I DON'T OWN NARUTO. I JUST WANTED TO PUT THIS OUT TO SEE WHAT YOU THINK. REVIEW IF YOU THINK I SHOULD ADD ANOTHER CHAPTER OR TWO. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE WRITING STYLE. YES - NO? TOO CONFUSING?
[A pink haired girl cowered under the taunts and jeers and tugs on her hair from her female Academy classmates. Tears welled in her eyes and she struggled to keep them hidden, shoving her face in her arms. Suddenly, one of the girls shrieked and she looked up. What she saw astounded her: nasty smelling mud dripped in clumps down her tormenter's face, hair and clothes.
Then, more mud flung itself at the girls, who began running and screaming. The pink haired girl noted that whoever was throwing it had good aim because they pegged every girl in the hair and back and none of the shots missed. When all of the girls had fled, a boy with the blondest hair she'd ever seen came out of the bushes with a huge grin and mud covered hands. She stared at him. Wasn't he in her class, the starting Academy class with Kaede-sensei?
"Uh...hi?" He stared, his grin faltering faintly. "I..I didn't think they were bein' very nice or nothin' so..." He trailed off, looking uncomfortable. She blinked and then nodded.
"They weren't being nice to me." She said as she wiped her eyes with her hands. "Um...what's your name?" For some reason, his name escaped her.
"I..." Now he looked nervous and he picked at the ground with a worn shinobi sandal. "I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." He stared at the ground while he spoke as if expecting her to sneer or laugh at him. She didn't. Because he reminded her of herself - someone was picking on him.
"My name's Haruno Sakura." She said. 'Take a deep breath,' the whisper in her mind grew louder - she'd been hearing for a while now, 'and ask him. Quickly, before he leaves!' She took a breath and he stared at her for a second. "Do you want to be my friend?" Naruto stared at her more and then, slowly, his face lit up in another big smile - one she was sure she could get used to.]
[A black haired boy glowered at the dirt. His brother had said that he would train with him and he never came! He kicked at a clump of dirt and sneered, hearing his father's voice in his ears: 'Why can you not do as well as Itachi? He is the pride of the clan. If you can never get better, you will be left behind as his shadow - not that you could ever surpass him.'
He whipped around and threw a kunai with all his might and anger. There was a yelp and he froze. He hadn't hit anyone, had he? Scrambling over to where he'd thrown it, he found that there was a pink haired girl and boy with bright blond hair a little ways away. There was a cut on the girl's hand and a little ways way, his kunai was buried in the dirt. The blond haired boy growled like an Inuzuka - although he'd never seen a blond Inuzuka - and put a hand on his kunai pouch.
The black haired boy put his own hand on a kunai hilt. Was the blond going to attack him? "Leave him alone, Naruto. It's only a cut. I think it was an accident." Very slowly, the blue eyed boy let his hand fall back to his side. The name seemed familiar. Then he realized it; they were in the starting Academy class. The pink haired girl was Haruno Sakura.
"But he hit you!" Naruto grumbled.
"It was an accident! I was just mad!" He huffed, folding his arms. He knew he should say sorry but didn't his father say Uchiha don't apologize? And Naruto was making him irritated.
"What are you doing out here?"
"What do you think?" Naruto barked, annoyance in his eyes. "We're training! Until you decided to throw your stupid kunai and hit Sakura!"
"Naruto!" Sakura snapped lightly. "If you want be Hokage, it means not instigating things with the clans you are going to be Hokage over. That means not upsetting possible clan heirs and their families! He might become clan head and they have meetings with the Hokage all the time to talk about important things!" There was disbelief in his chest. The possibility of Naruto becoming the Hokage was as likely as him becoming clan heir and surpassing Itachi!
"You want to be Hokage? Ridiculous!" Naruto and Sakura glared at him together as one entity and he took a step back.
"Naruto will become Hokage, just like I am going to become the best medic-nin and head of the Medic Corps so I can help Naruto!" And that took him back. "Don't you have a goal?" And he blinked. His goal was to beat his brother.
"I want to beat Itachi, my brother. He's in ANBU."
"Then why don't you rise a rank higher?" Sakura asked sharply.
"There's nothing higher than that besides Hokage." He grumbled Naruto snorted. "What?!"
"You must not know much about ANBU, then. There's ANBU, then ANBU squad taicho and then ANBU Commander." The blond boy said with a faint smirk. He wondered how Naruto knew that, then pushed it to the back of his mind. ANBU Commander...
"I want to be the ANBU Commander. Then I'll be better than Itachi." He declared. Sakura gave a faint giggle while wrapping a piece of cloth over her hand neatly.
"You do know you have to rise up the ranks of ANBU before you become Commander, right? And ANBU serve and protect the Hokage." Both boys gave each other looks while Sakura giggled again. "Don't forget we actually have to pass the Academy Exams, then the Chunin Exams and then the Jonin Exams. I looked it up." Naruto groaned and nodded his head.
"I know, Sakura. You remind me every time I keep thinking I'm getting somewhere in training."
"Oh!" Sakura blinked, then looked embarrassed. "I...uh...what's your name? I'm sorry. I forgot. I know you're in our class..." She trailed off.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke." He said with pride. Naruto rolled his eyes lightly until Sakura smacked his arm and he muttered a "sorry". Sakura nodded.
"Well, I did have something to tell Naruto but since you're here and you want to be ANBU Commander, I think you should say it too." Sasuke looked at the pink haired girl as Naruto did the same with a curious look on his face. She dropped to a knee and looked Naruto in the eye. "I, Haruno Sakura, pledge my life and abilities to Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure. Never will I turn my back to him nor will I betray him or Konohagakure as long as I breathe and even beyond death. I swear to heal his wounds and guide him in all things he needs guidance in should he ask. So do I swear on my life."
Sasuke stared wide eyed and Naruto was gaping before he snapped his mouth shut and thought hard for a second. Then he replied.
"I, Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure accept your pledge. May your Will of Fire burn bright." And now Sasuke's thought were racing. She had seriously sworn her life to their classmate! And they wanted him to do it too! She truly thought he was going to be Hokage!
But then, he thought about his goal: be better than Itachi; get to be ANBU Commander. He'd heard what others said about ANBU in the quiet when they though no one was listening - they did the things no one else wanted to do; the nastiest, bloodiest missions, the things the other shinobi didn't want to do because they still had morals - besides simply protecting the Hokage like Sakura said. And he'd just signed himself up to be the leader of them. Then, he realized the pair was looking at him.
He steeled himself and nodded. Naruto was dumb enough that it would be easy to protect him. "I, Uchiha Sasuke, pledge my life to Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure. Never will I turn my back to him nor will I betray him or Konohagakure as long as I breathe...and even beyond death." He stopped to think. He wasn't going to be a medic, so he needed different words. "I swear to guard him from the shadows, never stopping in my duty for a blade. I will guard and guide him in all things he asks. So do I swear on my life." There was a feeling of lightness curling in his chest when he said the pledge, an odd feeling he hadn't felt before.
"I, Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure accept your pledge. May your Will of Fire burn bright."
There was a shift in the air, but not a bad one. For a bit, they stood in silence until Sakura spoke.
"We'll have to train - and really hard. We chose really strong things to be, so we have to be strong. Can we meet up here, every day or two?"
"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, wide and gleeful. Sasuke nodded.
"I don't think anyone cares. Let's do it."]
1 YEAR AND 1 MASSACRE LATER...
[He woke in a bed of white; white sheets, white walls, white floor, white clothes. Had the Shinigami taken him like he had taken the rest of the clan besides that man?
"Sasuke." Black and orange erupted into his white hell and Sasuke lunged and gripped Naruto's arm tightly. He was fine. His makeshift family was fine. That man had not harmed them. Hadn't touched them. Pink and black entered his vision and Sakura worriedly looked at him, allowing him to hook an arm around her own and pull her closer.
"They're dead." He murmured, gripping their arms tightly. He wouldn't - couldn't - cry. At least not here. When he was safe in Godaime-sama's ratty apartment, he would weep and then never cry again. The future ANBU Commander should not cry.]
[Sakura looked at Naruto. Sasuke was hurt, injured inside and she felt only they could repair it. No one else knew how. They were a team and they knew each other better than anyone else could or ever would. They had haggardly watched over Sasuke and when Sakura went to the Academy to do damage detail and gather notes and classwork, Naruto stayed with him. They would not leave him alone.
She was worried - so worried. It was his brother, the brother he longed to surpass. Sasuke had found his dead parents and his brother had trapped him in his own mind. She supposed he was a lot closer to a true ANBU than before - a horridly morbid piece of humor.]
[Naruto, during the month that had past during Sasuke's unconsciousness, had thought a lot. Sakura and Sasuke had repeatedly pounded into his head to think before any action was to be taken, so he did. And what he found when he did so, horrified him.
The times he had met Uchiha Itachi had not shown him the being of a murderer, merely a being trying to understand. He really did love his family. So to Naruto, it made no sense for him to murder the entire clan. What really made him sick was the fact that Itachi was ANBU...and ANBU only followed the orders of one man - the Hokage of Konohagakure.
And the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was possible. The times he'd been in the Uchiha compound, the children had had an aura of peace, but the most of the adults in every corner of the compound swirled with tension, mistrust and anger. If something had happened between the Uchiha and the old man, Itachi was the go-between for the clan and the Hokage - and between them, Itachi had sworn his life to the Hokage as ANBU. Not the clan. They never saw it coming from one of their own kin.]