Summary: The ninja world is turned into a world united and divided by soccer! Can Naruto become the star of the Shinobi Premier League, beat Sasuke and get the girl?
A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for clicking on my story and I hope you will enjoy the journey! If you aren't a fan of soccer, I still encourage you to give this a chance. I hope I can intertwine soccer with romance and friendship and truly make this a good fan fiction, of course that may not happen seeing as this is my first one, so be as critical as you'd like, I like being challenged and encouraged. I will add little letters next to a word for phrase you may not understand, and you can find the description of that letter at the end of the chapter. So without further ado, this is it! My first fan fiction entitled, Naruto Uzumaki: A Rising Soccer Star
Chapter 1: Child's Play
Soccer is considered the beautiful game. The way the players move, the passes, the skills, the vicious strikes on goal, it is all a beautiful sight to see. There is a certain suave that follows a good dribbler, a certain sense of idolism to a good captain, and a striking sense of awe to that one special goal scorer. Some people say that soccer isn't anything special and that passing and shooting a ball into a goal is easy, so…
"Why then is this shit so hard for me?!" A young, spiky haired, blond boy lay on his back in the middle of the soccer field, drenched in sweat and cramping up. A ball lay beside him slowly rolling away from a set of cones that formed a sort of zigzag pattern. "I just want to prove to those kids that I can do anything they can." The boy was disgruntled at his most recent failure, he was labeled the worse player in his class, and every time he tried to play with them, they just kicked all the balls at him, and on the rare occasion he did get to play, no one would ever pass him the ball or acknowledge him. Naruto Uzumaki just wanted to prove he was worth it. That he was as good as everyone else, even as good as him.
Sasuke Uchiha.
Just thinking of the name caused him to grind his teeth and clench his fist. Sasuke was the younger brother of world-renowned striker, Itachi Uchiha, who played for Akatsuki FC. Sasuke is considered the best in his class, and some even call him the most promising individual in Konoha. Some people say he may even become better than Itachi is! He is regarded highly by all his peers, but more important to Naruto, he is highly regarded by all the girls, more specifically, her.
Sakura Haruno.
Ever since he could remember, Naruto found himself in awe of the young, 13 year old girl. Her beautiful pink hair, her slim body, and even her forehead, everything about her was fantastic in Naruto's eyes. He knew though that she had her heart set on Sasuke, and didn't even acknowledge him. Sasuke this Sasuke that. What was so special about him anyway? Sure, everyone knew he was really good-looking, but what did he have beside that? What's so cool about a guy who shows no emotion? Naruto tried every day to make Sakura notice him instead of Sasuke, but she just ended up beating him over the head and telling him to get lost.
Naruto let out a sigh as he stood up shakily, he put his hands on his hips and just stared at all of the things he failed at. He set out all the cones he could steal out of the soccer academy storage room, and spread them across the field in many different fashions, one was meant for passing, another for sprinting, and another set was set up so he could practice his shooting. All the balls he had brought out were scattered across the field, most of them a distance away, (thanks to his poor shooting), and the ones he used for the passing accuracy drill were almost nowhere near the intended cones. He let out a deeper sigh and sat down, putting his hands around his knees and looking at the ground in a sense of defeat. "Why me? Why can't I just be as good as everyone else?" he said quietly to himself. Naruto and the other boys were finally old enough to join Konoha's only children's soccer academy, something almost every kid did when the time came. The amount of people who made it beyond that though, was very few.
Every child usually has the same dream going into the academy, to become a top player in the Shinobi Premier League, and play for their respective lands, in the case of Naruto and the others, the Land of Fire National Team. The Land of Fire's team is typically comprised of players that grew up in Konoha, as the only other villages within it are very, very small. Players are called up to their national team's every once in awhile to play against other lands in a friendly and then they all gather for the major tournament that every one tunes into once every 4 years, the Shinobi World Cup. The tournament had just ended recently and the Land of Lightning edged out the Land of Fire in a close final. Everyone tuned in to watch as Killer B defeated the Land of Fire's defense in the dying seconds of the match. After the game, the village of Konohagakure was in despair, but the game sparked interest in the eyes of all the young kids, so that the incoming class of the academy was one of the largest the village would ever see.
Naruto stared blankly at the mid-day sky as he contemplated how he could possibly become as good as the others, especially that Uchiha. 'One day Sasuke, just you wait' Naruto thought to himself. Naruto had closed his eyes to take in what remaining sun there was in the sky when he suddenly felt something watching over him. "What the hell are you doing here, Uzumaki?" Naruto opened his eyes to see a group of boys standing around him. "Oh hey, Aoto," Naruto remarked in an irritated fashion. Aoto was some snot-nosed kid who thought he was just the greatest thing ever, he walked and talked with such arrogance and made snide remark after snide remark to everyone else. He thought that he was actually good at soccer, but that was laughable, even to Naruto. In fact, his skills were comparable to Naruto's, and that is saying something. "Why don't you go somewhere else, loser, we are going to play now." Aoto turned around to motion to everyone he had brought with him, amongst them were a couple of nobody's (i.e. Aoto's friends), as well as Shikamaru, the tactical genius. There was Neji, regarded as one of the best passers of the ball as it seemed he could see 360 degrees around him. Then Choji, the goalie who despite his size, seemed to cover the whole net. Finally, there was him. Sasuke stood, holding the ball against his side with one hand, and staring at the goal with his blank, black eyes. "What is teme doing here then?!" Naruto said angrily. Sasuke heard Naruto's obnoxiously loud remark, and simply let out his most famous "Hn." something that was so meaningless, but said in such a calm, nonchalant manner, that you couldn't help but become irritated.
"Maybe because he actually has some skill, unlike you Uzumaki," Aoto friend's laughed at his remark, much to the spiky blonde's rage. "I bet I could kick your ass, dattebayo!" Naruto replied after being made fun of for his skills for yet another time. "You said that last time you idiot, and that ended with you missing a wide open net and then us having to kick YOUR ass, for being so bad." Aoto chuckled. This made Naruto furious, sure last time he totally missed that open net, but he swore that he couldn't see because the sun was in his eyes (even though the sun was at high noon, but that is besides the point), Naruto knew if he was going to make it far in the academy, he would have to start getting better, and what better way and time to do it.
"Just let me play with you guys, and I will show you that I can compete with all of you and am just as good!" Naruto shouted. Aoto looked him square in the eye, "You want to play with us again after last time? And let's not forget the time before that when you almost popped the ball from landing on it so hard, or the time before that when you got so angry you picked the ball up and threw it at Sasuke, who then just ended up kicking yo…" Naruto cut him off before Aoto could finish, "You know what? If I don't score this game, I won't join the academy with you guys!"
This got Aoto's attention. "Is that so? Fine by me, I guess you can kick any dreams you have involving soccer goodbye after we are done here."
'Damn! I didn't mean to be that drastic…' Naruto thought, he had just meant to say that he wouldn't ask to play with them again, but I guess he was serious. Well, now he couldn't "guess" that he was serious, he had to be. Naruto was a man of his word; he never went back on it. That was his mantra. There was no turning back now; his future might just possibly depend on it.
"I will even make it a little easier for you, Uzumaki ! How about you are on Sasuke's team? That way your chances are a little better than impossible." Aoto said in a rather teasing manner. "Hold on," Sasuke spoke in his monotonous tone, "Why do I have to be stuck with the dobe?" A few chuckles were let out by some of the others. "Shut your trap teme!" Naruto shouted, "You better stay out of my way!" The two locked eyes and sparks of anger were present. As the boys split into two teams, they went over the basic ground rules again.
First one to 5 wins.
There is no offsides (A)
No dirty fouls (unless they are on Naruto, Aoto silently added)...
and so on and so forth, until they were all ready to play. The teams were divided in a simple 5v5 manner. One team is Naruto, Sasuke, Choji and two others. They will verse Shikamaru, Neji, Aoto and another pair of boys. Sasuke took the ball he was holding and placed it in the middle of the field, "We start because of the dobe over here," Sasuke said as he nodded his head over to Naruto. "Fair enough," Aoto said, "Game on." Sasuke took the ball under his control, swiftly dribbling and holding off Aoto with the ball clung to his feet. Naruto just watched in awe at his movements, they were so clean, so perfected.
Sasuke left Aoto in the dust, but found he was locked near the corner of the field, near the goal line, by Shikamaru and another boy. Shikamaru knew how Sasuke was going to do this, he was going to patiently wait until one of them made a move and immediately burst around them, so Shikamaru strategically positioned himself next to his defensive partner and bent his knees and got himself into a better defensive stance to defend against the smooth Uchiha. "Sasuke, pass the damn thing!" Naruto shouted wide open to his left. No one bothered to guard the direction Naruto was in because if they passed it to him, he would more than likely lose it anyway. Sasuke ignored the blonde's loud comment and took matters into his own hands. He took a few quick dribbles in Naruto's direction, causing Shikamaru and his teammate to move with him. 'What could he be doing, Sasuke doesn't usually dribble with his back towa…' before Shikamaru could even finish his own thoughts, Sasuke had begun to pivot. He quickly spun on his right foot, making it so he was now facing the goal line, then in one quick and fluid motion; he slipped the ball right in between Shikamaru and his defensive partner and was through on goal. (B)
'What was that? I have never seen that move before!' Shikamaru thought, he was shocked as he watched Sasuke through on goal and about to score, Sasuke had already gained so much ground on him in such a short amount of time. Sasuke had nothing but the goal and the keeper in sight. It was a simple 1 on 1, nothing he couldn't handle. He feinted once to the left, causing the keeper to start to dive wrong way, which prompted Sasuke to complete his spectacular effort, with a simple tap-in finish. The opposing team he just tore apart was in shock, while Sasuke's teammates were amazed at their teammate's display, apart from Naruto of course. "Why didn't you just pass the ball to me earlier?! We would've scored already and not had to watch your ass show off!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke simply glared at the obnoxious fool and walked back to his half to start the game again.
"Whoa! Ino did you see that?! That was amazing." A pink haired girl said as she peeked around a tree a small distance away from the field. "Of course I saw it! That's Sasuke-kun for you. Even on the field he is just so dreamy." Ino said as she watched the Uchiha in a love filled daze. Sakura grew angry with her friend's reaction, but was distracted by someone yelling at Sasuke, "Is that Naruto?" She squinted and noticed the boy yelling at her beloved, "Naruto when I see you I am going to beat you to a bloody pulp, you annoying brat!"
After a bit of time the score wasn't exactly what Sasuke was thinking it would be, a 4-4 draw after Neji equalized. 'Could be a lot worse,' Sasuke thought, 'if it wasn't for me, these idiots would be getting killed.' And he was right, the only reason they scored 4 goals at this point was because of him, and the reason they had allowed 4 goals was because of Naruto, or at least that is who they blamed it on every time.
'I need to score, and fast. I can't lose this, and I have to be the next one to score. I guess I have to try something different…' Naruto thought realizing he had one chance left at this. He couldn't screw this up, or that was it for him. No academy. No soccer. He had to do something and it had to be good. Naruto grabbed the ball and placed it on the halfway line, 'Nobody is going to pass me the ball, so either I have to do this myself, or get really lucky.' Naruto let out an upsetting sigh, his nightmares were about to become reality. 'Could this really be it?' he thought. "Well Uzumaki, might as well quit now! The only person who can get past us is Sasuke, and if we stop him, we can get past you all easily." Aoto called out with a sly smirk on his face. "Just you watch dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed. 'I just need to focus and be composed. I got this. Believe it.' He thought confidently to himself. "Would you hurry up already, brat!" shouted one of the boys on the other team. 'Here it goes.' thought Naruto as he took a touch signaling a resume in the game. Neji charged forward towards Naruto, looking intent on making the Uzumaki mess up, Naruto took a quick glance and saw the Hyuuga prodigy gaining and panicked, 'Well, luck it is'. He allowed the ball to stumble at his feet giving Neji ample opportunity to take the ball off of him.
"Dang it! Why does Naruto have to be on the same team as Sasuke?! He is going to lose them the game!" Sakura exclaimed to her blond friend. "Sakura, you do know this game is just a pointless match, right? It doesn't matter if they win or lose." The blond said to her friend. "I know that," said Sakura, "I just don't want Sasuke to lose. He never loses!"
Neji closed in on the blond boy and reached his foot out to make a tackle, but Naruto had finally composed his feet and began to move forward as Neji was moving in. This prompted the two to fall to the ground and land on top of one another, leaving the ball out in the open. It was a rush to see who could get it first as all the boys converged on the loose ball. When Naruto and Neji collided, Naruto ended up underneath Neji and was unable to get up to the ball in time as the other's converged on it. The first two there were Sasuke and Aoto. The two boys both hit the ball at the same time, but Sasuke had a stronger kick in comparison to the rather weak, Aoto. This caused the ball to roll towards the goal Sasuke and Naruto were attacking and be left open for anyone to get to once again, lucky enough for Naruto, he was the closest one. Naruto was already on his feet by then and began to run towards the ball. 'This is it!' Naruto thought as he was through on goal, 'I only have the goalie to beat, I am bound to score!' Naruto wound up his kick, but as he was about to kick it he was hit from behind by a defender. The defender hit his planted leg, causing Naruto's leg to swing forward with a good amount of force. That leg was able to get underneath the ball, and because the boy added a swiping motion at the end of his tackle, Naruto's leg lifted the ball up, off the ground and over the goalie's head. The ball then bounced over the line and went in. A stunned silence fell over the ground.
'Did Naruto just…?!' is what everybody thought simultaneously.
"Wow, I can't believe it." explained Choji from the opposite goal.
"Neji, I'm not going crazy, am I?" said a shocked Shikamaru. "You aren't, he actually did it." said Neji, who despite his typical monotonous and authoritative tone, he had a hint of confusion in his voice.
"Hn." Sasuke just looked on at the ball in the net, and then took a glance at Naruto on the ground.
'Did Naruto really just score a goal…' thought Sakura, 'that baka just scored…' Her mouth was open slightly at the sudden and rather shocking scene that she just witnessed. "Sakura? Sakura!" shouted Ino at the stunned pinkette. "Did you even hear me? I said that Naruto won the game!" Sakura still didn't budge from her shocked state and barely heard what the blond had just said in front of her. 'Sure, it was just a game that meant nothing, but Naruto never scores…never.'
Naruto lay on the ground with his head turned on its side, looking at the ball on the ground inside the net. It took him a moment to process what he had just done. 'I scored…' he thought, "I scored!" Naruto yelled as he stood up and gave his infamous grin, "What now, Aoto? I told you I could compete with you guys!" Naruto exclaimed towards an irritated Aoto. Aoto was still on the ground after Sasuke's powerful kick knocked him down and he was just as much in shock as everyone else, but had a hint of anger at the boy for making fun of him. "That was just luck, you barely even did anything! If it wasn't for that tackle, you probably would've missed by a mile!" Aoto stated angrily. "You are just jealous that I scored and you didn't aren't you?" Naruto retorted, putting his tongue out at the boy afterwards. Aoto walked up to Naruto in a rage and picked him up by his jumpsuit collar, "Listen here, just because you got lucky one time, doesn't mean that you have a right to make fun of me, got that?!" Naruto just stared at him while Aoto held him up. "Aoto, that's enough. You lost, get over it." Everyone turned their heads toward the person that was speaking up for the boy, it was Sasuke. "I'm going now." Sasuke then walked to pick up the ball he had brought and left.
"Why is Sasuke standing up for a dobe like Naruto?" Ino asked, curiously looking at the boy who had just spoken up when he was about to get pummeled. "All this is just too weird." she said. Sakura was now really in a daze, a dead last like Naruto just scored a goal, and then Sasuke stood up for him? What was happening? Ino was still looking at the field when Sakura noticed that Sasuke was beginning to leave, 'Now is my chance to get him alone!' Sakura thought as she quietly left the area to catch up with Sasuke before Ino noticed. She had caught him as he was walking down the main road of the village, "Hey Sasuke-kun!" she yelled to him. Sasuke turned around to see the pinkette coming up to him, "What do you want?" he said in a rash tone. "I just wanted to say you did amazing today out there, I was watching the game and just thought you were sooooo good, and well, I was thinking maybe you wanted to go get some dinner together, seeing as the sun is about to go dow…" she was stopped by the raven-haired Uchiha, "I'm not hungry. I'm going home." Sasuke then immediately turned back around and kept walking. "Wait, Sasuke-kun! Maybe we can do something else th…" her voice drifted off as she watched the boy ignore her as he kept walking. Sakura let out a long, sad sigh as she was rejected. Again.
Sakura took a seat on a nearby bench and put her elbow on her leg and rested her head on her hand, "Why won't Sasuke just go out with me? Is something wrong with my appearance?" she said quietly to herself, trying to come up with things that could possibly be wrong with her. "Hey Sakura!" a cry directed at her came from down the road, she looked up to see a dirty Naruto walking towards her, "Oh great. What does he want?" She muttered as the boy approached. "Hi, Sakura-chan! I saw you and Ino watching the game that we were playing earlier, I was pretty good, huh?" Naruto exclaimed with a sense of success as he acknowledged his previous lucky efforts, he put on his typical large grin and rubbed the back of his head. 'How did he see Ino and I?' Sakura thought, 'I was sure we were pretty hidden…' she thought to herself what gave them away, but she had to deal with the boy in front of her first. "I actually didn't see it Naruto" she said to him, lying, causing the boy's smile to be replaced by a mere smirk. "Ahh, well it was fantastic anyway, just shows that I can compete with them and am just as good as they are right? Hehe." he stopped chuckling at the sight of the pink-haired girl in a sad state, "Is something wrong, Sakura-chan?"
She looked up at him for the first time that day, his big blue eyes shone brightly as the setting sun hit his face, his cheeks were sun-kissed from being outside too long, giving a hint of an incoming tan, this brought out his famous whisker-like birthmarks and gave his face a fullness, "Oh, it's nothing," she said. Another lie. She looked back down at the ground, still upset after her most recent denial. "Are you sure you are alright Sakura-chan? You know if anything is wrong you can always talk to me?" Naruto then gave her a sincere smile, causing her to cheer up at the sight of something so sincere and meaningful. "Thank you, Naruto." she said quietly. "So I was thinking," Naruto started, "maybe you wanted to go get some Ichiraku Ramen with me, my treat?" Naruto gave her the same smile he did earlier when he was talking about his goal, but that went away when she didn't reply , 'She normally would've hit me by now, but she doesn't even seem the slightest bit angry.' Naruto thought. Sakura looked at the blonde boy and really appreciated his sincerity, but she really wasn't in the mood to deal with him right now. "Sorry Naruto, but I am going to have to pass. I'm pretty sure I need to be getting home anyway." Naruto wasn't as hurt as he normally was, but he was still disappointed in her reply. "Oh, well ok, Sakura-chan, I guess I will be seeing you later then." Sakura stood up from a bench, took a deep look up at the sky and then looked back down at the boy, "Yeah, bye Naruto." and with that the pink-haired girl left, leaving Naruto on the bench, alone. Like usual.
After watching the pink haired girl leave, he got up off of the bench and looked up at the sky, just like she had. The sun was beginning to set and as it clipped the horizon line, it gave off an orange glow, which in turn, gave the the sky shades of red all across the surrounding sky line. A pinkish tint was the predominant shade across the horizon. The young boy gazed at the beautiful sight before he was disturbed by his stomach, 'GRRR.' Naruto then rubbed his stomach in response to its call for food. Then, Naruto reached for his wallet in his pocket and found enough money to go somewhere that always made him feel better, Ichiraku. As Naruto walked through the streets towards the ramen stand, all dirtied from the game he had just finished only a short time ago, he began to feel a true sense of accomplishment, not just for proving the kids wrong, but for something more than that. He felt his dream would continue. Just playing that one pick-up soccer game with the other boys, a sense of burning desire was prompted in his heart, the one thing he felt he was missing. This desire was spurred by failure, and it became bigger by accomplishment. Naruto didn't know it, but this was his turning point.
(A) – Offsides is a rule in soccer that a player has to be in front of the second to last man, and that can include or exclude the goalkeeper.
(B) –This is move is difficult to describe, but it is called the Berba Spin. The move is named after Dimitar Berbatov who recently transferred to, French money club, AS Monaco, but made a name for the move for Manchester United against West Ham.
Don't freak out my first fellow readers! I have merged my first few test chapters into one larger chapter just like I had said I would! Hope you guys enjoy my first chapter, I hope I set the stage well for this story. See you all next time!