Iruka-sensei smiled at them all, "Today, you begin your journey as shinobi of Konoha. Now, I'm sure you've heard me say this a million times, but I'm proud of you all and know you'll make everyone in this village proud as well. If a few of you can just grow up a little..."

The last part was murmured, barely audible, but Naruto heard it anyways and bit back a laugh. He knew it was directed to himself, maybe Kiba and probably Shikamaru for being a lazy-ass. Fidgeting in his seat, as usual, Naruto used the tips of his fingertips to trace fuinjutsu into the desk. One day he was going to walk into a shop and buy some parchment and ink without getting kicked out. Sadly, he couldn't see that day in his near future. Maybe his sensei would get some for him? He could try and ask, and he hoped the jonin would be empathetic to his plight. The blond boy didn't notice Sasuke sending him looks out the corner of his eye.

The hell is the dobe doing? He thought, raising an eyebrow silently. The whiskered kid was tracing shapes and squiggles into the wood of their desks with such intensity it was astonishing. Sasuke didn't even know the idiot could concentrate for that long, but his main question was what the other boy was drawing. It looked nonsensical to him, and it was probably of no use to him seeing as Naruto was dead last for a reason. He had no skill in the ways of the shinobi, and his grades were so poor it was disgraceful. The Uchiha had no idea how he had graduated, but he was fairly certain the Uzumaki wouldn't make it past his first C-rank.

"Next, Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura-"

"No!" The wail of despair cut Iruka off abruptly, the pinkette staring at the academy teacher in horror, "Not Naruto-baka!"

He narrowed his eyes, "Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your jonin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

She perked up considerably, and this time the wail of despair came from Ino who looked angrier than ever, "Are you kidding me? Forehead's not good enough to be on Sasuke-kun's team!"

"Hah!" Sakura fist pumped, "Take that Ino-pig!"

The class broke out into chatter, causing Iruka's eyebrow to twitch. Naruto cringed and braced himself for the impact of the yell.

"Will everyone shut up! You're all genin of Konoha, act like it and grow up!"

Instantly quiet, the class stared ahead in fear of angering their former sensei even more, "Now, Team 8 will consist of Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino. Your jonin instructor will be Yuhi Kurenai."

After that, Naruto sat back in his chair and ignored the rest of the team assignments. He was happy, of course he was happy. He had Sakura-chan on his team, and he was thinking that might just be worth dealing with the mopey bastard. Soon, the pink haired girl would see Naruto was much better than Sasuke, that Naruto actually deserved her love and affection. Still, as he looked at her and the way she stared at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes as she practically drooled, he felt an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. It all felt so wrong, both of his teammates did. None of the held affection for each other, they weren't even acquaintances let alone friends. The closest bond Naruto had with Sasuke was a rival, but the Uchiha didn't even take that seriously. Sure, he liked Sakura-chan, but she blew him off all the time and hit him a lot. Trying to hide his discomfort, he closed his eyes and tried to calm the unsettling feeling that just kept growing.

("Uzumaki Amahiko, Uzumaki Akane, and Hikoki Raiden." Their teacher smiled in the direction of the three young children, "Your sensei will be Yoshida Tatsu."

Naruto whipped around to look at Akane, his distant cousin on his mother's side, and the vibrantly red haired girl beamed in response. Raiden, too, gave them both a small smile that screamed excitement. As soon as class let out they dashed out of the academy, sailing past their parents who stood in the cluster with everyone else waiting for their children. Of course, Tsubaki Uzumaki was given much personal space as she was practically Uzushio royalty, but her cousin by marriage stood close beside her as the two women gossiped. Akane's mother looked nothing like his own, with light brown hair pulled into one messy bun and eyes a deep burgundy color. Amahiko glanced at them in passing, before noticing the male that stood a bit behind his mother that looked nearly excited as Amahiko himself felt.

"Tou-san!"

The Uzumaki boy flew towards his father, the man catching him in a hug easily. Tsubaki snorted slightly, a grin curving her lips as her and Akane's mother shared an eye roll. Ryota Mori-Uzumaki smiled and gave his son a quick hug before returning Amahiko to the ground and ruffling his hair gently. He was a tall man, taller than even his wife, and had a charming smile fitted on his face. Black hair and tanned skin with rich, brown eyes, he looked nothing like his eight red haired children and fiery wife. From no prominent clan, the child of two civilians with no shinobi background, it amazed most when they find out he married Tsubaki Uzumaki, clan head and ferocious warrior. Then again, if you saw him on the battlefield the confusion would quickly be cleared up.

"Tou-san, you made it!" Amahiko smiled as bright as the sun, "I thought you'd be gone another week!"

"I hurried home." Ryota gave a matching smile, "I've never missed a graduation, I'm not about to start now!")

Naruto was spaced out, and Sasuke had been watching his blank face for the past few minutes when all of a sudden the blue eyes cleared and the Uchiha saw sadness sweep over the blonde boy like a smothering blanket. Sasuke had seen his fair share of smiles the boy always had to offer, and this was by far the longest time the Uzumaki had gone without keeping up his sunny disposition. He seemed downtrodden at times, but within seconds he was but to smiling like an idiot. Now, though, he didn't even try. It cast a somber light on the day, to say the least, and Sasuke stamped down any amount of concern he had for the other boy.

The students sat and waited as their respective jonin came to pick up the groups. Team after team left, and soon Team 7 was alone in the small classroom when even Iruka left to get lunch. Naruto sat against the wall, mind racing and mood still dampened from his earlier fantasy. Ignoring Sakura for once, not that the pinkette even noticed, Naruto sat in a comatose like state. Reliving fake memories in his head, he was none the wiser to the Uchiha looking at him with suspicion until the door opened rather violently and a man with gravity defying hair and a mask covering his lower face entered the room.

Kakashi blinked, looking at the three, "How should I put this? My first impression of you is...you're boring."

Naruto blinked, turning his attention to his now sensei, and forced a big smile. Sakura blinked at the man, lips curving down into a frown but refraining from speaking a word, and Sasuke just sneered at the jonin. Kakashi coughed into his hand, "Just meet me on the roof in two minutes."

Then he was gone in a puff of smoke.

"Wha-? Two minutes!" Sakura echoed, "Two minutes! He can't be serious! That's five flights of stairs up!"

"We're genin now." Sasuke stood, hurrying out the door, "Get used to it or you'll be useless."

Stunned for a moment, the girl blinked then pressed her mouth into a hard line, "Useless..."

Grumbling after Sasuke, Naruto was left alone in the room. The blonde frowned, frustrated. There was no way in hell he'd make it in two minutes going up the stairs! Especially because his teammates were already ahead of them, and that on top of being late would look even worse. There had to be another way. Walking over to the window, he swung it open and looked up. Sure enough, five floors up the roof was practically taunting him.

("Climb the building." Tatsu smiled viciously, "No hands, feet only."

"Are you, uh..." Raiden gestured at the wall with one hand, "You gonna tell us how?"

"Nope!" Their sensei laughed slightly, "Figure it out boys and...well, girl."

Akane sighed, turning to her teammates, "Listen guys. I've seen a lot of ninja walk on walls and stuff. What is a resource we have that could help us cement ourselves to the walls and prevent us from falling?"

Amahiko blinked, "Glue?"

"No..." Raiden actually laughed, "She means paste! Right?"

"No!" Akane sighed, "Chakra! You use chakra!"

"Oh.." Amahiko frowned, "Wouldn't that blow us off the building?")

Naruto shook himself out of the fantasy. Frowning, he sighed, debating wether he could trust the information. He never recalled being told anything like that before, but then again no one really told the orphan anything. The water jutsu from earlier had worked just fine, hadn't it? As long as he didn't use too much he should be fine, right? Iruka-sensei would kill him if he hurt the academy building, so that was out of the question. Sliding out the window to stand on the sill, he steadied himself with one hand and crawled to the top of the shutters, putting one foot on the smooth outside wall, and trying to channel a small amount of chakra to the soles of his feet. Feeling his foot suction to the side of the building, he carefully planted one foot firmly after the other like second nature.

As he walks vertically upwards, he swore as the sunlight blocked his eyes he could see twin, blood red pigtails swaying in the wind. A girl with emerald eyes turned to look over her shoulder, smiling brightly and gesturing for him to hurry. A boy stood beside her, waiting for him with a warm smile on his face. A medic bag was around his waist and brunette hair fell into his eyes slightly as the two of them looked down at Naruto. Gasping, the blonde boy nearly lost his foothold and almost fell, but he kept himself steady and blinked the images from his eyes. Was he going crazy? Because he felt like he was going crazy.

Finally reaching the top, he practically threw himself onto the floor of the roof, slightly exhausted from both the walk up and dealing with his ever declining mental state. Kakashi was standing, reading a little orange book when Naruto fell to the ground, and the blonde saw his sensei blink, shocked, before checking a timer and giving him a slight eye smile.

"Only forty-seven seconds over. Good job, Naruto." The man scratched his mask covered cheek, "But, uh, when did you learn to do that?"

The blonde boy looked up from being sprawled on the ground, "I watch the ninja train a lot. I picked up a few things."

Kakashi thought back to when he evaded the other jonin as a child while he himself was still in ANBU. It would make sense. Shrugging, he got his book back out and waited for Sakura and Sasuke to burst through the roof door. Ignoring Naruto's struggle to pull himself off the floor, Kakashi continued to read and casted occasional glances towards his time which was steadily rising. Suddenly, the door slammed open and one Sasuke Uchiha sprinted through, drenched in sweat and panting slightly, but otherwise keeping his cool. Immediately, his gaze was drawn to the exhausted orange genin on the floor. Caught off guard momentarily, he blinked in shock and opened his mouth to ask before a pink blur nearly barreled him over. Sakura looked a lot worse than Sasuke, face red and expression screaming exhaustion and anger.

"At least...we beat Naruto-baka, Sasuke-kun!" She smiled widely before the expression faded when Sasuke sneered at her then looked away. Her eyes followed his gaze and landed on Naruto, who was now sitting up, and her expression turned outraged, "N-Naruto! How dare you!"

"How dare I what?" The blonde boy tilted his head slightly, confused, "I haven't even asked you to dinner yet!"

"You cheated!" She snapped, releasing Sasuke, much to his relief, and crossing her arms.

"No I didn't!" Naruto grouched, standing up, "I walked up!"

"We started before you!" She glared harsher, "Now you're lying as well!"

"Or he used chakra to walk up the wall." Kakashi looked up, seemingly bored of the bickering, "Maybe you two should work on that."

She looked ready to snap before remembering this was her sensei and reigned herself back in, "Hai, sensei."

He raised an eyebrow, "Alright, now why don't you all introduce yourselves."

"Introduce ourselves? Umm...what should we say?" Sakura frowned.

"Likes, dislike, hobbies, dreams for the future. Things like that." Kakashi closed his book and looked at them all.

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" Sakura smiled brightly, "Show us what to do!"

"Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and dislike...there are a few. I have a lot of hobbies. Never really thought about any dreams."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched, "Well, that was useless."

"At least we learned his name." Naruto shrugged.

"Which you would've known already if you paid attention-!"

"Alright, blondie. You're up." The silver haired jonin interrupted the oncoming fight.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" The blonde smiled brightly, "I like ramen and the ocean! I dislike...well, traitors. My hobbies are training and beating my record of bowels of ramen eaten at Ichiraku's! My dreams for the future are to become the strongest Hokage ever and to protect the village no matter what! Oh, and being a Fūinjutsu master! That'd be cool too! Speaking of that, hey, sensei, would you mind getting me some paper and ink?"

Kakashi blinked at the word vomit that was spewed at him in such a short amount of time. He liked ramen, that was expected, but the ocean? When had the boy ever even seen the ocean? Maybe in picture. He was also slightly concerned about the traitors comment. Maybe the encounter with Mizuki had affected Naruto more than they though, as concerning as the prospect was. And hold on, a Fūinjutsu master? Maybe it was hereditary, Kakashi though, mentally laughing. With him being an Uzumaki, it wouldn't be surprising.

"Okay, then. Pinky, you're next."

She pursed her lips, "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like Sasuke-kun. My dream for the future is, well..."

She trailed off, giggling slightly for a moment before, "My hobbies are beating Ino-pig and reading."

"Your dislikes?" Naruto asked, looking around Sasuke to see her glare at him.

"You really want to know that?"

"Broody, your introduction." Kakashi interrupted once more, mentally sighing. A fangirl. Of course he would get a fucking fangirl.

"Hn. I am Uchiha Sasuke. I like becoming stronger. I dislike a lot of things. My hobbies are training. My dream is to restore my clan and one day become powerful enough to kill a certain man." He frowned slightly, looking at Kakashi as seriously as possible.

At least his file was spot on, just like the Haruno girl's, Kakashi thought. Naruto's was missing just a few key points, in his opinion. Everyone said the Uchiha was brooding and hell bent on vengeance, and Kakashi himself would have to agree. Hopefully he would open up sooner rather than later, but right now he seemed too much of a flight risk for the village. One tempting offer of power and a chance to kill Itachi and he'd be gone. Kakashi nodded, pocketing his book, "Well, it's late. Tomorrow meet at training ground seven by five in the morning. I'd advise against breakfast; you might puke. Now, you're dismissed."

Before he even had the chance to ask Sakura to get ramen with him, she was off trailing after Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei had shunshined away. Sighing, Naruto walked away from the academy, forehead protector weighing heavily on his head. All his life he wanted to become a ninja, to make people acknowledge him. He wanted to be more, and now he had the chance yet he still felt like someone had hollowed him out. He had been living a fantasy in his dreams, and now it was coming to life in front of him. Except, only he could see the imaginary friends and family he had dreamed of since he was a child. Reaching his apartment, he wretched open the door and immediately passed out in bed. He had hardly gotten sleep since the Mizuki incident, and he was dead tired.

("Don't ever fucking do that again!"

"Akane, you know I-!"

"She's right, you know. You always charge in, all by yourself, but you don't have to."

"You're not alone Hiko. We'll always be here for you, Raiden and I, just rely on us. Please."

"...Okay."

"You promise?"

"I promise, truly. Promise of a lifetime, I swear.")