Summary: A different take on 'High School' Fanfictions. The Naruto Universe where the Shinobi system is centuries old and the Academy has an elementary, middle and high school to properly train their Shinobi. This is a coming-of-age story of an orphan named Naruto caught in a system with an honorary clan name he could never hope to live up to.

AN: When I first started reading fanfiction, I had a completely different idea in my head when I read 'High School AU' in the summary box. I wasn't expecting people transporting Canon to modern times with a high school, but making everyone in the Canon older and more 'appropriate' than Japanese manga/anime have a tendency to depict. This will be a story where children don't perform miracles, and everyone is nerfed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A PUNK'S LIFE

BY: ADOREDRA FAL'NAELRA

PROLOGUE

Mizuki waited patiently for his charge in the clearing an hour before sunlight as scheduled by the honorable Hokage Sarutobi-sama. Rapidly tapping his foot against the mildew-fused grass and arms crossed across his standards chunin jacket-covered chest, he stared at the entrance of the copse. Attention shifting to his wristwatch, he noticed that it was in fact thirty minutes before dawn.

Here he was, waiting for some punk to show up for remedial training, and to think that he thought he hit rock bottom when everyone assumed he was a traitor for returning from that thrice-damned mission as the only surviving member. First was the whispers that there was no way the weakest link in the team managed to return followed by the rumors that he fled like a coward. Then there was the idea that in his jealousy he sabotaged the team to get back against the clan member on the team.

What made it all the worst was that no one even asked him about the mission or his side of the story except for the honorable Hokage Sarutobi-sama. Instead, everyone decided to write him off. All of his so-called friends, classmates, ex-teammates and co-workers couldn't be seen with him with the exception of his long-time friend Iruka Umino. To top it all off, his career came to a grinding standstill.

Yes, he wasn't the greatest and sharpest kunai in the Hokage's arsenal, but he wanted to be an elite member of Konoha, a Jonin. Before the disastrous mission, he believed that with persistent hard work that he would eventually become strong enough in body, mind and spirit to join the Jonin corps. What a joke.

Where was he now? A teacher's assistant! At the middle school! Training an elementary school drop-out! That's not even possible!

Mizuki released the boiling point pressure in his body in a giant sigh and looked up as the peaks of the sun's rays crossed the horizon. They were right. A civilian should always sacrifice his life in the place of a clansmen if only to not suffer the indignity of living like this even if he was a giant pompous twat who's breeches were five sizes too big. Was there a group of 'I survived a mission but a clansmen didn't' group he could join or something?

Well, at least he wasn't an orphan, he shivered imagining what would happen if he survived and was an orphan. All of Konoha's numerous clans would lose their collective minds if a clansmen died, and an orphan managed to walk away regardless of how many limbs were attached.

Even Iruka-kun would be hard pressed to be his gentle soul, well maybe not, but the Umino clan were always the nicest group of clansmen in Konoha. Then again, Iruka-kun was an orphan as his parents died in the Kyubi attack, but he had his clan to rely on during his upbringing so that isn't really the same thing.

If only the Kyubi managed to kill the brat that he was supposed to be training, then the Kyubi might have actually done some good in the world before the honorable Hokage Namikazi-sama sent the beast off at the sacrifice of his own life.

Speaking of which, look who decided to show up.

Wearing a worn orange hoodie with one string significantly longer than the other with multi-colored paint splotches with faded blue jeans and gray velcro sneakers, the boy truly dressed like an orphan. Furthermore, the eleven year old had the body of a nine year old if his memory of pediatrician medical charts were correct a weight and height of fifty pounds and forty-eight inches, respectively. Then, he noticed the hair.

"What the fuck happened to your hair?" Mizuki couldn't help himself asking. The boy's hair used to just be a mat of spiky blonde that hanged haphazardly depending on how the boy slept. The punk shaved a third of it off on one-side. Did he *braid* the part of the hair that bordered his shaven scalp?

"What's it look like to you?" the boy huffed petulantly. Gods help him, Mizuki was going to strangle this kid and burn the body and spread the ashes to the win. Wait. Mizuki stepped closer and shifted his attention to the smells of the clearing. While the boy usually reeked of body odor, bad breath, unclean clothes and other unmentionables, the faint scent of - Mizuki sniffed the air again - *alcohol* came from the boy's lips.

Holy shit, Mizuki thought to himself, he was in charge of an eleven year old who fucking drinks. What the shit. He so should have died in that mission or at least committed seppuku afterwards.

Oh wait! Silly Mizuki, he forgot who he was dealing with, so he chuckled softly to himself and brought his fingers together in the ram sign and said, "Kai," while he flooded extra chakra throughout his system to displace the genjutsu he was under. When Mizuki opened his eyes, not realizing he closed them in the first place, all he saw was the same boy giving him a weird look.

"You gone crazy in the head or something?" the boy questioned in his alcohol-induced hoarse voice.

Oh right! The blonde couldn't do a genjutsu to save his life, literally in the case of their Shinobi profession. Mizuki had to give it to the boy though; this prank was top notch. Perfect henge, imaginative with the hair style to say the least and even added some booze to the breath to seal the deal. Honestly, top notch.

There was hope for the boy after all. Mizuki released the tension in his body. Man, he didn't realize he was *that* tense.

Mizuki shook his head back and forth in mirth and laughed out into the silent clearing, "I'll admit it Naruto-kun. You got me good with this prank, but you can drop the henge now. You're already 45 minutes late, and we still have a lot of work left to do before you start your new term at the middle school. It's been a month, and we only have two left, so we have to make it count."

"'Da fuck you talking about? My sensei has seriously gone crazy," Naruto said out loud but mostly to himself.

Mizuki shook his head, but this time in disapproval and walked towards the boy. He got used to the curse words after a few days but still reprimanded the punk. There was just so much to work on to get the boy to even a basic foundation that should have been achieved three years ago that Mizuki couldn't afford to get bogged down in all of the little stuff like a few cusses to lose track of the bigger picture. He was better than that.

Reaching out to grab the boy's arm, the blonde backed away with distrustful eyes but not fast enough before Mizuki extended himself and squeezed hard while giving the boy a good shake-down.

Mizuki frowned. He shook harder. The frown deepened. He shook with both hands. The frown tightened. He pushed. The frown snarled.