Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. You know who does.
A/N: This is my first real attempt at a Naruto fic, so I wouldn't be surprised it if it's a little sub-standard, but I am an experienced writer, and so it won't be SO bad. I hope you can enjoy. I won't even hint at pairings, even though I know which one I want and exactly how the story's gonna end. It's just getting there that'll be hard.
This is the Life of a Shinobi
It was an average day in the Hidden Village of Konoha. Academy students were learning, little children were running around, Genin teams were off doing boring D rank missions, and other ninja were training with their friends or by themselves. It was an average day. At least, for most people.
However, today was a special day for one team. It marked the two-year anniversary of their being a team. It also marked the one-year anniversary of when their friendship had been tested. Team seven celebrated today with anticipation and excitement. Two years ago, they had been split, but now, they really were one cohesive unit.
Uzumaki Naruto was the happiest. For the few weeks that followed his successful retrieval of Uchiha Sasuke, he had been depressed. He was worried for the well-being of his team-mate, who he had been forced to render unconscious. Sasuke had remained in this comatose state for a month or so in the hospital, even with the nursing of the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. Even Haruno Sakura, who spent most of her time with the unconscious Uchiha during this time, wasn't as worried about him as Naruto was. She knew that Sasuke would get better, and she told this to Naruto all the time. But he still worried.
However, after Sasuke had recovered, Naruto had perked right up again. He had kept his word, and not gone back on his way of the Ninja. And now, a year later, they celebrated their two years of friendship, and their one year of brotherhood. They really were like siblings now, after all they'd been through. Sasuke had thought about what Naruto told him, about bonds and all of that. He thought about how strong they really had become in Konoha, and how his brother had become strong in Konoha. He realized that he should stay, and after he was cleared of his missing-nin status, he resumed missions with team seven.
"Let's go somewhere nice today, eh?" Sakura said, looking hopefully at Sasuke and Naruto (but mostly Sasuke). Naruto's eyes lit up, while Sasuke merely acknowledged her with a quiet, "hai".
"Hey, Sakura-chan, where should we go?" Naruto said, excitement sewed into all of his words, his tone sounding just as happy as he should.
"Hmmm, let's go to a good seafood restaurant. I haven't had seafood in a while. What about you, Sasuke-kun?" she said, once again looking at the Uchiha with a glint in her eyes.
"Seafood is fine with me. Let's hurry and go," he said, and turned to walk down the streets of Konoha to the nearest seafood restaurant.
When they arrived there, they put in their names and had to wait for only five minutes before they were seated. They enjoyed their lunch as they watched the food be cooked right in front of them, and it was as delicious as they had expected. Naruto offered to pay the bill, but when he pulled out his frog wallet, he noticed that it was depressingly small. He only had enough to cover his portion of the tab. He looked on regretfully as Sasuke and Sakura paid their own portion of the tab, and they all contributed to the tip.
As they left, something very strange happened. A soggy, crushed orange came flying out of nowhere at such a high speed that it splattered right into Naruto's face before he had time to react.
"Go to hell!" a drunken man said in a slur as he staggered around, waving a very non-sober finger at Naruto. All the boy ninja could do was gape in surprise at the man. Sakura had gasped, and Sasuke raised an eyebrow, thinking, is this some kind of joke?
"Hey you bastard, go home before you get killed by pissing off the wrong person," Sakura said, rage in her voice. Normally, she might have laughed at Naruto, but things were different now, especially on their special day. The man just laughed.
"Lil' girl, don't you be telling me what to do," he said through hiccups and a very strong slur. It was then that Sasuke and Naruto froze, each sensing a dangerous level of killing intent, and stared at Sakura. Here eyes demanded the man's blood.
"Why you..." she said, rolling up her sleeve menacingly and was about to stalk over to the man when she felt a hand grab her arm. She turned her head, surprised to see that Naruto had stopped her from going after the man. All he did was shake his head, and she turned to look back at the man as Naruto did, but before she had fully taken her eyes off of her team-mate, she saw a momentary pain and sadness in his blue eyes, and it tore her apart to think that someone so cheery, someone so kind was in some sort of pain, and was hated by people who didn't even know him.
"Let's go," Sasuke said, breaking the silence, and he turned on his heel towards his own home. As he walked away, he said over his shoulder, "Naruto, you should go home and wash up. We can meet a little later, after you've cleaned up."
Somehow, this made Naruto feel better, Sakura too. So they both walked around the man towards Naruto's house, which, though he still had sticky orange all over him, Naruto was delighted that Sakura was walking with him to his house. Sakura could tell that Naruto was excited about this occurrence, which is the only reason she allowed it to occur at all.
When they got to Naruto's apartment building, the boy led her up the stairs to his apartment, and he then invited her in and offered her a chair. He quickly went to his bathroom and closed the door. Sakura heard running water, rustling clothes, and a few clanks and thuds, but after about five or so minutes, Naruto emerged in a fresh orange jumpsuit without any orange juice on his body. He sure cleans up fast, she thought amusingly. She didn't realize she had been staring at him, and only realized this after she saw the slight pink hue on Naruto's cheeks. Sheesh, still has a crush on me I guess. I'd toy with him, but I don't think today's a very good day to do that.
"Let's go back outside and talk a walk around the village. Please?" he asked that last one in a mock-pleading voice, to try and get her to laugh. She laughed at it, and said that she'd like that. As they walked down the stairs, Naruto saw another one of the tenants in the building come up; it was the drunk man from before. He knew that he had recognized him. As they passed, the man shot an angry glare back at the pair, but they ignored him, which only enraged him.
"You stupid boy, look at me when I look at you! Don't you dare ignore me, the great Sabu-sama, the one who defeated the all migh-"
"Naruto, what is that screeching noise I hear? It's like nails on a chalkboard."
Naruto laughed before saying, "I think you're talking about that child up there who's yelling at us."
They both laughed, and silently smirked as the man came plummeting down the stairs at them, screaming how he was going to kill them. Without warning, both were behind him, and his eyes widened in fear. As he slowly turned his head, he saw both of them glaring at him from about two steps above him in the stairwell. His heart was beating very quickly, and his throat had gone dry.
"I-if you'll excuse m-me, I'd like to get to my apartment. P-please?" the fear was very evident in his voice. Both ninja slowly separated to make a path between them, and as soon as he could fit through, he bolted up the stairs and out of sight. Both ninja started laughing hysterically.
"What a pathetic man," Naruto said between laughs. He continued to laugh long after Sakura had stopped, which in itself wasn't unusual, but it was the way he laughed that caught her attention. It sounded forced. But it didn't sound any different from when Naruto usually laughed. In fact, she realized, most of his laughter sounded this way. So why was she noticing it now, as if it were unusual? And then she realized that he had been genuinely laughing right after the man had disappeared.
Poor Naruto, she thought, her eyes drooping in sadness a little as they walked, he deals with this every day.
And that's the life of Naruto, just one shinobi in the village of Konoha. At least, for now...
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That's actually quite a poor opening chapter, if I do say so myself, but it's just the intro chapter, so we'll see how things go. Please, read and review. I'll hopefully have Chapter 2 up soon .