Chapter 1: That Fateful Night

Naruto was bored. There was nothing for him to do, other than sit in his seat in the back of the classroom, with his arms crossed on the table and his head leaned on them.

The Chunin teacher droned on about the foundation of the leaf village, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, but Naruto didn't care. He was imagining being in Ichiraku Ramen, eating as much as he could, with the Hokage at his side, paying for it.

His musing were interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing.

Finally, I never thought learning to be a ninja could be this boring. Naruto thought, standing up and walking towards the door, together with his classmates.

As he walked outside the main door of the academy, he watched the parents fetch their kids after a long day of school, smiling at them and asking how their day was.

When he passed a group, the parents would look at him with the same distant, sad look everyone seemed to have in their eyes, when locked onto him, muttering things he wouldn't quite understand.

He walked in the direction of a training ground, which he often used to hone his skills, as it was isolated and other ninja hopefuls or full-fletched ninja rarely came there.

What he didn't notice, was another boy, unconsciously walking in the same direction as himself. The other boy had black hair, that stuck out at the back of his head and was spiky, his eyes were black and there was a scowl on his otherwise good-looking face.

Having reached his location long before the slow walking black-haired boy, Naruto began stretching his limbs and running around the clearing, that he was in.

By the time he was warmed up, another person stood in the training grounds with him.

"What do you want here, Uchiha?" Naruto asked, rather rudely, when he took notice of his visitor.

The, now identified, member of Konoha's greatest clan, barring maybe the Hyuuga, looked up at Naruto, his brooding interrupted, and the scowl on his face deepened.

"None of your business." He answered, although, in all actuality, the reason for him being there was him being too deep in thought to realize where he was going.

His thoughts were about his brother, the 'Uchiha Prodigy', as everyone called him nowadays. Of course, it was very much true that he was a prodigy, Sasuke had seen him in action, after all. But, being the genius of your generation was time consuming and, Sasuke found, his brother had less and less time to play and train with him. He was always on a mission or on a clan meeting, that Sasuke himself wasn't allowed to attend. He also got colder, towards everyone, even his little brother.

There was definitely something wrong going on around him.

"Oy, are you there or did your brain burst from realizing my awesomeness?"

But now, he had more pressing matters to attend to, such as kicking that blonde's ass.

"You wanna fight, blondie?" He shouted at the kid in front of him, taking a step forward.

"You bet!" was his answer.

And fight they did.

-0-

Naruto threw a half-hearted punch at the Uchiha, which was blocked just as enthusiastically.

They were at it for quite some time now and both of them were equally tired, on the verge of just falling to the ground in a heap from their tremendous exhaustion.

"You- phew- you are really good, Uchiha... for a stuck-up prick." Naruto managed to get out, blocking a kick to his head with his forearm.

"You too, you know, for an idiot that can't tie his shoes." The Uchiha said, panting between speaking. "The name's Sasuke, by the way."

"Naruto."

They were finally spent and fell down on their asses, trying to bring their breathing to normal levels.

"So, do you come here often?" Sasuke finally asked, having evened his breathing.

"Yeah, it's my unofficial personal training ground, since I can't... nevermind."

"Nevermind what?" Sasuke queried, picking up on the quickly dropping mood of Naruto, but insisting still.

"W-well, I don't really like being around the villagers, that goes for the ninja, as well. They just rub me the wrong way and I can't concentrate on training when they see me and..." Naruto relented, but stopped again.

Sasuke scowled at Naruto's reluctance, bringing his face nearer to him, saying, "Spit it out already, it's not like I'll tell someone."

"They are...always sad when I am around and I don't know why." Naruto said hesitantly, as if him saying that would make Sasuke the same, "I don't want to make people sad."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, while day around them slowly turned to night and the wind swept a cold blanket over the village.

"Maybe you remind them of something sad and it's not your fault!" Sasuke said, smiling. "I'm not sad around you, right? I...I'm happier around you than I've been for weeks."

Naruto looked up at Sasuke in shock. Here was the second person and the first of his peers to ever say something like that to him. Maybe, he and Sasuke could be friends.

Narutos hopes were higher than they'd ever been.

"Hehe, thanks."

-0-

"I have to go now, Ino."

"Aww, so soon?" The platinum blonde haired girl pouted, getting off the swing."Guess it can't be helped, your mother is scary when you're late. Well, see you around."

Sakura smiled and waved goodbye to Ino, walking in the direction of her home. It was getting late, and the sun was almost down, painting the clouds in the sky a beautiful red.

Sakura decided to take a short cut, as she really would be late if she didn't hurry and, like Ino said, her mother could be scary when she came late to dinner.

She hurried down an alley, that would take her near the market, where she lived, but stopped dead in her tracks.

The walls of the alley were splattered with still fresh blood, that slowly ran down and was absorbed by the ground, becoming nutrition for the plants. The body, the blood belonged to, was lying in the middle of the alley, face down. It was obvious, that the throat was slashed, by the blood pooling around the head.

Sakura stared at the body, not noticing anything else. The hair seemed familiar to her, it was brown. The clothes were familiar, too. She had seen those same clothes just this morning… when saying goodbye and leaving for the Ninja Academy…she had seen those clothes on her mother.

The white haired girl broke down in disbelief and then slowly started crying, her body shaking and her sobs reaching the ears of the two other people in the alley, who didn't notice Sakura before, just as she didn't notice them. They both wore blank, indescript masks, that covered all their facial features and had a little blood on them, both their hair was the same shade of brown and they wore ANBU styled clothes, black in color.

The would-be ANBU approached the crying girl slowly, making sure she didn't notice them, but one of the stepped on a twig, that lay innocently in the middle of the alley.

Sakura couldn't believe it, her mother was dead…dead! She wouldn't ever scold her for being late for dinner again, she wouldn't sing to her at night, when Sakura had a nightmare, anymore. She wouldn't ever speak to her again, she was gone!

Her sobs intensified, when she thought of all the things that were now lost, for both her and her mother, but the sound of a twig snapping alerted her to the other occupants of the alley.

She looked up at the strange, white masked men that were advancing on her and immediately had a bad feeling about them. The way they moved, the way their cold eyes stared at her through the masks, the way they just ignored the body of her mother, one stepping on her hand, crushing the bones, it was definitely wrong.

One of the men took out a kunai, that was her cue. She was right, those men were bad, they were the ones that killed her mother! She wanted to kill them, but was smart enough to know, that she had no chance at all.

Her only choice was to run.

The two masked men were now dangerously close to her, why they walked so slowly, she didn't know, maybe they liked dramatics. But it became obvious, when she suddenly jumped up and ran, that the two didn't expect anything of the sort from her, as they were clearly confused and hesitated for a few seconds, giving her a little head start.

Sakura sprinted down the alley, the way she came, and got to the end, where, hopefully, people still walked around. But the street she was now running down was empty, giving her attackers a witness-free kill.

A kunai zipped past Sakura, missing her jugular by a hair-length.

She continued running.

A forest was at the end of her road and she sped up, going as fast as she could.

Just as she reached the edge of the forest, a kunai embedded itself in her thigh, piercing her skin and ripping muscles apart, it was well into her bone, cracking it. She screamed loudly, birds were scared out of their nests and other non-flying animals quickly sped away from her, abandoning her to the ninja, who where now slowly walking towards her again.

Sakura tried to crawl away from them, but this time they knew not to underestimate her. One of them stomped on Sakuras back, slamming her face into the dirt, muffling her screams in the process. Only a scared whimpering could be heard now.

The second one took out yet another kunai, approaching Sakura, and made a move to cut her neck open.

"Aaaahhrgg!"

The man holding Sakura down suddenly yelled and trashed around, holding his crotch. The other one quickly looked at his cohort, but that was a mistake, as a sharp pain appeared between his legs, as well.

Two young boys, around the same age as Sakura, stood before the ANBU, holding sturdy looking sticks.

"That's what you get for hurting a girl, you bully!" One of the boys, with blond hair and blue eyes, shouted.

"Yeah, if you hurt a girl, you don't deserve to experience the pleasures of one!" The other kid said, this one having black hair and black eyes, actually, everything on him was black, sans his skin.

"Uhh, Sasuke? What do you mean 'pleasures of a girl'?" The blonde, still unnamed, child asked his friend.

Sasuke answered in an unsure tone, "I don't know, that's what my Brother told me, but he said I'll understand one day…"

The two men, one still holding his crotch, stood up and seemed to glare at the two boys, but one couldn't be sure with the masks.

"Err, I think we are in trouble." The unnamed kid said, looking from his friend to the angry ninja. "RUN FOR IT!"

The two of them quickly grabbed Sakura and heaved her on Narutos shoulder, as he was fresher than Sasuke, then they dashed further into the forest, closely followed by the two slightly limping ninja.

Sakura felt dizzy and disorientated. She could make out that she was being carried and whoever carried her ran as if he was Jiraiya caught peeking on Tsunade. Her head hit the back of her carrier every so often and her thigh hurt, the kunai still sticking out of it, but thankfully not driven deeper in by the running.

Then, the white haired girl heard a yell of pain, and her carrier suddenly stopped, dropping her to the ground, careful enough to not drive the kunai in deeper. Thinking that he was hit as well, she panicked, and tried to crawl away from him, but as she looked up, she saw that she was in front of the black haired kid. So, the blond one carried me.

The black haired child, Sasuke, she remembered, was clutching his arm, were the handle of a kunai protruded from. He was bleeding profusely, as, different from Sakuras case, his artery was severed.

He will die if I don't help him! Sakura thought, panicking. She didn't want another to die today. Of course, the two masked men were an exception. So she ripped off the front of her red, one-piece dress, yanked out the kunai, drawing a gasp of pain from Sasuke and tied the piece of cloth around the wound, making sure to make it tight, just like she learned in the Academy.

Meanwhile, Naruto was facing the two attackers on his own, wanting to protect his friend and the girl, who were both injured. There was a strange, red glint in his eyes, making the masked men nervous.

Naruto wondered who they were, they seemed completely identical, down to the movement patterns and quirks, which were non-existent. They seemed like machines, made to kill and without individuality. He decided not to dwell on it for too long, opting to call them Mask One and Mask Two.

All three of them were in fighting stances.

Mask One twitched a little and Naruto dashed forward, throwing a punch to the man's rips, which was blocked by his forearm. Mask Two took the opportunity and kicked Naruto in his unguarded right side, throwing him into a tree.

Damn, that hurt. I have to be more careful with those, I could be dead any second.

Naruto stood up, seemingly unperturbed by the kick and this time, he waited for them to make the first move, leaving an opening in his guard on purpose. Mask Two took the bait and moved in with a kunai, going for the kill. Naruto shifted to his right and tripped the man, taking hold of his kunai arm and swinging him against the tree behind him, were he himself crashed in seconds before. The added momentum allowed Naruto to rip the kunai out of the man's hand and cracked his left arm in the process.

Unfortunately, Mask One hadn't been idle in that time. He was dashing at Sasuke and the girl instead, also holding a kunai. Naruto didn't have enough time to intercept him, so he threw the kunai at the man, hoping it would at least slow him down for Sasuke and the girl to get away, if not injure him.

It was not to be. Mask One easily deflected the kunai with his' and continued towards the two injured children. Naruto watched in horror, as Mask One took Sasuke and pressed the kunai against his throat.

While Naruto stood, frozen, the other man came to his senses again and brought Naruto in the same position as Sasuke.

It was over, they were all going to die and he didn't even know the name of the girl he couldn't protect.

The men moved to slice their throats.

And the blood spilled on the unforgiving ground.

-End of Chapter-

If you're wondering, the two ninja are the noobs of the noobs, that's why the guys survived that long, will be addressed in the next chapter as well.