Author Notes:

WARNING TO ANYONE WHO THINKS THEY WANT TO REVIEW: The short version: Before reviewing please stop and think if your review can be helpful to the author. If you don't think so please don't review.

The longer version: I dislike pointless reviews. By pointless I mean they have nothing I can get out of them. Examples of that kind of reviews are those asking me to update, those telling me they love my story, and those telling me they hate my story.

If you do want to review, please first think about what you might want to get from someone reviewing your story, though that does come with a warning as I know some people do just want reviews even if they don't say anything. Suggestions are always welcome, as are questions. If you really can't think of anything and still really want to review (I'm not holding my breath here) I do have a few prompts/questions at the bottom after the end notes.

Even just telling me what works and what doesn't is helpful, as I can go look at those parts and try and figure out what's good or not, but it has to be specific. As an example: 'He smiled as on Sasuke's other side Sakura put her head on the counter and giggled silently.' This works (my opinion) because we definitely see how Sasuke's attempts with acting cold are going, along with Sakura's reaction, and the fact that she doesn't want to hurt his feelings by just laughing out loud. It also ties them to their surroundings, the stand, and is not one of the typical reactions found in fanfiction.

Now that the first chapter has been here for a few days, a few brave people have stepped up, some more tentatively than others, and left some examples. You can go look at them as well to get some ideas. So far they've been pretty good.

If anyone still doesn't get this, flames are not good reviews. I've run into many a story where someone asks for criticism and all they get is insults. Please understand that this does not give you the right to act mean, and all you'll be doing is making yourselves look childish.

Also, I will not have any polls, and if there are any parings they are not up for debate. Please don't ask for them. One reason I don't accept reader suggestions for things like this is I like to have a nice long setup for any parings I have, and I don't like much romance in my stories. Another is this story is already planned out and outlined, though it gets somewhat muddled after the first two thirds. I will, however accept suggestions for pranks, and replace the ones I have if I feel they're good enough, as well as use any ideas for improving what's already written. I will credit, of course. Which pranks are good or not are all my opinion; so don't get mad if you think of something and I don't use it. If you think they're good enough write a one shot about them yourselves.

New Story

Sarutobi sat at his deck, wearily chewing on the end of a pipe. He knew that he should have been working on the mass of paperwork on his desk, but at the moment he couldn't focus, his eyes sweeping over the words without taking any of them in. Instead his mind kept going back to a certain little boy who's been acting strange recently.

Most people hadn't noticed the change, which was both surprising and not, knowing who the boy was. Naruto, quiet little Naruto who tiptoed around people, who he'd often seen run home crying, had suddenly gotten a determined look in his eyes, and started practicing at the training ground near the park. Sarutobi hadn't found anything that could have caused the change; just that it was like one day he went to bed defeated, and the next he woke up determined. He hadn't had any unpleasant encounters recently, for which he was grateful, but that didn't mean that something couldn't have slipped past him; an enemy ninja, for example. He'd prefer to believe that Naruto had just decided that he'd had enough bullying, but he ran a ninja village, and was therefore obligated to be suspicious.

Sarutobi made a motion with his hand, and a masked man landed before him.

"How has he been?" He asked the Anbu he had put to watch the boy the moment he realized something was wrong.

"The same as before," the man started. "He is still practicing daily, and seems to have become more vocal. Yesterday he stood up to Higa Miyako when she refused to let him into her store, and left to train right after. Besides that he has not met with anyone suspicious, nor has he sent or received any letters. And I have had his blood, scent, and chakra system compared as you requested, as well as checked for any illusions, and everything seems normal. If someone is controlling him, it is not from the outside."

Sarutobi dismissed the man, slowly pulling his crystal ball in front of him to look at the boy himself. He hadn't thought so. That left only one option, one that he didn't want to think about. In any case, he thought as he watched Naruto practice with kunai, he'd have to ask the boy himself to be sure.

-Ramen Break-

The boy the Hokage was currently watching threw another kunai at a target, watching as the hilt hit the top edge, and the weapon bounced, landing somewhere behind. He picked up the next kunai.

This one landed slightly short, but the point was in the ground. He whooped, and picked up another one, this time aiming about a foot to the left, with three bounces on the ground, before hitting a tree. Truthfully he was bored. Pretending to be the real Naruto was one of the worst tasks as far as he was concerned; he'd much rather be staking out Sasuke like the other clones, and the real Naruto, were doing. Instead he was here, doing tricks with kunai, and looking determined.

"Aarrrg! I'll definitely get it this time! And then I'll be the best ninja ever, you'll see!" he yelled for the benefit of his audience after he gathered up the scattered kunai, and resumed his tricks.

There were two people watching him. One was an Anbu, which was really annoying because he was always watching. He did feel kinda bad for making the old man worry enough to put an Anbu on him, but he wasn't going to cry anymore. The Hokage would just have to learn to live with the new Naruto, and hopefully get the Anbu off of him soon. He was seriously in the way. He'd thought about chucking a kunai as far as he could to have it land near to the Anbu, but that would make him seem frustrated, and he had at least another hour in him before he'd have anything to be frustrated about… besides the stalking Anbu.

The other person, though, he was glad was there. Hyuuga Hinata peeked out from behind a tree and watched him practice. She'd been here earlier that day, but left once he got there hoping to come back when he got bored and left. Only when she came back he was still there, determined as ever, and she'd become curious. He had hoped she'd notice him.

Last time he was sure had been a fluke, and he couldn't afford to try to piece it together in a way that might not work, so instead he had taken initiative, and sought her out instead. He'd even offered to train with her when he got there, but the girl was far too shy. Still, this task didn't require a concrete relationship. All he needed to do was keep sucking, keep having big dreams, and staying determined through it all.

He didn't even have to fake the determined part; he was determined… about looking determined, so that Hinata wouldn't feel so hopeless about herself. After all, if he could become strong, so could she. With that in mind he continued to do his best to look like he sucked at throwing kunai.

-Ramen Break-

A blonde girl sat casually on a low tree branch near the academy playground wearing a sunny, pink and white dress. Its two colors danced together in swirls, looking almost alive whenever the wind caught the fabric as she waited for her friend to appear. She knew he would probably be late; he had to sneak past a very stringy 'parent' after all. Finally spotting someone appear around the corner, she jumped down, carefree grin on her face.

"Hey!" she waved him down as he approached, and looked him over. "Not bad, though the hair and clothes don't match."

"Well excuse me!" The boy looked a little older than her, had black hair, and wore a yellow and orange tie-dye shirt with white shorts. "I like the way I look. Figures you'd be picky, though." he grumbled. She laughed and led him hand in hand to the sandbox, shrugging off her shoes and socks, and grabbing a plastic shovel while he did the same.

"Ah, the joys of childhood," she dug through the sand with her fingers, suddenly a little annoyed. "How was this so enjoyable again when we were little?"

"Oh, come on. This is only the fourth day, you can't have run out of ideas on what to make yet!" the boy started building a tower.

"Sandcastles, sandcastles, maybe a few moats… more sandcastles."

"Sakura, you're the most unimaginative person ever." The boy complained, but the grin on his face revealed his teasing. "Where's your youthful enthusiasm; those flames of youth that keep the creative passion flowing and-"

"Shut up," she laughed and hit him on the head with her shovel. "But he'd better show up today. If not I might just break into his house and give him a piece of my mind about where kids our age should be hanging out."

"He only comes here to bother the academy kids for training, anyways."

"I can give him a piece of my mind on that too." She shot back, continuing to bicker good naturedly as they worked in the sand.

They had waited for almost two hours, having built one castle, and one really, really tall tower, when Sakura suddenly looked up, startled, then broke into a wide smile.

"Naruto," she whispered, and the boy glanced up to see what had caught her attention. Another boy, around six, with short black hair and wearing dark shirt and shorts was approaching. He looked a little sour, hesitating, as if he was unsure whether or not to keep going towards the practically deserted playground, or just turn around and head home. "Finally. I'm gonna go greet him." Sakura stood up, brushed the sand off, and scurried toward him.

She walked up to him, ignoring his hilarious attempt at a scowl when the noticed her, and looked at him innocently.

"Hello, wanna make sandcastles with us?" She gestured towards Naruto as he tried to reach the top of her tower with a flag, but the boy merely stared at her dress, looking a little sick. "Are you okay?"

"Why's it moving like that?" the boy hid his face turning a little green as she looked down at herself.

"What, my dress? It's pretty like this. It used to be polka dot, but that was boring." She ran her hand over her skirt, watching as the swirls practically ran through her fingers. "I'll turn it off if you play with us." She offered.

"No thanks, I have to train so I can become a ninja, like my brother." He moved his hands off his face, and looked over her head, trying to avoid the dress. "He's an Anbu, the youngest ever."

"So, why'd you come here then?"

All the admiration drained from his face in a moment, and the sourness returned. "Because, everyone's too busy to help me train, so I wanted to ask someone from the academy if they could show me anything. But there's no one here."

Naruto, who had joined them in the middle of the explanation, started laughing, "That's because Sakura kicked them all out."

"They were being annoying!" the girl snapped at him, turning pink. "So you're gonna be a ninja, then? Naruto and I are gonna be ninja too. What's your name?"

The boy looked hesitant for a moment before replying. "I'm Sasuke. You can do illusions?" he glanced back at her dress.

"Yeah, that's easy… I'll show you some if you play with us." she pleaded, pouting.

-Ramen Break-

That afternoon found the three of them ordering ramen at the Ichiraku ramen stand. After a bit of playing in the sand, the three of them showed off whatever ninja skills they had, most surprisingly that Sakura could use chakra, and Sasuke was surprised to find them both far better than expected; that and the fact that they weren't ninja yet.

"We're kind of young to become ninja." Naruto answered when Sasuke voiced his thought, sipping on his noodles. "Sure there are some people who become ninja at ridiculously young ages, but I'd rather be a kid for a while first."

"Why? Can't you be a ninja and a kid at the same time?"

"Not really. Lots of ninja missions are really boring from what I've read." Sakura explained. "For example, lots of genin missions are like shopping, farming, and babysitting. And once you make chuunin missions are patrols and escorting people, oh, and delivering things. I say they're luring us under false pretences."

"So instead we wanted to be pretend ninja," Naruto distracted Sasuke, who stared at Sakura, doubtful look on his face. "We've already done a few fun missions, and I'm sure we'll be famous soon. We just need a third member, so that we have a full squad, just like real genin."

Sasuke straightened a little, quickly glancing at Naruto, "So, uh, are you looking for someone right now?"

"You wanna join?" Naruto glanced at Sasuke, as he stared at him with all the excitement of a little kid. Then he seemed to remember himself, and shifted into some bizarre variation of the Uchiha 'This-isn't-worth-my-time' mode. Naruto choked down a snicker as Sasuke tried to answer in a disinterested affirmative. He smiled as on Sasuke's other side Sakura put her head on the counter and giggled silently. "Though, since you're an Uchiha you'll have to take an anti-stuck-up-ness test."

"A what?" the bizarre expression morphed into genuine confusion.

"There are lots of people who can't have fun, and because of that don't want anyone else to have fun either," Sakura explained, a large grin still on her face, "And chances are, if they can't pass the test, they won't survive on our team for long. Those kinds of people tend to congregate in old traditional clans, of which the Uchiha are one. If you want to join our squad you have to prove that you're not one of them. We wouldn't want you to go insane and start raving about the standards of ninja education or something, after all."

"…Alright." he agreed hesitantly, already starting to regret it when the pair glanced at each other, grinning.

-Ramen Break-

An hour later, as he sat in an alleyway with a bucket of flour next to him, Sasuke wondered if it was worth it. On the one hand, the two of them were really good, and it would be good for him to spend time with some peers that weren't so obviously beneath him in ability. On the other, though… the 'test' turned out to actually be a prank, and Uchiha didn't do pranks. Then again, Uchiha also didn't back out of a challenge, though the pair seemed insistent on reminding him that he could quit at any time. They wanted him to dump the flour on someone without being caught, and somehow he suspected that all their schemes would be something like this.

A shadow fell on the wall across from him, and he looked up to find Sakura watching him from the roof above, the evening sun turning her dress to reds and oranges, and tinting her blonde hair red at the edges.

"Problem finding a target?" she asked, jumping down next to him, "Or is it just the idea of pulling a prank?"

"You guys tricked me." He crossed his arms, looking away, trying to appear angry.

"Tricked you?" she asked incredulously as she sat down next to him, "What exactly did we trick you about Sasuke?"

"You said you'd be doing missions that aren't boring, and instead you do pranks."

"What would you consider to be interesting mission material for pre-genin? Would you have agreed if all we did was play hide-and-seek and the like instead?"

"…Maybe," he lied, knowing full well that he'd have seen that as just a waste of time.

"And besides, it's not maturity that keeps the Uchiha from pulling pranks."

"Hm?"

"You'll figure it out when you're older. Hopefully soon though…" she mumbled the last part. "More importantly, you should get used to it, because everyone here tricks everyone else at some point or another, and if they want to hurt you, you can get in trouble really fast."

"Yeah, I know; 'Never let your guard down,' 'Anyone can be an enemy.' I've heard it from my family often enough."

"Here's something I bet they didn't tell you though," she smiled ironically. "They're ninja as well, so they're not an exception to this rule. Can you be sure that they won't deceive you?"

"My family wouldn't trick me!" Sasuke snapped back at her.

"Relax; I don't mean it in the way that they'd kidnap you or hurt you. I'm talking about things like going behind your back about something because they think it's what's best for you… well; maybe we're a little too young for things like that?" She thought for a moment and Sasuke wondered where she got an example like that from. "Maybe, let's say your brother gets hurt really bad and has to stay at the hospital, and they don't want you to worry, so they tell you he's just out on a long mission. Things like that."

"Oh." Sasuke couldn't help but think about all the long missions Itachi's done. Were they doing that? "I guess…"

"Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust them, but you should always try to know what you're getting into first. In a place like this weighing your risks is the best you can do; you never know, after all."

Sasuke didn't argue, instead thinking for a while, and glancing at the sky. "It's kinda late. Can we postpone this to tomorrow?"

"No time limit." she shrugged, "You can take however long you want. We'll be at the playground again tomorrow.

"Think about what I said!" she yelled to him as he disappeared around the corner.

"Wow, Sakura, that was quite some speech. Think it'll get through?" She glanced up to see Naruto leaning off the building she was on before, and scrunched her nose.

"He's a genius. Might take him a few days, sure, but I expect to see him properly paranoid soon enough. Hopefully he'll get the rest of that as well." She looked out of the alley. "Now, we still have a few hours until people start worrying." She stood up, and made the dress swirl again, "How about we do something that's not boring?"

End Notes:

1) I started writing this quite a while ago, so this deviates from canon around the time Sakura pretended to defect. What I was doing during this time was setting up the whole story, so the plot is more or less set, though it is flexible enough that if I get an interesting idea from someone I might include it.

2) I update pretty rarely, and, while reviews are a nice motivator (though be sure to read the note at the top), that does not mean they will have an impact on my posting speed. This story is not that high on my list of priorities; it's mostly on the 'I'll write it when I'm not busy' schedule.

3) Sasuke might seem like he got attached to them really easily, but really he just wants someone who can help him get better, who he's been looking for for a really long time, to help him reach that place where his father would see him as equal to Itachi, and Itachi would spend more time with him.

4) For my use of Japanese, I'm actually fairly proficient with the language, which makes me really nitpicky, even when the Japanese in the story isn't that bad. As an example, there's a really good Naruto fanfic called Hakumei, (as long as I ignore the attack names, as that's something I haven't bothered to learn) but I had to stop and facepalm a little when Sasuke called his opponent 'oujosan' (princess) (and a kind of rude way of saying it at that) when what he really wanted to say was 'ojousan' (lady). Yes, one little 'u' makes a world of difference.

Mostly I will not be using the endings, even in the anime they're really weird, though I think that their village is kinda casual in that respect, or at least the kids are. Example (again): in Naruto the standard way of calling someone seems to be 'name' (or 'name-kun' for girls), the endearing way is 'name-chan/kun,' and hardly anyone uses 'san,' though I don't really remember that that well. Really, leaving off an ending should be either rude or really intimate, which it definitely isn't. The only one I will use is 'sensei,' as that one is fairly confusion-free (for anyone who actually wants the confusion, it's also used for doctors and anyone who's really good at what they do, regardless of whether they teach or not).

I will also be using shinobi, ninja, and kunoichi. A little about these words: 'shinobi' is the 'noun' form of the verb 'shinobu,' which means to sneak around or to endure. The 'shino' of that word is a single kanji, the same one that makes up the 'nin' in 'ninja' the other half of ninja is the kanji for 'someone' or 'person' (usually read as 'mono' when not really attached to anything), making up 'sneaking around person.' I can't quite figure out kunoichi right now (need to make a note to look it up), as the language thing that came with my computer likes to separate 'kuno' and 'ichi' into two different words, though there is a slight chance that everyone spells it wrong, I kind of doubt that.

I will use ranks: genin, chuunin, jounin, anbu and so on, even though I do know their translations (lower (junior) ninja, middle ninja, upper (elite) ninja, anbu is some sort of acronym for an actual ninja-y organization) (actually the 'nin' part can be either ninja or person, and without seeing the actual kanji I can't be sure which, but that's part of the wordplay fun). They are well known here, and far less cumbersome.

I also prefer the Japanese technique names, though I use 'technique' and 'jutsu' interchangeably. I'll also be using 'ninjutsu,' 'genjutsu,' and 'taijutsu.'

I might also use 'jiji' for Naruto with the Hokage, as I kind of like it, though that's iffy, as I can just use gramps instead. I haven't looked it up so I don't know how correct it is. Any other words will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

Prompts:

Can you tell what's going on with Naruto and Sakura, do you think they're the same people or someone else entirely?

Is the timing of the story good, or is it too fast/slow? Maybe too even? If you think it's good point out where you think it's best or why you think it's good; I don't want just a one word answer. If you think it could be better, explain how.