Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The Difference a Kiss Can Make
Chapter 1: The Kiss
Naruto Uzumaki, currently disguised as the class heartthrob Sasuke Uchiha had finally caught sight of his crush. The pink haired Sakura Haruno was sitting on a bench outside the Konoha Ninja Academy, in actuality she hadn't been too hard to find. He'd seen her only a few minutes earlier when she'd brushed him off about having lunch together, despite the fact that they were now on the same ninja squad. She'd even gone so far as to call him annoying.
Now that he was disguised as Sasuke however, that would all change. Sakura from some reason that completely eluded Naruto had a crush on the Uchiha, despite the fact that Sasuke barely even spoke to anyone as far as Naruto had seen. As expected, upon seeing "Sasuke" Sakura's face lit up.
"Sasuke." She said, sounding surprised, though given how Sasuke usually ignored her Naruto thought that made sense. He strode over to her, trying to exude that same cool attitude his rival did. At least Naruto thought of Sasuke as a rival, the Uchiha just ignored him like he did everyone else.
"Sakura, your forehead is so wide and charming; it makes me feel like kissing it." Naruto said. Then he thought better of it, saying something like that was way out of character for Sasuke. He was so preoccupied with trying to figure out how not to blow his cover that he completely missed the hopeful look in Sakura's eyes. Finally he decided on a good cover story.
"Just kidding, that's the kind of dumb thing Naruto would say."
"Oh." Sakura groaned softly and lowered her head well Naruto sat down next to her.
"So, Sakura I wanted to ask you something. He said.
"What is it Sasuke?" She asked.
"Naruto, what do you think of him?" Naruto asked. Sakura seemed puzzled for a moment as to why Sasuke would be asking what she thought of Naruto. Naruto almost retracted the question as not to raise suspicion, but this was the entire point of everything he'd done so far so there was no sense in turning back now.
"Naruto, he's annoying. He knows about my feelings and constantly tries to get in the way. He doesn't care about anyone but himself and he's loud and immature. In short, he's annoying. What I really want is just for you to accept me Sasuke."
Naruto paled a bit as Sakura began to lean in. He knew what she was intending to do of course. Heck, he wanted to kiss her too. He was just kind of shocked that she was so willing to kiss Sasuke. Did she really like the guy that much?
"You just want me to accept you?" Naruto stammered.
"I'm desperate." Sakura cooed with a deep red blush on her face. She leaned in closer. Naruto in this moment finally began to understand why he liked Sakura so much. She was like him, she just wanted acceptance. All this time they'd had more in common than either had realized. Naruto leaned in and closed the distance between his and Sakura's lips.
The next thirty seconds were heavenly. The two preteens closed their eyes and basked in the hesitant, innocent kiss, each as nervous as the other. This sure beat the heck out of his accidental kiss with Sasuke. Nothing could ruin this moment...
His stomach started to cramp. Naruto knew he needed to get to the bathroom fast. He could already feel his control of the Transformation jutsu slipping. He tried to break the kiss but Sakura wrapped her arm around his neck and deepened it.
Naruto tried desperately to break free of her grip but Sakura was far stronger than her slim frame would lead one to believe. Crap, this was bad. If he didn't get away soon...
Pop! The Transformation jutsu lapsed and Naruto was filled with an overwhelming sense of doom. His eyes still closed, though more from the pain of the stomach cramps than anything else, Naruto felt Sakura push him away.
"Naruto I'm going to kill you!" Sakura screeched. Before he could even utter a syllable in protest Sakura began wailing on Naruto like never before. She'd cuffed him on the the head before and that had hurt but it was nothing like this. She was raining blows on whatever part of him she could reach. Even if he hadn't already been having problems Naruto would've crapped his pants just from sheer terror and fear for his life.
His bowels letting go coincided with a lull in the beating. Feeling a bit brave Naruto opened his eyes a crack to see Sakura recoiling from the smell. This whole thing was just embarrassing. Footsteps on the cobblestones alerted him to someone else approaching. Naruto craned his neck to see Sasuke approaching, having coming out from the shadows of the nearby trees.
"What's going on here?" He asked in his usual cold tone.
"Naruto transformed into you and kissed me so I'm teaching him a lesson." Sakura said. Sasuke looked down at Naruto in disgust.
"You did all that just so you could kiss her? You really are pathetic Naruto." He declared. He then began to walk away.
"Did all what Sasuke?" Sakura asked.
"Naruto got the drop on me and tied me up before transforming into me, presumably so I wouldn't interrupt your little make-out session." He said, he didn't even bother to stop walking.
"Naruto tied you up? I don't believe it. Aren't you mad at him?" Sakura asked. Naruto took advantage of the conversation to begin to crawl away. Now that Sakura's attention was off of him he wanted to get the hell out of dodge as quickly and safely as possible.
"Mad, why would I be mad? I was just curious about what gave Dead Last Uzumaki the guts to take me on like that. Now that I know I really couldn't care less. As far as I'm concerned you two are perfect for each other. You're both annoying. I can't believe I got stuck on a team with you idiots. Just do me a favor and stay out of my way."
By this point Naruto was a safe distance away so he got off the ground and started running back toward his apartment. He could see that Sakura was clearly crestfallen from Sasuke's words and normally he would've tried to comfort her but he got the feeling that that particular idea would be bad for his health. Besides, he really needed to change his clothes.
It didn't take him long to get home, he had a lot of motivation to be fast. He didn't want to miss meeting his Jonin instructor after all. However when he opened the door he found a silver haired masked man snooping through his stuff. "Who are you and how did you get in my house?" He demanded.
The stranger turned nonchalantly and smiled at Naruto through his mask. Naruto noticed that thee man was a shinobi now and that his headband was positioned so that it covered his left eye. "Oh me, I'm Kakashi Hatake, your new Jonin instructor. As for how I got in here, the Hokage let me in. I wanted to take a look around and get a sense of what your life was like Naruto." Kakashi's tone was entirely relaxed, as if there was absolutely nothing odd about this situation.
"Well, if Old Man Hokage let you in here I guess it's okay, but wait, shouldn't you be at the academy right now? I mean the Jonin instructors are supposed to meet up with their new students there." Naruto said.
"I could ask you the same question. Why aren't you at the academy Naruto?" Kakashi asked. Naruto gulped, knowing there was no point in lying because then he wouldn't get his clothes.
"I had a bathroom accident and came home to change my clothes."
"Well, that's what you get for drinking milk that's three weeks past the expiration date. Now then, why are you all covered in bruises?"
"I sort of transformed into Sasuke to get close to our other teammate Sakura. We kissed but the bathroom issues made me lose control of the jutsu so she found out and beat me up for it."
"We're going to have a little talk about that later Naruto, right now, get changed, I'm taking you to the hospital."
"Why would you take me to the hospital, they don't even like me there." Naruto protested.
"Because I have to make sure your new teammate didn't do any permanent damage to you, and we need to get you something for your little bowel problem." Kakashi said.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then I'll carry you there Naruto. You still want to change your clothes and I'm a former ANBU captain; in short, you're not getting away."
"Fine." Naruto said before beginning to change.
Kakashi sat on the side of Naruto's hospital bed and watched his new student down a foul smelling green concoction that was supposed to help with his diarrhea, the doctors had said that Sakura had only bruised him so he would be fine to leave after this. "Yuck," the boy shouted as he recoiled in disgust, "Why does medicine always have to taste like crap? Why can't they make it taste like miso ramen or something?"
"I actually have a theory about why medicine tastes so bad. You see I think that doctors have found that the worse a medicine tastes the better it works. So you should be glad that tastes as bad as it does, it means you'll get better and quickly too."
"Eh, I don't buy it Kakashi-sensei. I think you're just nuts." Naruto was squinting at Kakashi as if he were trying to dissect him with his eyes. Naruto was calling him sensei already, given what he'd heard about the boy that was a bit surprising.
"Suit yourself. So why don't you tell me exactly why this Sakura gave you such a vicious beating. Leave nothing out. I need to know what I'm going into after all." Kakashi said.
"Well Kakashi-sensei, it's like this you see. I really like Sakura, but she won't give me the time of day because she likes that slug Sasuke. Don't ask me why, all he does is sit around and brood all the time, but all the girls go nuts over him. So I used my Shadow Clone and Substitution jutsus to get the drop on Sasuke and tie him up so that I could transform into him and ask Sakura what she really thought about me. One thing led to another and I ended up kissing her as Sasuke, but the stomach cramps made me lose control of the jutsu and... let's just say Sakura wasn't happy when she found out."
"Naruto, tricking Sakura like that wasn't right, and neither was attacking Sasuke. Now that doesn't excuse Sakura's actions either, but when we join them at the academy I want you to apologize to both of them."
"I guess you've got a point Kakashi-sensei. Tricking Sakura like that wasn't very nice. I know I'd want revenge if someone did that to me. I'll apologize to Sakura, but I don't think I need to apologize to Sasuke. I mean he found Sakura beating me up and just walked away, said he didn't even care about what I did to him. He just insulted both of us, and told us to stay out of his way before leaving."
"Did he now?" Kakashi was starting to get a feel for what his new team was going to be like, painfully it was a lot like his old one. Naruto was Obito, Sakura was Rin, and Sasuke, well Sasuke was him way back when. This was going to be a headache wasn't it? That is if the three of them somehow manged to pass the bell test, which it was very possible they wouldn't. "So tell me Naruto, why do you like Sakura?"
"Well, she's pretty for starters. What with her pink hair and green eyes. I think her big forehead is really cute, even though she hates it. She's pretty nice, at least to people who don't annoy her like I do or tease her about her forehead. If you do tease her about it or annoy her she kind of explodes, but I think the biggest reason I like her is she's like me. She's always been shunned for something she had no control over. Her for her forehead and me for..." He nodded toward his stomach. No more needed to be said, Kakashi knew what was there: The Fourth Hokage's seal. The Kyuubi.
"So that's why, you think she might be able to understand you on some level." Kakashi surmised.
"Not that it matters. She thinks I'm an annoying worthless wimp." Kakashi had to shake his head in amusement.
"Just like your parents." He hadn't meant to say it out loud and once he did he knew it was going to cause him some sort of trouble.
"You knew my parents? Who were they?" Naruto asked.
"Your father was my sensei when I became a ninja. Beyond that I'm not sure I should say much else; I'm not sure you can handle it just yet."
"Not too long ago I found out I had a demon fox inside me. I handled that pretty well, what could possibly be worse than that Kakashi-sensei?"
"Fair point," he admitted, "Come on, we're going to make another stop before we go to the academy, one where I can tell you about your parents."
"Alright, that sounds great." Naruto said. With that the two of them left the hospital. It didn't take long to reach their destination, after all he came here every day. He'd brought Naruto to the Memorial Stone. Kakashi mourned lost comrades and family here and now Naruto would as well. He just hoped bringing the boy here was the right ting to do.
"Hey Kakashi-sensei, what this stone and why does it have all these names carved on it?" Naruto asked.
"This is a very special stone Naruto. It's called the Memorial Stone. It's a monument to all the shinobi of this village who lost their lives in the line of duty. Look closely, you'll find a name you should be able to recognize." Kakashi watched Naruto scan the stone, looking for the name he meant. He new the boy had found it when he saw his eyes widen.
"Kushina Uzumaki. Is that-"
"Your mother, yes. She was a great kunoichi and a kind woman, though she was famously known for her short temper. Her nickname was the Red Hot-blooded Habanero. As the story goes she thought your father was a wimp until he rescued her from a group of enemy ninja."
"She sounds like Sakura... Oh so that's what you meant when you said it was just like my parents. So wait, then who was my father?"
"Your father was someone very famous Naruto, his was name Minato Namikaze." Kakashi said.
"That name isn't ringing any bells Kakashi-sensei." Naruto replied bluntly.
"Oh trust me Naruto, you know who he is, just under a different title. Look over there, you'll see him." Kakashi pointed to the very visible Hokage faces. It didn't take Naruto long to connect the dots.
"My father is the Fourth Hokage," Kakashi nodded, "Wait you said you were trained by my dad, you were trained by the Fourth Hokage?"
"Yes and I'm the only member left of that team." Kakashi frowned slightly, bad memories flooding his mind.
"Why would my dad seal a demon in me? It's caused me nothing but pain." Naruto mused.
"Housing the Kyuubi inside you is a great responsibility Naruto. You are all that stands between Konoha and destruction. People still fear the fox and don't understand what happened to it so they take it out on you. Just remember that your father had faith that you could handle this and you don't get to be Hokage without a good gut instinct."
"Wow my dad had that much faith in me? Kakashi-sensei, you said you were the last member of your team still around. What were your teammates like?" Kakashi closed his visible eye for a moment as he tried to gain control of his emotions.
"My first teammate was a boy named Obito Uchiha."
"An Uchiha huh, I bet he was stuck up like Sasuke."
"No, he was actually a lot like you Naruto. Loud, brash, and with a dream to become Hokage someday. Like you he was at the bottom of the class. I was the one who was like Sasuke back then. Obito was my best friend, even if I didn't want to admit it at the time. He's one of the greatest shinobi, I've ever known, second only to your parents. He taught me a very important lesson that changed my life."
"What happened to him?"
"He died saving our other teammate, Rin Nohara. Obito loved Rin, but she loved me. I had no feelings for her beyond friendship. Obito never told her how he felt. As for Rin, she died on a later mission defending the village." Kakashi turned away from Naruto so the boy wouldn't see him cry.
"Wow, the life of a ninja is tough huh?"
"Yes it is Naruto. Now I want you to do me a favor: Don't end up like Obito." Naruto gave him a confused look.
"But you said he was one of the greatest ninja you'd ever known. Why wouldn't I want to be like him?"
"What I meant was I want you to be better than Obito Naruto. Don't let Sakura be your Rin."
"I get it, you want me to get the girl." Naruto said with a foxy grin. That wasn't exactly what Kakashi meant, he kind of hoped Naruto would let Sakura go, but hey, if he could get her to like him, that worked too he supposed, beggars couldn't be choosers after all.
"Wait until Sakura hears I'm the son of the Fourth, she'll ditch Sasuke for me for sure!"
"No, Naruto, you can't tell Sakura or Sasuke who your parents are until I say you can, or anyone else for that matter."
"Aw, why not Kakashi-sensei?"
"Do you want Sakura to like you for who you are or who your father was?"
"Good point."
"Now then, I think we've kept your teammates waiting long enough."
To say that Sakura was livid was the understatement of the century. This day had started out so well. She'd been placed on Sasuke's squad and everything. Then Naruto had to go and mess it all up. She still couldn't believe what that blonde idiot had done. Not only had he stolen Sasuke's first kiss this morning but now hers as well!
Ino was never going to let her live this one down, everyone was already teasing her about how she couldn't tell the difference between Naruto and Sasuke. The next time she saw that brat he was going to pay. He was lucky he'd gotten away from her this morning. He hadn't been seen at the academy since, probably hiding from her. It served him right as far as she was concerned.
Then there was Sasuke. He hadn't said a word to her since the incident. He hadn't said a word to anyone, though he rarely did truth be told. His words when he'd found her and Naruto kept replaying in her head.
"As far as I'm concerned you two are perfect for each other. You're both annoying. I can't believe I got stuck on a team with you idiots. Just do me a favor and stay out of my way." He thought she was annoying and an idiot? Was this how Naruto felt when she rejected him? At least he'd tried to be nice to her, unlike Sasuke.
Then again, what did she care about how Naruto after he'd played that nasty trick on her? He deserved everything he got. Why had he done that anyway? Why did Sasuke hate her? Was he even worth pursuing when he so openly hated her? She was so confused!
On top of all of that their Jonin sensei hadn't shown up yet and it was almost sunset. Just where were they anyway? She and Sasuke had been the only ones in this room for hours, which Sakura would normally consider a good thing, but after the incident with Naruto she wasn't so sure. Then a terrible thought stuck her. Once their new sensei arrived she'd have to explain where Naruto was. That could only end badly.
As if on cue the doorknob turned and the door opened to reveal Naruto of all people but he wasn't alone. He had a lanky silver haired masked man with him. Sakura thought the masked man looked strange, especially with his headband covering his left eye.
"Yo, I'm Kakashi Hatake, and I'm your new sensei." This guy was their sensei? He seemed disconcertingly relaxed about the whole situation. If he had Naruto with him he had to know something about what had happened, Really, he didn't look like much. Still she had bigger fish to fry, namely Naruto.
"Naruto are you the reason Kakashi-sensei was so late? We've been waiting here for hours! Why I oughta clobber you for this!" She roared.
"Why yes, Naruto is the reason I'm late. You must be Sakura, Naruto's told me a lot about you and so far I'm not impressed. You see I had to take Naruto to the hospital and have him checked out to see if he'd sustained any serious injuries when someone beat the tar out of him." Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but Kakashi held up a hand to forestall any argument.
"Yes, I know what he did, he told me. Yes it was wrong, but what you did is also wrong. Like it or not you're on the same team now. Start acting like it. I will not tolerate violence between comrades, am I clear?" It was like a switch had been flipped, the kindly aloof man was gone and in his place was someone who was as cold as ice.
"Crystal clear Kakashi-sensei." Sakura had to resist the urge to curl up into fetal position to get out of Kakashi's line of sight.
"Good, now I believe Naruto has something to say to you." Kakashi said. Naruto approached Sakura slowly, almost like a wounded animal. Had she really scared him that badly? Well maybe it would keep him from trying any funny stuff with her from now on.
"Sakura, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have transformed into Sasuke and tricked you like that. It was wrong and I should have known it was wrong. I just... wanted to spend some time with you, you know? You were always so focused on Sasuke, I thought maybe if I looked like him... It was stupid and I'm sorry." Sakura wanted nothing more than to lambaste Naruto and to tell him that he should be sorry for that dirty trick he'd pulled. That was a sick joke, but something stopped her.
His apology actually seemed... sincere. He'd realized what he'd done was bad, maybe with the help of Kakashi. That and the reasons he gave... they were a lot like the reasons for why she did so much of what she did: To spend time with Sasuke. Maybe they had more in common that she thought. He just wanted to be accepted by her.
"Apology accepted Naruto, just don't do it again." She said.
"I won't Sakura, I promise." He replied.
"Good," Kakashi said turning toward Sasuke, "Now to deal with you."
"What do you mean deal with me?" Sasuke demanded.
"I mean stop looking so smug. You're not off the hook for your part in this, you saw Sakura beating Naruto and did nothing about it."
"Why should I care what these losers do? They'll do nothing but hold me back anyway." Sasuke said with a shrug.
"You think so do you? Well, we'll just see about that tomorrow won't we?" Kakashi remarked cryptically.
"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"I mean there's one final test before you truly become ninja. In order to ensure that the quality of shinobi in Konoha is maintained all Jonin sensei give their new Genin team a pass-fail test to determine whether or not they are truly ready. The actual test given depends on the Jonin. At least two thirds of the graduating class will fail these tests and be sent back to the academy."
"That means all the work we put in at the academy could end up meaning nothing." Sakura said.
"Hold on, I was with you all day and you never mentioned this test!" Naruto protested.
"Oh, I didn't? It must have slipped my mind," Kakashi said lightly, "Meet me at the Third Training Ground tomorrow at dawn. Oh, and don't eat breakfast or you'll puke. Have a good night." Kakashi waved at them and disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
So a little author's note here. I fell out of the Naruto fandom during Part II because I felt the plot was getting too weird and full of holes, but I kept up with the general goings on. I'd kind of wanted to write a Naruto fic but with new info coming out all the time it was kind of hard to plot things. Now that the main story is over I feel I can write a fanfic in the fandom.
I shipped Narusaku, so I really wanted to do something with that despite the canon ending. I wanted to make the smallest initial change to canon possible to have them get together and this is what I came up with. For those worried there will be no Hinata bashing in this story. She's actually my favorite character in the series, I just don't like her with Naruto.
Anyway it's been a while since I've done anything in the Naruto universe, so I'm a bit rusty. I'm just throwing this out there and seeing what reaction I get. Please leave a review, constructive criticism is always welcome.