A lone crescent moon hung high in a cloudy sky. No stars accompanied the moon as it hung casting what little light it provided over a lone child. The spiky blonde haired eight year-old with blue eyes and whisker like marks on his cheeks was walking home from the park.
One would think that with the dirt that covered his white shirt and brown shorts was from playing with other children. Sadly it wasn't, the kids had picked on him by kicking dirt at him because their parents believed him to be evil incarnate. The children didn't understand completely what they were doing, just that there was a lot of negative emotions focused toward young Naruto.
He had tried to play alone and mind his own business after that, but they wouldn't leave him alone. So he hid in the woods and waited till they left before playing at the park, but it wasn't the same. He was just as alone now as when he first came to the park.
Naruto walked home in an uncomfortable silence. Today like many other days had left him with a feeling of disappointment. He wanted to make friends, but it seemed he only made enemies. He tried to play with others and always ended up alone, it just wasn't fair.
Ever since little Naruto could remember he had been the target of glares, bullying, and even hostility in a few cases. It never got too far, because the old man somehow always appeared when things got heated. He supposed that since the old man was the hokage he knew whenever something bad went on. He wondered if the old man knew if he did something bad, and maybe that was why everyone was mean to him, but he couldn't think of anything he had done.
Naruto became lost in thought as he walked home to his apartment, but a figure hidden in the shadows snapped him out of his daze. It looked like the figure was scoping the area out before dropping from the window it was perched on. The figure made a lot of noise as it landed, but quickly picked itself up and ran away. Naruto being so curious followed as quietly as he could.
The figure ran a few blocks before it stopped to take a break. Naruto snuck a little closer and could make out some of the figure's features with the help of some nearby streetlights.
It looked like a boy his age with blonde hair, blue eyes, and long pointed ear? That alone interested him enough to tail the boy. He was also wearing some tan colored pants and a green shirt. As Naruto watched the boy from a building he was hiding behind the boy looked in his direction. Naruto quickly hid behind the building unsure if he had been spotted.
The boy stared in the direction he thought he heard something from. A determined look crossed his face as he moved on. He decided he couldn't be slowed down, and he needed to leave this village. He had studied how to survive in the wild, so he could do that until he found a place to settle.
He quickly began running again heading toward a part of the gate surrounding the village. He slowed as he neared it and approached a few trash bins before looking around once again.
Once he was sure he wasn't being watched he carefully began moving the trash cans revealing a hole just big enough for him to fit through. Hidden by the trash cans he slipped into the hole unseen and made it to the other side of the wall before heading into the forest.
Naruto snuck closer to where the boy had hidden behind the trash cans. Imagine his surprise when he found the boy gone and a hole just big enough for him to fit through. Only one thought crossed his mind when he saw it.
'Cool!' he thought excitedly as he entered the hole and wound up on the other side of the wall.
He walked to the nearby woods with a look of wonder. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears with nervous excitement. He hadn't ever been out of the village walls before, and even though it was the same out here as some of the training grounds ninjas were at, it was so different at the same time.
As Naruto walked aimlessly just observing, his original goal forgotten, a hand covered his mouth and he was pulled down to the ground. His back hit the ground hard and he felt a knee holding his chest down and the hand still over his mouth.
"What the hell are you doing following me?" whispered a harsh voice.
For a moment Naruto had been afraid, but as soon as he realized it was the kid he had been following his fear disappeared. He instinctively bit down on the hand and the boy hissed and clenched his teeth in pain.
The boy delivered a punch to Naruto's face in mild desperation. The first punch loosened his hold on the boy's hand the second punch made him let it go all together. As soon as Naruto let go the other boy stood up and clutched his hand trying to ease the pain as much as possible.
"Oooowww," the boy hissed as he experimentally made a fist and faced Naruto again.
Naruto had just stood back up and was eyeing the boy with no small amount of anger.
"Why the hell did you sneak up on me like that?" he asked loudly.
The other boy winced and turned to look toward the wall to see if anyone had heard him. He didn't see anyone coming or alarms going off, so he figured he was in the clear.
"Will you keep it down?" he hissed, "Besides you've been following me, so I just jumped you before you could jump me."
Much quieter this time Naruto replied, "I wasn't gonna jump you. I was just curious what you were up to after I saw you sneak out of the orphanage."
"Whatever, if you're not here to stop me then I'm leaving," the boy stated as he turned and walked away.
"Hey wait! Where are you going?" Naruto asked as he sped in front of the kid.
"Away from this place," he replied trying to step around him.
Naruto blocked his path again, "Why?"
The boy studied him as he thought about answering him.
"You know why, and don't pretend you don't. I've seen how everyone treats you too. I don't know what orphanage you go to, but you ought to know how I feel."
Naruto was shocked for a moment and unsure what to say. "Is it because of the ears?" he asked without thinking.
"Yeah, everyone thinks I was contaminated when I was a baby by the Kyuubi's chakra when it attacked and that my ears are a mutation cause of it. People aren't too fond of me because of that." Link answered with resentment laced in his voice.
"Haha, well then your already better off than me, I still don't know why people treat me like dirt. I just do my best to ignore it all." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Then don't. I understand turning the other cheek, but there is such thing as crossing the line."
Nobody would ever truly realize the repercussions of those words, as they would be the trigger to a nearly endless stream of pranks throughout the village.
Distracted by the thought Naruto didn't notice as the boy ran past him, and when he noticed he was gone he knew he wouldn't catch up to him.
"Who was that," Naruto wondered, "and why didn't I want to stop him?"
Naruto turned back to the village as he headed back, "I wonder what I'm gonna tell jiji."
Naruto bumped into the hokage as he was walking and was about to fall over until a strong hand caught him and pulled him back up.
"What are you wondering about telling me?"
"Jiji! When did you get here?"
"I just arrived. I was actually wondering why you were outside the village walls. You know you shouldn't be outside them. You could easily have gotten lost in the woods at night if you had gone in any further." Sarutobi explained.
"I was talking with someone, that's all."
"You mean this little brat here?" asked a female that emerged from the shadows.
The girl had purple hair tied up in spikes in the back. She also wore a trench coat over a short skirt and a mesh shirt. Naruto couldn't make out much more features in the dark, but the aura rolling off of her made Naruto think twice about smarting off.
Over her shoulder she was carrying the unconscious form of the boy Naruto had been talking to.
"I see you've caught young Link, Anko, good job. It would have been much too dangerous for him to be out here at night."
"I was gonna spook him, but he surprisingly heard me coming. I guess these ears aren't just for looks," she said as she gave one of them a little flick.
"Naruto, could I ask you for a favor?" the Hokage asked Naruto seriously.
Naruto was surprised by the question, because normally their roles were reversed.
"Sure, what is it?"
"Do you mind letting young Link stay at your place tonight? I think returning him to the orphanage this late will garner him unwanted attention."
"Yeah," Naruto said excitedly, "I've never had anybody sleep over, it will be fun."
"I don't think he'll be waking up anytime soon kid," Anko butted in.
(4 years later)
An alarm clock went off and two boys in a bunk bed sleepily tried to ignore it. One blonde slammed his hand on it fumbled for the snooze button clumsily. He eventually settled swatting it off the table it was on, effectively unplugging it. Meanwhile the other blonde desperately smothered his face with the pillow in the hopes of blocking out the noise and light.
A knock came from the front door and both blondes let out a groan. Without a word a game of rock-paper-scissors began. Link lost and he lazily rolled out of bed and fell to the floor before picking himself up and heading out of the room to the front door. He opened it to reveal the hokage of the village, a man who had always been a grandfather to Naruto and had become like a grandfather to Link over the years.
It hadn't always been like that, Link had tried to run away over a dozen times more after staying with Naruto. The hokage and Naruto would always catch him though and even though Naruto would go off on a tangent about friendship, his ninja way, and some other crap the hokage would do nothing more than tell him it was dangerous, in the end they would always forgive him too. Simply being forgiven so many times had the two grow on him and seeing as how neither judged based on looks or rumors was also points in his book.
"Morning, jiji," Link said sleepily as he moved so the hokage could enter.
"Good morning to you too, Link. You know you and Naruto will be late if you don't hurry. I take it you two want to graduate with the rest of your class, right?"
With that it was like someone lit a fire under Link's ass as he completely woke up and rushed into the room to get ready.
As Link entered the room Naruto exited while zipping up his orange jacket.
"Hey, jiji, hope you have a bunch of A-rank missions ready for me and Link when we become ninja today." Naruto said energetically as he made his way to the kitchen.
"How about you and Link just pass first." The Hokage suggested with a light chuckle.
"No worries there, old man, Link and I mastered the academy jutsu a month ago." Naruto replied as he popped some ramen in the microwave for himself and poured some milk and cereal for Link.
"Excellent, then I think I will set aside some missions for you. You'll get all the d-ranks you could ever want." The Hokage muttered quietly.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"Bye," the Hokage said before vanishing with a shunshin.
Xxxxx
Naruto and Link walked into class confident that today would be the day they pass. They made there way to their seats next to Chouji and Shikamaru. As they sat down Chouji greeted them through a mouthful of chips while Shikamaru gave a wave of his hand while keeping his head down on the desk.
Class had a few minutes left before Iruka arrived and everybody talked animatedly.
"There is no way you'll beat me get a higher score than me." Kiba declared as he argued with Naruto and Link. "Your scores suck right now, so how do you think you'll beat me?"
"That's just because of the written test," Naruto replied. "We're better with actually applying the stuff than writing about it."
Kiba didn't argue with them on that point as he was much the same way. Before he could retort though Iruka arrived and told everyone to shut up, but was promptly ignored.
"I TOLD YOU ALL TO SHUT THE HELL UP!" Iruka shouted as his face became red with rage and swelled to comical sizes. Once everybody was thoroughly stunned and quiet he continued, "Good, well I'm sure you all know that today we'll be holding your graduation test. I just wanna say good luck to you all, and pass or fail I'm proud of you all."
One by one everybody went up to perform the required jutsu. When it came to Naruto's turn he went up and couldn't help himself as he performed the Orioke no jutsu, his very own jutsu, instead of the required one.
Iruka had been exposed to it more than once and was long past rocketing back from a nose bleed. Instead he looked at Naruto with a deadpan look, a twitching eye, and a thin stream of blood trickling from his nose. The class remained silent, except Kiba who deemed it necessary to let out a cat call.
"DO THE CORRECT JUTSU THIS TIME, GAKI!" Iruka shouted as he let loose some positive reinforcement on the top of Naruto's head with his fist. It seemed to do the trick as Naruto hurriedly performed a successful bunshin before going back to his seat while rubbing his head.
"Worth it?" Link asked as soon as Naruto took his seat.
"No," Naruto replied, "I think he still seems pissed with all the extra work he had to pick up after Mizuki's betrayal, and the betrayal of Mizuki itself."
"He did have to kill Mizuki himself, and they were pretty good friends."
"I don't think he feels pity or anything. More like he's mad that Mizuki had been kidnapping and sneaking students out of the village for so long right under his nose without him knowing."
What was said between Naruto and Link was unfortunately true, but was only known to them and Hinata, as she had been Mizuki's last target before being caught.
Naruto glanced back curiously at the girl. The Hyuga clan heir wasn't exactly the picture of elegance nor did she stick out in many ways. She had deep blue hair with twin bangs that framed her face. Her pale, lavender, pupil-less eyes made it a bit difficult to figure out what she was looking at. She wore a light tan coat, even during the summer, and blue ninja pants.
It was unclear what his motive was, but one day after school they had heard Hinata struggling against someone after class. They quickly rushed in and despite being surprised to find Mizuki trying to restrain Hinata they made as much noise and havoc as possible for the man. All the chaos gained the attention of nearby teachers and Mizuki fled. Iruka had been one of the teachers to pursue him.
Since then Iruka hadn't been the same. He was quicker to anger and more distant. His best friends betrayal had shook his very foundations and he was having a hard time coping.
Hinata was only a little better. No other students knew about the incident, but she was even more withdrawn than before. She was even quieter around her friends opting only to answer with nods and shakes of the head. She would only speak when answering a question in class or if Link and Naruto ate lunch with her on occasion. Even then she barely talked since she had never interacted with them much. The other kids wondered why she had suddenly to occasionally eat with them, but no one could get an answer from the three.
"Alright come back in thirty minutes for team assignments, dismissed." Iruka said as he picked up his things and walked out.
"Finally the academy over. Soon we'll be getting missions, kicking ass, and becoming ridiculously famous," Naruto said as he followed Link out the window.
"You've got it all planned out don't you." Link replied with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm just keeping it simple. If I get too detailed there will be no room for error."
Link shrugged, "Good point. So, how to kill the rest of our time?"
"Let's go find Shino I bet he's got some of our prospective senseis' tagged and can give us a heads up."
Xxxxx
Naruto, Link, and Shino returned to the class none the wiser as to whom their senseis' would be. Shino had been thinking along similar lines, but years of dealing with students, including Aburame's, had made the teachers quite knowledgeable of what to expect.
"They're all dead. Linda, Marty, Uta, even Fifi." Shino said to himself quietly.
Naruto put a hand on his shoulder as he tried to comfort him. "I'm sure they're in a better place." Naruto said even though he sounded completely unsure. 'Don't say it's just a few bugs. Don't say it's just a few bugs.'
"Yes, I'm sure you are right Naruto." Shino said a little closer to his normal monotone self. "I will cope, but for now I believe we should take our seats."
Iruka entered as Link and Naruto took their seats and began listing off the teams.
"Team 7 will be composed of: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Link."
'Why doesn't this kid have a last name yet' Iruka thought.
Simultaneous groans could be heard as fan girls had their hopes and dreams of raping Sasuke viciously dashed away.
"Oh no, not Sasuke." Link said with a groan.
Sasuke Uchiha was a boy who just had the loveliest personality. He wasn't much for talking, but when he did you'd wish he hadn't. Arrogance and being angry where his strong points and he disliked fan girls.
The fangirls couldn't get enough of him though. Jet black hair, coal like eyes, and his choice of attire made the girls want to rape him. So they could just once hear him call them mistress, and eventually even get him begging on his hands and knees. They could dream, they could dream.
"Hey, at least I'm here."
Link let out an even larger groan.
Xxxxx
(1 hour later)
Link, Naruto, and Sasuke had been waiting patiently for their sensei, Kakashi, to arrive with varying degrees of success.
Link had his head on his hands facing the chalkboard with a thousand yard stare. Naruto was walking around just to do something. Sasuke looked out the window trying his best to get the 'Meow Mix' tune out of his head.
Then suddenly the door opened and in walked in a man with silver hair that gave gravity the finger. A mask that covered just about everything under his eyes and his headband covering his left eye. Otherwise he was dressed in the normal jounin attire.
"Yo," he said as he walked in and sat on Iruka's desk before pulling out an orange book to read.
All three boys had instantly focused on the man, but hadn't said anything yet.
Naruto finally found his voice as he asked the question that had been nagging them since the man entered.
"Who are you?"
"I'm, Hatake Kakashi, your new jounin sensei?"
"Why are you so late?" Link asked with a little heat in his voice.
"Ninja stuff," he replied.
'Oh, fuck you.' Link mouthed.
"Well let's get through some introductions. I'll start off. My name is Kakashi, I like a lot of things and I dislike a few things. I haven't really thought about dreams for the future."
"Wow sensei I feel like I learned so much about you just now." Link replied with thinly veiled sarcasm.
"Excellent, then you can go next, blondie." Kakashi replied without looking up from his book.
Link took a moment to think before he spoke, "My name is Link. I like dango, my friends, and cooking. I dislike prejudice, Anko stealing my dangos, and chickens. My dreams for the future are to find out my family history."
"Interesting. Now how about the quiet one with the sparkling personality." Kakashi said as he glanced at Sasuke and then back to his book.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha and I'm an avenger." He paused for dramatic affect. "I like few things and dislike a lot of things. I don't have a dream, but an ambition to someday kill a certain man."
The atmosphere in the room seemed a little heavier when Sasuke finished. Link and Naruto had never really ever tried to talk to Sasuke, so this was all news to them. Still it gave them a glimpse of why Sasuke was the way he was.
"Last but not least blondie 2."
"Well, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like my friends, ramen, and fishing," Naruto paused for a brief moment as he noticed that Kakashi didn't seem to be paying attention and had his head buried in his dirty book like when Link and Sasuke went. Never one to be ignored he said the only thing he could think of that my grab the man's attention. "I also like porn."
Sasuke and Link were both surprised at first with mouths slightly agape. However both listened in eager anticipation hoping he would bomb and make a fool of himself
Kakashi visibly paused as he looked up at Naruto with his single eye before closing the book and giving him his full attention. "Go on."
"I dislike cleaning up after pranks and lies. My dream is to someday become the Hokage."
"Alright, that's it for today. Tomorrow meet me at the Akamichi's restaurant at 7 a.m. With that Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves without letting them get a word in.
Link and Sasuke stared at Naruto who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
"Porn?" Link asked.
Xxxxx
Kakashi watched from the roof of a nearby building as the boys exited and headed home. He had initially intended to give them his routine survival training, but Naruto had given him an idea he couldn't pass up.
A/N
Finally finished with the first chapter. It's a rewrite with some reimagining here and there, but I also feel like it's vastly improved in overall quality to boot.
Hinata is not in love with Naruto right now. If she will or won't love him later on is still up in the air.
I appreciate constructive criticism feel free to lay it on me if you want to.
To people who actually read the A/N this is chapter 1 I just put 3 to mess with people.
