Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters created by Masashi Kishimoto

Written in my spare time today, do not expect much.
I just felt like writing something short and sweet and stupid.

Someday

The school was quiet, relatively speaking, at least on the inside, since most of the students had poured out and raced off as though the building was on fire. So it is with many children. Even if they attend a ninja academy, even if they like their school, there is only so much time they actually want to spend there.

It is no different in the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

But then again, the school was not entirely empty. No, there was still one stubborn, rambunctious, class-clown of a boy held captive within its solid walls. And accompanying him was one very patient, kind, and responsible teacher.

The little blond-haired boy however, was anything but responsible.

He was bored.

Bored out of his skull.

He slipped noiselessly from his chair and sulked over to an open window. Staring outside, he watched all the other children take advantage of their freedom while he was trapped indoors like a criminal. He placed his forearms on the sill, rested his chin upon those, and sighed dramatically.

"Naruto," warned the man sitting at a desk, flipping through a book. "You are here for detention, not to spend your time gazing out windows."

The boy turned his head slightly to look at his teacher, his lower lip jutting out, but he said nothing.

The man licked his finger and turned another page. "Pouting won't get your work done any faster."

Naruto went back to gazing out into the schoolyard. "Why do I gotta do stupid stuff like that anyway?" His whine was made in perfect "misunderstood boy" pitch. "Being a ninja's about fighting and using chakra and learning to do . . stuff. Not sitting around reading and writing."

"Yes, of course," replied the man patiently. "Because ninja never need to read or write."

"You know what I mean," Naruto grumbled.

"I know that you're trying to get out of doing work, but that's not going to happen."

The boy didn't answer, not intimidated by the quiet threat, and instead let his big blue eyes rove the yard. Then his face split into a huge grin.

"Hey, hey, Iruka-sensei!" He shouted excitedly. "See that girl there? Someday, she's gonna go out with me."

Slightly taken aback, but his curiosity peaked, Iruka rose from his seat and approached the window. It was usually best to humor the kid at times like this; Iruka knew that once Naruto lost his focus, there wasn't much to be done for it until it was worked out. The chuunin looked to where the boy pointed and saw a young girl with long pink hair running alongside another girl as they talked and laughed. Apparently, kunoichi class had just ended.

"Who?" Asked the teacher dubiously. "Haruno Sakura?"

"Yup!"

Iruka shook his head, wondering on the one hand why the boy would be thinking about "going out" at all, and on the other why, of all the girls, Naruto would pick that one. "I hate to be the one to break it to you Naruto, but I'm not certain she likes you. In fact, I'm pretty sure she's already got her heart set on someone else."

The boy shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. But I'll still get her to like me." Iruka could think of nothing to say in the pause that followed.

Scanning the rest of the yard, Naruto then spotted a bunch of boys whom he'd already managed to cause trouble with, and jerked his chin in their direction. "Someday, I'll be friends with all of them, too."

Iruka turned his attention to the group and listed off the names of the other troublemakers in his class: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba. Considering the whole lot's knack for causing problems, he saw Naruto's friendship with them as a distinct possibility. "Yes, I'm sure you will," he said, although he was not so sure they would be a good influence on one another.

Naruto titled his head back and grinned widely up at his teacher.

He couldn't help it; Iruka smiled back. Though he certainly had reason to hate the boy, the truth was he simply couldn't bring himself to do it.

Not when Naruto smiled like that.

A wind blew through the open window and ruffled their hair.

Naruto went back to staring at the schoolyard, but this time his interest was drawn to perhaps the most unlikely source yet.

This was quickly becoming one of the rare occasions on which the hyperactive ninja turned serious. Catching on to this change in mood, Iruka squatted down beside his young student and followed his gaze. And there, slowly walking alone through the dirt, was a dark-haired, light-skinned, solemn boy from Naruto's class.

Iruka knew him well and if there was anyone he worried about as much as Naruto, it was this boy. He remembered him as he was the year before: studious and determined, but a cheerful, happy child, eager to please and desperate for affection.

But that was last year.

Nowadays, he always hung back by himself, the same scowl permanently on his face.

"Someday, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said almost dreamily. "Someday, that boy will be my best friend."

Iruka blinked in confusion. "Uchiha Sasuke?"

Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah. Definitely him."

"But, I thought you hated him."

Naruto shrugged again. "Yeah, but . . ." he pouted, thinking hard. "He smiled at me once."

Iruka's eyebrows shot up into his forehead. "Did he now?"

"Well, not exactly at me," the boy amended. "But it was because of me. So it's sort of the same thing."

"I suppose," said Iruka carefully. "But I really didn't think either of you liked each other at all."

Naruto turned his head to meet his teacher at eye-level and said, with the utmost sincerity, "Well, that's the point, isn't it?"

The chuunin pulled his eyebrows together.

"We're rivals, yeah, but if we can get to like each other, if I can make him my best friend, then, well, I can get anyone to like me, can't I?"

Iruka looked at him with surprise, and then smiled, patting the little blond head. Naruto beamed. And in the next second, Naruto turned to see the dark-haired boy looking back at him, his face shadowed and intense. Naruto grinned, but the other boy just frowned deeper and walked away.

The blond's smile, however, did not fade.

Iruka looked between his favorite student and the one who could arguably called his best, and reflected for a moment.

And he realized that, in a sense, they were not all that different.

But it was the difference that could make them good for each other.

In a strange sort of way and entirely by accident, Naruto had perhaps made a very apt and thoughtful prediction. Iruka shook his head clear and stood up, his hand patting the blond hair again.

It was silly to think such things when they were still so young and barely anything other than bitter enemies.

Yet it was something to think about, nonetheless.

The man walked over to his desk and sat back down, picking up his book and riffling to the last page he'd read. But even as he did so, his eyes wandered over to the small boy still staring resolutely out the window.

"Naruto," he said, trying to sound authoritative again. "If you want to make friends with all those people, you probably need to make sure you're in the same class."

"Ah," Naruto agreed, vaguely.

"You know, he gets the best grades in the class right now. If you don't at least keep up, he'll leave you behind completely." Iruka faced the boy who now stared at him keenly, and lifted an eyebrow. "Sasuke, I mean."

Naruto immediately stood up straight, determined expression on his face. "No way!" He yelled, bounding back to his desk and the papers strewn over it, waiting for him. "No way am I letting that jerk beat me!"

The older ninja watched with amusement as the boy pulled out a pencil and began zipping through the book, jotting down notes every now and then. The tiny shoulders hunched over and the rounded jaw was set as he scribbled almost maniacally across the plain white paper.

"I'll show you what Uzumaki Naruto can do!" He mumbled adamantly. "Stupid Sasuke."

Iruka smiled and went back to his own book, turning the pages one after another, but no longer seeing the words.