Chapter 1.: Not an Easy Life

Naruto was worn out. Well, if he fought a semi-deadly battle with a person almost as strong as himself, it was to be expected. And Uchiha Sasuke was certainly strong.

He tried to recall why they had even started fighting and immediately regretted it. The memories left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He was annoyed. No. He was angry.

The man standing in front of him, panting and wincing at his minor injuries was one of the main causes for, not only his suffering throughout his life, but also Sakura's. And if there was one thing he could not tolerate, then it was people who made others suffer.

Naruto had believed for years that he could bring Sasuke back and then everything would go back to normal. He had honestly believed that he could preserve their long lost friendship. But after the war, reality had slapped him in the face. Now he realized how naive he had been.

During the years after Fourth Great Shinobi War, he had managed to live a somewhat peaceful life, happily ignorant of his former friend's whereabouts. Even Sakura had started forgetting about him. But then, the last Uchiha came back to Konoha and, after a lot of pestering from the council, who wouldn't miss the opportunity to get one of the village's most powerful bloodlines back, he was allowed by the Hokage to stay and even carry on his career as a shinobi. The guy even had the nerve to treat them all as if nothing had ever happened. As if he hadn't threatened to destroy their home and tried to kill him more times than he could count.

The blond ninja had tried to restrain himself and avoided him every time he could for Tsunade's sake. He knew how hard he job was and he didn't want to make it any more difficult. But that morning, luck wasn't on his side. He had been late for a meeting with the Hokage and, in his hurry, had failed to notice the black haired abomination approaching him. He jumped in surprise, only to get a short lecture about how mediocre his ninja skills still were. Naruto, of course, had tried to end the one-sided conversation as soon as possible, but stopped in his tracks when he heard an insult towards the pink haired kunoichi escape Sasuke's lips. That did it.

He wasn't angry. He was furious.

And then he snapped, throwing a punch in Sasuke's direction. All of this then led to the present moment: two badly beat up ninja glaring daggers at each other. But before his opponent could say anything, Naruto disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

"Hmph" was Sasuke's answer.

Teuchi was happily cooking ramen, when suddenly 'POOF' a man appeared in a flash of orange, who he recognized as his best customer as of yet. Even at the age of twenty-eight he still hadn't stopped regularly visiting his restaurant.

"Hello Naruto. What shall it be today?" he asked, but then noticed the foul mood the man was in, "Hey, is something wrong?"

Naruto snapped out of it and looked around before plastering his usual fox-like smile on his face.

"Didn't think I'd end up here. I'll have a beef ramen." he said, purposely ignoring the last question, his past fight forgotten.

The old man blinked before getting to work, only to be interrupted yet again by the same person, "Hey, old man. Where's Ayame? She's normally here helping you out."

"Oh, she went out earlier today. Said she'd spend the day with this Akimichi guy. His name's Chouji. They've been out together so often in the past four months, I'm beginning to wonder when he's going to propose to her."

Naruto's jaw almost dropped to the floor, "What?! Since when? I didn't know! I swear he never tells me the important stuff, dattebayo!" In the past ten years, after Shikamaru had started neglecting his friend, he and Chouji had grown quite close to the point where they considered each other good friends. Still, sometimes the Akimichi head left him in the dark about certain subjects, not because he didn't trust him, but because he simply forgot to tell.

Suddenly, he felt the ominous chackra he had fought against just minutes ago nearby, 'Dammit, that bastard. Is he following me or something?' His thoughts were interrupted by another source of chackra right beside the first, 'Sakura? What's she doing with the moron?' He then proceeded to do a mental facepalm, knowing that she had probably caught sight of the idiot and was now fussing over him. Although in the past years she had let go of her love for the Uchiha prodigy little by little, she still hadn't given up on him, proven by the fact that she was still all over him almost all the time, if not slightly more hesitant than before. 'God, she's even more persistent than me.'

He was snatched out of his thoughts when a black haired ninja in a green leotard touched his shoulder to get his attention. "Hokage-sama sent me for you. She said to tell you that you're late."

Naruto just stared. Late? Late for what? And then it hit him. His eyes widened, "Oh, crap. The meeting! The old lady's gonna kill me!" and with that, he disappeared in a flash of lightning for the second time that day.

'Hiraishin? Must be an important meeting' thought Lee, knowing how sparingly the blonde used the technique outside of battle.

Soon enough, he also sensed the two presences that the man standing there before him had sensed. As curiosity took the best of him, he decided to investigate.

Just as Naruto had predicted, the second best medic nin of Konoha was all over her life long crush. She was currently trying to convince him to let her heal his wounds, without success.

"Sasuke-san, they'll scar if they don't get treated now. How did you even get them? We aren't under attack nor were you on any missions lately, as far as I know of." Sasuke-san. Not Sasuke-kun. Indeed, the trust necessary to call him what she had many years ago was long gone. Although her love still prevailed, she had noticed herself how she became more hesitant every day that passed, and his cold attitude towards her didn't exactly help. She recognized that feeling. It was hopelessness. The same thing she had felt the first time he left. And even when he came back, they had only grown more distant. Even her inner self had already given up any hope, but her outer, softer self still clung to a last ray of hope, and it didn't want to let go of it just yet.

"Sakura, don't." she looked up to find his onyx eyes looking directly at hers.

"But you're full of wounds, and-" she was cut off by his deep voice.

"I'm not talking about that." he sighed, "I've honestly tried to tell you subtly and gently, but it seems I have to be blunt if I want to get my point across."

"Huh?" she asked, confused, but also fearing that she knew where this was going.

"I don't feel attracted to you. I don't like you. I never have and probably never will. In fact, I dislike you quite a lot. So do me a favor and stop following after me." He looked away, "That's it."

No. No. He couldn't say that. He couldn't do this to her. After all these years...she loved him, for goodness sake! She wouldn't accept it. She didn't want to accept it. This was too much. She couldn't take it any longer.

So much for the last ray of hope.

A single tear left her now widened eyes, slightly softening her shocked expression. Sasuke could see a thousand emotions running through her eyes at the same time: from sadness, to anger, to despair. And then she ran. She ran faster than ever before, her hot tears running down her cheeks, leaving a heavily sighing Sasuke behind, and ignorant of the pair of very round, very angry and very worried eyes that had witnessed most of the exchange.

"God, you're worse than Kakashi sometimes!" said Tsunade, sitting down. That was the last line of the very long rant about responsibility that she had made Naruto sit through right after he arrived at her office. By then, all his wounds had already healed, though he was still wincing at the pain in his ears. He waited a moment to make sure she wasn't about to say anything else, then spoke himself, "So, what did you want to talk to me about, Hokage-sama?" He had stopped calling her 'Tsunade-baasan' in public or when talking about business around the age of twenty-two, knowing fully that the Hokage had an image to keep and a subordinate calling her that wouldn't make it any better. Instead, he used the more formal 'Hokage-sama' and saved his personal nickname for her for personal meetings. He did have to admit that it slipped through when he got angry or exited, though.

She sighed- and then smirked. That was not good. Her smirks always meant something bad was going to happen. "As a part of your training for becoming Hokage," she paused, savoring the moment, "I have assigned you one of the newly graduated genin teams. Team four."

He blinked at her. It took a while for his brain to absorb the information, but then, "WHAT?! Why?"

She turned serious, "Because these three are very special children and you are the best suited to be their instructor."

At this, he sobered up. He? The best suited? Well, then those were some special kids indeed. "Who are they?"

She pointed at three folders lying on her desk. He grabbed the first one and opened it. As he skimmed trough the text and looked at the picture, his eyes widened, "He had a son?!"

"He probably had around thirty, all of different ages. This one was just lucky enough to end up here."

The jinchuuriki looked at her, then grinned, "Heh, it'll be like teaching my own teacher." he said with a slightly malevolent undertone.

"Just don't get too carried away." a small smile formed on her lips.

Naruto then proceeded to take the second folder. "Nii Yugito's daughter, huh? The one we rescued from Obito, right?" he looked up, "This is a pretty risky gamble."

The blonde woman grinned from ear to ear at hearing the word gamble, "Yes, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. She might have inherited part of Mitataba's chackra. If that's the case, then you are the best choice to teach her how to use it properly."

He nodded, then grabbed the third and last folder. He raised an eyebrow after reading it. "Uzumaki? I don't remember ever having children. Does that mean he's Karin's son?"

"Yes. She named him after his father, although not many know who he is and I plan to keep it that way."

His eyes went back to the name and then widened. "So, his father's-"

"Yes, he is." She looked at him sternly "And that's why I want you as his teacher."

He looked confused, "I don't get it."

"Naruto, think. Use that brain Kami blessed you with. This child has both Uzumaki and Uchiha blood. There is a high posibility that he will develop it."

At first he looked shocked, then even more confused, "And how am I supposed to help him? It's not like I know how to use those freaky...things. I can't even teach him how to use the Sharingan!"

"But out of all the shinobi of Konoha, you have the most experience with it. Plus, you know exactly what they do and how they work. You don't have to worry about his Sharingan. When the time comes, Kakashi will teach him how to use it. There's no excuse for you to say no."

Naruto sighed in exasperation, "Maybe I just don't want to?"

"Naruto." she said, threateningly.

"Ok, fine. I'll do it. Just don't go regretting it afterwards. So, when am I supposed to meet them?"

The woman looked at the clock on the wall "Hmm. Around thirty minutes ago."

"And you tell me that now? I can't believe this!" And with that he left the office, not waiting for her to dismiss him.

She smiled wryly, "I'm sure I won't regret it."

Ino was at her home, sitting on the couch with a puffy eyed, sleeping Sakura lying right beside her. She had been cleaning the house when the doorbell rang. The sight that that awaited her behind the door was that of her pink haired best friend crying her eyes out. After fifteen minutes of trying to calm her down, she finally managed to get the story out of her in a halfway understandable language.

She sighed. She had already long ago given up on Sasuke and, instead, tried out dating other guys, mainly Shikamaru. When the Uchiha survivor had returned, she had been deeply confused, which ended up on her dumping her boyfriend. She had been alone ever since.

That's why the blonde kunoichi could not understand why Sakura still was so attatched to him. Maybe it was really love that had faded with time. Maybe she was was just overly obsessed. Either way, she knew Sakura wouldn't be approaching the guy any time soon. Actually, she probably wouldn't go near him at all. She knew because beneath all the grief and anger, she had caught a glimpse of another feeling within her.

Sakura had given up. And this time, for good.

"Where is the guy? He should've been here half an hour ago!" exclaimed a red haired kid.

As if to answer his question, a spiky, blond head poked out of the door, the rest of the body emerging afterwards. The man sat down on the desk and turned to their teacher, "Hey, Udon. You can leave now. I'll take care of these three."

The brown haired Chuunin looked puzzled, but then his expression changed to shock, "You're their instructor? Oh man, this will be interesting." he chuckled, "Well, as much as I'd love to stay and watch, I've got stuff to do. Have fun with the test."

Naruto grinned evilly, "I will." He watched as his former apprentice's friend left the room, then turned to the three kids sitting in front of him, "Hello!" he said with his trademark smile replacing the evil grin of moments ago.

"You're late." was the only reply he got from the girl who was narrowing her eyes and glaring at him.

He just ignored her and continued speaking, "As you may have already found out, I am your new Jounin instructor. Since from now on we're a team, we should get to know each other, so let's start with an introduction. I'll go first: My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen. I hate a certain man. My hobbies are none of your business and my soon to be fulfilled dream is to become Hokage. You may refer to me as Naruto-sensei. You're next." he pointed at the boy leaning on the wall to his right.

The boy had spiky, white hair, which partially hid his newly acquired hitai-ate, and dark brown eyes. His skin was slightly darker than his teammates' and his face was surprisingly handsome. He wore a black shirt with elbow length sleeves and a blue vest on top. His kunai holder was attached to his right leg, causing a slight bulge on the loose, gray shorts. His visible extremities were covered in fishnet cloth.

"I'm Sakasani Yuki. I like pretty girls. I don't really enjoy the idea of becoming a ninja." This earned him a raised eyebrow from his new teacher, which he ignored. "My hobby is reading and I don't have any important dreams as of yet."

"Now you." Naruto pointed at the girl who had pointed out his tardiness. Her dirty blond hair was tied with a bandage, while her front hair hid the right half of her face, but her hitai-ate was placed in a way that the leaf symbol was still visible. Her visible, green eye was sharp and spoke of intelligence. She had a purple blouse partially covered by a long, white, short sleeved jacket, both tied together by a lavender rope. Below the blouse, she wore a blue skirt, slitted on the sides, with a pair of leggings underneath that went until her knees. Her kunai holder was strapped to her right leg and her sandals went over her ankles.

"My name is Nii Shizuka." she spat out the name as if it had a bad taste to it, "I like cats. I hate everything that has to do with the Akatsuki organisation. I don't really have a hobby, nor do I have a dream or ambition."

Naruto didn't even have to point at the remaining member of the team. He started speaking on his own, "My name's Uzumaki Itachi" he said, directing a big grin to his teacher. He was starting to annoy the blonde. "I love dumplings and I don't like my hair. My hobby is acting. I guess I don't have a dream either." He shrugged.

Naruto took his time to study him while he spoke. His skin was pale, a big contrast to his vivid red hair, which was perfectly straight on one side and stood out at all angles on the other. On the front, it framed his sharp face and accentuated his black eyes. He wore a simple dark red jacket and black pants, which were tucked into the bandages wrapped around his lower legs. A dark purple scarf was hanging loosely from his neck and his kunai holder was hugging his left leg tightly.

'I can see that they have a motivation problem.' thought Naruto after having heard all three introductions "Great. Now that we've got to know each other a little better I can finally tell you how screwed you are."

Their faces were priceless.

"What do you mean?" asked Yuki.

His grin got bigger, "If you want to keep your status as a Genin, you will have to pass a test-"

"Another test!" exclaimed Itachi. Indeed, he was very annoying. The newly appointed teacher hit him on the head, "Itai!"

"Don't interrupt me. Anyways, as I was saying, this test has very low success rate and normally only a third of the Genin from the Academy are able to pass. If you fail, you'll be stripped of your hitai-ate and sent back to the Academy." at this threat, even Shizuka paled. Naruto took a second to savor the moment. "To take it, meet me tomorrow at eight on the training ground No. 6."

"And what is this test?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"That" his grin turned evil yet again "I will tell you tomorrow."

"What?! Why?" Itachi's tone indicated outrage. This earned the Genin yet another painful bump on his head.

Naruto glared daggers at him, "Because I say so." turning to the other two, he calmed down, "Until tomorrow." And with that, he disappeared in a little cloud of smoke.

Yuki stared at the spot where their sensei had been standing just moments before, "Oh boy."

One trip around town and quite a bit of sake later, Naruto was sitting with his former teacher, Hatake Kakashi, in a bar, talking about his new genin team.

"Tell me, Kakashi, was I really that annoying when I was little?" he asked, hoping that he would prove his suspicions wrong.

"No, Naruto. You were ten times worse."

The blond ninja winced, "I am so sorry, Kakashi-sensei! I am really, truly sorry. I was a young, stupid brat. Is there anything I can do to make up for all those years of suffering?"

Kakashi looked like he was about to explode with laughter, "You could start by paying for the next round."

And so he did. And he deeply regretted it afterwards. The silver haired man started talking of women, and love and other things Naruto managed to tune out before they reached his brain. 'Oh man. He's in his Icha Icha mode. I shouldn't have bought that last round of sake.' He groaned when he saw the man pulling out an orange book. To his great relief, a kunai cut Kakashi off in the middle of his rant and both of them turned around to see a very annoyed Anko.

"Why do you always have to read that crap in public? Don't you have a single drop of shame in you? You pervert."

Naruto mentally answered her question. No, he didn't have a single drop of shame in him.

Looking at the Jounin's outraged expression (or at least what was visible of it) he knew that an all out argument about morals was about to begin and he honestly didn't want to get pulled into another one of Kakashi and Anko's bickering battles. He used the moment of distraction and sneaked out of the bar before anyone could notice his absence at the table.

No, his life was certainly not easy.

Author's Note:

Omigosh! this is the first chapter of my very first fanfic, yay! ok, just to clear some things up: Nii Yugito is the name of the nibi (two-tails) jinchuuriki, the one Hidan almost killed, and Mitataba is the name of the nibi. Oh and I know this has way more teenage drama than it should have cause they're all around 28 or something, but meh, who cares.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading it more than I enjoyed writing it :3