A/N: Originally written in February 2011 as an entry for the fan fiction contest of Anime Detour 2011. It didn't win, but it was fun to write and enter. Horizontal lines indicate passage of time.
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. I leave that right to genius Masashi Kishimoto. I'm not making money with this story. I leave that moneymaking business to the awesome Masashi Kishimoto.
A Secret Handshake
"All right, class, settle down," Miss Kata called. The young ninja cadets stopped talking among themselves and turned their eyes toward their teacher.
"Shikamaru, pay attention!" Miss Kata snapped. Shikamaru turned his head from the window where he had been watching clouds. "Iruka told me that you all need practice with the transformation jutsu. Let's review the steps." She put her hands together. "First, we concentrate and gather our chakra." She closed her eyes and proceeded to do just that. "Then we manipulate our chakra in just the right way so that the transformation is achieved." One puff of smoke later, the Third Hokage was standing where she had been standing. "Now I want all of you to try it," she said, transforming back to her own body. She called their names one by one, and one by one Naruto watched his classmates transform into the third Hokage. Not all of them transformed correctly, but at least they could do it.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the teacher called. Naruto glared at Sasuke's back as he walked to the front of the room. If only Sasuke would make a mistake, just once. But Sasuke never made mistakes. Everything he did at the Ninja Cadet Academy was perfect.
Sasuke put his hands together and transformed flawlessly. Naruto ground his teeth together. Why did Sasuke have to get right everything that he got wrong?
"Uzumaki Naruto," the teacher continued. Naruto grumbled his way to the front of the classroom. He put his hands together, gathered chakra, and tried to perform the transformation jutsu. Smoke surrounded him, but when the smoke cleared, he still looked like his own self. Miss Kata sighed.
"You fail, Naruto." All the children in the classroom except Sasuke tittered as Naruto shuffled back to his seat. Sasuke didn't even smile. Naruto had not seen Sasuke smile since his parents had died months earlier. But Sasuke's frown only irritated Naruto. It wasn't fair that Sasuke was always so good at everything!
When class was over for the day, Naruto walked home. He was dwarfed by the towering trees which bordered the road. On his way he passed a lake. On a dock that stretched over the water sat Sasuke, paddling his bare feet in the gentle ripples. He was alone. Naruto knew what that felt like.
Sasuke turned around and looked at him. Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, and Sasuke stuck out his lower lip in response.
Stupid Sasuke.
The next day, Iruka took the cadets outside to practice throwing shuriken.
"Here's what we're going to do. I want everyone to line up facing this tree," Iruka said. He pointed to a tree which had five paper bull's-eyes attached to the trunk in a vertical line. "You're going to throw your shuriken at the targets one at a time as fast as you can. Try to hit the center of each eye. When you're done throwing your shuriken, retrieve them and give them to the next student in line."
The students lined up eagerly. They loved lessons that involved ninja weapons.
As each student took his turn, Iruka coached them on their techniques.
"More precision and less power," Iruka advised Choji after his shuriken had succeeded in hitting every part of the tree except the targets.
"Throw a little harder next time, Hinata," Iruka said when all of her shuriken fell short of the tree.
During Kiba's turn, Iruka told him flatly, "No, Akamaru cannot throw the shuriken."
Sasuke threw his shuriken with such speed that Naruto could barely see them fly through the air. All five of them hit the exact center of the targets. "Excellent work, Sasuke," Iruka praised him.
Naruto took the shuriken from Sasuke and scowled petulantly at him. Sasuke returned his scowl readily.
Naruto aimed the shuriken and threw them one by one. Two shuriken barely grazed the tree trunk, and three shuriken never made it to the tree.
"Keep trying, Naruto," Iruka encouraged him.
For the rest of the afternoon, the cadets continued to practice with the shuriken. After they had all gotten very tired, Iruka interrupted them.
"All right, cadets, your parents have arrived! Class is over for today." Hinata sat down on the grass to rest. Choji flopped onto his back, huffing and puffing.
A huge black dog with a woman riding on his back approached.
"Come on, Kiba!" the woman barked. Kiba scampered over to them. The dog leaned down to snuffle Kiba and Akamaru affectionately.
Hiashi stood over Hinata's seated form. "Come," he murmured briefly. Hinata stood up and silently followed him.
Shino's father came next. He inclined his head to his son, and Shino ran to him.
Behind Shino's father were Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza. Inoichi tossed Ino into the air and caught her.
"My little girl is gonna be a great ninja!" he crowed. Giggling, Ino wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You didn't goof off too much, did you, Shikamaru?" Shikaku asked.
"I didn't goof off!" Shikamaru protested. Shikaku chuckled knowingly and took his hand.
Choza bent down and lifted his son into his arms. Choji's tired head rested on Choza's shoulder.
Naruto watched all his classmates with their parents hungrily. He wanted someone to come and get him, too. He wanted someone to smile and stroke his hair. But no one would come for him.
As Sakura's father led her away by the hand, her hair ribbon fell from her hair. Naruto snatched it up and chased after them.
"Sakura, wait! You dropped your ribbon!" he cried.
Sakura turned around. Smiling, she reached out to take the ribbon. Before she could touch it, her father pulled her back so that she stood behind him. Naruto didn't understand. Had he done something wrong?
"Drop it," Sakura's father growled. Naruto obeyed, and the fabric fluttered to the ground. Her father picked up the ribbon and handed it to Sakura. "Stay away from my daughter, fox," he commanded. Naruto stared at him in distress. Sakura's father was glaring at him with repugnance. Why did this man hate him? Naruto's eyes burned and his throat throbbed. He turned and ran into the forest.
"Daddy!" Sakura wailed, the only word she could say to protest his unfair treatment of Naruto.
Naruto ran until he had left their voices far behind. He sat down in the dirt and cried, wiping his wet cheeks with his hands. He looked behind him when he heard the sound of running feet.
Sasuke was standing in front of him. He said nothing; he just sat and stared solicitously at Naruto with his black eyes. Naruto was glad that Sasuke was there. Sasuke knew what being sad felt like.
When Naruto had cried all his tears, they walked to Naruto's house together.
Naruto got up early the next morning. He dressed, ate, and ran out the door. If he hurried, he could catch Sasuke on the way to school.
As he reached the lake where Sasuke usually sat, he saw Sasuke walking from the dock uphill to the road. Naruto ran down the hill to meet him.
"Hey, Sasuke! Wanna walk to school together?" Sasuke didn't reply, but he walked along the road beside Naruto.
"Since we're friends, let's do something special that only we know. We should have a secret handshake," Naruto decided. He faced Sasuke and held up his index and middle fingers. "Two fingers, 'cause there's two of us." He held out his two fingers, and Sasuke curled his two fingers around Naruto's. Naruto shook happily, grinning widely and laughing. Sasuke smiled, too.
After school that afternoon, Naruto walked by the lake again. Sasuke was sitting on the dock's edge and throwing pebbles into the water.
"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto bellowed. He raised both arms over his head and waved wildly. Sasuke waved back at him and grinned.
!The End!
A/N: I wanted to write a background piece to Naruto and Sasuke's adorable two-finger handshake in the manga and anime. So I took scenes from the anime and wrote a story around them. Please read and review, fans of Naruto!