Well Kouji was sort of expecting a bigger reaction, but its not like naruto knows he was named after this book and telling him how that occured would be this whole mess of explanations.

Kouji however must defend the honour of books. “Books are great! Its like they have a whole world inside them, you can go on adventures to new places that dont even exist just by reading”.

"The words don't stay where they're supposed to."

Ah, well that explains things. “i could read you the words then? Not this book it is hard but other books”.

"Maybe?"

Okay yeah naruto has attention problems, how to solve this. “What if when im a ninja I make it like a movie with genjutsu, then you can watch whats happening while I read the words”.

"Movies are fun!" He's snuck into one exactly once, though he got in a lot of trouble when he got caught because he shouted at the screen.

So Kouji promises to do that for him once he learns Genjutsu, immersive VR books can be a thing for Naruto.

Time passes until the ninja academy entrance exams.

Kouji wants to be as prepared as possible so he reads and borrows every book from the library he can understand and starts learning kanji characters, it's very slow going but if he has a head start on his classmates maybe he won't be behind. He continues taijutsu practice with Naruto but knows this will be another thing he is slower to learn so getting a head start is a good idea. He shapes his chakra every day for an hour before bed, the chakra isn't doing anything but it has to be good practice for something. He spends more time with Naruto as more and more children and caretakers start to shun the blonde boy, he wishes he could tell naruto why people are shunning him but Kouji is worried that naruto right now can't keep a secret that big.

Enough time has passed that Kouji gets better at talking and doesn't seem so emotionally stunted, he smiles sometimes even, he can follow most conversations unless people talk very quickly. The orphanage carers were worried Kouji had Aspergers or some other social impediment but he seems like a typical if quiet kid now.

Just before Kouji and Naruto start the academy Kabuto leaves and there is a very sad goodbye with lots of hugs and even some tears.

It's kind of exciting Kabuto's graduating from the Academy but really sad he's not helping out anymore - 

And super exciting, that Naruto passed the Academy entrance exam! He gets the offer of his own apartment, starting in it a week before the Academy, and rushes to Kouji.

"Kouji! Are you in the Academy too? Let's share an apartment!" he says all in a rush. They're not the only orphanage kids entering, but the others don't like Naruto.

Kouji knows Naruto passed the entrance exam in the original timeline, and with Kouji and Naruto practising taijutsu since they were very little there was really never any doubt Naruto would pass.

He is still very proud of his best friend though. Kouji also passed pretty easily, it was a test meant for 7-year-olds after all.

"Sure! it'll be easier to split the food costs and have more space for things, also its a lot less lonely sharing an apartment" Kouji says sagely, pulling on previous life experience. "You have to clean up after yourself though" Very serious look from Kouji, messy roommates are the worst.

"Cleaning's boring."

“Cleaning is boring for me too! So it’s unfair if I’m the only one who has to clean, if you make a mess clean it up” serious faces are being made at Naruto. As much as Kouji loves his friend he will not be his maid.

”will you clean up after yourself if Im the one who cooks?”.

"I guess that's fair." Getting away from chores had been one of his dreams about getting his own place, but he guesses putting up with cleaning's worth getting to live with Kouji.

Kouji being a responsible adult (at least in mind) buys the essentials for the new shared apartment, rice cooker, electric kettle, instant foods and sauce pouches for rice and other things like that. Sharing an apartment means they have two rooms instead of just one, the smaller room is designated laundry/storage/kitchen and the main room is divided between them as sleeping/living quarters.

Kouji tries to encourage Naruto to clean up after himself but Kouji does end up doing most other domestic tasks like cooking and laundry.
Independence from the orphanage carers and being able to live like an adult is amazing to Kouji, he missed the freedom and responsibility and he only had to wait until he was 7 to do it.

He can't wait for the first day at the academy and learning how to actually use his chakra rather than just move it around his body as practice. He never would have expected to be excited for school again!.

Naruto goes a bit wild with his first taste of freedom but quickly settles, and is very enthused about doing his portion of the chores (though not always well) so he has time to go play and watch the shinobi.

Kouji also keeps up his routine of watching the practising ninja at the training fields, sometimes play sparring with Naruto for practice trying to copy the moves he sees. just the usual routine that he had at the orphanage outside of having to take care of domestic chores.

Now he is officially an academy student he tries to see if he can check anything out of the ninja scroll library, maybe read his textbooks early?.

There's a few things available to Academy students, yes, including textbooks. He's not allowed to take things from the library until they've observed him with the books a few times.

Well, Kouji now has less time to play with Naruto, sorry Naruto!. He spends a lot of the time leading up to the academy starting in the library reading his textbooks and whatever else looks like a primer on ninja skills.

The major focus is on figuring out how to use chakra, he's felt it inside himself for years and it is driving him crazy that he is not able to do anything with it.

Figuring out how to use chakra with only what's available is difficult, but there's a very overly simplified description in the textbook, which describes a few meditation exercises to do...

One day when he goes to get it, another small hand reaches the book before his can.

Kouji's hand impacts theirs before he can pull it back. "Sorry!" pulling back his hand and looking up to see who he made contact with.

That shade of pink hair is very familiar.

She eeps a bit, then retracts her hand and looks down, biting her lip.

"Uh. Sorry... You can have the book... If you want..."

"You got to it first...I have other books I can research..." Come on Kouji lets be normal social human beings for once in our lives, Sakura is important. "You are looking up how to use chakra too?...". Being careful with his words, talking is just so hard sometimes and he doesn't want to come off as stupid for messing up the words.

"Yeah! I got into the Academy, but my parents are really busy and said I'd learn it when we got to the material but it's really interesting..." she says all in a rush, appearing to perk up.

"Did you find any other useful books on the subject?...I've not had much luck finding any" Kouji highly approves of self-study! Sakura was always portrayed as really smart in the manga and if she has an attitude like this one it makes a lot of sense.

"I am Kouji by the way, Kajitsu Kouji" holding out his hand politely.

She takes his hand. "I'm Haruno Sakura! And yeah, I've found some stuff. The librarian likes me, I think 'cause I asked a bunch of questions about how to take care of the books."