Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto. Not any… nada… Just some little stories that pop out of my head that's based on it
Yeah people… I watch Naruto for the fun of it, so I don't know all the terms, procedures and everything that happens in Naruto. So sorry if it bothers you, but.. .I wrote this for my enjoyment and yours if you like my writing. Oh, but I move stories along a little slow. Just to tell you.
When im lazy.. I tend to skip time, and also I'm inconsistent with terms like-kun and –sensei- and all… sorry.
By the way, sorry if the first chapter follows the anime/manga too much, I just need something to start off the story.
Beginnings
Ever since the beginnings of the ninja academy, Haruno Sakura, like all other girls in her classes, had nurtured a not-so-secret crush on Uchiha Sasuke. When she wasn't taking notes during class and paying attention, she would stare at him and sigh quietly to herself. As she grew older, she sometimes looked at herself and asked herself: Why do you like this guy? She'd shake her head in uncertainty. It was true: he was silent, dark, and cold. But- but! She reasoned with herself, he was somewhat good looking (she blushed) and strong. Plus, she was a young girl, things like cool, silent and cold guys made her swoon for some weird reason. She turned her mind back to Iruka-sensei's lesson…and was distracted again by the back of Sasuke's head.
Sasuke rubbed the back of his head, and worked his shoulders back and forth to get out the stiffness. There were always at least three of them watching him at any time, he felt like he was going to be attacked at any second. With any luck, when the class took their final exam to become genins, he just might have a team with no girls, or maybe a girl who had the sense to concentrate on things other than him. Girls, he scoffed, damn, but they're useless. They're either fawning over some guy or frozen in fear. I can't be held down in missions and training by anyone. My priority is power, and him. Sasuke shook himself. Exactly, stop worrying about girls, what are you doing? He mentally checked his countdown until the exam. Five days. He better become a genin. Actually, he had no problem admitting he was going to anyways.
After the genin exam is over…
Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and… Uzumaki Naruto. Possibly the worst possible trio to ever occur. They stood in a circle glowering at each other. Well, only some people glowered at some people.
Sakura had an insuppressible smile and bursts of joy inside her every time she saw Sasuke. He's in MY GROUP! (Inner Sakura: ALL RIGHTTT DAMMIT!) However, her face seemed to be having a war with itself every time she saw Naruto. Naruto. She hated him. He was always in her way when she was trying to just watch Sasuke-kun.
Naruto was the same as Sakura. He looked sideways at her and grinned. He then looked the other way and scowled at Sasuke. What a pretty boy, he thought, I bet I could beat him up any day. Why does everyone like him so much!
Sasuke stood there and had the impassive expression on him.
"Heyyy, Sakura-chan! We're in the same group together now, aren't we?" Naruto grinned stupidly and hollered at her as if she was twenty feet away. Sakura smacked him out of the way and took Naruto's place next to Sasuke.
"Hi, Sasuke-kun," She said quietly, looking down and blushing. "We're in the same group together now, aren't we?" He made that "hmf" sound, tossed his head and looked up. Sakura felt crushed.
Damn. Sasuke cursed to himself. I was hoping for an all guys team. A good all guys team. But no, here I am with a girl, the worst of them it seems, and a useless dropout. And where's our idiot of a teacher?
A poof sounded, and Sakura and Sasuke twisted around. Naruto was still on the floor, twitching.
"Hey, guys. I'm your teacher, Hatake Kakashi, neh, actually make it just Kakashi."
Sasuke felt his eyebrow raise involuntarily. Gray hair, face mask, forehead protector drooping over one eye. This guy looks like some kind of drug-addict, he sneered
"H-Hi, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura stammered out, looking equally puzzled.
Naruto: twitch
After the introductions were all made and Naruto was restored to his loud and normal condition, Kakashi led them to the training grounds. For the next couple of days they did small exercises, building up stamina and such and spent a lot of time just learning to control chakra better. One day, they started the real stuff.
He began with the tree-climbing exercise.
"Collect chakra to your feet and attach it to the tree trunk. Like this." As he had been talking, he slowly walked up the tree trunk while still reading that odd little red book, and hung upside down from a tree branch wayyy up high. He walked back down onto the ground, and continued, "Running helps. Go." With that, he chose a comfortable nook between some tree roots and went on with his reading.
"Hah. I do things like that in my sleep!" Naruto burst out, and immediately ran towards the base of the tree. "HaaaaaAAAAAAA!" He snarled as he tried to force his way up the tree trunk. "GAH!" Naruto had made it just two feet off the ground off of pure force in his run, when his momentum slowed, stopped, and dissolved. He fell back to the ground.
"Chakra, you idiot!" Sakura snarled. She took a deep breath as a blue glow appeared around her feet, and took a running start, just as Sasuke headed for another tree. Naruto snorted, got up, dusted himself off and tried again. He fell back to the ground again. Well, this time he had gotten up three feet! Man, the improvements are just pouring in already! Naruto said to himself. He wasn't sure if it was sarcastic or not.
Two muffled thumps caught his attention. Sasuke landed a few feet away from him, and a few seconds later, Sakura on his other side. All three turned as one to look at the two markings. Sakura's was much higher. Sasuke's face was impassive, again. Naruto snickered behind his hand, and both Sasuke and Sakura glared at him. He quieted.
Sakura was ecstatic. She couldn't tell what Sasuke thought of hers being higher, but if Sasuke could respect her for her skills, Sakura would take that option.
Naruto interrupted her thinking. "Why can't I do it?" He moaned and complained.
"Remember what Kakashi-sensei said, stupid, collect chakra to your feet." Sakura snapped.
All three set off for the trees again.
At the end of the day, Sakura had made her way up to the top of the tree several times already. Kakashi told her to try it on rocks, but she mastered that quickly too. To her dismay, it made Sasuke seem to look at her with dislike and annoyance.
After practice, Sakura gathered the courage she needed for what she was about to do. I must be crazy. She mumbled to herself.
"Sasuke-kun!" she called after the dark blue back that was leaving the grounds. He turned and stared at her. She gulped as her stomach erupted with butterflies. She ran up next to him and said, "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"
"You already are." Sasuke said. Sakura's face colored, and she went on hurriedly.
"What… what can I do to earn your respect?" she mumbled softly.
"I can't hear what you're saying. Either spit it out and stop wasting my time or let me go home."
Sakura's mind was a jumble. "Um, sorry, Sasuke-kun. Sorry." And she turned and ran home, mentally slapping herself every five seconds.
The next day she tried again.
"Sasuke-kun!" she caught up with him again. He turned irritably and frowned when he saw her. Her head dropped, but came right back up. She opened her mouth to speak, and a tangled mess of words spilled out. Tch, what's wrong with me. I'm not Hinata or anything.
The black-haired boy was glaring at her.
Sakura collected herself and cheerfully smiled and waved, "Nevermind. See you tomorrow!" and with that, the Uchiha left her. She looked at the receding back and her smiled faded a little. She would never get him. How could she? Sasuke-kun needed someone serious who he could respect.
The scene replayed over and over for the third, fourth and fifth tries Sakura took to try and talk to Sasuke. There was definitely something wrong here. Each time, Sasuke got more and more annoyed.
On the sixth day, Sakura managed to catch Sasuke and she walked with him, while Naruto jumped about in the background raging about how he couldn't get more than six feet off the ground on the tree.
"Sasuke-kun…" she began.
"Sakura!" Sasuke snapped. "I am not ashamed to tell you that when I found you on my team, I was dismayed. I am sick of annoying people like you who constantly follow me about! I hoped more from you, that luck would smile on me for once and show me that you could pull some different personality from the paparazzi people and do something on your own. I was wrong."
As the rant flowed out, Sakura felt suddenly different.
"Sorry, Sasuke-kun," she started again, but this time, confident. "I was just wondering. That first day we started the climbing exercises, you had a negative expression on your face, Sasuke-kun. I want to know how I can earn your respect."
Sasuke's face looked crushed and there was an unhealthy blue tinge around the edges of his face.
"You… are deaf. I just said, shut up and stop trying to make me see you, because I do. So shut up, put in some hard work and forget about whatever thing you've got for me. I don't care for you! I don't give many people respect, in fact I can't think of any right now. That means I want you to be your own person, and not my shadow and I will give you respect as a friend." He looked surprised at how much he had just said. So talkative lately, he was getting. Tch. He felt scorn at himself. I'll go home and practice some more.
A triumphant cry echoed from the training grounds as Naruto somehow reached the top of the tree. Back at the grounds, Kakashi thought Ah… a tiny bit of Kyuubi. Hello there. Naruto doesn't know how to control the chakra though. Ah well..he'll learn.
"Hmm… maybe two people I respect, then." Sasuke muttered, thoughtful. Sakura's face lit up… He respected Naruto and her! He respected her! As a friend! "Yes yes, Kakashi and Naruto, well… a little bit for Naruto." Sasuke finished. Sakura's face fell into shadow again, and she had vanished long before Sasuke turned back to say something to her.