The Shadows Above

Chapter 1: Dreams

Fuuin jutsu

Naruto was an orphan, and hated it. He was taken care of by his father's closest friend and Father figure, Jiraya, until he left the village when Naruto was five. Years had passed since then; he worked at Ichiraku ramen so it wasn't like he had no money but he didn't have very much either. He had his own house but it was small. To be honest, Naruto didn't care about that though; he just wanted to fit in for once.

He had always been a rebel at school, never handing in homework or projects, constantly annoying students and teachers with his stupid pranks, but he managed to pull himself together for his ultimate rival, to prove that he was just as good, if not better and got into the same college.

As he walked through the gates, that guy zoomed past into the parking lot on his motorbike. On the back of his leather jacket was a fan, this was his greatest rival, and his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha.

Naruto always thought Sasuke was a typical rich kid who didn't care about anyone – but they both had one thing in common, their families were gone and they were on their own.

Sakura was sitting at one of the desks, beside Sasuke, and Naruto went to sit beside her. She was trying to chat-up Sasuke for the trillionth time, and failing. Naruto had never quite understood why all the girls fell for Emo-boy when all he does is treat them like crap. But every time he voiced this opinion to the girls, they all reminded him of the first day of secondary when he was 'pushed' into Sasuke 'accidentally' landing on top of him but worst of all – they accidentally kissed! … At least they didn't see us when we were literally stuck together … why is it always with him?

"Right," said Tsunade-sama, the head, or as Naruto liked to call her Tsunade-oba-chan, "Today you will be put into groups according to your test scores. You will each work in a group of three and will help each other pass the first year course. Next year you will choose your speciality: Medical, Reconnaissance or Military training. Here are the groups: ... Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Team 8: Kiba Inzuka, Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburami. Team 9: Gaara no Sabaku, Temari and Kankuro. Team 10: Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka. Team 11: Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga and Tenten. Each of you will work together and help each other become better at each of the subjects. Every lesson you learn in your first year will stay with you and help you forever. It will strengthen the bonds between you, your friends and team members. Each team will also have a sensei that will be there to help if your group encounters any trouble with work or tasks. If your group is going outside of the village your sensei will go with you and will not leave you until you are back safely in the village. Parts of your course will involve leaving the village for extended periods of time so do not forget to inform the gate keepers that you are leaving and when you return. "

Once Tsunade-sama left the class, Iruka-sensei entered to tell them about how the groups would have every class together etc... Naruto was surprised that he didn't fall asleep because Iruka-sensei talked for what felt like years.

After that they had no classes, so Naruto went to work and get dinner. Sakura went with him and got a bowl of ramen while they talked about how cool it was to have the old team back together again. Sasuke had spent five years training in the mountains of the land of rice to become stronger because of his brother, but Sasuke had finally returned. He had grown up, and he was not as filled with revenge - at least that's what they thought – but he was still cold towards others. Sakura had been trying to think of the reason he acted like that, since secondary when they were placed in the same team.

"Well, I think he was so shocked by what happened to his clan that he blocked out everyone else, so he couldn't get hurt if someone he was close to was hurt or betrayed him again," Sakura said, quite smug that she thought she finally understood Sasuke.

"Em... What?"

"Basically, he doesn't want people he's close to getting hurt or betraying him because it reminds him of his past; so he tries to keep his distance."

"Okay... that kinda makes sense?" said Naruto, still bemused about Sakura's ability to create something that crazy out of Emo-boy.

That night he remembered the time when he'd tried to stop Sasuke from leaving. Most of it was a blur since Sasuke had managed to hit him really hard on the head, but he had these strange flashes of orange that went past him like fire, but he was the source, and Sasuke had this blue lightning in his hands… - it was probably just his over-active imagination though.

He got up early to open the shop but all the time he was thinking about his dream, his claws, and Sasuke's wings. Were they really just his imagination? It seemed too real. He stopped thinking about it because it was annoying him. It couldn't have happened.

…

Naruto was late for class. He ran, and made it just before Tsunade arrived, but she had seen him running to class and hit him for pretending to have been there the whole time.

That day they were taught about human biology but to Naruto it was as if Tsunade was speaking another language.

…

At lunch they decided to meet up at Sasuke's house, after class was done for the day, to revise that particular topic. After lunch was P.E., which was the only class Naruto was good at because he had never really grown out of the hyper active kid stage. No-one but the silhouettes knew why though.

They all left the school and Sasuke got on his motor bike and went on ahead.

"Oh my god!" Naruto said when he saw Sasuke's house. He had never seen the Uchiha mansion before, as it lay in the suburbs of Konoha, he had always just assumed that Sasuke lived in a normal apartment.

They went into the study to revise (or in Naruto's case, translate) what had been covered that day.

"How do you understand this!" Naruto said exasperated.

"Simple, I paid attention through high school." Said Sasuke, smirking.

"I wasn't talking to you! Why would I? You just say something annoying and don't help!" Naruto was still really upset about what happened when Sasuke left and had never truly forgiven him.

…

It went on like that until pretty late and they didn't really get much done so they decided they better do it again and try not to start arguing about every little thing, though it wasn't really arguing it was more Naruto shouting and throwing stuff at Sasuke and Sasuke ignoring him.

"Why don't we go to your house tomorrow, Naruto?" said Sasuke, "Then you'll only mess up your house instead of breaking all my stuff."

"Em… sorry, you can't really come to mine," Naruto muttered "How about Sakura-chan's house tomorrow?" said Naruto, not wanting to admit that he still couldn't afford a place that more than one person could fit in.

"No my dad wouldn't want us there. Can we just study here again, Sasuke?"

"Fine… I don't really care; just don't mess up any more of my stuff." He said since he couldn't be bothered tidying it up.

"Kay we'll come over after class tomorrow," said Sakura.

Naruto and Sakura said good bye and left.

After he had locked up he went to bed, but he couldn't sleep. Something bugged him about the way Naruto and Sakura didn't want people over, even their best friends.

He decided he was going to follow each of them home the following nights and find out. He didn't know what he expected to find but something wasn't right.

After deciding this he was able to sleep, but it didn't make him relax. Since he had returned to the village he kept having the same dream over and over… He grew wings and had lightning in his hand and Naruto he had a reddish-orange energy around him like a cloak and he seemed to have tails and a blue ball of energy in his hand. And just before they collide in the air he wakes up. He had never had a good imagination, so he never really understood how he came up with that, but something about it made him feel like it actually happened. It was impossible – but it felt so real.

For some reason the dream stayed with him for the rest of the day. He couldn't concentrate in class, He was doing worse than Naruto! He went home at lunch to relax English was later but he saw no point in going. The class was taken by Jiraya, they weren't exactly going to learn anything - reading material consisted of his writings, make-out paradise. He was so like Naruto it scared Sasuke.

…

Naruto and Sakura showed up at the end of school to study, which took ages as Naruto had trouble with the slightest things. After Naruto and Sakura left he followed Sakura home, he felt like a stalker.

When he watched through the window, as Sakura entered her dad said, "Where have you been?"

"I've been studying." She said averting her eyes.

"Sure you have, you dirty slut!" He said then spat on her, "Just like your mother." He slapped her across the face. "Go get me some dinner. Hurry up!"

Silently Sakura walked through to the kitchen where she cried softly, not wanting her father to hear. Sasuke was shocked, he stared at her, not able to move if it had been him or Naruto had done something like that they'd have been dust by now.

Sakura looked up and saw Sasuke staring at her.

"Sakura, come with me, now!" said Sasuke.

"I… I… can't he'll kill me." She said in a terrified whisper.

"That wasn't a question Sakura. I won't allow you to stay here." He said with an authoritative tone, pulling her out through the open window.

That was all she asked for when he left last time, that he should take her with him. They walked in silence to Sasuke's house… to somewhere safe.

Hey, I thought of this idea two years ago and wrote the first two chapters on paper. I finally got round to typing it up and I have made tons of changes since I first thought of it, such as Sasuke's last line – it was going to be, "Either you come with me, or I'll have to take you by force." But every time I read it I kept hearing it in a suggestive way. I was so naïve when I wrote the first draft; therefore I cut it as I would never be able to read it without dying a little inside – Sakura will never be with Sasuke!
I'm also trying to write this for non-Yaoi fans so I will warn people if there's gonna be weird scenes to watch out for since some people might not want to read such things.
There will be M rated stuff later - you have been warned.