You've known Naruto since you were both children. You weren't friends, but you weren't enemies either. You were just like everyone else, stare in curiosity until you look at your parents to see daggers and a frown on their face and so in the end you'd do the same.

You remember when you first met him…

Age: 9
Location: Basketball Court.

"KIBA!" you half yelled, half growled, as said person snatched the ball away from your grasp and ran away with it to the other side of the court.

"You let him get the ball!"
"Girls shouldn't play!"
"Useless!"

"Shit! I'm sorry!" you yelled to your teammates as they ran past you and towards Kiba who was about to shoot a goal.

You ran as fast as you could towards Kiba, ready to knock him down. If he complains, you'd just say 'It was a accident and that girls don't play rough,' that was until Akamaru jumped out in front of you, forcing you to dodge him so you don't step on him but doing so you stacked it infront of everyone.

Everyone stopped playing and looked at you on the ground, then they all cracked up laughing.

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!"

You turned around to look at Shikamaru, who was timing on the sidelines to find him chuckling as well.

After a few seconds, you started laughing and patted Akamaru who approached you cautiously in case you were angry with him.

Then everyone stopped laughing and looked towards the one of the fences that enclosed the basketball court.

"HAHHAHHAHAHAHAH, SHE TRIPPED! OH GEEZ! THAT WAS SO FUNNY! HAHAH DO IT AGAIN!"

Everyone groaned.
"Oh, great. It's Naruto."
"What is he doing here?"
"Why can't he go play somewhere else?"

You turned around and saw a boy with blonde hair, wearing a white shirt with the fire emblem on it; he had whiskers on his cheeks and a grin that looked similar to a mischievous fox…

"HEY GUYS! DON'T START WITHOUT ME!" he yelled running towards the open gate and on to the court.

"Go away Naruto. You can't play," hissed Kiba.

"Why not! I could kick all your asses with my eyes closed!" said Naruto, closing his eyes and pointing to himself.

"Heh, you don't have a chance." Kiba chuckled to himself,
"Go Away, go away," demanded the boy with the beany;
"Naruto's too easy to beat!" commented the guy with the glasses.
"I don't want to play." You said as you got off the ground and dusted yourself off.

"What?" everyone yelled,
"_ , you have to! If you leave we'll be uneven!" whined Kiba.

It's not that you were doing it for Naruto; you really didn't feel like playing anymore. Akamaru knocked the wind out of you.

You shrugged and started to make your way to the exit of the court.

"We have Naruto?" you heard Shikamaru say in the distance who had got up to join the boys in their circle.

"No, we don't want Naruto on our team! He'll make us lose for sure!" said some boy with a scarf.

"HEY! YOU CAN COUNT ON ME! BELIEVE IT!" yelled Naruto, doing a good guy pose.

"Oi, Shikamaru. Why don't you play?" asked Choji.

"Ahh, too troublesome." Replied Shikamaru, resting his hands behind his head.

"All right, Naruto's on your team! Lets get started!" said a smug Kiba, "Shikamaru. Since you're not going to play, you can time again."

"Hn, what a pain."

By now you've stopped half way on the court to listen to the conversation. Those meanies. They didn't even make the effort to make you stay and play the game. Sometimes you wonder why you're their friends!

"Hey, you gonna play?" asked Shika, as he was walking past you to the side of the court to time the game.

"Nah, but I think I might stay to watch, though."

"Whatever."

It's been ten minutes into the game and Naruto is already puffed and to top it off, everyone keeps abusing him, it's obviously only a matter of time before he blows.

"Naruto sure looks like he's taking a beating… should we time out?"

"Nah, there's only five minutes left until the games over anyway…"

You watched Naruto as no one passed to him. You had to admit, even if he was annoying, you felt sorry for him.

Kiba was about to pass the ball to the guy with the glasses until some random kid on the other team jumped in between and knocked the ball away from them and it bounced towards Naruto.
Naruto's eyes lit up as he picked up the ball and dribbled it towards his hoop, with everyone not far behind.
Naruto stopped infront of the ring lifted his arms and went to shoot.

The ball flew towards the ring, bounced on it once…twice…three times… wobbled a bit…

…then it fell off…

Naruto team groaned, "NARUTO! YOU COULD HAVE HAD THAT!"
"You made us lose."
"Disgrace!"

Beside you, Shikamaru got up with the stopwatch in his hand raised above his head, "Times up."

Just then Kiba started laughing, "HAHAHA! We win! Just what you expect from a loser!"

Naruto fell to his knees in exhaustion, grumbling to himself.

"Heh, Kiba won again, but at least he beat that loser, Naruto."

"ALL RIGHT! ONCE MORE!" yelled Naruto, jumping to his feet, "ONE MORE GAME!"

"You'd just waste my time. We got to get home anyway, hay, Akamaru?" Kiba asked his puppy, which barked cutely in response.

"Yeah, I'm tired."

"Mmm! Home time!"

"Hey, Shikamaru, want to come to the candy store with me? I'm hungry!" asked choji as he and Shikamaru walked out the courts.
"Nah, can't. Damn, my mum's going to kill me for being late. How troublesome."

You looked at Naruto as he looked at the ground and kicked imaginary dirt as all the kids walked away, before turning around and making your way home yourself.