Naruto: Daughters of Moon and Sun

Chapter 1: My Name is Sakura!

Twelve years ago, a Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly appeared, its tails lashed out, smashing mountains and sending tidal waves crashing to the shores. The ninja rose up to defend their villages. One Shinobi faced the Nine-Tailed Fox in mortal combat, he sacrificed his life to capture the beast and seal it inside a human child.

This is, however, not that child's story.

A young girl raced through the streets of the hidden leaf, her red dress flowing behind her as she dodged through the bustling crowds as though her life depended on it. She ducked between the legs of a rather surprised gentleman, her pink hair cascading behind her as she jumped to her feet and allowed her momentum to carry her above a young couple enjoying the sunny day and cool winds.

'Finally!' her destination was in sight and, with it, her goal. The end of her several-year long enslavement. The key to her freedom. The thought brought a wide grin to her face.

'Sha!' Her inner self shouted, 'Today's the day I finally graduate!'

Her thoughts briefly drifted to her future as a ninja, as she imagined going on cool missions and saving the village from evil monsters and invaders. Although such fantasies were brief, the momentary diversion was enough to break her focus. The resulting crash was a surprise to perhaps only two students at the academy.

The pink haired academy student found herself sprawled on the ground, tenderly rubbing the bump forming on her head tenderly. She looked up at the object she had collided with, only to find a blue haired girl around her own age. Her eyes narrowed as the usual anger that filled her when she set her eyes upon that girl boiled to the surface.

"Watch where you're going, Hyuuga!" The venom in her voice was evident, and for a moment, white eyes stared back at her in blank surprise.

That moment did not last long, and the blue-haired Hyuuga's eyes narrowed into a piercing glare. She spat out in response, with matching venom, "You were the one crashing into me. Perhaps if you were as good a ninja as you are a scholar, you wouldn't be on the ground like a child, loser."

A vein threatened to pop on the pink haired girl's forehead. The last thing that she needed today was that girl mouthing off to her today. "Why don't you get off your high horse, I wouldn't have run into you if you're weren't so blind, princess!"

Both girls had risen to their feet by this point, glaring daggers into each others eyes. With every insult the two had moved closer and closer until the tips of their noses were practically touching. A crowd of other students had begun to gather around them to watch the spectacle unfolding.

"There they go again, they fight like boys!" One female student said in annoyance. A few cheers of 'go Hinata!' could be heard from the watching boys.

However, all such words fell upon deaf ears, the two warring women were far too rapt by their daily argument to be paying any attention. The argument had escalated further, and it appeared as though the two were about to attack each other. Perhaps if the two had been listening, they would have heard a panicked shout of warning, "Akamaru, no!"

Instead, the only warning that Hinata had was an object colliding with the back of her head. Hinata's head was thrust forward towards her rival, knocking both girls to the ground.

For a moment the cheers stopped as the crowd, and the young rivals, processed what had just happened. They didn't get long to process as cheers rang out from most of the boys. Both of the girls' faces flushed in embarrassment as the fact that their lips were now pressed against each others finally sunk in.

When Iruka entered his classroom, he had many expectations. He expected his class to be even rowdier than usual in anticipation for his graduation exam. He also expected two future kunoichi to be on the verge of destroying his classroom, and the rest of his class egging them on. What he did not expect was for the room to be deathly silent. Iruka glanced around the room in surprise, eyes worriedly appraising each student. His eyes narrowed in confusion as he realized that something was very wrong.

"Sakura Haruno!"

Iruka's voice snapped Sakura out of her self pitying reverie just fast enough for her to call out, "I'm here!"

Sakura's out a lengthy sigh and slumped into her chair, actively trying not to glance across the room at her rival. She had purposefully placed herself at the farthest seat from Hinata Hyuuga that she could manage. Neither she nor the Hyuuga could manage to look at the other, both were far too embarrassed.

Thoughts of her accidental kiss with the Hyuuga heiress brought to mind the cause of her public humiliation. Kiba Inuzuka. Him and his blasted dog!

Sakura once again let out a sigh before she let her gaze wander over her classmates. Ino Yamanaka was gossiping with several other female classmates. When she noticed Sakura looking she smiled and waved happily back at her, a gesture which Sakura returned. Shikamaru Nara was asleep at his desk beside Chouji Akimichi, who was contentedly feasting upon a bag of potato chips.

Off in the far corner of the room sat Shino Aburame. Sakura's eyes passed right over him onto the person sitting nearby. Kiba Inuzuka was obviously fawning over something - him and half of the class - and against her better judgment, she allowed her eyes to drift to the target of his affections.

Hinata Hyuuga sat beside a window, gazing out to the sky with a perpetual glare set on her face. The boys around her were all gazing at her as though she were the queen of the whole darn world. Sakura had always resented Hinata - when they first met and Hinata was just a weak, timid child, she had resented her; when she had arrived at school after weeks of absence and had suddenly decided to act all 'too cool for you' as her inner thoughts had worded it, she had resented her; when she had progressed faster than any other student in their class to become the top student, she had resented her more than anything else. Everything about Hinata Hyuuga infuriated her, and the feeling was mutual.

Before she could continue her inner rant against the prissy Hyuuga, a boisterous laugh from the hallway interrupted her. Sakura turned her gaze on the doorway in time to see two boys cross the threshold. One, with hair hair and even darker eyes, walked calmly, smiling at the boy beside him. The other boy held himself with an obviously undeserved self confidence, his hand interlocked behind his golden hair as he boasted of something inconsequential to his companion.

"Naruto, Sasuke, you're late again!" Iruka scolded the two. The dark haired one, Sasuke, bowed respectfully to Iruka and politely begged his pardon. Naruto, - the blonde one in bright orange - meanwhile, scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei! Sasuke and I got distracted this morning!" Naruto said with only a shred of remorse. The display brought a grimace to Sakura's face, but she found her eyes drawn off of Naruto and onto the boy next to him. Sasuke Uchiha was one of the class' top students, proficient with taijutsu and even rumoured to be capable of advance ninjutsu. More than talented though, he was kind, polite, and humble; he was the total opposite of the boy beside him. Naruto Uzumaki was often seen as Sasuke's best friend, but the two couldn't be more different! Where Sasuke was talented, Naruto couldn't even complete the Clone Jutsu; where Sasuke was calm and collected, Naruto was brash and loud; where Sasuke was polite, Naruto was disrespectful to everyone!

"Please just take your seats," Iruka sighed at the boy's antics. He looked around the room once before addressing the entire class, "Welcome to your final day of classes! As you're all aware, today we will be examining you on all aspects of your shinobi skills. Your knowledge, Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu will all be tested."

Iruka and the other instructors began to hand out tests to the class until each student had an exam booklet. The moment Sakura got the go-ahead to begin, she was off like a bullet.

'Tests like these are a piece of cake!' her inner thoughts cried out in self satisfaction, smirking to herself as she filled out another three answers, 'For the most part, this exam is truly a test of memorization, however...'

Sakura let her thoughts drift as she arrived at one of the test's true questions, 'However, there's more to it. They're also trying to gauge our critical thinking skills. Some of these questions are designed to make us slip up, and if you aren't paying attention...'

Sakura filled in several of the trick questions in quick succession, the test was honestly beginning to bore her. She took a moment to stretch and glance around at her classmates, attempting to gauge how they were fairing. Most were busily working away at their papers, while others were visibly struggling. Naruto and Kiba in particular seemed to be having a rough go. Shikamaru on the other hand appeared to already be asleep on his desk. Sakura grimaced and a voice in her mind berated the Nara for his laziness, he hadn't even bothered to fill out half of his test! Her eyes fell upon Sasuke and lingered longer than the rest, watching him calmly fill out his answers with a smile. Just as was to be expected from the brother of... Sakura shook her self of such thoughts, Sasuke would not appreciate such a comparison. As her eyes drifted again, they came across her greatest rival. Hinata Hyuuga sat, arms crossed, exam complete on the table in front of her. Sakura's eyes widened in shock. She was done. She was already done and Sakura had barely gotten three fourths of the way through! The Hyuuga's gaze shifted, she piercing white eyes gazing straight at Sakura.

With a returned glare, Sakura went straight back to work, intent on outdoing the prissy little Hyuuga.

The Taijutsu exam had been simple. Each student had been called away to spar against an instructor who would gauge that student's skills. Sakura herself had done fairly well, scoring several blows against the instructor. She wasn't informed of her grade, but Sakura was confident that she had passed with flying colours.

After all the taijutsu examinations had been finished, Iruka called the class to attention once more. "Alright everyone, it's time we move on to the final portion of your graduation exam: Ninjutsu."

Murmurs of excitement ran through the class like ripples across water but Iruka continued on, "I will call each of you up to demonstrate two jutsu: the Transformation Jutsu and the Clone Jutsu. Just as with each of your other tests, if you fail these, you will not become Genin."

Sakura, along with the rest of the class, fell silent at his words. He had not made a deal about failing the other tests, but something about his casual remark set everyone on edge. For Sakura however, all it did was steel her determination. 'This is it! Sha! The final wall between me and my destiny!'

Sakura spent all of ten minutes spaced out, imagining her exciting life as a Kunoichi before Iruka called a name that caught her interest: her own.

"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" Sakura called out in a hurry as she rushed down, hoping she didn't looking flustered at being caught daydreaming. Sakura reached the bottom of the steps of the classroom with a hop, practically bursting with excitement. "I'm ready to begin, Iruka-sensei!"

"Alright, Sakura, you may begin." Iruka said with a warm smile, folding his hands on the desk in front of him. The other instructors beside him readied their notes.

Sakura brought her hands together to begin infusing chakra. Focusing her mental and physical energy together, she focused on the image of Iruka in her mind. Willing her chakra to take shape around her, she activated her Transformation justu. A plume of smoke erupted around her, hiding her visage from view momentarily; once the smoke cleared, Sakura was revealed to have taken on the perfectly accurate visage of Iruka. The instructors grading her were furiously taking notes as Iruka congratulated her. Sakura wasn't done, however, and instead of dropping her jutsu, she brought her hands into another hand seal and separated her chakra. In the midst of her first jutsu, she began running through other seals and moments later the front of the room erupted in more plumes of smoke. Once it had cleared, nine new figures revealed themselves, each with a self satisfied smirk on their face. Iruka was joined by nine of his fellow instructors, including the four sitting at his side. Each one of them was a perfect copy of their respective originals.

The instructors burst into applause at the display, Iruka congratulated Sakura, "Very impressive Sakura, to perform both jutsu simultaneously was an inspired idea – and to apply and maintain ten different Transformations to yourself and nine clones is no small feat."

"Thanks Iruka Sensei!" The Sakura disguised as Iruka said and she cheered herself on. Inside her head though, she shouted in triumph, 'Sha! Let's see little-miss-perfect top that! I bet she's... shaking in her..."

Before Sakura was able to complete her thought, her vision clouded over and darkness threatened to take her. The front of the room exploded into smoke and Sakura felt herself falling, only to be stopped by strong feminine arms as they caught her mid-air. The calm, aggravating voice of her saviour spoke out, "You should be careful, you used up all of your chakra on that cheap trick. Loser."

Sakura's face burned with the embarrassment of being rescued by her rival. So much so that she didn't even register as she was helped back to her seat, or when a headband was handed to her, or the gossip of her fainting, or when Hinata passed her own test. In fact, Sakura spent the next forty minutes in a daze, awakened only by a call of, "Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura was straight to attention in a moment. She watched as Sasuke calmly approached the front, stopping and bowing respectfully once he was before the examination desk. Sakura watched as he brought his hands together and moments later transformed into a man with long, straight brown hair that cascaded down his back. He wore black garments, but was sheathed in red armour. She briefly wondered who the man was before he transformed back into Sasuke. "Very impressive Sasuke! I'm surprised that you chose that man though. Regardless, from what I know that was a very accurate Transformation Jutsu."

"Well, he is, in many ways, my hero; I look up to him. I can think of no ninja who better demonstrates our village's Will of Fire." Sakura could hear the pride radiating from Sasuke's voice as he spoke of his idol, and she once again wondered who the armoured man was. Sasuke didn't waste time as he performed his Clone Jutsu, creating ten clones. The instructors casually marked down his progress, before handing him his very own headband and congratulating him.

It was at this very moment that Sakura realized that she was in fact holding something in her left hand it was small, and became aware of the feel of cloth against her palm. Her eyes slowly drifted down to her hand and she turned the object to face her. The object in her hands suddenly seemed much heavier. More than heavy, the item in her hand seemed to weigh more than her entire life up until this moment as a single thought ran through her head.

'I'm a ninja... I'm a ninja. I'm a ninja!' Sakura rose to her feet and cried out in joy as everything finally sunk into her mind. "Woohoo!"

The class fell silent as Sakura's cry caught the entire room's attention. Sakura slowly slunk into her seat again with a muffled apology before the room erupted into laughter.

A cough from Iruka brought the class's attention back to him as he called out the next name on his list, "Naruto Uzumaki!"

The class burst into laughter, "Yeah, go show them dead last!"

"Naruto can't even create a Clone, just fail him now!" another boy called out.

Naruto seemed to ignore them as he stalked towards the front, hands buried in his pockets. As he reached the bottom of the stairs though, he spun around and thrust a finger towards the class, "Quit laughing at me! Im gonna show all of you, I'm gonna pass this test and then I'm gonna become the next Hokage! Believe it!"

Naruto's outburst only succeeded in spurring the class's taunting forward until Iruka called a stop to it. Iruka then turned to face Naruto himself, "Alright Naruto, I want you to perform the Transformation Justu, and try to take it seriously this time."

Naruto widened his stance and formed the seal for the transformation jutsu, obviously focusing his all on infusing his Chakra. Moments later Naruto was engulfed in a plume of smoke before being replaced by a dark haired man in red white robes, accented with red flames. Sakura immediately new what Naruto had done. He had once again transformed into a deformed version of the Lord Hokage. Sakura sighed in exasperation as Iruka once again scolded Naruto for making a mockery of their Hokage. "Fine, Fine, I was just having some fun, y'know?"

Naruto once again formed the hand seals and this time, when he emerged from the smoke he was instead replaced by what Sakura could only describe as a perfect copy of the Hokage, from her limited experience with the man at least. Three of the instructors looked impressed, the other two simply looked angry.

"Ha! See? See? I told you it was no problem," Naruto boasted, to the class and to Iruka himself.

"Yeah, but you still can't even make a clone, you're such a loser!" the boy from earlier called out again, drawing Iruka's attention.

"I said enough!" Iruka began to scold him, but before he could, Naruto interrupted him.

"Oh yeah?! Just you watch!" Naruto once again brought his hands into a seal and began to infuse chakra, his face was scrunched and his eyes shut in concentration. And a moment later a poof of smoke popped to his left, revealing: a deformed and almost intangible Naruto. The entire class erupted into near-uncontrollable laughter.

"Naruto!" Sasuke's voice rang out through the crowd, silencing all of them. "Stop playing around and get serious before they fail you."

Sakura – and the rest of the class for that matter – looked at Sasuke incredulously.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry Sasuke. I thought I could get it that time!" Naruto smirked and brought his hands together, "But it's time to use that jutsu."

Forty poofs of smoke throughout the room silenced the class as forty copies of Naruto appeared across the room, inhabiting most of the classroom's empty space. The students couldn't believe their eyes, and the instructors were having trouble believing what they had just witnessed. Iruka was the first to speak up, "N-Naruto, that jutsu is..."

The original Naruto's face was plastered with a self satisfied smirk, "Secret Ninja Art: Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Sakura overheard the student sitting beside Sasuke ask how Naruto knew the Clone Jutsu, to which Sasuke addressed the nearby students, "Naruto could never learn the Clone Jutsu, no matter how many hundreds of times he tried, but Lord Hokage believed he could learn this technique, so he taught him this Jutsu one day ago."

"So, Iruka-sensei, I better pass this time, ya know?" Naruto asked, turning to Iruka with a massive grin painted across his face.

Iruka smiled back at him, "Congratulations, Naruto, you're a ninja."

"Yahoo!" Naruto shouted as he jumped in the air and pumped his fist.

"Wow, it took Lord Hokage to teach him the Clone Jutsu?" Sakura caught one of the nearby students whispering.

"Isn't that kinda cheating though?" Another student replied.

"Yeah, it's not like any of us got to train under Lord Hokage, and we all passed!" This student voiced their opinions loud enough that several other students heard.

"And he barely even passed!"

"Yeah, it's like cheating!"

"Who does this guy think he is, getting training from the Hokage?!"

"What a loser!"

The entire class had devolved into laughter at Naruto's expense, before Iruka had even had the chance to mediate. As it turns out, Iruka need not have intervened as Naruto's voice broke through the heckling class, "Don't you call me a loser! It only makes sense that I get training from the Hokage, I'm gonna be Hokage one day, then you'll all stop looking down on me and look up to me, you can believe it!"

A chuckle radiated out from the door. It was slow, deep, and it encompassed her and her classmates in a feeling of safety and contentment. Sakura immediately knew to whom the laugh belonged; After all, only one man could evoke such feelings from her and those surrounding her, only one ninja could deliver on such feelings: the Hokage. Only the Hokage, he who had watched over the village for years, could deliver such assurance.

"I do believe it, Naruto." The class fell silent as Naruto proudly walked back to his seat beside Sasuke. The shocked looks on her classmates faces were put to rest as the Hokage continued, "Just as I believe every ninja here has the potential to one day become Hokage."

After seemingly appeasing the students, the Hokage took the time to speak with Irua before turning to address the classroom as a whole. Sakura took the opportunity to study the man known as the strongest ninja in the Hidden Leaf. Like his forebears, he wore the white and red robes that marked his station, though he had forgone the ceremonial hat and his smooth dark hair flowed free. His dark gaze swept over the class several times before he began his speech. "I was far younger than you when I entered the ninja world. I joined a legacy of war and darkness, and I dedicated myself to repairing the damage those who came before had done. In my years as your Hokage, I have striven to bridge bonds between our allies and enemies alike, and although success has been scarce, I am certain that it is your generation that shall change this world forever. Naturally, it fills me with pride to see you here, smiling, ready to change this world as Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf!"

Sakura looked at the Hokage with awe, his speech had been inspiring for her, although she had expected no less from the man hailed as the Guardian Wing, Itachi Uchiha. Sakura let her mind wander to her rival's cold glare from earlier, and she shivered in remembrance. She wondered again who the man Sasuke had transformed into was, and why he looked so familiar. She also thought of Naruto and his success with the clone jutsu. She wondered how he'd managed to conquer his greatest weakness so completely, was it truly just because of the Hokage...? Sakura shook her head and once again brought her focus to the exam. Today was the end of her old life, and she couldn't wait for tomorrow to begin.