Me - I feel like this story has gone through more rewrites than the number of times Naruto has said believe it. I really am sorry for you folks. I've constantly let you down time and time again, but no more I shall do as I was promise and continue this story. I hate giving up on stuff so I rewrote this chapter to get back into the swing of Naruto. Not much has changed well I hope not much. I went back fix a few things, but the grammar is still just as bad. Well at least I was able to dish out that SAO story I said I would do, to bad Dragon ball z is going to take a back seat for the time being.

Drako - Life sucks

Me - Ain't that the truth. Anyways the concept is still the same and I am trying to be a bit more detailed about things. What else hmm

Drako - POLL

Me - right okay so a poll has been up for awhile now and there are no votes. *tear*. Look its basically what story should I work on. I will work on two different stories one of them is my SAO, and the other is one you pick. so please vote. The voting ends by the end of this month. If no votes come through I'm piking random and this story may be pushed back so If you love this story

Drako - and me

Me - Go vote

Bonds Through Tears

Chapter 1

A new friend

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or any other things that may be used or referenced

Naruto

"NARUTO" a scared face man yelled out.

Said boy simply either didn't hear the man or simply ignored him and stayed asleep. A visible tick mark formed on the man's head as he walked up to Naruto ignoring the snickering and giggles from the other students. Reaching the boy he smacked the boy's head waking him up from his sleep. Rubbing the spot the man hit him Naruto looked up at him. "That hurt Iruka-sensei" he said.

"I would appreciate it if you would stay awaked at least once when I'm explaining something" the now identified Iruka said turning around and walking back to the front of the class again ignoring some of the laughter he heard from the students as did Naruto his face becoming indifferent while he stared at Iruka who started to speak again. "Alright like I was saying before we are going to head outside for a sparring match. So now I'm going to list off who will be fighting who".

Naruto drowned him out though right away only paying enough attention to hear his name not caring who he was going to spar with. He was mostly thinking or rather speaking with the Demon that was sealed inside him. The very same one that everyone fears, the same one everyone thinks he is. "You should pay attention more in class then sleeping" the giant fox said. "I know" he replied lazily. The Demon fox sighed at the boy's attitude. He remembered why he was like this. To think it's already going to ten years since he was sealed into the boy and it's been two years since they actually started to work and get along together. "At least try and do something" the beast said. "What for, not like it matters anyways" Naruto said sadly.

"And finally Naruto and Sasuke, now only light Taijutsu nothing more understand". The class nodded their heads "Alright then lets head outside".

The class ran outside forming a circle eager to watch the first fight start. Naruto ignored them all and headed towards the tree he was all too familiar with sitting down. More students started to walk out the building, the upperclassmen, and joined the others around the circle. From the corner of his eye he saw someone walking over towards him. His face still indifferent he turned and watched as the girl smiled and sat down next to him. "Hello whiskers" her cheerful voice said.

"Ten" Naruto said acknowledging her with no emotion. Tenten one of the few people he could call a friend maybe even family. She was a grade above him and it did surprise him that she wanted to become friends. She ignored the whispers and rumors she heard and tried to befriend him no matter the repercussions to herself. He did his best to separate himself from her not wanting her to become the new target of the whispers and rumors but no matter what he did or say she just kept coming back. He may have wanted her gone but now he's glad she stayed.

"So Whiskers, you're up against the arrogant brat you think you can beat him" She said teasingly. She knew Naruto could probably beat him. It was her way of hoping to spark any sort of emotion from him. There were brief glimpses where she was able to make him smile or he would show that she was annoying him. He may act and look like a cold hearted bastard but he was anything but to her. She had no idea what it was that made him like this, in fact, she remembered a few years ago he was the happy go-lucky kid. Now Tenten just wants to bring back the old him. "We'll see" Naruto said the corners of his mouth twitching into a small smile but only for a brief second. Tenten caught it however and smiled at him.

The two talked well Tenten did Naruto just listened or nodded when he needed to. The fights were uninteresting and nothing notable not really surprising considering they were all academy kids. A lot of the matches were very one-sided although there were some fairly close ones most of them were still pitiful. Then came Tenten's match and her opponent happened to be a sexist believing that women should leave the fighting to the men and let's just say a lot of men cringed in fear and gave her a lot of room to walk back towards him.

However there was one fight that caught Naruto's attention. A mint haired girl around his age. He recognized the girl right away since not many girls his age in Konoha have green hair. Her name was Fu if he recalled correctly. She seemed far more skilled then the others. Here moves were very fluent moving around her opponent like water. It was still choppy in some places and there were holes in her defense but it did spark Naruto's interest in her as he watched her one-sided sparing match intently.

Tenten noticed this and followed his gaze back towards the mint haired girl. She smiled remembering the time she first caught Naruto looking at her. She had to stifle a laugh remembering his embarrassed face as he stuttered trying to come up with an excuse for looking at her. It was the first and only time she saw him embarrassed. She'd seen the gazes he tossed at her unfortunately the girl had no idea Naruto existed and if she did she probably thought he just liked to be alone although that was partly Naruto's fault seeing as he doesn't try at all. Still whether if he actually liked her or not as far as she knew Naruto had almost no friends and this would be the best opportunity for her to introduce the two. Maybe if she's lucky this girl might do some good for him.

Fu's fight was over quick with her as the victor. "She seems like an interesting girl why don't I invite her over here you could use a new friend" Tenten said with a smile. "Why" Naruto said uninterested while watching Fu stand back in the circle. She was quiet and no one seemed to walk up to her to congratulate on her win. She just stood there with a smile and watched as the next two students walked to the center of the circle. "Well one I've seen you looking at her and two because I said so" Tenten said teasingly the first part and strictly the second. Before Naruto could do anything Tenten was off to retrieve said girl.

Naruto sighed and stared up at the sky like the lazy Nara would do. His mind gathered around the word Tenten used a few moments ago "Friend". Sure Tenten was his friend but the word seemed so foreign to him. Far as long as he could remember he never really had a true friend. Well that was a lie he does but to him they were more like family then friends. The only thing close to a true friend he had was Tenten and she could be considered his older sister in his eyes. Living a life with every kid your age afraid of you or trying to hurt you isn't a good one and the few that did try ended up getting hurt because they tried, stopped because of the rumors and whispers, or tried to hurt him. In the end the word friend became twisted in his mind and meant only pain. That was why he stopped trying to find friends. He preferred the word family over friend because he knew that they would never hurt him. All the good things that happened in his life were associated with that word. So instead of finding friends he found family members because really what are friends. Still he didn't oppose to the idea of having someone he could call friend. There were people he could call friends actually but he preferred to see them as family since he had none. Besides sometimes the best family are those that aren't blood.

His mind then began to shift towards a different subject Fu, with the thought of the word friend still lingering in the back of his mind. He would be lying if he said that she wasn't all that an interesting to him. From the moment he first laid eyes on her there was some sort of spark, some sort of recognition in him that made her interesting. It also didn't help that she had orange eyes which was his favorite color. It wasn't until last year that he found out why. She was a Jinchūriki like him holding the seven-tailed Nanabi. How? Simple Kurama was the one who told him. However unlike him she wasn't hated, shunned or even glared at as far as he saw but she was always alone. Whether this was by choice or not he didn't know but she seemed to enjoy it. He wasn't angry or slightly mad at this. In fact he was happy for her. Even though his life was crap he doesn't want any other kid like him to experience it if he could help it.

Naruto looked up and saw Tenten returning with Fu in tow with a large smile on her face. His face was still remained blank as Tenten stood in front of him. "Fu this is Whiskers, Whiskers this is Fu". Naruto rolled his eyes at Tenten's introduction. "Naruto" he said in a passive yet cold voice extending his hand out. "Fu" She said her voice filled with a bit of enthusiasm which Naruto noted. She grabbed his extended hand and shook it.

An awkward silence fell between them. Tenten was starting to get nerves and quickly thought of a topic that the two of them might be interested in. "So what do you think of Fu's fight" She said paying that they could carry on a conversation with that. "It was okay, but it was still choppy and not entirely fluid and there were a lot of holes in your defense, other than that it was an interesting one" Naruto said plainly.

Fu chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck shyly "Thanks for the info, I guess that's what happens when you try to live up to your name and try to make a new fighting style". "We'll I thought it was great but I see it more like water then wind, your movements just mimicked water really well. Wind is more sharp and precise not entirely fluid whereas water is smooth, fluid you were trying to make a style using your name not bad but like I said I see more watery movements then wind" Naruto said explaining what he saw in her match. Fu was amazed at his explanation and to note of it for later. She sat down in front of him and continued to talk.

"Well I know two techniques one of them being water based " Fu stated. Naruto sat forward interested now. Normally academy students don't know any sort of Jutsus except the few clan heads and students that had Shinobi parents. "Really " he asked. Fu then blushed out of embarrassment. "Well I don't know what it's called really, but my old teacher made me practice water manipulation a lot. I can make swords and just about anything else out of water" She said thinking about the technique. Naruto was amazed. He knew of the technique and it was a hard one. To be able to manipulate water to such a degree is no simple feat, but to also be able to have water sharp enough to cut. That takes some serious control. "That's pretty amazing" Naruto said with a faint smile. Tenten was shocked to see the smile on his face and the fact that it had yet to disappear was even more shocking.

"So I take it from the water blades you know a bit of Kenjutsu" Naruto asked genuinely curious. He himself knew some Kenjutsu using a wooden sword to practice. He hasn't seen many sword wielding Shinobi inside Konoha. Most Anbu have Tanto with them but he has yet to see an actual sword amongst the Shinobi ranks. "Just enough so that I wouldn't end up cutting myself" She said jokingly. The two went on talking back and forth about various things and learning more about each other. Like how they both loved nature, and ramen. Naruto learned she loved the color white and bugs while Fu learned Naruto liked the color orange and foxes.

Meanwhile Tenten was silently celebrating her victory of finally being able to get Naruto to show emotion. Although it wasn't much it was a lot more than before and he was actively talking instead of listening. He wasn't laughing out loud or making jokes that was a far cry away, but the fact that he was openly smiling and talking was already a huge step in the right direction. Then Tenten had a mischievous thought. They already had a lot in common from what she heard maybe she could spark some sort of love interest among them. With that thought in mind she ginned devilishly as thoughts of setting up her brother like friend with Fu formed in her head. "This should get things going" Tenten thought.

"Hey Naruto why don't you show cool trick you showed me" She said. "Sure" the blond said uncaringly. "She 's-". "I know Kurama, I noticed" Naruto said sadly to the fox. On the outside Naruto cupped his hands together ignoring the sigh the fox gave and channeled chakra to his hands. A few seconds later a blue rose. The flower was made out of entirely his own chakra and would last longer than any other flower no matter how well it was kept. With an apathetic smile Naruto handed it to an amazed and blushing Fu who took it staring at it carefully. "H-how did you make it" Stuttered the orange-eyed girl. "Slightly similar to how you can make your water blades I just molded my chakra into a flower instead" Naruto explained. He watched as she placed the flower in her hair and suddenly finding the floor more interesting the blush never leaving her face.

The blond Jinchūriki noticed this but before he could comment on this his name was called out by Iruka. Looking over he saw Sasuke waiting patiently in the middle of the circle for him arms crossed. The trio walked over towards the rest of the students Iruka noticing the blush and flower in the mint haired girl's hair. He couldn't help but let out a small smile. He didn't hate the kid. Unlike most of the villagers, he understood that Naruto was keeping them all safe. While the first time he noticed him in his class he was freaking out, but over the year's he saw him in a different light.

Naruto stood in front of Sasuke his frown returning the moment Iruka called his name. The black haired boy looked at him and flashed a small friendly smile before it turned into a frown and he fell into his fighting stance. Sasuke wasn't that bad in his eyes arrogant yes a pain in the ass sometimes yes but if he actually tried he figured he and Sasuke would get along well. Naruto fell into his own stance. The two stared at each other waiting for the signal to start.

"Begin" Iruka announced stepping back into the crowed of students.

Sasuke charged forward throwing a punch. Ducking under it Naruto spun around behind him and aimed a punch for him only to have it blocked. They traded punches back and forth blocking and dodging each and every one of them. Dodging a punch Naruto was able to land a hit as his fist collided with his stomach. Slouching forward slightly he was stunned allowing the blond to take the opportunity to spin around and elbow him on the side of his head. Sasuke staggered to the side slightly and was able to recover quick enough to duck under Naruto's kick. Letting the blonds kick fly over him he moved fast sending a barrage of punches and kicks towards the blond Jinchūriki. Naruto barely had time to react and ended up just barely dodging the strikes. Sasuke didn't let up and continued to throw attack after attack. He was starting to get angry since every one of his strikes were either blocked or dodged. Naruto noticed his spike in anger and waited for him to make his mistake.

Naruto watched as one of Sasuke's punches was extended to far out. He grasped onto it tightly with both arms then lifted him up and over him onto the hard ground. Naruto had his elbow over his throat while his hands gripped both his arms tightly securing them. Sasuke struggled trying to break the blonds hold over him but couldn't. Iruka seeing this called the match. "Winner Naruto".

There were a few cries of outrage from the crowd of students, mostly from fan girls, as not so pleasant words where thrown out at him. And of course Kurama also had a few words for these girls, and guys, sadly only Naruto could hear him and he was tuning him out greatly, only catching a few words like "Bitch" or "Pink" but that was as far as he cared to listen. He walked back into the school with Fu and Tenten trailing behind him.

The day had gone by as normal as it could be, same glares, same lectures, same annoying teacher waking him up from his nap. It was all routine for him the only difference was instead of walking out alone like always Tenten was waiting for him and made him wait for Fu.

Tenten looked over at the mint haired girl and her blond friend. She wanted to get to know the girl more before going any further in starting a relationship with her friend. "So Fu are you busy later, I want to be able to get to know you better". "Actually I kind of am, but we could hang out some other time". Tenten was a bit disappointed but was used to it a lot with Naruto, always turning down her offers of hanging out. Occasionally he would take up on her offer but there weren't really that many people she could hang out with. A lot of the kids in her grade annoyed her so she really only had Naruto and a few others as friends.

"What about you Naruto" she asked being courteous even though she knew his answer. Naruto could sense her slightly disappointed emotion. A perk for being the Jinchūriki of the Kyubbi was being able to sense emotions and other things from people. He did feel bad for having to turn her down. "I'm busy…but how about Sunday we grab a bite to eat at Ichiraku's my treat your welcome to join Fu". Tenten a bit surprised at his response. He never was the one to offer a day they could hang out. It sure has been a strange day for her seeing her friend changing already so quickly in one day. She smiled at him "Sure". Fu looked at the two who waited for her response, she really didn't have anything to do so she accepted the offer "Why not".

"In the meantime can I ask you to take care of Kyu again" The whiskered blond asked. "Sorry no can do, father had a fit last time since the little guy ended up knocking down a lot of the merchandise". Fu looked between the two confused. "Who's-". "The worlds laziest fox, yet it still causes the most trouble" Tenten explained before Fu had a chance to finish her question. "I swear if the little guy wasn't so damn adorable I wouldn't be taking care of him as often as I did, too bad father doesn't see it that way".

He now had to think of other plans for his small fox friend. The Kyubbi festival was tomorrow and the streets were the worst place to be for both him and the fox. There were a few people that came to mind. Shikamaru was one of them, one lazy person deserves an equally lazy fox, but even he would find it to troublesome. Choji would be the next one but he knew that the Akimichi would be busy with his family. The Hokage would probably be too busy with his paper work, it was best to leave him with no distraction even if all he did all day was sleep. Who knows what will happen of Kyu saw the mountain of paper. He shook his head, his best bet would be Shikamaru.

"I wouldn't mind taking care of the little guy, I mean if you say he's lazy then he shouldn't bother me much while I'm busy" Fu said suddenly. Naruto just eyed her. They just meet a few hours ago and she was already willing to take care of Kyu. It wasn't that he was suspicions it was that he didn't know if he could allow someone so new handle him. He was one the last remaining thing he had that tied him to his past. If something were to happen to him then Naruto wouldn't know what to do. Yet he still needed someone to take care of the little guy. With a heavy sigh Naruto nodded his head "Alright, I really appreciate it". What could go wrong with this, she seemed genuinely nice from what he could tell.

"Well I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into girl" Tenten said with a smile. "Anyways this is my stop see you guys Sunday"