AN: Alright, time to begin our journey through Naruto's childhood. This story will be updated at a specific interval. From now on, after every 3 (approximately) chapters of Orange flash, I'll release one chapter of Prologue Orange. Each chapter will stand on its' own, and as you can see, they'll be about twice as long as a standard Orange Flash chapter on average. With that said, I'd like to thank all of you for your support, and I hope that you all continue to follow the Orange Flash AU.


Evening ~ Tazuna's Home

'It's been a while since I've felt this way... For some time, I thought that things in my life were beginning to make some kind of sense, but in the end, I am a shinobi. Nothing in this profession is ever so simple, but how am I supposed to handle it? When someone close to me ends up on the other side, as an enemy… Just like that, I'm alone again.'

"Um… Naruto?"

The sound of Sakura's voice interrupted Naruto's train of thought.

"… What is it?" Naruto's reply was more of a statement than a question, his voice was a rasp and despite his lack of hostility, Sakura could feel the air become colder as she got closer to him.

"Um… Dinner's ready, we have a long walk back to Konoha tomorrow and you should-"

"It's fine… I'm not very hungry."

Naruto didn't turn to reply to his teammate, he remained perched on his spot on Tazuna's roof.

Sakura winced. "Oh… Naruto, if you need more time to yourself it's fine, I can make sure we leave you some food…"

She trailed off when she saw that Naruto's eyes showed telltale signs of hastily wiped tears. Sakura covered her mouth in surprise and shuffled backwards slightly, however, she didn't leave.

She sat down next to Naruto and instead attempted to offer some sort of consolation. "Naruto, I… I don't know what I can say to make this right, but I know you'll bounce back from this… Casualties… they're a very real part of being a shinobi."

Naruto pulled his knees into his chest and stared at a cloud of fireflies in the yard below. "It's not as simple as that, I know this profession never quite involves the easy road… but that girl that died on the bridge… she was… we…"

Naruto trailed off and wiped his eyes again, continuing to stare at the reflection of the night sky in the lake. Sakura read into his response, and slowly became more and more horrified as the pause lengthened. If Naruto was insinuating what she believed, he'd likely never really recover from this mission.

She broke the silence. "Naruto, what exactly are you saying?"

"Nothing… I'm rambling. We were close, that's all."

Sakura turned from Naruto to the lake's reflection. "Naruto, you can tell me what's on your mind. I know I haven't exactly been the nicest to you these past couple of years… but I want you to know that I'm here for you when it really counts. I think it'd be good for you to vent… and between Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun, I may be the only one you can talk to right now."

Naruto's expression improved a tiny bit, but his focus remained on the sparkling lake. "I guess you're right… but where should I start?"

Sakura thought for a moment before speaking. "How'd you two meet?"

Naruto replied, but after a long pause. "After the 2nd day of tree climbing I got frustrated and left to clear my head. I punched this tree and a weird yellow fruit, shaped like a star or something, hit me in the head… I was out cold, and when I woke up, she was there… I went to see her every day after that, we just sat there and talked until the sun went down…"

Sakura looked at Naruto and playfully jabbed him in the shoulder. "Oh I know that, Kakashi sensei would make us go out looking for you sometimes."

Naruto zipped his jacket up tighter. "Oh… Sorry."

Sakura recoiled a tiny bit when she saw his face; Naruto had no life in his eyes, a far cry from what she was used to seeing from her blonde teammate.

"It's fine Naruto. Just talk, say whatever you need to."

Naruto looked up at the stars for a moment, and took a deep breath before speaking.

"When I met her, I finally got one of the few things I wanted out of life, she was just like me. She grew up without a real family, and yeah, while I have a few people that take care of me, they're always busy with something or other, and they never tell me what's going on… so I don't see them very often, if at all… I'm usually on my own."

Sakura found this strange and pried a bit further. "You mean like the Sandaime? I remember he'd pick you up from the academy from time to time."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah… Can I ask you something?"

Sakura became slightly nervous, but powered through her apprehension.

"Of course."

Naruto started to tear up again, his voice was rife with confusion. "No one's really seen me as I am... I'm never just 'Naruto' to people, it's like no one thinks about what I want... My Guardians won't tell me much of anything about who I am, or where I came from, and people are either mean to me, or they try to ignore me… Something's happening above my head, and it seems like everyone except me knows what's going on. I'm just… lost."

Naruto took a moment to wipe his eyes and continued.

"Sakura-chan... What would you do if someone told you they loved you... and then they disappeared?"

Sakura gasped a tiny bit at the question, she was unable to answer it... Not only that, but she could see that Naruto genuinely had no idea what to do with himself as he stared at her, no, through her. His eyes were blue pits of emptiness, and somehow, there was no light reflecting off of them despite the brightness of the moon. Sakura thought for a moment and tried to put herself in Naruto's shoes, and while she couldn't quite imagine Sasuke falling in love with anyone at the moment, she was able to put a faceless imaginary boy in his place for the sake of the argument. As her mind wandered, she began to comprehend the amount of pain Naruto was in at the moment, she then took that pain, and tried to multiply it tenfold. The conclusion of these mental gymnastics eventually brought Sakura to a misty-eyed blend between sadness and anger.

Sakura grabbed Naruto's hand and shook her head.

"I... I don't know. Naruto, I'm not sure I can truly grasp what you're feeling right now, especially with the life that you've been living until recently. I… don't even know if I have an answer for you to be completely honest. I'm just a normal girl who decided to become a ninja, no ninja-family history, no super bloodline powers... I'm just going my own way. This mission was the roughest week of my life, and something tells me that you, Sasuke-kun, and Kakashi-sensei have seen worse days than this..."

Naruto paused at the statement, but eventually nodded. "… You're not wrong… I've just never felt this strongly about someone before… now she's gone."

Sakura grabbed Naruto's hands and tried to smile, but Naruto's broken expression made her feel like she had accidentally kicked a puppy, her smile slowly faded from view. "I'll admit, there's a lot I don't quite understand yet, but I do know that you can beat this, and that you'll come back stronger than ever."

Naruto gave her a defeated nod, his eyes locked on a singular spot in the grass below.

Looking at him was making Sakura misty-eyed again; she knew that she couldn't cry, otherwise, what kind of teammate would she be? She'd failed to be of any assistance during the mission, and if it weren't for Naruto… The whole of Team 7 would have very likely died on that bridge, there was no debating it.

Sakura vowed, that from this moment onward, she would contribute everything that she had to Team 7. Something as small as not crying in front of Naruto at that moment was important, as he needed someone to help pull him out of this rut, and crying with him wouldn't help the situation.

Sakura bit back the tears and put her smile back on, she stood up on the roof-tiles and pulled Naruto up with her.

"Come on, stand up."

Naruto stared at her and stood up, he faced forward toward the lake, while she faced his right shoulder, both of her hands wrapped around his own.

Sakura's smile had a sort of beauty to it that seemed familiar; it reminded Naruto of the way Haku smiled at him when he first met her, she then hugged him.

"Naruto, find something to fight for, you know, a reason to push yourself forward… It's what helps me stay motivated."

Naruto's face began to flush and he once more found himself deep in thought, Sakura released Naruto from the hug and smiled at him again.

Naruto's lips upturned a tiny bit, but calling it a smile would be wishful thinking. "… Arigato, Sakura-chan, it means a lot… but I think I need to be alone for a while."

Sakura nodded. "Oh, I um… I understand. If there's anything you need, just say the word, I'm right here."

The young girl stood up and hopped off of the roof, she apprehensively opened the door, but not before turning to see Naruto dart off into the night sky, Sakura sighed and closed the door behind her.

When Sakura turned around, she was eye-to-chest with a slightly bloodied flak jacket.

"… How is he?"

Sakura took a breath to speak, but paused for a moment, Kakashi started to appear concerned.

She shook her head sighed. "I've never seen him like this before, he was crying. Naruto doesn't cry… Naruto doesn't even get sad… or so I thought. That girl on the bridge… I think he might have been… Nevermind, he bolted off into the forest about a minute ago."

Kakashi grabbed his chin and pondered the nature of Naruto's situation. "Hn. You bring Sasuke down to eat, I'll go talk to Naruto."

Sakura sheepishly nodded and trudged up the stairs while Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

As Sakura walked through the dim hallway, she could feel the temperature drop as she approached the door to Sasuke's room, she knocked, and waited a few seconds.

The door opened slowly, and in the darkness, Sakura saw a pair of blood red eyes lock onto her own. She jumped and gasped, slowly raising a finger to point at his blood red orbs.

"S-Sasuke-kun, your eyes!"

Sasuke stared back at her for a moment, visibly annoyed.

"I'm… having trouble turning them off, they're giving me a headache… Leave me."

The door slammed shut hard enough to ruffle Sakura's hair; she slapped her forehead, whispering to herself.

'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!'

She groaned at her inability to keep her composure around the Uchiha and spoke so that he would hear her through the door.

"S-sorry to bother you Sasuke-kun, but dinner's ready… i-if you're hungry that is..."

There was a short pause, and Sasuke's door swung open again, the piercing red eyes startled Sakura again, making her reflexively hop backwards. Sasuke locked eyes with her for another moment and turned toward the stairs, Sakura stayed there, frozen in position, she stared as the Uchiha sauntered down to the kitchen.

Sakura followed suit and awkwardly sat down at the table next to Sasuke. Tsunami took the platter of fish, and with a huge smile, she placed it on the table.

Tazuna grinned at the steaming dish and his stomach growled. "You never cease to amaze Tsunami!"

The man broke his chopsticks and was about to dig in, when his eyes locked with Sasuke's red ones.

"Hey uh, Sasuke right? Were yer eyes always red? I feel like I would've noticed that before."

Sasuke stared at Tazuna with a blank expression; there was a long pause. "Sorry, there's a piece of straw in your hair, likely from your hat… it's distracting."

Tazuna scratched his head, while Tsunami took a close look at her father's hair; she fished out a tiny strand of black cloth after a good 10 seconds of staring.

She seemed legitimately intrigued. "Wow, Sasuke. How'd you see that from across the table?"

Sasuke wasn't paying attention at this point, he squinted and looked at the overhead light, appearing generally uncomfortable. "It's a bit bright in here, is there a dimmer for the lights?"

Sakura piped in to try and make the situation less awkward. "Sasuke-kun is still getting used to his new eyes."

Tazuna just raised his eyebrow and stared at Sasuke, eventually turning to the food and muttering something about "weird ninja brats" before digging in. Tsunami walked over to the stairs and was about to call up to Inari, but exactly on cue, the boy came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, he plopped down at the head of the table with a strangely energetic stoicism.

Looking around, Inari turned to Sakura. "Hey, Sakura, where's Naruto and One-Eye-Ninja-Man?"

Sakura pushed the food on her plate in circles and put on a fake smile for Inari. "They're… just handling some business from our mission, they should be back before long."

Inari gave Sakura a strange look, he could obviously tell she was lying. "... If you say so."

Sakura sighed as a reply and picked at her food for what felt like hours, but in reality, the meal had only lasted for about 20 minutes. It was peppered with occasional small talk, but never more than that, It was strange in that the genin weren't experienced enough to have any stories to tell, and the civilians were a bit emotionally drained from the events of that day, with the christening of the Great Naruto Bridge, as well as the ousting of Crimeboss Gato from his seat of power.

Sasuke seemed too absorbed in trying to learn to deactivate his Sharingan to be interested in speaking, so Sakura eventually decided it'd be a good idea to cut her losses in talking to the Uchiha boy and get ready to go to sleep, seeing as Kakashi said they'd need to head back to Konoha in the morning.

Sakura excused herself from the table, exited the kitchen, and climbed the stairs of the dark hallway. She slipped into her room and peeked out the window, and the moon was half full, she absentmindedly scanned the landscape for either Kakashi or Naruto, but after a few seconds, she returned to her task at hand.

The kunoichi grabbed her red and white pajamas, and a travel sized bottle of soap from her backpack, and also a towel. In the process of pulling the towel out of the bag, her wallet popped out and fell to the floor.

Sakura picked it up, but not before examining the picture of Team 7's Official Photo. She stared at it for a few more seconds and groaned, she'd spent nearly half an hour practicing smiles in a mirror for this moment, and while she sat in the center of the photo and beamed, Sasuke and Naruto looked like they were about to fight, the fact that Sakura would literally be caught in the middle seemed to matter little to them.

The wallet went back into Sakura's bag and she stepped back into the hallway, she walked into the bathroom and turned the shower knob. As she waited for the water to heat up, her mind drifted back to the photo of Team 7.

The first moments of her ninja career felt like they were eons ago, even though in reality, it had only been a few months...


Sakura didn't know whether to jump for joy, or go cry in a corner. Sure, she was on the same team as Sasuke, but Naruto too? She just knew she'd be left in the dust immediately after they started training, Naruto was a total weirdo, but it was entirely possible that he was the strongest fighter on their team.

On top of that realization, she was rather miffed, their sensei hadn't showed up for nearly thirty minutes, and after literally everyone had left to begin their ninja careers. Sakura was beginning to think that whoever it was probably forgot they had a Genin team.

She looked toward Sasuke, who was staring out the window. The way the light was rolling over his face made Sakura smile, so she decided to try her luck talking to him for a few minutes. The kunoichi silently shuffled across the room and sat down next to him.

Sasuke gave her a blank stare.

Sakura recoiled a tiny bit. "S-sorry. It's just that, you know, since we're on the same team, we should get to know each other better, that's all."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow and returned to staring out the window. Sakura became worried as the pause started to become awkward, surprisingly; Sasuke said something, despite his apparent refusal to make eye contact.

"… You first."

Sakura sighed inwardly, it wasn't much, but it was progress.

"We've never officially met Sasuke-kun, but my name is Haruno Sakura, you can call me Sakura… or whatever's more comfortable for you! My favorite color is red and ah… am I annoying you?"

Sasuke inwardly groaned and felt the urge to head-butt the window. His ingrained Uchiha breeding forced him to be at least halfway personable.

"… Uchiha Sasuke… No, it's just… you seem like you talk a lot… Talking's not my thing."

Sakura felt slightly deflated. "Oh… well… I'll let you do whatever it was you were... doing."

She stared straight ahead for a moment before once again remembering there was a third member of their team. She looked around the room and noticed that Naruto was sitting in the back, looking slightly impatient, but mostly annoyed. The blonde had always been an enigma ever since the day they started in the academy, Sakura had only limited contact with him when they were toddlers, but that was so long ago at this point that she could barely remember any of it.

What did stick was the common occurrence of people who always told her to stay away from Naruto, be it her own parents, or her friends, the reasoning for which varied. Some people told her he was dangerous, others said he was a bad influence, while others said he was evil. One thing was notable though, ninja families were a lot nicer to him than civilian families, something important to keep in mind, seeing as Sakura was a first generation ninja in her family. It was likely the ninja families new something that her parents didn't.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Naruto. Strange indeed… usually, no one ever came to pick him up from the academy when the day was done, however, when someone did, it would be a Konoha celebrity. The Hokage himself, or Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin. Not to mention, when they were little, a squad of ANBU would always be watching over him from the shadows, and if not, they'd be out in the open guarding him.

Sakura called to the back of the classroom.

"Naruto, what's with you?"

Naruto groaned and swiveled his eyes to Sakura. "I think I figured out who our teacher is..."

"Who is it?"

Sasuke seemed to take interest and turned his head.

"Ever hear about Kakashi Hatake?"

Sasuke became visibly intrigued by this information, and Sakura in turn, noticed the Uchiha perk up, so she pried further.

"Yeah, Naruto, he's a famous Jonin, what makes you think it's him?"

Naruto slowly stood from his chair, his voice increased in volume as he stood up all the way.

"He's late… all the FREAKIN' TIME!"

Just as Naruto finished standing up, the classroom door slid open, a masked man with silver hair sauntered in, his otherwise cool entrance was interrupted by a childish grunt from the back of the room.

A chair came flying into Sakura's field of vision, straight at the man's head, it hit him square in the jaw before bouncing off his head and slamming into the sliding door, breaking it off of the track. Their sensei was sent flying into the blackboard, snapping it from its wooden housing on the wall. Sakura nearly had a heart attack, while Sasuke stared on in blank surprise.

Inner Sakura screamed in horror. 'NARUTO YOU ASSHAT! NOW WE'LL NEVER HAVE ANYONE TO TEACH US! SHANNAROOOOO!'

'Kakashi' poofed into a plume of smoke, immediately afterward, some more silver hair poked into the classroom.

"Unpredictable as usual… It's nice to see you too Naruto."

Sasuke and Sakura continued to stare in confusion as Naruto jumped on top of the desk and angrily pointed at Kakashi.

"TOO BAD I CAN'T SAY THE SAME YA PRICK! I DEMAND A TRANSFER!"

Kakashi rolled his visible eye. "You know that won't work Naruto... You're stuck with me until you die, so I suggest you get used to it."

Kakashi turned to the other two genin in the room and pointed upward. "Let's meet on the roof, yeah? Less things for Naruto to throw at me up there."

Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, leaving a fuming Naruto standing in the back of the class.

"OI! KAKASHI! … THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

Sakura turned to Sasuke. "W-what just happened?"

Sasuke appeared to be opening his mouth to reply, but a growl, followed by the sound of shattering glass and wind interrupted the Uchiha. Naruto was gone, the window was broken, and the room seemed to be another chair short.

Sakura called toward the window in the back of the room.

"Naruto! You can't just get away with destroying academy property like that!"

There was no reply, Naruto was probably already on the roof… Sakura felt even more downtrodden and started making her way to the stairwell with Sasuke.

Deep down, Sasuke found the interaction he just witnessed rather entertaining, he smirked and began wall-jumping to reach the roof faster.

Sakura sighed and stared upward at Sasuke's acrobatic display, while she wasn't looking forward to running up all those stairs, she was curious about Naruto's relation to this fabled jonin, based on the way they interacted, it was likely an interesting association.

Kakashi stared at his new genin charges with a mild interest, primarily because he found it interesting that the council decided to put both Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha on the same team. Kakashi could have even said that he was excited to see how the two boys would progress; the two strongest students in the entire year were both placed on his team. One was a prodigy, a legend in the making; the other… he was more of a child-shaped battering ram.

After taking a second look at his two new students, Kakashi almost laughed... almost. There was Naruto, who had a juvenile pout smeared across his face, Sasuke, who was brooding off to the side, and Sakura, who appeared depressed for some reason. It was disturbingly similar to Kakashi's own genin team, he just hoped they all wouldn't turn out the same way.

Kakashi, being the troll he was, decided to rock the boat a little bit.

"…So I got saddled with you clowns... I guess I've hit rock bottom."

Naruto ceased his pouting and smirked at Kakashi, he then looked at Sakura and Sasuke, who weren't as familiar with the silver-haired jonin.

Sasuke scoffed and glared at his teacher. "That's really not my problem, I'll just transfer off this team if you have nothing to teach me."

Sakura crossed her arms, sticking her tongue out at the older man.

"Relax, we're stuck together for the time being, so we should probably make an effort to understand each other… What are your likes, dislikes, and dreams? You first Naruto, and you can't say orange, ramen, or training."

Naruto crossed his arms and pretended to think for a second. "I like training, ramen, and orange things!"

Kakshi grabbed the bridge of his nose. "Naruto, switching the order around doesn't change anything."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't have anything else! Honestly, what'd you expect? …since you seem to know me so well already… Mr. Copycat Ninja. "

Kakashi sighed and leaned against the guardrail. "Naruto, give me something I don't know about you, this is just as much for me as it is for your teammates. So, I'll ask again, what else do you like?"

It was obvious that there were some gears turning in Naruto's head, he finally spoke after a short silence.

He looked toward his pink-haired teammate and gave her a mischievous grin. "I like… girls with pink hair and fiery personalities."

Sakura's eyes widened and she silently turned to stare at Naruto… who had quickly switched his smile to an equally blank expression as Sakura's, likely to mess with her. Sasuke's eyes swiveled toward Sakura to see how she'd react, Kakashi's eye was also pointed in the girl's direction.

Sakura's expression slowly contorted from surprise, to annoyance, she could never tell if the blonde was joking or not whenever he "flirted" with her... and "flirt" was a term that she used loosely when Naruto was the topic of conversation.

Naruto built on the situation and smirked at Sasuke. "I suppose I dislike people who take themselves too seriously."

Kakashi could hear Sasuke's knuckles crack when his hand clamped down into a fist.

Then, Naruto turned to Kakashi. "My dream? I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

Kakashi waved Naruto off. "Right then… Naruto, please don't antagonize your teammates."

Naruto rolled his eyes and smirked. "Sooo… Do as you say, not as you do, is that right?"

Kakashi silently stared at Naruto for a few seconds; he suddenly used his big toe to flick an errant fragment of gravel at Naruto's forehead protector. It ricocheted off of the metal and flew off into the sky, having hit Naruto hard enough to make him lose his balance and fall backwards.

Kakashi immediately swiveled his eye to the girl in question. She was slightly pink in the face; from what Kakashi could gather, Naruto pressing her buttons was a common occurrence. She sighed and crossed her arms, opting to stare at the Konoha skyline until it was her turn.

"Alright, you next, Uchiha."

Sasuke eyed Kakashi indifferently, and with a furrow of the brow, he answered Kakashi's standard introductory questions.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I like…"

Sasuke froze in thought, he couldn't really think of anything he truly enjoyed doing, so he just opted to skip that one for the time being.

"… I dislike a lot of things, it'd be ungainly for me to rattle them all off right now, but my dream for the future is simple. I wish to avenge the massacre of the Uchiha clan and maybe, restore it to its former state."

Kakashi narrowed his eye at Sasuke and gave him a kernel of advice. "I'm not going to tell you to give up seeking justice for your family, but you're headed toward a slippery slope… If you let your desire for revenge consume you, I can guarantee that pursuing it will destroy you in the process, regardless of whether or not you actually succeed in your endeavors. Just… do yourself a favor and find something that you can come back to when all is said and done."

Sasuke stared back at his teacher. "None of that matters to me. It's just something I have to do, regardless of my fate."

Kakashi smirked beneath his mask. "Let me rephrase then… Sasuke, forget failure, what if you succeed? Then what? Will you just shut down once you've fulfilled your ambition?"

Sasuke got a strange look about him, but he appeared to at least somewhat consider the truth in Kakshi's words.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and stared directly at his new sensei. "One more thing… I've heard all sorts of stories about you, Kakashi, one of which sounds rather interesting… What's your other eye look like?"

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow, upon closer observation, there was a strange twinkle in the man's eye, he summarily replied.

"If I showed you, I'd probably be trying to kill you... Perhaps later down the road when I'm feeling more forthcoming. First, I'd like to make sure you three can at least pass my first test. It'd be a waste if I invested in you and then had to send you all back to the academy for failing your secondary examination."

Sasuke backed down, but maintained his suspicious demeanor for the remainder of the meeting.

Naruto scratched his head in confusion, thinking to himself. 'Secondary examination?'

Kakashi nodded at Naruto and then gestured at Sakura. "Alright then, how about you pinky? Same question."

The girl nodded.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I like… um… nevermind! I dislike perverts, and spicy food… As for my dreams for the future…"

Sakura quickly glanced at Sasuke and then straight ahead.

"I-I'd rather not say that aloud! … but it's nothing out of the ordinary or anything! … Actually it's rather tame by comparison…"

Kakashi looked at Naruto, who was absentmindedly staring at a Kunai that he was spinning around his index finger.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Hm?" Naruto dug in his ear and looked at Kakashi.

"Team 7 will be taking the bell test tomorrow morning at 7:00 sharp in the 7th training area, for the sake of easy memory... Tell Sasuke and Sakura about it, I've got to go reserve the training grounds and whatnot, and also… Try not to eat breakfast… otherwise, you'll puke."

Naruto jumped to his feet. "Wait, What? … Crap."

With that, Kakashi poofed into a white plume of smoke, and Naruto turned to his teammates.

Naruto glared at the dissipating plume of smoke before turning his attention to Sasuke and Sakura. "'Kay… So, we're taking the bell test tomorrow, I've done this a few times before so I'll give you the gist of it. We just gotta steal some bells from Kakashi before a timer runs out, it's a head-on fight, anything goes."

Sakura gave Naruto a tired glare. "If it's so simple did you really need to tell us that?"

Naruto's suddenly darkened visage had instantly changed the tone of the situation, he stared at the open space right in-between Sasuke and Sakura, he had a grim expression.

"I guess… It's just… I'd train with Kakashi every once in a while when I was little and we'd do the bell test... I never completed it, not even once… I couldn't so much as touch him and it was obvious that he wasn't even trying."

The wind blew and made Naruto's serious face seem almost ethereal, Sasuke and Sakura got an eerie chill.

The blonde turned around and looked at Konoha's skyline. "… He's setting us up to fail."

Sakura paused. "Well, we'll just have to work together to complete the test."

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't think we can beat an elite Jonin even if we hit him with everything we have at the same time."

Naruto walked closer and crouched in front of his sitting teammates. "So, how do you approach a fight you can't win?"

Sasuke replied. "There's gotta be a catch, something that we're not accounting for."

Sakura pushed forth a suggestion. "I suppose we won't know until we take the test tomorrow, there're probably some details he'll fill us in on when we get to the training grounds."

Naruto agreed. "I think you're right Sakura! Maybe he'll change something about the test to accommodate three people!"

Sasuke spoke underneath his breath, deeply skeptical of the situation at hand.

"Maybe…"


It was here that Sakura realized that the bathroom was filling with steam; she shook her head and hopped in, making sure to scrub the grunge from every inch of her skin. They had to attend a celebration in the village directly after the battle, so they had to put off any sort of rest until they returned to Tazuna's house, this was the first chance Sakura had to sit and reflect on the team's first real mission.

Sakura's mind drifted to the aftermath of the fight between Team 7 and Zabuza… Sasuke lying there, seemingly dead, a battered Naruto, silently cradling the body of one of their enemies, and the seemingly invincible Kakashi of all people, was hunched over clutching his bleeding chest. There was a bloody gash that seemed to be shallow, if only because of his khaki armored vest that so many Konoha ninja wore.

Sakura looked down at the minor scrapes and bruises on her forearms and shins, and she felt strange, considering the fact that she'd been on an A-Rank mission. With regards to what Sakura knew about high-ranking missions, all the returning ninja she'd seen in town hall were either battered and bruised, or hung their heads in defeat, which was likely a sign that the team lost members in the field.

Sakura exhaled and watched the steam float around the bathroom; it spread across the ceiling at a leisurely pace. She paused for a moment, continuing to stare at the ceiling, her mind drifted to Naruto, and by extension Kakashi. She started to wonder what they would talk about, since, from what she could tell, they seemed to know each other quite well.

Sakura took her bottle of soap and lathered some of it into her hair, she muttered to herself. "So this is a day in the life of a Shinobi?"


"Yes, Naruto, it is." Kakashi replied.

Naruto looked to Kakashi and pondered the question for a bit longer, he truly wondered if such pain was par for the course. The blonde looked out toward the huge crop field and sighed, then, he turned to his teacher and inquired.

"Life of a shinobi... Kakashi-sensei, what was yours?"

The silver-haired jonin raised his eyebrow. "How do you mean?"

Naruto elaborated on his question. "Based on what you said, this sort of ordeal happens to every shinobi at some point in their career… what was yours?"

Kakashi's eye took on a solemn expression, and he stared at the ground for a moment.

"I don't like to talk about it, but given the circumstances… I'll just give you the short version."

Naruto turned slightly. "If you don't feel like it, it's fine, everyone has their inner demons... I would know."

Kakashi narrowed his eye at Naruto. "Hm... Yes, they do."

There was a long stretch of silence while the two ninja stared at the horizon on the crop field.

"… Obito and Rin."

Naruto rubbed his eyes, they were starting to feel itchy and dry. "Were they your friends?"

Kakashi nodded.

"When I was young, I was placed on a team, much like this one in fact. Our sensei would later go on to become the 4th Hokage, that aside… I lost them. First went Obito, he died in order to save me… His dying wish… he told me to protect Rin for him, he loved her, and he never got to say it to her… In the end, I couldn't even do that for him.

Kakashi frowned. "Rin... she died just a few short months afterward."

Naruto's defeated eyes seemed to look right through Kakashi. "I see."

The Jonin turned around and began walking back to Tazuna's house, but not before offering another kernel of thought.

"Naruto, I wouldn't call it a rite of passage, seeing as I'd never wish such a thing on anyone. However, any ninja who's been around long enough has had a defining moment like this."

Naruto's posture perked up a tiny bit. "Defining moment?"

Kakashi stopped walking, his back was still to Naruto. "Yup, and I think this is yours. This may haunt you until the end, but it will also fuel you to achieve your goals, this will be what you fight for."

Naruto smirked a tiny bit and let and examined a falling leaf. "… Sakura-chan told me the same thing."

"Well she's right. Just give yourself some time to process this."

"… Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

The boy sat down on the grassy hill and continued staring out over the vast field, he sensed his teacher's presence begin to fade as the man grew farther away. It was here that Naruto began to think about how he got to this point, the convoluted chain of events that had been his life so far.

"Team 7..." Naruto's mind continued to drift to their first outing as a team… Kakashi's dreaded bell test.


The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon as Sasuke and Sakura sat in silence. They'd gone to training ground 7, at 7:00 sharp to wait for their sensei, however, if he showed up anytime soon, that'd be both a miracle, and a problem…

Naruto was nowhere in sight, and neither was Kakashi, Sasuke, while visibly miffed, appeared to be meditating quietly under the shade of the oak tree. Sakura awkwardly sat next to Sasuke, far too terrified to say anything to him, truth be told, she was thankful for the absence of both their third teammate, and their teacher. However, Sakura found herself unable to come up with something to say, it had been nearly 40 minutes of silence between them.

Sakura was completely thrown for a loop when it was Sasuke who eventually broke the silence.

"… I don't think we should stick around much longer if this is going to be the case."

Saukra froze and turned her head to face Sasuke, who was suddenly staring at her. Her face turned pink and she made a sequence of sounds that didn't resemble any sort of language.

Sasuke stared at Sakura blankly, he raised his eyebrow after a few seconds.

"Beg pardon?"

Sakura twitched and sighed. "S-sorry, you just startled me, that's all."

Sasuke crossed his arms and sighed. "Right… Well, I'm leaving, I'll see you later."

Sasuke stood up and stretched, Sakura shot up as well, suddenly realizing that her "alone time" with Sasuke was rapidly coming to an end. She prepared to blurt out the first thing that came to her mind, but was cut off by a loud rustling in the trees.

Sasuke looked up to see a flash of orange come crashing down on him; Naruto had jumped out of the tree and sat on Sasuke's shoulders.

"Come on Mr. Sunshine! You forgot to kiss your girlfriend goodbye!"

Sasuke growled. "GET OFF ME!" He judo-flipped Naruto and slammed him into the grass.

Sakura gasped. "Naruto?! You were here the whole time?!"

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah! I got here early so I decided to take a nap, I'd figured Kakashi-sensei would be late anyway, so why not?"

Sasuke picked leaves and twigs out of his hair as he addressed Naruto. "You touch me again, I'll break your arms."

Naruto grinned. "That a threat? 'Cause I don't think you can pull that off."

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "No, it's not a threat… it's a promise."

Sakura could feel the air begin to chill as the two boys stared each other down, at that very moment, Kakashi appeared in a puff of white smoke, he appeared to be reading a yellow book of some sort.

"What's up?"

Naruto and Sakura glared at their teacher, screeching in unison. "YOU'RE LATE!"

"AGAIN." Naruto added on the end.

Kakashi shrugged. "Meh, better late than never… Ready?"

The three genin affirmed in their various ways, Sakura with a determined nod, Naruto stood akimbo and puffed out his chest, and Sasuke just stared up at his teacher.

"… Right then. Here's how this is gonna work."

Kakashi closed his book and stuck it in his pouch, he pulled out a pair of bells and attached them to his beltloop.

"Now then, Naruto has taken this test before, however, he took it by himself. Truth is, that was a modified version of this test, the real one is actually a team exercise. Now, to pass this test, you have to acquire a bell from me, by any means necessary. Bombs, poison gas, ninjutsu, etcetera, use everything in your arsenal. If you cant get a bell by noon today, you'll fail, and be sent back to the academy."

The three genin widened their eyes in disbelief.

Sakura was the first to break the silence. "But… You've only got two bells."

Kakashi eye smiled. "Observant… At most, only two of you will be able to pass this test, and that's the best case scenario."

Sakura's heart sank. 'SHANNAROOOOOO! Those bastards! They're just trying to weed me out so he'll be able to devote more time to Sasuke-kun and Naruto!'

Naruto, gave Kakashi a very suspicious glare. "Something's off here."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "Okay then, I'll throw you all a bone."

The jonin picked up a stick from beneath the tree and jumped out into the open field some distance away.

He used the stick to draw a decently large circle, probably about 50 feet in diameter, he yelled over to his young charges as he pulled out that same yellow book.

"Here's the deal! I won't leave this circle! I'd have made it smaller, but I know how our Uchiha friend here likes to play with fire."

Sasuke became confused while he thought to himself. 'Nobody should know that I can use fire-style yet! How the hell does he know that?'

Kakashi pointed off to the side, his genin looked toward what appeared to be a sturdy alarm clock sitting on top of a log post.

Kakashi yelled over once more. "When that bell rings, the test begins!"

Naruto squinted and could see that it was about 90 seconds to 8 o'clock. He walked over to the edge of the circle and tossed off his orange jacket and took off his ninja-sandals, he placed them next to each other and rolled up his pant-legs to just below the knees. It was here that Naruto began stretching out his hamstrings and shoulders with a confident grin plastered on his face.

"You might wanna put your porno away this time around, I'm not a toddler anymore!"

Kakashi's nose was still in his book when he replied. "Oh really? Could've fooled me."

Naruto growled and made 3 shadow-clones, they all took three-point stances and waited for the bell to ring. Sasuke and Sakura stared in confusion as their teammate brazenly challenged their legendary sensei head-on.

Sakura whispered to Sasuke. "He doesn't really think he can beat Kakashi-sensei in a fight, does he?"

Sasuke turned and began walking into the forest. "He's an idiot, I wouldn't be surprised if he did."

With that, Sasuke darted off into the forest, leaving Sakura with a mouthful of dust from the dirt road next the oak tree. She looked back and forth between Naruto and the direction Sasuke went in, trying to decide who to follow.

"Crap." Sakura cursed and finally jumped into the woods to find Sasuke after about two minutes of deliberation.

The bell rang out across the clearing and the test had officially began.

Naruto gave Kakashi a smug grin before yelling out his lone order for his shadow-clones.

"I'll show you, ya perv! Heh! GO FOR THE BOOK!"

Kakashi's eyebrow went up an inch or two after hearing the verbal command.

"Ah, crap."

The jonin, having not planned for Naruto to do something this far out of the box, decided to play it safe and stuff the book into his ninja-pouch.

The 4 Narutos dashed toward Kakashi at an alarming speed, weaving across, in front of, and behind each other in order to create some sort of confusion. Kakashi made it a point to keep an eye on the two bells so that Naruto or any of his clones wouldn't get their hands on any of them.

One of the clones jumped into the air and aimed a kick at Kakashi's chest, while another one came around from behind and attempted to take out the man's legs. Kakashi caught one Naruto's foot and jumped into the air, dodging the leg-sweep. He could feel another Naruto going for his book-pouch, so he used the Naruto in his grasp as a club and slammed their heads together.

They both dispelled and the other two Naruto's growled and charged in. Kakashi took the bells off of his beltloop and tossed them to one of the Narutos, he caught it and gave his teacher a confused look.

Out of nowhere, another Kakashi shot out of the ground and simultaneously body slammed the two Narutos while also taking the bells back. The Kakashi without the bells dispelled and the one with the bells placed them back on his beltloop.

Suddenly, both of the downed Naruto's dispelled, Kakshi smirked beneath his mask as he heard a barrage of shuriken and kunai fly from a nearby tree. Kakashi dodged all of the kunai and Shuriken, and suddenly, the grounded throwing weapons all turned into Naruto shadow-clones, the man was surrounded.

Kakashi chuckled a tiny bit. "Oh, that's cute."

He immediately began beating the tar out of the army of clones, having dispelled the lot of them in about 20 seconds.

Naruto sat in the tree line scratching his head. "How the hell am I supposed to do this?"

After a few minutes, a mischievous grin wormed its way across Naruto's face.

Naruto jumped out of the tree and landed in Kakashi's circle, he made a single shadow-clone motioned toward Kakashi, they both charged the jonin in a single file line.

Kakashi dropped into a defensive stance, knowing full well that Naruto was up to something outlandish. The clone in front slowed down slightly and made a grab for the bells. Kakashi caught its wrist and pushed it to the side to throw the clone's balance off-center.

Naruto smirked and did a forward handspring, using the top of his clone's head to plant his hands. He somersaulted over Kakashi and charged toward the bells Kakashi prepared to aim a kick at Naruto's stomach, but he noticed something in his rather limited peripheral vision…

There was an explosive tag placed on the top of the shadow-clone's head. The clone in question grinned and latched onto Kakashi's leg.

"Naruto, what the fu-"


An explosion rocked the clearing, the shockwave caused Sakura to fall out of the tree she was watching from. She immediately shot back to her feet when she hit the ground; she stared at the smoke and fire in horror.

She could hear a faint scream become louder as an ecstatic Naruto came crashing through the trees, he skidded through the grass and slammed into a tree stump, Sakura then ran over to check if Naruto was okay.

Naruto jumped to his feet and frantically began looking around, Sakura came rushing over, completely hysterical.

"Are you okay? How do you not have a scratch on you? Wh-"

Naruto slammed his hand over Sakura's mouth. "Shhhhh! He might find us!"

Sakura peeled Naruto's hand off of her mouth. "He said he'd stay in the circle."

Naruto looked at the fire in the clearing. "Well, the circle's gone now… and I'm fine, it takes more than an explosion to kill me!"

Sakura gave Naruto a strange look. "So why're you so happy about getting blown up?"

Naruto continued looking around. "I managed to grab one of the bells, but the fall knocked it out of my hand."

Sakura lit up. "Really? That's amazing!"

Naruto shrugged. "Not really. I had to blow myself up to get it, sooo, not exactly something I'd pride myself on."

It was here that Sasuke jumped from above and landed next to the group.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke looked toward Naruto. "So you managed to grab a bell?"

Naruto was obviously annoyed as he searched the immediate area for the tiny bell.

"Yeah! I got it so it's mine, if you want it you'll have to fight me for it!"

Sasuke reached into his pocket. "Is this one of them?"

He pulled out a singed and dented bell, and flipped it up in the air. Naruto turned to Sasuke and glared.

"Give that back, now."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "I don't feel very inclined to do that, seeing as you've been antagonizing me since I day one."

Sakura sheepishly stepped between the two boys. "Please, we can't be fighting like this or we'll all fail for sure!"

Naruto growled. "Know what? Fine. I'll just take it back the fun way!"

Sasuke dropped into an Uchiha-style stance. "Come get it, dobe!"

Naruto charged Sasuke and Sakura stepped further in-between the boys; this made Naruto skid to a halt, or at lest he try to.

Naruto crashed into Sakura, then, they crashed into Sasuke, which then sent the genin tumbling down a hill into a muddy ditch.

There was a loud splash and Team 7 was covered in muddy water. Sakura sat there and pouted while Sasuke and Naruto began punching and kicking each other in a comical fight over the single bell.

Immediately, Kakashi appeared and smacked both Naruto and Sasuke's foreheads together. They recoiled and fell into the mud, this time, losing track of the bell.

Kakashi looked at Naruto as he tried to stand up. "Genin aren't allowed to purchase explosive tags. How'd you get them?"

Naruto struggled to his feet. "Stole'em."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "At least your honest… Well, you guys failed. The only one who even came close to passing was Sakura, she tried to stop you two from fighting each other."

Naruto scraped some mud out of his ear. "But I got a bell!"

Kakashi crossed his arms. "That wasn't the point of the exercise."

Sasuke looked up at Kakashi. "Then what was? You told us it was a team exercise, then made it impossible for us to work together."

Kakashi nodded. "Exactly. I don't expect you all to actually take a bell from me, exploding clones aside; the point was for you all to work together. Apparently you all can't even do that right."

Sakura piped in. "So now what?"

Kakashi didn't reply, he did a few quick hand-signs and white feathers began to fall from above. Suddenly, the genin felt an overwhelming need to sleep; they immediately collapsed to the ground.


When Naruto woke up, he couldn't move at all. He looked around and realized that he was tied to a post.

"SHIT!"

Naruto struggled and squirmed against the ropes, and it wasn't like he could do the escape jutsu, his hands were locked at his sides, so hand-signs were out of the question.

"Dammit! KAKASHI! UNTIE ME YOU PRICK!"

Suddenly, a voice came from the other side of the post.

"Would you stop squirming? You're not the only one tied to this post, moron. You're giving me rope-burn."

Naruto growled. "This is your fault! If you'd just given me my bell, I would've helped you get the other one!"

Sasuke smirked. "Really? Are you sure you wouldn't have just gloated and forced us to do it on our own?"

Naruto took a breath, but then refrained from saying anything.

Sasuke continued on. "Seems to me like you're so concerned with showing me up, that you forget what's important."

Naruto growled. "You don't know me."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. "As if I'd want to."

Naruto sighed. "Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, since we're going back to the academy, I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of each other… Truce?"

Sasuke sighed as well. "Yeah… Sorry."

Naruto chuckled.

Sasuke turned his head. "What's so funny?"

"You were on a roll there with your verbal beatdown! I'd figured apologies would come later!"

Sasuke smirked, but only a little bit. "I'm just being the bigger person, maybe you should consider getting on my level."

Naruto frowned. "… Right. How about we try and get out of this?"

Sasuke concurred. "Maybe we could try to rip the post out of the ground?"

Naruto knocked on the wood and listened closely. "Maybe, but it sounds like it's pretty deep in the ground, we might be too short for that to work."

Sasuke looked around and continued thinking, there was a long pause before Naruto broke the silence.

"Hey, where's Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke looked around, but failed to spot the pink-haired girl.

"Up here." A feminine voice came from above their heads.

Naruto struggled, but by putting his head at an awkward angle, he was able to see above him. Sakura was sitting on the top of the log, eating a bento.

Naruto raised his eyebrow. "Why didn't you say so?"

Sakura became nervous. "Kakashi-sensei said that he'd fail me if I fed you or allowed you to escape."

Naruto was genuinely surprised. "Huh. That's strange."

Sasuke spoke up as well. "Why wouldn't he just guard us himself? Maybe this is another test."

"Yeah, what he said. Sakura-chan, pleeeeease can you help us out of this?"

Sakura crossed her arms. "I don't know Naruto… This may be my only chance to become a kunoichi. I'm not as strong as you two are, so the council will probably make an exception for you two, I don't have that luxury."

Naruto pouted. "If not for me, then do it for your boyfriend over here."

"I'm not her boyfriend."

Naruto grinned. "Really? With the way she looks at you, I really wouldn't know. I'm an idiot when it comes to lovey-dovey stuff."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, among other things…"

Naruto turned his head. "What're you tryin' to say?"

"What do you think, dumbass?"

Naruto looked up to Sakura and pouted. "Sakura, if you do this for us, I promise we'll get you on a team with us wherever we end up after this, okay?"

Sakura looked down at Naruto with a suspicious glare, she raised her eyebrow.

Naruto turned his head. "Sasuke-teme, promise her!"

Sasuke chose to comply. "Yes. Sakura, if Naruto and I get pushed through the system anyway, I'll make sure you end up on the same team as us."

There was a long pause, Naruto and Sasuke waited in earnest anticipation for her decision.

She finally spoke. "Nice work, you two."

Naruto frowned for a second at Sakura's reply, but then, his face lit up, Sasuke appeared surprised when he too realized what was going on.

'Sakura' jumped down from the post, and in a poof of smoke, she revealed herself as Kakashi.

Naruto looked at Kakashi in confusion. "So where's the real Sakura?"

Kakashi pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "She's over there, I had her sit just outside your field of vision."

Naruto could vaguely see a ping and red splotch on the very edge of his peripheral vision when he turned his head all the way to the left.

Sasuke chimed in. "Now what?"

Kakashi eye-smiled and replied. "Now, I've gotta start planning out your training. I've never had a genin team get this far before. So I'm as new at this as you are!"

Naruto cleared his throat. "Soooo… You gonna untie us?"

Kakashi stroked his chin. "Nah… Consider this your first training exercise. Escapology 101: Hatake-style."

Naruto muttered under his breath. "God-dammit."

Kakashi put up his hand and eye-smiled once more. "Good luck, you two!"


Naruto pushed the memory from his mind and stretched his limbs out on the grassy hill. He smiled, and looking up at the starry sky and reaching his hand up toward it, he grasped his hand over the brightest star in the sky.

"Haku-chan… There were things I never got to tell you, I'm sure there were things you never got to tell me… I may not believe in fate, but I do think that things happen for a reason. Are you up there? … Watching? … Until now, I didn't have much of a reason to forge my way toward my dream… Now, I think I know why I met you… Now, I think I know why I want to be the Hokage."

Naruto took a breath and released his grip on the starry sky.

"You always said that the people around you gave you purpose, but I think it was the other way around, you just didn't notice… Haku-chan, I want to protect the people most important to me, and by working toward becoming the Hokage, I can protect them in ways that I wouldn't be available otherwise… I won't fail them like I failed you… I owe you everything… I just wish I could have spent more time with you before…"

Naruto trailed off and let his hand fall to his side, he took a breath gave the heavens a defeated smile.

'This is the life of a shinobi.'

FIN


AN: Sorry for getting all angsty on you guys, but this is an important part of my Naruto's character development. Bad news, this story will have a pretty spread out release schedule, the good news is, each chapter can be read as a standalone snapshot of Naruto's early life, so there won't be any sorts of cliffhangers to piss you off. As mentioned on the top AN, all of the prologue orange chapters are self-contained, and as a rule, they'll be approximately 10,000 words in length. Maybe more depending on my mood…

If you've finished this wanting more, check out my other fic (Naruto Uzumaki: The Orange Flash), to which this story is a prequel.

I was going to release this at the same time as Orange Flash: Chapter 36, but I think I'm going to re-write it, as it doesn't quite feel up to snuff as far a humor and pacing goes. Sorry about that, readers, but you can't rush progress.

Thanks to everyone who made this a reality, and I'll see you all really soon.

Signin' Off

~Breath of the Wiz