DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to its owners. This fanfiction is made for entertainment purposes only, and no financial benefit is derived from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

SUMMARY: Little things make big differences. Whether for good or bad, it is for the people involved to decide. Non massacre AU. Gen Fic.

Timeline:

Since canon hasn't given any timeline, I'm putting up one to make the story easier to follow, as I shall be continuing the story in the present with an occasional insight into how the past unfolded. I don't expect this timeline to be correct, it is just an assumption.

1st to 10th year of Konoha – Shodaime rules.

11th to 16th year of Konoha – Nidaime rules.

17th to 47th year of Konoha – Sandaime rules.

48th year of Konoha – Yondaime's rule starts. Kyuubi attacks.

49th year of Konoha onwards – Yondaime's rule continues.

xXxXxXxXxXx

56th year of Konoha; scheduled time for the Uchiha Massacre.

Hiashi Hyuuga's mind was reeling. He had just attended the most astonishing meeting of his times with the Hokage. Even the time when he had to sacrifice his twin to save his daughter, paled in comparison to what just happened inside the closed chambers in Hokage towers today.

Fugaku Uchiha, along with a few of his clansmen, had been tried for treason and attempted seize of power.

Hiashi could not say he was particularly surprised. The Uchihas were notorious for their power hungry ideals, and, if he was very honest with himself, they had been discriminated against since the Kyuubi attack. They had been preparing for a very long time, Hiashi straightened himself a bit more, the way they had honed their heirs showed a lot. "Not that it was of any use in the end", he smirked haughtily.

Fugaku had been caught in the planning stage only; the execution scheduled for some months later. Though no names had been mentioned, one of the younger Uchihas was said to be the hokage's spy. The Hokage had put forward the state's case by providing the transcribed records of the Uchiha clan meetings provided by the said boy. The boy could not testify himself, because unfortunately, he had met his end mysteriously just a few weeks prior. The Hokage had stated that despite full efforts, they had been unable to find any clues pointing towards the Uchihas' hand in his death. Still, the whole council had unanimously declared them guilty.

Surprisingly, despite treason being the offence of highest order, Fugaku was not going to be executed. No, instead, almost the entire shinobi council passed the judgment of a life imprisonment over capital punishment. Many reasons had been cited: from prevention of an international scandal and commencement of a war with their opportunistic neighbors, if the news broke out, to the absence of the actual evidence, as the spy had died before providing tangible proof, to keeping the Uchiha clan, and especially their exceptionally dangerous heir, from rebellion.

Hiashi scoffed lightly under his breath, remembering the faces of the other clan leaders around him. All of them had known the real reason, hidden behind those empty words of diplomacy. The real reasons that the Hokage had turned this into a council decision, instead of making the rebellious leaders mysteriously disappear from the face of the earth.

It was not a show of power or trust.

It was a warning.

They all knew that one day it could easily be them instead of the Uchiha, facing the trial.

xXxXxXxXxXx

60th year of Konoha; present.

Naruto Namikaze had jokingly referred to this day as the end of the golden era on many previous occasions. But now, when finally faced with the upcoming tomorrow, there was no trace of nostalgia in him. True, the few friends he had made at school, the time he could devote solely to planning and executing pranks and the best methods to finally allow himself to be caught, the various ways he could annoy Iruka sensei, would all be thrown in a loop.

Sitting on top of the great Lord Sandaime's head at the Hokage Mountains, Naruto closed his eyes. From tomorrow he won't have to worry about actually irritating Iruka sensei to the extent that he stops caring for him. From tomorrow he won't have to stay awake at night straining to hear the soft opening and closing of the doors to mark the arrival of his father. From tomorrow he will be an adult in law's and his father's eyes, so no more bodyguards, or baby sitters as he named them. He clenched his teeth at the thought of his "bodyguards", at least from tomorrow; he won't have to hear the insults thrown at him under their breaths.

Maybe, just maybe, he will get people who will take him as something more than a hero; a hero which they could not decide, whether to take pity on, or to be terrified of. Yes, the graduation exams were not quick enough.

But despite his previous statements, Naruto refused to believe this to be the end of a golden era; he had trained himself to only see the beginnings. After these exams, he knew he would be unstoppable. Like every youth stepping out for the first time, he too believed the world to be his oyster. The thoughts of not passing these exams didn't even cross his mind. He opened his eyes and stared at the progressively darkening skies. Then finally, he grinned at the deities above. Now, to return under the watchful eyes of his babysitters, and let them know that he had been missing for the past hour.

Yes, tomorrow was not an end; it was a new day, a new beginning.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Sasuke Uchiha had been born a genius. Having a brother like Itachi had never allowed him to believe in the fact, but he knew he was good. Not genius, but better than the rest. He was sure everyone around him would be expecting him to pass the exams with flying colours. He knew people would believe he had the least to worry among all the beginners.

Sasuke gave out an irritated little sigh, how little did they know! He was sure that nobody had to worry about passing as much as him. What if he fails? What would okaa sama say? The elders would be enraged, especially when the branch Hyuuga, he thought sulkily, had been the rookie of the year, last time. And this time, if he didn't or, God forbid, the female Hyuuga turned out to be the best, he knew he would never be able to show his face in the clan.

His clan, like every other, had always been very status conscious. He remembered how his father used to push Itachi in front of everyone stating that no clan would ever be able to produce someone like him. He had been extremely jealous of his brother back then, but looking back, he understood. While he wanted nothing more than them to acknowledge him in the same way, his brother wanted nothing more than to be invisible to the world.

He had strived hard to be the top of his year, but he had never been able to underestimate fate. Never since the day; four years ago, when his father, a proud shinobi of Konoha, instead of dying in the battlefield as he always expected to, died due to a heart attack. His okaa san often said that Nature had a funny way of showing people their true worth. So, despite his hard work, there still was a chance for failure. And it was that chance that was making him wary.

Though his mother had banned him from studying anymore on that day and literally forced him to go out and "enjoy", he knew he should return home soon or she would start worrying.

He grimaced, remembering that she never felt the need to worry about Itachi when he was Sasuke's age. True, he was no Itachi, but she should trust him to at least take care of himself. He sullenly started his walk back home.

Had he known how desperately his brother had wanted his mother to worry for him, he would've accepted it a lot more gracefully.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Sakura Haruno was anything but sure about passing the genin exams. She had seen the exams patterns and found that they had changed it this year to make it more challenging. There were theory and practical papers as usual, where it was necessary to pass both of them separately, but with an added stipulation this year that they had to pass in combination as well, where the total passing marks for theory and practicals combination were substantially higher than the individual passing marks. They had given the reason that this will force the students to work harder on at least one aspect.

But Sakura didn't believe them. The pattern had been changed; she gloomily thought, most probably to test the various heirs that were going to give the exams this year. Especially the Namikaze, Uchiha and the Hyuuga heirs. It was just her luck to have been stuck in "the" batch of genins. Had her birthday been just a few days later, she would've escaped to the next batch. And remain struck in the academy for next year anyways, her inner nastily supplied. Yeah, at least right now there was a chance that she would pass, she thought gloomily.

For as long as she could remember, she knew she had to be a ninja. The stories her mother used to tell of her father; of how despite being a civilian he had been so brave; of how he had risked his own life to inform the authorities of the attack by the Kyuubi; and of how he died, protecting his wife and unborn child from the demon lord. His only wish about his children had been that his first born should become a leaf ninja to honour the land which had so gracefully accepted him. The land where he became one of its own, prospered and met the love of his life.

So Sakura tried, even when people thought she was freaky, even when she had to hide herself to prevent the abuse, even when she had been told that in the world of Ninja, she was a "No-Last-Name", and even when she herself believed she could not do it. She learnt to hide herself better than ever, made herself as inconspicuous as possible, and still had been at the verge of giving up many a times when she realized that however much those books taught her, she would never be able to stand up to the bloodlines and jutsus her batch mates had.

Still she had persisted till now, had she not? And at the last moment, she would not panic and give up.

She stopped her whimpering and got back to her books. She will pass. She was a Haruno, and Harunos were nothing if not honour bound.

Mizuki sensei would not know what hit him. Cha!

xXxXxXxXxXx

Iruka Umino was in a good mood. Finally the daunting task of graduation exams was over. Now he could just chuck these new genins on their Jounin sensei and be happy, without anything else to worry till the next exams. And there was no way that the next batch could be even half as terrifying as the present one. With Naruto Namikaze, the Uchiha, Inuzuka and Akimichi heirs in the same class, he doubted anyone could beat this class in rowdiness. And with the future leaders of various clans in the same class, the pressure on the teachers and the 'special' attention from the clans and elders had been immense and overbearing.

Yes, he would definitely breathe easy now. Though he might actually miss them a tiny bit.

A really miniscule bit, Iruka thought when he walked into the class to see Naruto and Sasuke kissing.

Sasuke had, as expected, come top of the class, and Naruto, as expected, at the bottom. Sasuke had been too focused all his time at the academy, and Naruto had never been very academically inclined. But yes, he did surprise Mizuki by his perfect clones. Iruks smiled. Mizuki did not even realize that those had been Shadow Clones and not normal ones, and had to reluctantly pass him. Though he had been really surprised by two other students of the class.

Shikamaru Nara and Sakura Haruno! They both had scores off the charts in theory section, though both had pretty dismal performance in the practical section. Well, Yondaime sama had claimed that the new marking system would force the students to excel in at least one area, and seemed he was right. The whole of class had done better than what they did in class tests. Though the surprising thing about these two was that they had never done particularly well in classes before. He knew personally about Shikamaru and had heard enough from Mizuki about Sakura to know that both of them were very average students before. Both had been extremely inconspicuous till then. Then this sudden improvement? Had they been holding back and had been forced to work well in the theory section to compensate for their poor skills in the practical? Maybe he was just overthinking things.

"Iruka Sensei! Are you here to assign us teams or ogle us?" the loud voice of Kiba was enough to bring him back from his musings. Apparently the boys had finished their.. er business, though Naruto and Sasuke were still looking extremely grossed out, and the girls around were looking at both of them with either hearts in their eyes or nosebleeds. Iruka did not even try to hide his mirth.

After all the teams had been assigned, and almost all senseis had taken their respective pupils away, the newly christened team seven, consisting of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, were the only ones left with Iruka in the huge classroom.

"Where is our leader? Everyone else is gone. We have been waiting for five hours already. Did you assign us someone tardy? What kind of sensei is late without information? Huh?" Naruto had already stated whining and by the looks of him, Sasuke was using every bit of his Uchiha pride, to stop himself from joining in. Even Sakura, standing at a distance from the boys, was looking like she would snap anytime now.

Iruka took his own sweet time in finishing his paperwork before answering.

"Oh, your sensei! Which team are you again? Oh team seven, is it? Hehehe! Actually your sensei asked me to tell you all that he won't be able to come today, and that you all should meet him tomorrow morning at 5 at training field no 4."

Before Naruto or Sasuke could protest, Iruka added, "And yes, it would be better for you all if you don't be late. Ok, bye. And best of luck, you all will need it."

Iruka didn't waste any time moving out, leaving three very angry little ninjas behind.

"Iruuuuuukaaa senseiiiii!" Naruto's angry voice followed him in the corridor. Iruka chuckled.

Payback really felt nice.

Maybe he will miss them more than just a tiny bit.

A/N: I apologize for the delay in updating. Hopefully I shall be much more punctual the next time. This was more of a background chapter, to establish our lead characters. Real action starts with next chapter.

I have realized that writing Naruto and Sakura is much harder compared to writing Sasuke. I have no idea why.

All comments and suggestions are welcome. Please point out any grammar or spelling error you find in your reviews.

Thanks for your time.

The Grey Mage, Snorkabuziaczek, Teenage Crisis, AmethystBlack061, Pink Sonic2 and Gloriana The Younger: Thank you all for your encouragements. It means a lot to me.

Take care.