AN: The premise of this story is that Naruto, instead of being only a casual acquaintance to Ayame, actually truly befriends her early in his life, and the consequences that would follow as a result of this. Yes, Naruto will be with more than one girl, and you'll see why. Note that Ayame is a year younger than she is in canon. Ditto for Hana.

A Better Friend

Chapter 1: New Friendships


"Jiji!" shouted a blonde boy as he burst past the large metal gates between him and the approaching white-robed Sandaime Hokage. Sarutobi smiled as he continued to stroll down the street calmly while the blonde rocket raced at him with a happy smile. Kneeling down, he embraced the blond missile that slammed into him in a warm hug that was tightly reciprocated.

"How have you been, Naruto-kun? Made any progress with reading and writing?" asked Hiruzen as he pulled back from the embrace and set his hands on the boy's shoulders. Said boy simply grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. Naruto had only recently begun to learn to read and write as would be expected of any four year-old, but progress was slow as he didn't have someone willing to teach him like others did. Not even the caretakers in the orphanage paid him any more mind than was strictly necessary, so the Sandaime had recently taken it upon himself to teach Naruto personally; even if it only meant sending down a Kage Bunshin to watch over the boy.

Hiruzen graced the boy with a smile and dangled the bait in front of the young hyperactive boy. "I expect the best from you Naruto-kun. You do want to be Hokage, don't you?"

"You bet Jiji, that hat will be mine!" declared Naruto with a loud shout, drawing curious glances from a few old women as they peeked out their windows to see what the commotion was about before one of them huffed and drew back inside, shutting the window with a snort. Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly but shrugged it off and returned to his happy countenance, beckoning Naruto to follow him along on the way back to the Hokage Mansion.

The two began to slowly walk through Konoha as Naruto regaled his idol and surrogate grandfather with tales of his epic struggle against words, to Hiruzen's great amusement. Once the boy had his fill of childish whinging, Sarutobi drew his enraptured attention by beginning to recount a story of his time as a younger ninja.

As Naruto eagerly listened to Sarutobi's recounting one of the First Hokage's many battles with Uchiha Madara, his nose…his nose detected a pleasant aroma floating through the air. Stopping where he stood, he quickly turned around, sniffing deeply as he tried to find the source. Hiruzen stopped and looked at Naruto curiously, wondering what had gotten into the little blonde.

"Do you smell that Jiji? It smells really good!" said Naruto in excitement as he began to salivate.

Sarutobi raised a questioning eyebrow before he too recognized the smell that was rolling through the air. Ramen. His lips quirked slightly at the irony of Naruto discovering his mother's favorite dish like a bloodhound. While of half a mind to continue walking, Hiruzen decided to indulge Minato's son. If Naruto was Kushina's son, he was only hastening the inevitable, after all.

"Let's go find it, show me the way Naruto-kun!" exclaimed the Hokage as he grabbed Naruto by the armpits. With a surprised yelp from the blonde, Hiruzen lifted the little boy onto his shoulders, making him giggle happily. Naruto already knew what to do, having had the opportunity once before to ride on the Sandaime's shoulders, and stuck his arms out like a compass, pointing towards the intoxicating fragrance. Hiruzen began to lightly jog in the direction Naruto pointed making Naruto whoop in childish glee.

"Faster Jiji, faster!" shouted the excited blonde as the Hokage chuckled and obliged him, taking to the roofs with a jump as Naruto exclaimed his happiness. Naruto continued to guide the Hokage by sniffing in deeply and pointing out where he thought the smell was coming from, all the while laughing excitedly like any other four-year old would with his grandfather in such a similar situation.

Ten minutes of wandering around fruitlessly later, Hiruzen was beginning to suspect Naruto was drawing them in a circle in order to extend his joyride on the Sandaime's shoulders when Naruto shouted, "There!" The boy was pointing at a modest, yet clean-looking restaurant with the words ICHIRAKU RAMEN written in large bold print across the front. Jumping down in front of the restaurant, Hiruzen carefully extracted Naruto from his shoulders and onto the ground. Normally the blonde would have tried to complain about his fun ending early, but he was too hungry to care at the moment as he stared at the restaurant with longing. Hiruzen's face clearly showed his amusement as he stepped forward and walked into the restaurant, Naruto trotting happily at his heels.

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, how m-may I help you, Hokage-sama?" greeted a now nervous Teuchi Ichiraku as he took note of his newest client. His usual friendly welcome had tapered off in shock at seeing the Sandaime Hokage of all people in his modest ramen shop. While Hiruzen did visit the village restaurants, he had rarely if ever visited the cheaper restaurants, seeing as most eating outs had occurred in the company of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, his old teammates, and had served more as formalities to their usual round of back-and-forth bickering over his policies than a pleasant lunch with old friends.

"I'd like to order a bowl of ramen for Naruto-kun here, as well as another for me," offered Hiruzen with a kind smile as he took his seat at one of the stools in front of the counter and hoisted Naruto onto another; it wasn't the first nor the last time civilians would scramble in front of him, and he had been on the receiving end of this behavior for what was soon to be three generations. His response to a person scrambling over themselves due to his presence was as natural as making hand seals to the aged Kage at this stage of his life.

"Coming right up!" said Teuchi as his bluster quickly returned. Gazing down to his side, Teuchi pointed towards the sink where a clean stack of ramen bowls sat. "Ayame, help me prepare the bowls," instructed Teuchi to a small white bandana that seemed to be bobbing around the restaurant hurriedly as Hiruzen sat a little straighter up to see peculiar sight. Standing next to the ramen chef was a young girl who couldn't be older than ten years old at the stove as she quickly began to set out the bowls and chop vegetables.

"Your apprentice?" asked a curious Sarutobi as he glanced up to see the ramen chef's gentle smile as he gazed down at the girl.

"No Hokage-sama, this is actually my daughter. I'm teaching her how to run the stand so that she can take over once I'm old and grey," answered Teuchi with a warm smile in his daughter's direction. Teuchi turned back around to get started on the two bowls but noticed that his daughter was starting to sweat and looked rather tired.

"Ayame, come sit down and take a break to eat dinner; say hello to the Hokage and his young friend here, Naruto, was it?" said Teuchi while Naruto nodded with a grin on his face. Teuchi knew who the boy was, of course. Hell, there was hardly an adult in Konoha who didn't know of the blonde Uzumaki, but this was actually the first time that he had seen the kid, who seemed nice enough, demon fox in his belly aside.

Stepping out from behind the counter, the brown-haired girl plopped down on the stool next to Naruto with a tired sigh. She was dressed in white kitchen clothing and an apron, and her face was lightly covered with sweat and grease. Despite her poor appearance and apparent exhaustion, she turned to the young boy and mustered the energy to give him a small smile as she introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Ichiraku Ayame. What's your name?"

"I'm Uzumuaki Naruto! It's nice to meet you Ayame-chan!" said Naruto happily, shooting her a friendly smile. It wasn't often that he had the chance to make new friends, what with the orphanage's caretakers doing their best to keep him away from the other children. Most of them had been happy to ignore the blonde at the caretakers' not-so-subtle hints save for a handful that were generally around his age.

Naruto continued to smile at Ayame as she slowly felt the growing desire to cuddle the little blonde with the angelic smile. That is, until a bowl of ramen was set down before said blonde by Ayame's father. Naruto's eyes had followed the bowl of ramen since he noticed it in Teuchi's hand all the way to its being placed in front of the boy. Teuchi had barely let go of the bowl when the young boy pounced and began to devour his meal.

Ayame would never forget the sight of a four year-old chibi devouring a full bowl of steaming hot ramen in less than a minute. The ghastly image had certainly helped to knock the blonde's cuteness factor in her mind down a peg or three.

"Naruto, you should really try using chopsticks..." muttered Hiruzen dejectedly as he looked away from the sight, slightly embarrassed that his grandson in all but blood had such atrocious manners. Hiruzen resolved that to teach Naruto some manners, and soon; the boy desperately needed them. Not that Naruto was minding his grandfather's words as he looked up from his bowl at Teuchi with a satisfied smile.

"Can I have some more Ojii-san?" asked Naruto innocently, making Ayame and Teuchi stare in shock. He wanted MORE?!

Turning to the Hokage for an answer, the Sandaime surprised Teuchi when he nodded in approval. He had known full well to expect that this would happen due to Naruto's mother being, well, Naruto's mother.

Teuchi turned back to the anxious blonde and shot him a grin, "Coming right up kid!"

Ayame, still rooted to her seat in shock, would remain there for the rest of the night in a state of near disbelief as the young blonde packed down noodles in himself like a starving Akimichi.


"Uaagggghhhh, I'm stuffed! Thanks for bringing me here Jiji and thanks for the food Teuchi-ojiisan!" exclaimed Naruto as he leaned back contently on his stool and let loose a loud yawn.

Naruto had managed to eat a shocking 4 bowls of ramen before he called it quits, beating out the Hokage's own 2 and Ayame's 1. While Hiruzen hadn't been trying to compete with Naruto, the blonde had gotten it into his head that he had 'beaten' the Sandaime, to the amusement of the two adults.

"You're welcome, Naruto, it was a pleasure having you two here," called out Teuchi with a smile as he waved the two goodbye. It wasn't every day that the Hokage visited a restaurant, and his shop was sure to see a rise in traffic due to his visit. The Konoha gossip circle worked in mysterious ways like that, and this time to his benefit.

Hiruzen patted Naruto on the head as he set down the ryo needed to cover the cost of Naruto's massive appetite plus a bit extra while giving his thanks to Teuchi for the meal and offering a short goodbye to the ramen chef's daughter who nodded back respectfully, too shy to respond to the leader of the village.

"Come along Naruto-kun, we've got to get you back so that you can sleep," called Hiruzen as he rose from his seat.

By now, Ayame had snapped out of her reverie and was helping Naruto down from his seat due to his age(and the fact that he was so full he'd probably vomit if he were to do so much as hop off from the stool). She watched the boy do a quasi-waddle out of the restaurant with a soft smile, already endeared to his antics without having consciously realized it.

"Bye Naruto-kun, be sure to come again!" called Ayame cheerily as she stepped outside of the stand and waved him goodbye. Freaky appetite aside, he was nice and cute little kid, she could get used to having him around. That and her Tou-chan seemed to go easier on her when he and the Sandaime were around.

"Bye Ojii-san, Ayame-chan! You'll be seeing me again dattebayo!" said Naruto, smiling so hard that his face squinted into fox eyes. Hiruzen offered the father-daughter duo a wave of his own as he turned away from them and began to guide Naruto down the street and back towards the orphanage. Naruto began to happily ramble about the deliciousness that was ramen to an amused Hiruzen as they disappeared into the night, completely out of earshot.

Stepping back into the shop, Ayame commented to her father idly as she picked up the empty bowls, "He was a nice kid, I like him. Kinda strange that Hokage-sama is running around with a random orphan, ne Tou-chan?"

Teuchi hesitated before offering up a grin, "He's probably getting used to being a grandfather seeing as his grandson Konohamaru was born recently, and from what I've heard that Naruto kid's parents were good friends of the Sandaime before they died during the Kyuubi attack." Teuchi was mentally patting himself on the back for his excellent acting skills.

"Hopefully I'll get to see Naruto-kun again soon," said Ayame softly as she mindlessly began to clean the bowls, not having heard a word that came out of her father's mouth. She didn't fail to hear the next ones though.

"Sounds like someone's got a crush."

"TOU-SAN!"


From that fateful evening forwards, things started to get different for Ayame. While she still attended the school for civilian children and worked from when she got out of school at twelve until five in the evening, Naruto had quickly made it a habit to come visit the ramen stand every day around noon. While that in itself wasn't that much different from any other client that visited semi-regularly, Naruto stood out like a sore thumb in comparison to all of the other customers that came around.

For one, Naruto had a pretty distinct look to him, in Ayame's opinion. All of blondes in Konoha were either Yamanakas, the estranged Tsunade, or the lone orphan boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks. Rumors had long been circulating that Naruto was the result of an affair between a Yamanaka and an Inuzuka due to his hair color and facial markings, not that Ayame had heard any of this.

Another reason was the fact that he was used to roaming around alone as a four-year old. He would regularly come and go unaccompanied by anyone, crawl his way onto a stool, and chow down using his monthly allowance from the Hokage while chatting away happily to the two ramen chefs. It was as though no one was truly responsible for Naruto as he seemed to have no curfew, no minders, and no worries about getting in trouble. The one time Ayame had asked him about why he never seemed to get in trouble for staying out late, he had chortled and laughed, making Ayame huff at him before she hit him lightly on the back of the head for his cheek. At least, she thought it was lightly. Naruto's head had taken a bath in his ramen, not that it stopped him from eating it anyways.

Speaking of ramen, then there was his appetite. Kami, his appetite. Ayame knew she would never get used to watching him eat, no, devour bowl after bowl of ramen like a bottomless, eternally hungry pit. He never seemed to carry that appetite over for anything other than ramen either; he never ordered any of the few things they had on the menu that actually weren't ramen.

Due to his continued visits to the ramen stand, Ayame had come to grow fond of the little blonde and he was constantly on her mind. Truth be told, apart from her father, Naruto was by far the person she spent the most time with nowadays. Not even the few acquaintances she had in the civilian school were around her as much as the ravenous little blonde with a penchant for ramen.

Today was roughly a week from the day that Naruto had first met the Ichiraku family. He happened to be happily strolling down the street as people cleared him a wide berth per usual. Not that he noticed, focused as he was on filling his stomach and spending time with some of the few people that actually liked him. He smiled widely as the modest little stand came to view and began to jog the last few steps towards his destination in anticipation.

Stepping into the stand, he shouted out his usual greeting of, "Hi Teuchi-jiisan, Ayame-chan!" as he scrambled up onto one of the stools, already salivating at the thought of the his precious noodle dish. Ayame smiled at the blonde from behind the counter as she raised the divisor and made to sit down with him. She had managed to convince her father to let her eat her lunch with Naruto whenever the blonde came by in the early afternoon. So far, he had yet to miss a day since he first started visiting the ramen stand for lunch.

"Do ya want the usual, Naruto?" asked Teuchi as he shot the blonde a knowing smile. Naruto seemed to have taken to a precise order of eating ramen, rotating from beef, to chicken, pork, miso, and by the Sandaime's orders, a vegetable bowl, and then back to beef. The Sandaime had actually asked that Teuchi refuse to give Naruto more than two bowls a day until he was older; something that Naruto had greatly resented for he had childishly ran to the Hokage Tower to complain to the old man once he found out from Teuchi.

Naruto nodded, and Teuchi pulled out a hot bowl of beef ramen from behind the counter, to Naruto's delight and Ayame's eyes rolling. Ayame contented herself with slowly eating her own bowl of miso ramen that her dad set before her; talking to Naruto right know would be an exercise in futility, as she had quickly come to realize in the days prior. When eating ramen, Naruto appeared to have a one-track mind and was dead to the world unless it came between him and his ramen.

She was broken from her musing when Naruto let out a loud belch and turned to her with a smile, "Say, Ayam-"

Ayame didn't let Naruto get in another word as she turned to him with a frown. "Naruto, you've really got to learn some manners, you shouldn't eat like that or burp in front of others," reprimanded Ayame lightly. Even if his lack of table manners did frustrate her, she was still too fond of the little blond to do more than lightly scold him.

Naruto looked down into his empty ramen bowl with his head hanging downwards. "Sorry Ayame-chan, I'll try to be better," trailed off the now demure Uzumaki in defeat. Ayame giggled at seeing Naruto's usual bluster fade so quickly at her light teasing, before recalling that he had been about to say something earlier before she chided him.

"What was it that you were saying before, Naruto-kun?" inquired Ayame(1), making Naruto perk up in remembrance.

"Oh, right! I wanted to ask if you can come play with me in the park!" said Naruto excitedly as he gave a pleading look at Teuchi, puppy eyes and all.

Ayame cast a glance at her father. Normally, she would be helping her dad until five when she would go home on her own and do her homework and relax while her dad would work the stand until closing time. "Can I please go, Tou-san?" asked Ayame, unknowingly letting in some of the hope she felt at the thought of going out to play for the first time in ages.

Teuchi considered it for a moment before bowing his head with a small twitch of his lips, earning him a bright smile from his daughter. He knew that his daughter didn't really socialize with her friends at school, and he felt that it was his fault. He sometimes felt guilty knowing that his daughter wouldn't have much of a childhood due to the need to keep the ramen stand going, and that meant keeping her busy working here so as to make ends meet instead of hiring some help.

"Go have fun you two, but be sure to be back by five, you're with me until closing today!" said Teuchi with a grin at the two happy children.

"Yosh! Let's go Ayame-chan, I always wanted to play on the swing!" said Naruto as he grabbed her hand and raced outside, Ayame being half-dragged along by the overexcited blonde. He didn't even give her the chance to drop off her work uniform!

"We're gonna have a whole lotta fun, Ayame-chan! First we can play on the swings, then we can play tag, then we can play ninja!" rambled Naruto excitedly as he dragged a smiling if slightly exasperated Ayame along like a puppet, until she caught what Naruto had said and almost froze up. The last game Naruto mentioned had Ayame uncomfortable on the inside, but with a deep sigh she relaxed and forced her smile to return. Naruto never noticed as the two continued to hurry towards the playground.

Upon getting there, the two quickly lost themselves in their fun and Ayame forgot her earlier apprehension. As Naruto promised, they had first gone to the swings, and Naruto had proven to be stronger than she would have suspected when he managed to push the older girl high into the air, to her delight. They had then gone on to spend the rest of the day playing tag, a game Naruto seemed to be unnaturally good at due to his knack for hiding. Ayame even enjoyed herself when they played ninja despite her earlier trepidation.

Unknown to the children, many of the adults with children in the park had noticed them playing for the last few hours. For many of them, it was the first time that they had seen Naruto since he had spent the last four years of his life within the orphanage, for the most part. While some had simply returned to ignoring Naruto, others had stared uncomfortably as they saw Naruto behave, well, like a normal boy instead of the bloodthirsty monster that they had convinced themselves lurked on the inside.

It was two laughing and smiling children that returned to the Ichiraku Ramen stand later that day, Ayame guiding Naruto along by the hand as they laughed at something Naruto had said all the while Naruto nursed a silly, happy grin.

"I'm guessing you two had fun?" asked Teuchi with a small smile as the two plopped down in front of him.

"You bet Ojii-san! Ayame-chan's awesome!" shouted Naruto exuberantly, drawing a small blush from Ayame.

"Yeah, we had fun Tou-san. Thanks for letting me go out and play," said Ayame with a tired smile. She personally was exhausted. Naruto on the other hand, looked like he could go for round two and three, and probably round four with the way he continued to bounce around and chatter excitedly about his day.

"Don't thank me yet Ayame, you've still got work to do!" said Teuchi with an evil grin as he placed a bowl in front of the tired(well, not Naruto) duo.

Ayame just groaned and rested her head on the counter as Naruto patted her on the back absentmindedly while slowly munching on his ramen.

From that day forward, Ayame would quickly come to consider Naruto her best friend.


Timeskip


And so it was that a pattern was established. Every day at lunch, Naruto would arrive at the stand at noon, eat lunch with Ayame, and then the two would go off to play. For Ayame, it was the most fun that she had had in years. She and Naruto had also met other kids, although most were Naruto's age. They met two girls named Ino and Sakura on their second day of playing in the park, and although a bit on the bratty side, both seemed to look up to her and got along well enough with Naruto.

Naruto had personally made friends with the Inuzuka siblings as well about six months after he met Ayame, although that same meeting inadvertently made him a whole slew of friends and acquaintances. The two had been playing tag one day as they waited for Ino and Sakura to arrive when a girl named Hana had approached them. She had been dressed in nondescript clothing but stood out due to the two prominent red markings on her face and appeared to be around Ayame's age. She was dragging along a younger boy who was angrily trying to break the older girl's grip on his shirt, whom also had similar markings on his cheeks. Ayame's eyes lit up in recognition at the sight of the girl but she said nothing. "Hey, you two, can Kiba play with you guys? He's been seeing you play here for a while and wanted to play with you, but he's feeling a bit cowardly. Isn't that right Kiba-chan?" questioned the girl in a sing-song voice.

"SHUT UP NEESAN!" hollered the angry boy, but he quickly stopped once he noticed that Naruto and Ayame were staring at him curiously, making him quickly shut up and blush angrily as he continued to fight his sister's grip.

Naruto broke into a smile. "Sure! Why don't you play with us too, ah, what's your name again neechan?"

"My name is Inuzuka Hana, and I'm this puppy's big sister," she said with a giggle.

He's like a denser, more adorable Kiba, thought the younger girl as she tightened her hold on her brother's shirt.

The now identified Inuzuka boy continued to give his sister the evil eye until he sighed and slacked his resistance, making his sister let go of his collar and dropping him unceremoniously on the ground. His sister nodded contentedly in approval, making the younger boy growl in frustration.

"Fine, let's play, but I'm not it!" shouted Kiba as he scrambled off his butt and took off into the bunched up cluster of trees near the back of the park.

"Hana's it!" shouted Naruto as he began to race in the direction opposite of Kiba, Ayame hot on his heels.

Hana blinked once, then twice before an angry bush came to her cheeks as she realized she had been left behind and shouted out, "Okay, fine then, here I come!" as she began to chase after the blonde brat. Hana smirked, thinking she would easily come out on top in the game of tag as she formed a hand sign and began to shakily channel chakra into her legs, making her run just a bit faster than before. She had only just learned how to do this, but she was a fast learner and this was the first real chance to try it out outside of classes.

To her chagrin, she found that it didn't really help her at all. Kiba was too used to dodging her, Naruto, while not faster, could outrun her by sheer stamina alone, and Ayame was simply faster than her even with chakra flowing into her legs, much to her surprise. It didn't hurt that Naruto showed up whenever Ayame started slowing down and began to needle her, giving Ayame some much needed respite as she shifted her attention(and anger) at Naruto, making him laugh uproariously.

Hana, if she wasn't annoyed before, was really starting to get pissed off. She had been chasing them for over an hour and had yet to tag anybody! She blamed the adorable and apparently-not-so-dense blonde for her misfortune. Huggable and upbeat he may be, but he was a devious little brat on the inside, she could already tell.

The hour-long chase had finally ended when a panting Hana Inuzuka fell onto the grass exhausted on top of a hill after having chased a giggling Naruto up and down said hill for the last five minutes. Naruto walked back to the exhausted girl and shot her a cheeky grin, earning a low growl from her causing him to smile harder.

Leaning down, he slapped her hand with his own and collapsed next to her, staring at the sky, making Hana look at him funny in confusion.

"Why did you let yourself get tagged?" asked Hana. She had always been competitive and couldn't see herself doing THAT.

"You looked like you needed a break, so I took it off your hands!" exclaimed Naruto as he started giggling to himself over his childish logic, only increasing Hana's incredulity until she too began to giggle at his words, despite not having a clue what she was laughing about.

A tired-looking Ayame and Kiba soon crashed next to the downed duo, looking like they wanted to stay there and not move for a good long while. Kiba was panting and Ayame's face was burning red from exertion. Naruto simply grinned up at the sky, happy to have people to play with. The peaceful moment was broken by the voice of a boy that was neither Naruto or Kiba.

"So you finally stopped running around, but you take my favorite cloud watching spot. You troublesome people," said the bored voice from behind them, followed by the crunching of chips. Naruto turned his eyes upwards to see an upside down pair of boys around his age. One was kind of skinny and had spiky hair in a high ponytail, while the other had swirls on his cheeks and a bag of potato chips in hand. Naruto decided to take the initiative as he saw Hana open her mouth to say something that was probably not very nice.

"There's space, so lay down too!" exclaimed Naruto as he watched the spiky-haired boy sigh, but plop down anyways, joined shortly after by his rotund friend. Hana silently closed her mouth and shot Naruto another questioning glance but said nothing.

"I'm Chouji," offered up the boy with potato chips in hand as he loudly munched on his snack.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" exclaimed the blonde-haired ball of energy.

"My name's Inuzuka Hana," said the now tranquil girl as she swatted Kiba's head with her arm, "and this is my puppy of a brother, Kiba."

Said puppy just growled.

"I'm Ichiraku Ayame," said the still exhausted brown-haired girl with a small smile on her face. Instead of her usual waitress' outfit, Ayame was dressed in a pair of shorts and her school uniform shirt. It may be getting stained, but right now she couldn't care less as she happily lay on the grass staring upwards at the sky with a peaceful, lazy look on her face until she heard a loud, high-pitched voice.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino!" shouted a voice from beyond their group, causing Ayame to twitch. Only Naruto bolstered the energy to rise and see a blonde girl emerge from the sidewalk leading two other girls and a boy along as she plopped down and joined the group. Naruto waved at the group, making Ino grin and wave right back.

"Sorry we're late Ayame nee-san, I had to bring my new friend and her mom to play with us! I just met her when my daddy brought me to his boring council meeting because mommy was busy! We both like flowers and she wants me to teach her gardening with Naruto! Oh, and we brought her cousin along!" rambled the platinum blonde-haired girl excitedly. There was a good reason for Naruto being a suspected bastard of the Yamanaka clan, and it wasn't just the hair and eyes.

"Haruno Sakura," said the pink haired girl that had been led along by her best friend shyly as she laid out next to Ino while offering a small smile in the direction of Ayame, which was returned by the older girl. Ayame would never admit it aloud but she was much more fond of the quiet, shyer Sakura who somewhat reminded her of herself than she was of the more brash Ino; not that she disliked her by any means. She was just...a bit too loud.

The last remaining girl looked a lot more hesitant to lay down, so she stopped before them all and bowed to the group, getting most of them to look at her oddly. This only seemed to make the girl more nervous but she glanced at the woman that came with the four children, who smiled encouragingly and gestured for her to go on.

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata, and it's a p-pleasure to meet you Chouji-san, Uzumaki-san, Hana-san, Kiba-san, and Ichiraku-san," said the girl demurely before looking back at her smiling mother who nodded at her, before she too laid down and stared at the clouds with the group.

The last boy gave the group a dull, hesitant stare before shrugging. "Hyuuga Neji," offered up the boy with a polite nod and laying back on the soft grass.

"Um! It's nice to meet you all!" shouted out an exuberant Naruto. To the young blonde, this was the most people, no, most potential friends, he'd ever been near, and he wasn't about to let it slip through his fingers. Not that he was consciously thinking these thoughts.

"…Naruto!?" shouted out a girl's voice from beyond the trees, making Naruto sit up in surprise. It was clear that Kami had decided to bless him this day as he was dropping new friends for him out of the sky!

Trees and bushes rustled, but he soon saw the duo; Rock Lee and TenTen, or to him, the only people who were nice to him in the orphanage.

"Hey guys!" shouted Naruto with a smile and a wide wave of his arms. "Come on over!"

A quick jog later had the two staring in confusion at the relaxed group of kids. Lee was a kid with bushy eyebrows and had his hair in a braid. He wore a large oriental shirt that hung past his knees. Tenten appeared to have a similar taste for clothes as she too was dressed in oriental clothing; a sleeveless shirt and a loose pair of pants.

"What are you guys doing?" asked TenTen while Lee didn't even bother; he simply laid down where he stood and began introducing himself to the nearest person, who so happened to be the shy Sakura who was nervously returning his greetings while Ino mercilessly teased her from behind about being talked to by the weird kid, earning a light elbow from Ayame, making Ino turn around and smile sheepishly.

"Quit asking so many questions you troublesome girl," yawned out Shikamaru, earning him a smack to the head from Ayame and Hana; the others just stared in confusion, not knowing what that word meant.

TenTen shrugged at Shikamaru and laid out on an empty spot of grass, still looking upset.

"So, what were you two doing outside?" asked a curious Naruto.

"We were looking for you baka! You keep on going away for hours every day!" shouted out the ticked off TenTen, "We thought the nannies were being hard on you again," said TenTen more demurely while looking rather down; Naruto could tell that she was upset, although he was still not sure what abot.

"Nah, I was having fun with my friend Ayame-chan! She's really nice!" offered up Naruto as a sort of peace offering. Good intent, wrong thing to say.

"Why didn't you get us too Naruto? I thought we were friends also," said a slightly saddened Lee as he shifted his attention from Sakura back to one of the few people he considered a friend.

Naruto quickly scrambled for an answer; why didn't he get them? They were the closest people he had in the orphanage and were the only reason he didn't outright detest the place; not that his mind processed all of these thoughts specifically; he just recognized that his two acquaintances who were more than simple acquaintances were important people to him and the guilt began flooded him.

"Sorry Lee, TenTen," apologized a contrite Naruto. TenTen stared at him from the corner of her eye before sighing, "It's okay, you big blonde doofus," making Naruto puff his cheeks out and cross his arms stubbornly, earning a series of giggles from Hinata and some guffaws from Chouji while the rest of the group chuckled at the blonde's expense, until it was too much for him too as he laughed along with everybody else.

They were so caught up in their amusement that they never noticed a shadow fall over them until a voice spoke out. "May I join you?"

Looking up, Naruto saw a boy dressed in a coat and sunglasses. He shrugged, smiled, and nodded, earning a nod from the silent boy as he laid out on the grass, picked up an ant, and watched it craw along his finger. "Aburame Shino," said the boy to the air as the group just stared at the sky mindlessly.

Just when the group was thinking that any more unexpected guests couldn't show up, they were proven wrong as a boy not much older than Ayame and Hana dressed in a flak jacket and with a Konoha headband on his head appeared in front of them in a gust of wind alongside a younger boy who looked like a doppelganger.

Giving the group a small, but polite smile, the boy asked, "May I leave my otouto here with you? I am off to depart on a mission and my parents are…preoccupied, at the moment." No one thought to really ask anything as they took in the sight of the boy dressed in ninja attire, surprise on their faces.

Looking expectantly at Naruto(for it was Naruto that had been doing the vast majority of the talking), he was given a nod and a smile, earning a grateful look from the preteen ninja as he disappeared in a Shunshin, leaving his younger brother to look around awkwardly and draw into himself.

"I…I'm Uchiha Sasuke. That was my nii-san Itachi. Thanks for letting me be here," offered up the boy with a somewhat timid smile.

Standing up, Naruto held out his fist. "No problem Sasuke," said the blonde with a grin on his face. Sasuke hesitated, but then offered up a more confident smile as he bumped Naruto's fist with his own. The two boys both had silly grins on their faces, happy to have made a friend. Naruto wasn't the only one to have had few friends so far in his life after all. Many friendships were formed on that hill that day, but with a bumping of fists, one of the most notable ones was born.


(1) Aside from some age-shifting, this is the point of divergence. Ayame remembers Naruto wanted to ask her something, and so Naruto asks her to spend time with him. That is the crux upon which this story rests on.

People will act their age, act their station, and behave as believable people instead of handwaving massively to bash, act overly mature, bring up a solution to future issues that they should have no way of knowing, and so forth which is far too prevalent in fanfiction for my tastes. You'll notice that the little four year-olds aren't using big words they shouldn't know and that they're, you know, acting like four year-olds.

I'll point out some of the things I've done differently here if only to show my point on reasonable plot twisting by the author.

-Ayame's influence while playing with Naruto results in Naruto being seen as normal by other people sooner, as well as their children. As such, Naruto gets an early introduction to the Konoha 12(yes, I said 12, not 11)

-Hana gets drawn into Naruto's social circle by virtue of Ayame being there

-Sakura and Ino are busy idolizing Ayame as Konohamaru idolizes Naruto instead of chasing after Sasuke

-Naruto's biggest factor, his charismatic ability to influence people for the better, is working overtime here; he's bringing a bunch of pre-pubescent children into a cooperative friendship devoid of bullying. Thank Naruto for that, not the children being super-mature

-Hinata's mother is still alive, no Hyuuga Incident yet, no Uchiha Clan Massacre yet, the Orochimaru Incident has already gone down

Finally, I'd like to make it clear that all twelve of the Konoha 12 plus Ayame and Hana was more or less a stroke of luck with the stars aligning this one time only. No more spontaneous meeting of everybody; this is for plot purposes strictly and I find it believable for everybody to be at or around the playground at least once in their childhood.

Everything I mentioned up there is left to implication, but what the hell, I wanted to make a point and make it clear that I try to keep characters real.

As for my other Code Geass story, I'm going to have to place it on hold. I WAS planning on rebooting it, but I've realized I simply don't have the writing practice right now to deal with a universe as large and complicated as Code Geass'. That's not to say that I won't be giving it another run in the future; this is why this Naruto story is seeing birth.

I'd also like to warn you all that this story will feature a lot of third-person up until chapter 6, when the focus will shift mainly back to Naruto.

Lastly, great authors who have influenced my writing: Kenchi, zArkham, and did I mention Kenchi?