Ch. 1- Academy Days

Iruno walked up the stair to his granddaughter's room. He opened the door and looked down at the sleeping children. Naruto was asleep, snoring slightly, in a sleeping bag on the floor; he had stayed over the night. Kyna was asleep on her bed, clutching a stuffed fox to her chest. He slowly crept to the girl's bed, stepping over the blonde boy. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her. "Kyna, time to wake up." he whispered.

The young Izu opened her eyes and sat up. She let out a yawn and rubbed her still tired eyes. She looked over at her clock on the night stand. She turned to her grandfather with a tired look. "Why are you waking me up so early? Is something going on today?" she asked.

Iruno chuckled. "You forgot haven't you?"

Kyna laid back on the bed and pulled the covers over her, mumbling, "Forgot what?"

The elderly man smiled down at her. "Today you and Naruto start going to the Ninja Academy."

The girl's eyes snapped open. She threw off the covers and jumped to her feet. Excitedly she asked, "That's today!?"

The older Izu nodded. Kyna got out of bed and kneeled next to Naruto's sleeping form. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "Naruto wake up! Today is the first day of the Academy!"

The blonde's eyes snapped open and he sat up. He stared at his golden-eyed friend. "Really!?" He got to his feet and went over to his book bag, searching for cloths to wear. Kyna opened her drawer and did the same. Iruno watched as the two searched for the perfect thing to wear for their first day.

He headed to the door and stopped in the doorway. He looked over his shoulder and said, "When you two are done, come down stairs for breakfast."

The two children quickly got dressed and ran down the stairs and to the kitchen. They sat down and started eating their food quickly. Iruno sighed as he watched them practically inhale their breakfast. They were so eager to go to the Academy. Kyna had been begging him to allow her to go to it, also saying Naruto wished to join. He couldn't help but give in.

The two finished their breakfast and jumped out of their seats. He grabbed their bags and waited impatiently for him. "Come on Gramps, we're gonna be late!" exclaimed his granddaughter.

Iruno sighed once again as he got up and walked to the door. "Alright, alright, we'll go now."

***

"Here we are, the Academy."

Kyna and Naruto stared in awe at the building. They had been dreaming to become ninja and now that dream would become a reality. Iruno held their hands and led the two inside. They walked down the hallway, searching for the children's classroom. They had found their destination, classroom 4. Iruno opened the door and entered the room.

A man with brown hair and a scar on his nose approached the three. He smiled. "Hello Iruno-sensei, what brings you here?"

Iruno returned the smile. "Today my granddaughter and her friend start going here, so I wanted to drop them off."

The man known as Iruka looked down at the children. He kneeled down to their level. "Hi, I'm Iruka, I'm going to be your teacher." He looked at Kyna, then Naruto. "What are your names?"

Naruto spoke up first. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!"

"I'm Kyna Izu." said the young girl.

He gave them a warm smile. "It's nice to meet you." He stood up and motioned toward the desks. "You two can go find a place to sit. We'll be starting soon."

The two walked off to the desks and searched for some seats. Kyna stopped at the second row. She spotted two boys. One boy had light brown hair, had spiral looking marks on his cheeks and was eating chips. The boy next to him had black hair tied in a pineapple looking ponytail, he had his head on his desk. She walked over to the one with black hair and poked his head. She looked at the other boy. "Is he dead?"

The boy eating chips looked at her and laughed. "He's not dead, he's just asleep." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder and shook him. "Hey, wake up."

The boy lifted his head up from the desk and yawned. He looked up at the girl. She smiled. "Hi I'm Kyna. What's your name, sleepy head?"

The sleepy boy stared at her for a moment then put his head back on the desk. She heard him mumble, "Shikamaru…"

The chip eating boy turned to Kyna. "I'm Choji. It's nice to meet ya."

"Nice to meet you too."

Iruka cleared his voice and spoke to the class. "Everyone take a seat."

Kyna looked around for a seat. She saw Naruto in the fourth row sitting next to a girl with pink hair. He stared at the girl, a light blush on his cheeks. The girl tilled her head to the side. She didn't understand why he was blushing, but she understood why he was staring at her. Who wouldn't? The girl had pink hair; it would cause some people to stare.

She returned to her search for a seat and located one in the back left corner. She walked over to back and stood next to a girl sitting there. The girl had dark blue hair and white cream-colored eyes. She asked, "Can I sit here?" she motioned to the seat next to the white-eyed girl.

The girl nodded shyly. Kyna sat down and smiled at the girl. "I'm Kyna, what's your name?"

The girl looked at her with shyness. "I-I'm H-Hinata."

The girl named Hinata looked down. The Izu girl chuckled. "You're pretty shy, you know that?" The comment caused the girl to blush. Iruka started speaking, causing everyone to turn their attention to him.

***

It was third period. The boys and girls got separated for class. The boys went to learn some taijutsu, while the girls… "Flowers!?" exclaimed Kyna.

The female teacher looked down at the girl. "Yes you will go out into the field and find specific flowers."

The girl stared at her teacher like she was from another planet. "What does that have to do anything with being a ninja?"

The teacher adjusted her glasses. "You need to be able to tell the difference between poisonous flowers and regular. It will help you when you need to make a poison or antidote." She handed out books with pictures of flowers and then ushered the girls off.

Kyna opened her book and looked at the first picture. It was of a purple flower, at the bottom of the picture was a short paragraph. It read: 'This flower is best used for medicine, and can help with most poisons.' She looked up from the book and spotted the flower in the shade of a tree. She walked over to and reached out to pick it. "Wait stop!" said a voice.

She stopped and looked back at the owner of the voice. It was one of her classmates. The girl had blond hair and blue eyes. The blond walked up to her and shook her head. "What do you think you're doing?"

Kyna gave the girl a confused look. "Uh… picking a flower? That was our assignment wasn't it?"

The blond girl sighed. "You were about to pick a very poisonous flower. You could have died."

Kyna stared wide-eyed. She looked at her book then the flower. "B-But it looks the same as this one."

The blond girl looked at the picture then the plant. She pointed to the petals of the flower in the book. "Look at these petals." She then pointed to the one on the ground. "Then look at those."

The Izu girl did as she instructed and found something she had missed. The petals on the flower had a yellow edge on them. The one in her book didn't. She looked at the girl. "Thanks, you saved me." She held out her hand to the blond. "I'm Kyna. What's your name?"

The girl took her hand and shook it. "I'm Ino."

"How do you know so much about flowers?" asked the black-haired girl.

"My family owns a flower shop. My mom showed me the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous."

The teacher called everyone back and said it was time to leave the field.

***

It was lunch time. Kyna had gotten out her bento lunch and went off to find her whiskered friend. She spotted him waiting for her near a tree. He waved to her. She started walking that way and saw the shy girl from earlier. She called out to the girl, "Hey Hinata, come eat with us!"

The shy girl walked to where the blond boy was with Kyna. They sat down and she introduced the girl. "Naruto, this is Hinata. Hinata, this is Naruto."

Naruto smiled at the girl. "Hi Hinata!"

The shy girl blushed She stuttered, "H-H-Hello N-Naruto."

The boy turned his attention to his friend. "So how was your class?"

Kyna shrugged. "It was fine. We had to find some flowers."

Naruto laughed. "Flowers!?"

"I-It w-wasn't t-that b-bad." said the shy girl.

"I guess." The girl then remembered something. "Oh, I met a girl called Ino. She saved me from a poisonous flower."

"Sounds like you had a good time. My class wasn't that great." said the boy, his arms crossed.

Kyna raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

Naruto's face became annoyed. "Two boys in class were showing off. They think they're all great."

"Who?"

Naruto pointed to the left of them. The girls followed his pointing. He pointed at a boy with brown hair and red marks on his cheeks. "That's Kiba. He said he was 'top dog'." he explained. He then motioned toward a boy sitting under a tree. The boy had black hair and black eyes. "He impressed the teacher. Hmph! I say I did a heck lot better than him!"

Kyna noticed that a group of girls looked at the boy with hearts in their eyes. She looked at the boy. He was sitting all by himself. An idea popped into her head. Maybe he would like to sit with them. She got up. Naruto looked up the girl. "Where are you going?" he asked.

The girl looked down at him. "What's his name?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Sasuke… Why?"

She started walking toward the boy. "I'm going to ask him if he wants to sit with us."

The boy was about to complain, but the girl was already out of hearing range. He sighed. Why did she have to be so nice? She walked over to the boy. He looked up at her with his onyx eyes. She smiled down at him. "Hi… Sasgay."

Everyone stopped speaking. Everyone froze. They all stared at her with wide eyes. The group of girls who stared at Sasuke, became angry and glared at the girl. One of them was Ino. Sasuke had the same expression as everyone else. Naruto was desperately trying not to laugh. Kiba was covering his mouth trying not to burst in laughter. Kyna looked around at everyone. "What?" she asked innocently.

A girl stepped from the group of girls. The Izu girl recognized her immediately by her hair. "Oh hey, you're that Pinky girl." she said pointing at her.

Pinky held out her fist. "My name is NOT 'Pinky', its Sakura!"

"Oh…" She smiled at her. "That fits you."

Sakura stared angrily at her. "Why did you call him that!?"

Kyna looked confused at the pink haired girl. "Isn't that his name?"

"No! It's—"

"Sasuke."

The golden-eyed girl turned around and looked at the boy standing behind her. The raven haired boy repeated himself. "It's Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha."

Kyna scratched her cheek embarrassed. "Sorry, I must have heard your name wrong."

"It's ok."

He was about to go back to his lunch but stopped when the girl spoke. "You wanna have lunch with us?"

He looked up at the girl surprised. He had turned down the offers of the other girls. But, from the way she said it, it sounded not like a crush asking but a friend… He nodded. The Izu girl turned to Sakura. "You can come to if you want." The pink girl hesitantly nodded. The three headed back to Naruto and Hinata.

They sat down and started eating. Not too long after Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru joined. The group heard a voice behind them. "Uh…" They looked up and saw Kiba and another boy behind him. He rubbed his nose. "Could we… join too?" asked the brunet.

Kyna nodded happily. Hinata nodded. Everyone else did also, except Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto just shrugged. Sasuke just smiled. Kiba and his friend sat down. The boy had dark brown puffy hair and wore glasses. He introduced him. "This is Shino." Instead of saying anything Shino just nodded. The Izu girl could tell he was much quieter than Sasuke.

Kyna looked around at the group. Naruto, Kiba, and Sasuke we're arguing who was better at taijutsu. Sakura and Ino were speaking about the flower assignment they had. Choji and Hinata were talking about what they had for lunch and traded a few things. Shino and Shikamaru talked about games like 'shogi' and 'go'. She smiled to herself. She looked at the clear blue sky. She had a feeling that they were all going to be great friends. Well, if the three boys stopped fighting…

One year later…

Kyna stood outside of the academy waiting for her grandfather. She looked around and sighed. Iruno was late. She was bored and Naruto wasn't around. He had gotten a cold and couldn't come to the academy with her. She was starting to get impatient now. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. She heard footsteps approaching and opened her eyes. "What took you so l—" she stopped in midsentence.

She looked up and saw a man. He had black hair and black eyes. He almost looked like… "Sasuke?"

The man smiled. "No, I'm Sasuke's older brother, Itachi."

She returned it. "Oh… you look a lot like him."

"We do." He took a closer look at the girl's eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be Kyna, would you?"

The girl gasped. "How did you know my name?"

"Sasuke talks about you. He says you're the one only girls in his class that doesn't have a crush on him." He winked at her. "Or… do you have a secret crush on him?"

Kyna blushed. "I only think of Sasuke as a friend."

He gave the girl a kind smile. "I'm glad someone like you could be Sasuke's friend."

Sasuke had come out of the front door and ran to his brother's side. "Itachi, what are you doing here?"

Itachi smiled at his little brother. "I wanted to pick you up today."

The young Uchiha put his hands together. "Can I stay a little longer to train? Please?" he begged.

The older Uchiha nodded. "Alright, but be back for dinner." He started walking down the path. Itachi looked back at Sasuke one last time and left. Kyna stared at the Uchiha confused. That look in his eyes. It looked like he was sad and guilty about something. Like he was about to do something regrettable…

The girl's thoughts were interrupted when she felt a hand on her head. She looked up and saw Iruno. He smiled down at her. "Ready to go?"

She nodded. She turned to the young Uchiha. "I'll see you tomorrow Sasuke."

The two Izu's left down the path. Sasuke called out, "Yeah, see you tomorrow!" With that, he headed back to the training grounds.

The next day…

Kyna had gotten up and eaten breakfast and was about to head out. "Bye Gramps, I'll—"

"Kyna…"

The girl froze. There was something off. The way he said her name… it meant something had happened. She turned around and walked to him. She looked at him with worried eyes. "What's wrong Gramps?"

Iruno kneeled in front of her and looked her in the eye. His eyes were filled with sorrow. "Kyna… Sasuke is in the hospital."

The girl gasped. "Is he ok!?"

"Physically, yes. But mentally… I'm not sure." He looked away from her a moment. He was trying to figure out a way to say something. Her heart pounded in her chest. What had happened? The man sighed. He looked back at her. "Kyna, you know Itachi?" She nodded. She met him yesterday, but what did he have to do with anything? She got her answer. "Itachi… he killed his family and fled the village. Sasuke's family is dead."

The girl's eyes widened. No way. Itachi was so nice and cared about Sasuke. Why would he do something like this? Something that would hurt the young Uchiha… All she asked was, "Can we go visit him?"

***

The two Izu entered the hospital and went to the front desk. The lady at the desk said that he was in room 22. They went down the hall. Kyna was nervous she had no idea how Sasuke would be. They had found the room. Iruno opened the door and stood aside to let her inside. She entered the room and jumped when she heard the door close behind her. Iruno wanted her to talk to him alone.

She turned her attention to the bed at the end of the room. She gasped. Sasuke was sitting up in the bed, his arm bandaged. But that is not what made her gasp. It was the look in the boy's eye. She could see sadness, loss, and… hate. The boy held hatred for his older brother. He felt the loss of family. He felt sadness because he was alone.

Kyna walked up to the bed. She sat in the chair next to the bed. She looked up at the boy. "Sasuke?"

The boy looked out the window next to him. He whispered, "Go away…"

She putted a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Sasuke, talk to me…"

He shrugged her off. The girl was starting to get annoyed now. "Dang it, Sasuke talk to me!"

He turned to her and glared. She flinched. "WHAT'S THE POINT!? THERE IS NO WAY YOU COULD UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL!!!" he yelled.

Kyna shook her head. "That's true but—"

"BUT NOTHING! I HAVE NO ONE! I'M ALONE NOW!!!"

The girl gritted her teeth. "You are not alone! You have us!!!"

Sasuke gasped. He stared at her for a moment. "Sasuke… you have us. Gramps, Naruto, me, and all our friends. We can be your family…" Kyna shook her head. "You don't have to be alone." He turned his attention to the sheets. He didn't want her to see what he was feeling. She smiled at him. "I can tell you're sad. Don't bottle up your feelings. Tell me about it, let all of it out. Cry if you need to."

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "Shinobi aren't allowed to cry." he whispered.

Kyna got up and sat on the edge of the bed. "If you haven't noticed, we aren't ninja yet. So we don't have to follow that rule."

The two just sat there. The Uchiha started trembling. Suddenly a teardrop landed on the bed sheets. The boy had tears streaming down his face. The girl putted an arm around him. He leaned on her shoulder and cried. All she could do was hold him and listen to what he had to say. "W-Why? Why did h-he have to do it?" he sobbed.

"…I don't know…" She looked out the window. "I just don't know."

Three days later…

It was late afternoon. Naruto and Kyna were walking from the park to her house. The Izu girl had told Naruto what had happened three days before, except the part of when she visited the Uchiha. When they were passing the lake, Naruto suddenly stopped. Kyna looked back at him and followed his line of sight. Down the hill by the lake, on the pier, was Sasuke. He was looking at the water. The girl looked back at her blond friend. He had a sad expression. The way Sasuke looked reminded him of when he was alone.

As if sensing someone was near, the raven haired boy looked back and stared at Naruto. Naruto went wide-eyed. He and the boy looked away from each other. Naruto started walking again. He looked back at the Uchiha and the Uchiha looked back at him. The blonde smiled and turned away. The black haired boy also smiled and turned away. Kyna looked at her whiskered friend, then her new friend. She smiled to herself. They may not have acted or showed it, but they were friends.

End of Chapter One.

Next time: Becoming a Ninja: The Graduation Exam!

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