Naruto and his class were all sitting outside in rows, they were all sitting in the lotus position and each had a large pile of leaves in front of them, Iruka was standing in front of the class and started explaining what they were going to do.
"All right everyone, this will be your first lesson on chakra and the things you can do with it, we won't be learning any jutsu just yet though, instead we will be learning about chakra control!" Iruka exclaimed
The children all looked interested as this was the first time they would be learning about chakra and chakra control, well except for a few whose parents thought they were ready for it.
Iruka continued his explanation "You will all learn the most basic chakra control exercise, the Leaf Concentration Practice, you take a leaf and stick it to your forehead by using your chakra, of course first I will be explaining how you can access your chakra."
Iruka looked at the intrigued faces of the kids and smiled "Now, we will first meditate, I want all of you to close your eyes and search for a warm feeling around your stomach, once you find that you need to try and move it around and spread it all across your body, once you can do that you will move on to the next step which is trying to hold a leaf up with your chakra." Iruka finished his explanation and motioned for them to start.
The children then all closed their eyes and sat in silence many not knowing what to do.
Naruto was searching for his chakra to no avail, he didn't feel what he was supposed to feel which kind of made him disappointed but he didn't give up and meditated diligently.
[New skill created.]
[Meditation: lvl 1
Description: Meditation, the most important thing to finding inner peace and chakra, meditating helps you find your chakra and improves chakra recovery when used."
Increases chakra recovery by 100%]
With the creation of the skill, Naruto managed to find his chakra a lot quicker.
Naruto felt a hot and violent feeling in his stomach, he was actually starting to sweat as he felt his chakra, he tried moving it but it barely moved to his command, while it moved it was as if it had the viscosity of glue, it moved around his body very slowly but after half an hour he managed to spread it to the entirety of his body.
When Naruto opened his eyes again he noticed he was one of the last ones to put a leaf on his forehead, some had actually managed to already successfully stick a leaf to their forehead while others were struggling to stick it to their forehead.
Naruto's enthusiasm was very quickly thwarted when he realized that his Jinchuriki perk will slow down his progress by 50%, meaning that he would have to work harder than anyone else to keep up in chakra control, luckily for Naruto all he needed was time, which he had plenty of.
Naruto tried holding up the leaf with his chakra but anytime he tried it would either not stick or it would be blown to pieces by his immensely strong chakra.
Iruka, who was observing Naruto was relieved on the inside, it was good to know that the young Jinchuriki wasn't talented at everything, though it did make sense to Iruka that Naruto's chakra control would be abysmal with the amount of chakra that the boy possessed, but when he mastered controlling it he would become many times stronger than he was currently, only if he managed to control it though.
The class had been going at it for a total of 2 hours which was the usual time that these lessons lasted, but since it was the end of the day students were permitted to stay at the academy training ground where they could either train themselves physically or could train their chakra control, sadly there weren't many students who ever stayed so the training ground was usually quite empty with only a couple of upper-years sometimes coming around to train and fool around.
Iruka told the class that they could leave and most people did indeed leave, the only ones left over were Naruto and Shino, Naruto wanted to continue training and Shino wanted to hang out with his new friend.
"So you're from the Aburame clan right?" Naruto asked Shino.
Shino quirked his head to the side "Yeah, why?"
"That means that you use insects to fight right?" Naruto asked with curiosity.
A myriad of thoughts immediately ran through Shino's head, he didn't want his new friend to be disgusted like many others had been at the fact that his clan used insects to fight, Shino was silent for a few moments before he replied "Y-Yes, but I can't use them yet since my dad told me that my chakra control isn't good enough."
Naruto gained a slightly disappointed expression which just made Shino even more scared, "Aw, too bad, I wanted to see them in action, I think they're really interesting." Naruto said sadly.
All the bad thoughts immediately disappeared from Shino's mind, he berated himself on the inside for doubting his friend "I could show you in the future when I get my own colony of Kikaichu, but I am going to need to head home now, I promised my dad to go home after the academy." Shino said reluctanly.
Naruto smiled at Shino and they both bid goodbye to each other, Naruto stayed in the training ground to train his chakra control while Shino left.
Shino arrived at his house which was around 30 minutes away from the academy, since their clan often dealt with poisonous insects the clan head decided that they should stay further away from the village in case any villagers walked too close, Shino walked in to find his father eating dinner by himself, only then did he realize that he had been running late by quite a bit.
The Aburame clan head looked at Shino, he immediately noticed that Shino seemed happier than before, he knew that his son barely had any friend, if any, and it hurt him to see his son be bullied by other kids who didn't like 'bugs' as they called them.
"Hello there shino, it seems something good has happened?" Aburame Shibi inquired.
Shino looked at his father and nodded "Yes, it seems that I have made a friend at the academy."
Shibi was relieved on the inside "Oh? And who may this friend be?"
Shino smiled and innocently said "His name is Uzumaki Naruto, he is a really kind person, he even asked me about our insects."
Shibi tensed up at the mention of that name, while he was glad that his son had made a friend it would be quite problematic if that friend was the Jinchuriki, Shino also noticed his father's tension as this was the first time that Shino had seen his father look nervous.
Shibi replied coolly "I'm glad you've made a friend, though I will have to warn you about being friends with that boy, while I don't mind you being friends with him, I even encourage you to be friends with him I want you to always watch out about the things that happen around that boy, since they could be problematic."
Shino was dumbfounded, it seemed that there was more to Naruto than him simply being ranked first in the academy exam, Shino would need to investigate more on this.