also, a 8 year old can only do so much physical training before it would stop making a difference. His chakra reserves were already insane, even at his young age. He had already mastered every jutsu that he had "borrowed" from the Fourths office. He had even gotten the Flying Raijin down, but he didn't dare use that while he was in the academy, or even when he made it to Genin. Besides, as big as his reserves were, he wasn't nearly as efficient in using it as his father, so even with his high Jonin level reserves, it would still cost a significant amount of chakra. A third of his reserves, to be exact. The only way he could get more efficient at using it, was to simply use it more often, but he obviously couldn't do that.

Apart from that, Naruto had also managed to add his other affinities to his Rasengan. He had added water release to it and created "Water Style: Vortex Rasengan" This was particularly dangerous. Unlike his Shrapnel Rasengan, which he had adjusted the rotation to shot the shrapnel foreword, he had adjusted the rotation on the Water Rasengan to make it spin as if it was sucking things in, as if it were a vortex, hence the name. It would suck the target towards it, spin them very rapidly, and when Naruto released it, it would explode like a regular Rasengan and send the target flying. He ranked this, as well as the Shrapnel Rasengan as high A tier jutsu. His lightning style Rasengan was a very different. He ranked it as a S rank jutsu, because it was extremely dangerous, not only to the target, but to the user as well.

He called it "Lightning Style: 1000 Volt Rasengan" When the Rasengan came into contact with someone, hundreds of thousands of small arcs of electricity would immediately jolt into the target. It destroyed them from the inside, out. It fried their insides and burnt their skin. Naruto had tried it on a wood clone, and the sight was very gruesome. However, the true power of this technique is that it gets more powerful the longer you charge it. Naruto had made a wood clone charge one up for only a minute, and made it hit a wood golem that he also made. The golem's torso was immediately vaporized, and its arms and head looked like bits of rubble on the ground. Unfortunately, the clone that had performed this was also injured. The clone's forearm was vaporized and the rest of its arm looked utterly destroyed. Naruto was very thankful that it was only a clone that had done that, and not him.

Back to the topic of the Ninja Academy, Naruto was sure he could graduate early, but he didn't want his peers to be demotivated because of the gap in their skills and Naruto's. For Sora, this was especially apparent. She was still an Uchiha, and her Uchiha pride would be completely destroyed if she witnessed his skill. Naruto didn't want to believe it, but he still cared for Sora deep in his heart. From the way she treated him, he had no reason to, but he did, and he didn't understand why.

Speaking of Sora, lets see what's going on with her? 

Unlike a certain blond, Sora was very excited for the academy. It was the most excited she was for a while. The last time was when she was still hanging out with Naruto, and she was eager for her spars with him. She grunted in annoyance. she was thinking of stupid Naruto. If it wasn't for him inviting her to his birthday, she would have been able to save Itachi. She blamed him for Itachi's sacrifice. She knew there was no reason to, but she wanted to have somebody to blame. Somebody that she could hate, which in turn, would make her stronger so that she could avenge Itachi. She had been training like a crazy person since Itachi's death. She needed to kill the man who had taken her most precious person from her. 'Enough of the sad thoughts. I need to focus on the present,' She thought. 

The abuse from her father had stopped. She had dwarfed Sasuke's power, so Fugaku had no choice but to recognize her skill. Sasuke, on the other hand was pretty intimidated of his sister. He saw her practicing, and she was doing things Sasuke didn't even know were possible. She was doing many elemental ninjutsu, and improving rapidly at kenjutsu and taijutsu. Sasuke was also extremely jealous of her Sharingan. He hadn't even unlocked it, and she already had a complete Sharingan! The best Sasuke could do was if he strained himself, and sent almost all his chakra to his eyes, and even then, his eyes only ended up faintly tinted red. On top of that, anything he did, she could do better. They had both mastered the signature Uchiha jutsu, the Great Fireball Jutsu, but Sora could already do much greater fire jutsu. They had sparred once, and Sora had completely bodied him. The only aspect that Sasuke had bested Sora at was getting their father's attention. Even though the Uchiha clan head acknowledged her skill, he still favored Sasuke. Sasuke was also excited for the academy, but thought of it below him.

Sora herself also thought that the academy was beneath her level of skill, but she still wanted to go. She wanted to be more sociable, and make some friends. Besides that, going to the academy would be a good way to gauge her skills. She would be able to compare her skills to other. She was sure she would be the top student at the academy. Also the academy would be a good place to show off her skills, to further show her superiority.

Even with all that on her mind, she couldn't help but think about Naruto. She was sure she was more powerful then the blond. The only thing that she was a little worried about was his wood style, but she reassured herself that it wouldn't do much. She had only seen him perform weaker wood jutsus. He couldn't have improved much in one year, right? Besides, his siblings were probably better then him. They were trained by the fourth Hokage. Of course they would be stronger. She knew she could still best them, however.

Back with Naruto

Naruto had just woke up. It was the first day of the academy. He was not looking foreword to it. He walked into the bathroom and sighed 'At least I don't have to deal with my annoying family now..' After brushing his teeth and taking a shower, he changed to the clothes he would be wearing to the academy. He wore a gray sweater with the Uzumaki clan whirlpool symbol on the back, and black shinobi pants. He also wore the orange scarf that Sora had given him for his last birthday. He always kept the scarf on himself. It was something that was very important to him, not that he would let Sora know that. He grabbed his kunai and shuriken pouch, and attached it to his pants. He had put a storage seal on the pouch to make it so he could fit a lot more equipment in it then normal.

Naruto walked downstairs and saw his siblings already on the table, eating breakfast. Naruto sighed and sat down and started eating. "So, Kinato, Natsumi, are you guys ready to start the Ninja Academy?" 'He didn't even bother asking me..' Kinato was too busy eating, so Natsumi grinned and shouted, "Of course I am, Tou-san! I'm going to be the best in the academy!" Kinato suddenly looked to Natsumi, "Don't be so sure of that! I'm going to be the best in the academy!" Kushina looked to her children and frowned at Kinato, "Kinato, don't talk while chewing your food! Well, anyways, I'm glad you guys are excited to go to the academy. You two are surely going to do great there." Kinato and Natsumi grinned while Naruto finished eating and got up and left. Nobody noticed him slip out the door. Naruto started walking towards the rather large building. He looked down at the paper in his hands. 'Is it this room? No... It's not this one either... Oh! I found it." He pocketed the paper and looked at the door. He would have to be in this class for the next four years of his life. He twisted the door handle and opened the door.

As he entered the classroom, he scanned the entire room to try and find a good seat. He spotted a chair at the back of the class at a corner. He sighed and walked over to the seat and sat down. He looked at everyone in the class to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw a boy with a pinapple haircut. He recognized him as Shikamaru Nara, the heir to the Nara clan. He also noticed Shikamaru's close fried, Choji Akimichi. He noticed a girl with blindingly bright pink hair. She was closely studying a textbook about the history of Konoha. He also noticed Kiba Inuzuka sitting near the front of the class. He knew Kiba because Kinato was friends with him. Kiba was very overconfident and brash, and most likely weak. Naruto saw the handle of the classroom door turn and open. The two Uchiha twins entered the class room and everybody felt their presence. Naruto inwardly sighed at the sight of the pink haired girl and the Yamanaka heir, Ino have stars in their eyes when they saw Sasuke Uchiha. He also saw Sora and sighed yet again. Just great. He'd have to put up with the stupid Uchiha girl.

Sora walked to the seat diagonal of Naruto. When she had entered the class, she immediately scowled at the sight of the blond Uzumaki. She figured he would try to talk to her all the time and be annoying. Though, she was still intrigued. He composed himself very differently from the last time she saw him, and he radiated a very different aura. Instead of the happy, boisterous personality, he was more calm and reserved. Sora was smirking because the academy was a perfect way to show him up. She had been training everyday, much harder than him, she thought. She expected Naruto to say something to her, but was surprised when he just ignored her and kept staring at the door. Another think she noticed was that Naruto was wearing the scarf that she had given him on his seventh birthday. In her mind, she was very touched that he still wore it. She scowled after the thought of that. What was she thinking about? She didn't care about anything the idiot did.

Kinato and Natsumi were walking towards the academy, with their parents in tow. They were both very excited for the academy. It served as a way to show off their talents and training. They were sure that they would be the best in the academy. Minato and Kushina were also sure their two kids would be the best at the academy. They had trained them for years, and they were proficient in a lot of things.

As Kinato and Natsumi walking into the classroom, many of the students were looking at them intently. The pink haired girl and Ino were looking between Kinato and Sasuke, with stars in their eyes. Many of the boys were staring at Sora and Natsumi. Naruto sighed. He now would have to not only deal with his annoying siblings, the arrogant Uchihas, and all of their fanboys and fangirls. It couldn't get more annoying then this.

Unfortunately for him, it would get even more annoying.

After everybody got into the class, the bell rang, and the teacher stood up, "Hello class. My name is Iruka Umino and I will be your sensei for the next four years. You will learn basic skills to become a ninja and if you graduate, you will become a Genin. If any of you have any questions please raise your hand." Nobody raised their hand. "Ok, how about we get into introductions." he said, offering a smile. "You can say your name, and what you like and dislike." Naruto sighed. It did get more annoying. (A/N: I'm not going to go through the more boring introductions. I'm only going to do the more interesting ones lmao.) Every one went in order, from one side of the room to the other, and so on.

"My name is Sakura Haruno! I like the color pink and, um..." She said while blushing. "My dislikes are Ino-pig!" She screeched while glaring at the Yamanaka, who glared right back.

"My name is Kinato Namikaze. I like ramen and hanging out with my friends. I don't like doing things that are boring." Sakura and Ino just looked at him as if he said the most sophisticated and philosophical speech ever.

"I'm Natsumi Namikaze!" Natsumi said with a grin. "I also like ramen, and I'd like to be friends with everyone! My dislikes include Kinato-baka," She said while sticking her tongue at him. The fangirls frowned at her. 

"I am Sasuke Uchiha. I like tomatoes and hanging out with my friends. I don't like ramen and-" he said while glancing at Sora with a worried expression. "Yeah that's it." The fangirls looked at him in a similar way they looked at Kinato.

"My name is Sora Uchiha. I like training and getting more powerful. I don't like distractions and annoying people." She said quickly. Naruto stared at her while thinking of many things.

It was Naruto's turn and he did not want to do it. He slowly walked towards the front of the classroom. "Uh, my name is Naruto. I like some things, and I don't like other things," He said. Naruto walked back to his seat while everyone looked at him confused. Even Iruka looked at him weirdly. Sora scowled at his direction. He didn't give her anything that she could use to judge his strength. Iruka cleared his throat. "Okay... Class we will be doing a series of tests to find out what level you all are at and we can teach you guys accordingly. Tomorrow there will be a test, so bring any equipment you would need. If you need any more information about the test, check the info sheets on your desks."

The rest of the class time was just time to practice. Naruto left a clone at the academy and ran off towards the Forest of Death. Sora noticed that he had left a clone and followed the real Naruto into the forest. When she got to the forest, she realized she had lost him. She scowled and thought, 'I need to figure out how strong he is. Besides, what is he even doing here? Isn't this part of the village supposed to be closed off?' While she was thinking, a large bear bounded towards her. She had just enough time to notice it, but it had cornered her and was about to attack. Sora was trying to think of what to do to counterattack, and was very worried. Before the bear could strike, she saw a golden blur, and the next moment, the bear was decapitated. She saw, in front of her, Naruto, holding his scythe. He had saved her. She sighed in relief. Naruto resealed his scythe before walking towards her and stuck his hand out to help her up. She glared at him. "I didn't need your help, idiot! I had that under control!" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because it looked like you were cornered and weren't doing anything. Sora blushed, "Shut up!" she got up and looked at Naruto walking away.

"What are you doing?" she said while following him. "Training," "In here? This is the Forest of Death! Are you crazy! It's dangerous, and besides your not supposed to be here." Naruto scoffed, "Why would I care? It's not dangerous to me, and I can actually fight things here. Sora just stared at him. They way he spoke made him seem serious. "I'm training here too. I won't let you outdo me." Naruto glanced back. "Okay, whatever you say. Just train away from me."

(A/N: How did you guys like the longer chapter? Nearly 3000 words, unlike the others, which had 1600-1700. lmk if you guys want longer chapters, or the shorter ones.)

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