A/N this is my first fanfic, and it was an idea i have been mulling over in my head for a couple weks.

disclaimer: i dont own Naruto

Panic,

no,

sheer terror, gripped a 14 year old boy's heart.

He was late, again, to get to class, and this time he was certain there would be Hell to pay.

As he sped through the streets, he took an appreciative glance at the village that he called home.

The Hidden Village of Konoha was one of the strongest villages of the five hidden villages in the world. The village itself held the prestige of being home to renowned clans such as the Uchiha, and Hyuga and was the home of the Yellow Flash, the boy's father.

The boy in question was Naruto Namikaze, the jinchuurichi of the Nine-Tailed Fox. But this Naruto was different because the Third Hokage made a statement concerning his heritage and his burden, and as such most people instead of hating him, respected him and revered him as a hero.

A lot of people still wanted to kill him at first, wanting to finish the work of the Fourth Hokage; but when Naruto's heritage was made known, most people did not want to question the work of the Fourth, especially concerning his own son.

Being the son of Minato Namikaze had its perks, but it also had many adverse affects. One was the obscenely large amount of fan girls that he accumulated, the loneliness of being a jinchuurichi, the enemies that he had inherited from his father. Naruto already had several attempts on his life and as a result had a squad of ANBU that kept watch over him, and would continue to do so till he reached the rank of chuunin.

Naruto arrived at the front door of the

academy, he took a glance at his watch and breathed a sigh of relief, it was only 7:57, three minutes to spare. Being late was not something that he usually cared about, after all, what were the teachers going to do to him if he was late? Today was different however, to day was the day of graduation. He opened the door to his classroom and slipped inside. As soon as he opened the door, the fan girls were in front of him requesting that he sit down next to them. He naturally declined and instead looked for his best friend Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke Uchiha, followed closely by Naruto, was the most popular guy in class. He an Naruto were tied for the highest scores in the class, and despite all of the competition between the two, they were best friends.

"Yo Sasuke, whats up?" he asked while sitting down next to him.

"Hello Naruto," Sasuke replied smoothly "what have you been upto"

" OH, you know, the usual village civilian council members trying to kiss my a-"

But before he could finish Iruka-sensei interrupted by saying, "Good morning class,"

"Good morning Iruka -sensei," the class said in unison

"Today is the day of the final examination," stated Iruka as he started to go into detail about the following test. Naruto, who had already been told all of the details by a counselor that was trying to involve him in some sort of scheme, took a look over at Sasuke, who appeared to also be paying attention.

Naruto thought back to how he and Sasuke became friends.

Flash back starts

It was several years prior to the current date and Naruto distinctly remembered that the village was in an uproar. Itachi Uchiha had slaughtered the whole Uchiha clan except for his own little brother, Sasuke.

When Naruto walked up to the academy doors he noticed that there was a bulletin announcing that classes had been canceled for today and for the next couple of days. Even when it freaking snows, they never cancel classes, thought Naruto.

To say he was confused was an understatement, so being a sensible child, he decided to ask the Hokage what was going on.

While walking to the Hokage tower Naruto couldn't help but notice the sorrowful looks that most of the shinobi on their faces, not only had the village lost its most respected clan it also lost one of the most promising ninja in the elemental nations.

Naruto entered the tower and climbed the stairs till he got to the floor where the Hokage's office was. Instead of just plowing into the room, Naruto asked the secretary if the hokage was busy, to which she replied, "Namikaze-san, the Hokage is not in, he is at a very urgent council meeting and will be busy for the foreseeable future. At the end of the last statement Naruto frowned, Jiji always has time for me, so this must be really important.

After a brief moment of contemplation Naruto then turned back to the secretary and asked, "What happened last night, everyone seems so sad?"

The secretary looked at him incredulously and exclaimed, "You don't know what happened!"

Naruto just shook his head no.

The secretaries facial emotions changed from shock to sorrow, "The Uchiha clan was slaughtered last night," she said morosely.

Now it was Naruto's turn to look her incredulously, but just as soon as he was about to say something his look changed quickly from shock to high anxiety, "What happened to Sasuke " he said quietly.

The secretary had a sorrowful smile but said that Sasuke was ok but was at the hospital recovering physically and mentally from the shock.

Naruto had one more question before he left, "who did it?"

The secretary looked at him and said, "Itachi."

Upon hearing Sasuke's older brother's name Naruto had a look of rage in his eyes but that quickly changed to a sad look, and muttered under his breath, "Sasuke must be crushed."

With a thank you to the secretary, Naruto sped out of the office and ran full tilt towards the hospital.

Naruto was never very close to Sasuke, but the evry now and then, the two boys would spar against each other, to sharpen their skills.

He probably wants to rip Itachi to shreds.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Naruto walked up to the reception desk and asked the lady behind the desk Uchiha Sasuke was in.

The woman replied in an irritated tone, "you can't see him now."

Naruto was a little put off at being rejected (being a jinchuriki and a clan heir had made him quite used to getting what he wanted) but simply said "Arigatou, gave a slight bow and walked away.

Now a normal person would probably try to sneak in to Sasuke's hospital room or something, but Naruto decided that he would try to just reach out to Sasuke when he came back to school and help him any way that he could.

Naruto arrived back at the Namikaze around 3:30 in the after noon and decided to go outside and practice with his shuriken to kill time and get better at throwing them.

Several days went by and Sasuke was not seen at the academy, but on Thursday (the massacre occurred on a Saturday) Sasuke walked into the class room. When he entered the room, it fell deathly silent. Naruto who had his eyes closed and was daydreaming opened his eyes when the class room fell silent. Sasuke ignored the reaction of the class and instead spoke to Iruka-sensei in a cold, dead tone, "Good morning Iruka-sensei."

Iruka-sensei was a little taken back by the dead tone of the nine year old, "G-Good morning Sasuke, are you ok?"

"Hn, I'm alive aren't I?" and with that statement he walked to the back of the class room, sat down by himself and started brooding.

None of the fan girls dared to ask Sasuke if they could sit down with him, and most of the guys didn't even want to go and offer their sympathies for his loss. Naruto however saw this as a perfect opportunity to go talk to him so he walked up to Sasuke and sat down next to him.

Having never been in this situation Naruto just sat down next to Sasuke and spoke in a low even tone so the rest of the class couldn't here him, "I'll help you kill him."

Sasuke was a little shocked at the offer but he thought, I don't need his help, have to do this on my own." "I don't need your help."

Naruto looked at Sasuke and said, "if I beat you in a spar during recess, I get to help you, and if you beat me I'll give you some of my fathers jutsu scrolls when we become genin."

Sasuke was only half listening to the offer until the fourth Hokage's scrolls were mentioned. The offer was to good to pass up, and Sasuke was confident in his own abilities. "Sure I'll fight you, just get ready to hand over those scrolls." and to seal the deal the two boys shook hands.

As the day progressed the two boys grew more and more excited, Naruto thought: if I fight and beat Sasuke, I'll be able to help him and might actually gain a friend.

Naruto was pampered his whole life, but one thing that he always lacked was a true friend. He'd had acquaintances before but most of those kids hoped to gain something by being friends with him.

Naruto thought that if there was anyone in the village that could understand him, it would be Sasuke. Both boys were viewed as the future of Konoha, as ultimate weapons, and had lost their family to tragedy.

To Naruto the allure of actually gaining a true friend, one that didn't want power or money, no price would be to high.

Sasuke one the other hand was thinking: if- no when, I beat him, and get those scrolls I could become stronger basically over night, and kill Itachi with some epic jutsus that would blow his mind.

When recess was called the two boys looked at each other, nodded, walked up to Mizuki-sensei and asked if they would be allowed to spar.

Mizuki didn't really care what the boys did, as long as they didn't seriously hurt themselves.

The two boys hurried out to the court yard and asked Neji (who was ten years old) if he would referee. Neji complied with their request and asked everyone in the courtyard if they would clear out.

Sasuke and Naruto faced each other unblinking and waited for Neji to give the signal.

The crowd of students that had gathered, and the chuunin teachers all looked on with anticipation to see who would win the spar.

The fight will stop if one of you is injured or knocked unconscious, Hajime"

Both boys took off towards each other at impressive speeds for kids their age, but Naruto was slightly faster than Sasuke and Naruto threw a wild left handed haymaker hoping to catch Sasuke off guard with such a wild approach.

Sasuke saw the punch in coming and dodged to the right narrowly avoiding it, and followed up with a right hook that Naruto ducked under and he elbowed Sasuke in his ribs and jumped away.

Sasuke was not hurt by the strike but it managed to knock the air out of him.

Naruto, not wasting any time ran back towards Sasuke hoping to finish the fight quickly.

Sasuke recovered faster than he expected, however and Naruto was not prepared for Sasuke's intercepting fist that collided with his stomach.

Naruto cried out in pain from the punch but didn't stop the motion of punching and this time his hay maker connected with Sasuke's jaw.

Sasuke flew backward a couple feet and collided with a wall, and fell to the ground unconscious. Naruto, however also keeled over unconscious and fell to the ground due the pain of having several of his ribs broken from the punch.

Several hours later both boys woke up in the same hospital room .

Naruto was the first to speak, "so who won?"

"I don't know lets call it a draw."

"Ok, so how bout I give you some of my dad's scrolls and you let me train with you so we can both get stronger?" Naruto asked seriously

"Why the heck did I have to fall unconscious, I had the fight in the bag and was about to finish it!" Naruto thought bitterly.

Sasuke looked at him and thought, "well he did manage to draw with me, I guess there's no harm in training with him and learning some of his dad's scrolls." "Sure" he stated in a tired tone.

flash back ends

Over the next couple years the two boys had become good friends and hoped that they would be able to be on the same squad.

Naruto leaned over and whispered to Sasuke, "Some council member walked up to me and asked me if I would like to be on your team, so I naturally said yes so maybe we could be on the same team."

Sasuke looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, "Really, that's pretty awesome, hopefully we can."

"And we'll be starting the exams right now, and as we call you by name you are to come to the back room and perform the bushin jutsu," Iruka-sensei finished.

One by one their classmates were called and they looked at their closest friends for encouragement. When it was her time to take the test Hinata Hyuga looked over at Sasuke and Naruto one last time, Sasuke gave her a real smile (something he didn't do often) and Naruto gave her a thumbs up.

Both boys had become very close friends with her and she really hoped that after the exam, granted she pass, that they would all be an the same team together.

When Naruto's turn came to take the test he gave Sasuke a quick fist bump and went to take the test. On the short walk to the back room Naruto recalled the short conversation he had with the Hokage.

"Naruto, you have probably noticed that you can't perform a simple bushin, do you know why?" Sarutobi asked.

No Jiji, I try and I try but, no matter what, it comes out looking like a dead piece of crap."

Sarutobi gave a slight chuckle at the boys response and handed him a scroll.

"What's this?" Naruto asked while opening it. "That is a scroll containing the kage bushin jutsu that will probably work better for you, make sure you read the whole scroll and work on it tonight before bed." Sarutobi finished.

"Thanks Jiji, Naruto said excitedly and with out further delay he sped out of the hokage's office which caused the old man to give another slight chuckle.

Naruto walked confidently into the backroom and stood before Mizuki and Iruka. "Kage bushin no jutsu," he called out. And much to his sensei's astonishment, when the smoke created from the jutsu cleared both were surprised to see the room filled with fifteen Naruto all wearing the exact same thing that he was, and giving the both of them the exact same bored look.

"Congratulations Naruto, you pass," Mizuki said in an envious tone.

Naruto gave a slight bow, walked up to the table containing the hitai-ates, and selected the one that looked the best according to him. He then fastened it around his head and proceeded out of the backroom, gave a slight nod to Sasuke.

On the outside, Naruto looked like he honestly didn't give a crap about his graduation, but on the inside he was doing freaking back flips.

" I'm a ninja now, and I'll be the best damned one the world has ever seen!

A/N please review, leave comments, and tell me how i can improve, thanx :)