Chapter 1

Under his favorite tree, Mason sits in the shade thinking on all of the day's events. As he twirls his kunai around his pointer finger, he begins to talk to himself.

"Today has been a rough day." Mason spoke. "I can't believe this is all happening to me."

Mason started his day like any other, waking from his sleep in an empty house. He hadn't met his father, he was with his mother up until he was five. That's when she had broughten him here, The Hidden Leaf Village. After their arrival, his mother left for some "mission", at least, that's what she had said. It has been seven years and his mother still hasn't come back for him.

So the Hokage of the village set him up with a small apartment with a monthly income. The Hokage understood what Mason was going through because he was alone most of his life too. His mother and father were killed the day he was born by a giant demon fox. Before it destroyed the village, his father sealed half of the fox's chakra inside of him and saved the village.

It just so happened that today was the day that the Hokage would show up to give him his money for the month. Mason hopped out of bed and quickly into the shower seeing that he had slept in to 9:00. He had to be at the ninja academy at 10:30. Mason thoroughly cleansed himself, brushed his teeth and dark black hair. It didn't matter how long he brushed his hair, no matter what he did his hair would not go the way he wanted. He pulled on his clothes in a matter of seconds and began cooking his breakfast.

"Cooking breakfast" was really just grabbing a bowl from the cabinet and filling it with milk and cereal.

"I would've made myself something else but I don't have any time!" Mason said as he scarfed down his cereal.

The Hokage would soon be there and right afterwards he would have to go to the academy for Orientation. He began tidying up the place to impress the Hokage and before he could get even start, there was a knock on the door.

Mason ran to the door and opened it with a smile on his face expecting the Hokage. Only, it wasn't just the Hokage but another man with two different eyes accompanied him. He was a tall man with long, jet black hair and had a sword strapped to his side. The Hokage had short blonde hair under his Hokage hat. He had bandages around his two arms, covered by a black and orange jacket.

"Ah, Mason, glad to see you up!" Naruto the Hokage spoke.

"Uhh, thanks…" Mason replied still staring at the man accompanying Naruto.

"Oh! This is Sasuke Uchiha, my old squad member." Naruto had seen Mason caught on Sasuke.

"Nice to meet you." Sasuke spoke.

"Hi." Mason said shyly. Wow! Our hair look very similar! Mason thought to himself.

"Here is your money." Naruto said as he took an envelope from inside of his jacket and handed it to Mason. "Are you ready for Orientation this morning?"

"Yeah." Mason replied still thinking about Sasuke Uchiha.

"Well, I'll get right to the point. Did your mom ever talk to you about your father?" Sasuke asked.

"What?" Mason asked confused.

"Do you know anything about your father?" Sasuke asked with more force in his voice.

"No. She told me nothing about him, even when I asked." Mason replied sadly.

"Well alright, see you at Orientation." Naruto said with a smile.

"Wait what? You're gonna be there? Why?" Mason questioned the Hokage.

"My son is your age. I'll be happy to see how well you two get along." Naruto said politely.

"Oh great…" Mason said, his hopes dropping. How am I supposed to outshine a son of the 6th Hokage?

"We'll be departing now, see you later Mason!" Naruto said with glee.

"Bye." Sasuke said as in a bad mood.

"See you guys later!" Mason said with a smile.

The two men exited the apartment and with a thud! The door closed behind them. Mason's smile melted into a worrisome frown.

Great! Now I have to be compared to the son of a Hokage! Mason thought to himself sarcastically.

"I need to do some training.." Mason looked at the clock and yelled out in horror as he saw that the clock read 10:15.

Mason leaped out of his balcony window, onto the roof right next to his apartment, and sprinted down the hard shingles. He leapt from roof to roof until he reached a visible window of opportunity. All the students and their parents were gathered outside of the academy was a giant apple tree.

Better arrive in style. Mason said as he jumped to the next roof. He scaled each building until he was over the tree. Here goes. Mason thought as he fell down into leaves below. It was hard to tell the difference of the screams of the students and Mason himself. He plummeted to the ground after hitting a few branches and rustling some leaves. Lying there on his belly, Mason looked up at the crowd. The parents all shook their heads, except for Naruto who gave him the thumbs up with a goofy smile.

Mason could here all the students murmuring about how much of a loser he was. The only reason he stayed was because Naruto rushed over with his son and wife in toe.

"Mason! Nice entrance, next time work on the landing and it'll be spectacular." Naruto said still with the goofy grin on his face.

"Hmph! When I do that sort of stuff I get yelled at." Naruto's son said with stern look on his face.

"That's because you end up hurting yourself and I have to have Sakura bandage you up!" Naruto said, his grin had faded away.

"Darling, we'll settle this later. I'm Hinata, nice to meet you and this is our son Tate." Naruto's wife Hinata said with a high and elegant voice.

"Nice to meet you too!" Mason stuck out his hand to Tate who turned away with another Hmph!

"Sorry about my boy, he can be… uh… stubborn." Naruto said apologetically.

"It's been fun seeing you all but I have to go sign my papers and give them the enroll fee." Mason started to walk towards the entrance but was stopped by Naruto.

"All the fees have been paid for except for a kid named Braden. I checked when I went over." Naruto spoke.

"But I haven't paid… Lord 6th did you?" Mason asked the Hokage.

"Oh no, not me, even though I am fond of you." Naruto said with a wink.

"Who could've done it then…" Mason questioned.

"Does it matter? You can use that money for a trip to Ichiraku Ramen with me and my family!" Naruto jumped with glee.

"You mean it?" Mason unbelievably asked. Mason had never been asked to go anywhere with anyone, he just did his own thing. He thought by joining the academy, he could make some friends and not be so lonely all the time.

"Of course!" Hinata said. "What do you think Tate?"

"Sure, I guess…" It seemed that Tate had started warming up to Mason.

"Well let's get going-" Naruto suddenly jerked his head to the crowd as if he saw something very interesting.

"Naruto?" Hinata said slightly worried.

"It's nothing I just saw Sasuke, I'm gonna see if he wants to join us for ramen." Naruto said with his enthusiasm again, returned to his normal self. Naruto rushed over to the spot he had saw Sasuke.

"You see Mason, Sasuke had only recently moved back to the village." Hinata explained.

"Where was he?" Mason still had some questions.

"Um well, that's a very long story. Why don't you ask him at Ichiraku?" Hinata said with a cheery smile.

Mason took a look over in Naruto and Sasuke's direction and saw them bickering about something that didn't seem to just be about going for lunch.

"Well I'm going to go check out all of my classmates, I'll be back in a minute." Mason said as he ran into the giant building.

Mason passed many students attending the academy but all he cared about was what class he was in and who else was in it. One kid he passed looked like machetes were strapped to his thighs. As he neared the poster of all the classes, he could hear a group of students talk about him.

"There's that kid who fell outta that tree." One whispered.

"Yeah, what a loser." Another mumbled.

"I heard he lives alone with no parents, lay off guys!" A third said with a tremble in his voice.

"Shut up Kris! Did we ask you?" The first spoke. Mason hurried along so he couldn't see what would happen next.

He reached the poster and tried to find his name. After awhile, he found his name of the fourth page and began reading.

Teacher: Nara, Shikamaru.

Students: Garrett Inuzuka, Jess Hosokaya, James Hayashida, Kris Ashikaga, Tate Uzumaki, Tylor Maito, Kyle Otomo, Braden Hozuki, Keith Moto, Mason Uchiha.

Uchiha! My last name's not Uchiha! My last name has always been Smith! Why the hell did they put Uchiha? Mason clenched his fists together as if he were about to destroy the poster bearing the names. Mason gasped as he remembered to earlier this morning to the visitor he had had this morning. Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke, UCHIHA!

Mason ran through the halls trying to get back to where Naruto and Sasuke were arguing. As he ran, he put two and two together and realized that Sasuke must have been the one who paid his entrance fee and filled out his papers. He had almost reached the exit but blocking his way was the three boys from before.

One had pinned the one named Kris to the ground, while the other hung a loogie over his face.

Mason wasn't in the mood for talking, he calmly walked over to the three and looked at the kid hanging the loogie.

"Get lost kid! This is none of your business-. His sentence was cut short as Mason's fist rammed into his face. The kid smacked into the hardwood floor as the other one unpinned Kris.

"You're a hero now, huh?" He said as he threw his fist at Mason's chest. Mason's hand flew up and caught the punch with ease. He didn't have a chance to throw another punch, Mason had already thrusted his foot into his gut and launched him further than the first kid. Neither of them tried to retaliate. Mason sprinted to the exit barely able to hear the high voiced "Thank you!" from Kris.

Mason burst into the courtyard and saw Naruto and his family sitting under the tree he had fallen out of. He walked over to them trying to calm down from the events that had riled up.

"I hope you guys weren't waiting for me." Mason said apologetically.

"Oh no, it was no bother." Naruto said with a smirk. "I need all the time I can get with these two, with all the Hokage business I have."

"You're never home." Tate said with sadness. "It'd be nice if you weren't the Hokage all the time."

"Who would be the Hokage if I wasn't? Kiba?" Naruto laughed. "Well let's get going, I'm starving!"

"There isn't a point when you're not starving…" Hinata said with a sigh. On the way to Ichiraku, one question racked his mind and couldn't help letting it out.

"Where's Sasuke?" Mason asked with a rush of words.

"He said that he might join us in a bit, he had things to attend to." Naruto said with a straight frown.

"Are you mad at Sasuke, dad?" Tate asked seeing the same frown.

"We aren't on the best of terms right now. We have very different ideas on handling certain situations." Naruto answered.

"But you guys will sort it all out, friends always do." Hinata said reassuringly.

"Ah, here we are." Naruto said as if to get off the subject.

Ichiraku Ramen was a beautiful building with many colors appealing to the eye. The seats were blocked from view by light red curtains with a black dot in the middle of them.

"Have you been here before Mason?" Hinata asked with her soothing voice.

"Actually, I haven't. Is it any good." Mason said with curiosity.

"Is it any good!? Are you kidding!? Ichiraku is the best restaurant in the whole village!" You'll love it!" Naruto yelled with a wink and thumbs up.

"Naruto is that you?" A voice said from behind the curtains. Naruto lifted the curtains and smiled at the man behind the counter.

"Of course!" Naruto said still smiling with delight.

"So I'll take it you want three of the regulars?" The ramen man asked.

"Actually, we'll have four, we have a guest with us today. This is Mason, he's in the same class with my boy." Naruto introduced. Mason lifted the curtain and smiled. The ramen man was very old and was dressed in a white apron and a cap.

"Hi." Mason said shyly.

"Mason you'll love the ramen I just ordered. It's to die for!" Naruto said sitting on one of the stools.

"Yeah, it's very good." Hinata said as her and Tate sat down next to Naruto.

"Well. alright if you say so." Mason said with excitement.

"Here you all are, four Pork Ramen Specials." The ramen man said as he laid a bowl in front of each one of them.

"This looks delicious!" Mason said with glee.

"What did I tell you?" Naruto said with ramen in his mouth. The two devoured the ramen so fast, that Hinata and Tate barely got two bites in.

"Oh my." Mason said rubbing his belly.

"Same here." Naruto said.

"You guys are so alike." Hinata said taking another bite. "Just what we need, two hyperactive, knucklehead ninja!" Everyone laughed at that, even the ramen man got a few chuckles in.

Fwap! The curtain was lifted behind them with pure strength.

"I didn't think you'd actually be joining us." Naruto said not even looking behind him.

"I wanted to make the effort, but I need to talk to Mason alone, please." The voice of Sasuke Uchiha rung in Mason's ear. Mason quickly started drinking the rest of the ramen broth, stopping him from going off on Sasuke.

"Well, my family's not done eating, how about you take him to the shrine." Naruto said finally turning around.

"The Shrine? What shrine?" Tate asked.

"Not a bad idea…" Sasuke contemplated.

Mason was in the middle of turning around to tell Sasuke no, until he saw the nod from Naruto.

"Um, sure." Mason said with a gulp. "But I have to pay first…"

"Already taken care of." The ramen man said with a smile. Mason quickly turned to Naruto, who just lifted his two arms and made the Whoops face.

"Looks like you're ready to go." Sasuke said as he backed out of the restaurant still holding the curtain for Mason.

"See you guys later." Mason said as he walked out of the restaurant. The walk to the Shrine was deadly quiet. Neither of them spoke a word to the other. All the passerbys looked at the two and quickly diverted their eyesight. It was only when they reached the Shrine did Sasuke speak.

"Ok, go ahead, let it out." He said as he sat right in front of the big black shape of some sort, with writing scrawled all over it.

"What?" Mason asked.

"You're full of rage right now, I can sense it from your chakra. So let it out." Sasuke said with a smile.

"Why on Earth would you fill out my entrance papers and put me down as an Uchiha!?" Mason screamed. "That's not my name! Also, you let me handle all my fees, I don't need your charity!"

Sasuke looked up to the night sky and let out a sigh. "Well, for one, it's not charity and I have a very good reason for filling out your papers." Not looking down from the dark sky.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Mason said angrily.

"I'm going to be your guardian slash parent now." Sasuke said with a hint of happiness and a smile.

"What! Why?" Mason yelled curiously.

"Well, I knew your father and I know he would want me to take care of you instead of you being on your own." Sasuke said with the same smile.

"You knew him? Who was he?" Mason said close to finding the answer to his dad.

"Well." Sasuke's smile faded. "He was my brother, Itachi Uchiha."