Chapter 3

Author: Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing and everything else. Also, thanks for your questions, and I will try to answer them if I can through the story rather than through a note like this.

Warning: The ages, backgrounds, and timelines have been turned on their head. I made Naruto a little over a year older than the rest of the rookie 9. Things are not going to turn out completely like the manga nor will they turn out like the anime. I am working on my own story, and will use the characters as I see fit to make it engaging for the audience as an alternate universe fic.

Thanks again for reading!

Naruto groaned. It was after academy hours and he was given instructions on what to study when he had the time, because in order to understand some of the jutsu from the scrolls he was going to have to get way ahead, and really pick up his slack if he wanted to get strong fast. He stood by a rectangular pond by the side of a hill with a road at the top near the Konoha Military Police Force and their few buildings surrounding it.

He was rubbing his forehead as he tried to understand the difference in the hand seals and how in certain combinations they allowed a shinobi to harness their chakra as a weapon; sometimes the chakra was turned into a flame like the tiger and dragon seals tended to produce, but sometimes the type of seal didn't signify what element or technique was being used, and so the thing as a whole was very confusing to him.

From what he could tell, by listening to Iruka, was that techniques used the seals like the pieces from a rotating shape puzzle that required the right combination in the correct order to solve it. That, however, still wasn't a good enough metaphor for how chakra seals worked; shinobi only become so fast at reproducing these seals, or rotating the pieces in the case of the puzzle, in a particular order and often times it is very difficult to remember a particular pattern for a particularly difficult jutsu.

In other words, someone who was at the genin level would require somewhere between twenty and thirty seals, executed in perfect order and form, and with enough focus into each of them to be able to reproduce a jounin level jutsu.

This of course does not take into account the genin's natural talent, but even that only went so far. This was mostly because, as Iruka mentioned again using another metaphor, the chakra coils were like a muscle. They require strenuous exercise and practice for them to get bigger and stronger, essentially making them more suited to handling chakra-intensive techniques.

And even with strong chakra coils, natural talent or ability, and perfect order and form, if the genin's comprehension of how the different seals rotate the pieces of the puzzle is lacking, then they may as well not even bother. So, obviously, a powerful technique required an intimate understanding of one's own chakra system, body, and mind.

Naruto sighed. And then there were the extreme cases of talent shown by some of the great shinobi of the past.

To Naruto, for instance, it still didn't make any sense that the Nidaime Hokage was able to perform a single seal to utilize a jutsu that required nearly fifty different seals from most jounin, regardless of skill. Kakashi had told him about that one.

Annoyed, he went through the seals again: Bird, Boar, Dog, Dragon, Ox, Tiger, Serpent, Rat, Horse, Monkey, Hare, and Ram.

"Tori, I, Inu, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora, Mi, Ne, Uma, Saru, U, Hitsuji." Again he repeated them, according to the order that Iruka asked him to perform and memorize them in.

These were only the basic seals, based on various animals, but why he didn't quite know nor did he care to ask. But with these seals it was possible for him to learn most of the techniques in the scroll, according to Kakashi.

Speaking of which, he thought, I haven't seen the masked pervert for a few days now. I guess he's letting Iruka-sensei take care of the basics…

"Tori, I, Inu…" Naruto began, starting over and repeating the seals over and over again until he accidently jammed his fingers with a yelpwhen he mixed up the hare and the ram symbols near the end of his fifteenth run through them.

This is getting tedious, he thought, bringing his hands up to his head to stroke his temples.

"You look like you're having some trouble." Naruto looked up when a calm voice came from a short distance behind him. "Try thinking of each seal as a different type of funnel for your chakra; it always helps me."

Before he turned around, he made sure that his hand was resting at his side where he kept his shiruken holster.

"Relax," said the young boy, his age or probably a year or two younger. He held his hands up in a placating manner and smiled in that same calm way. "I don't want to start anything. Just wanted to see what a fellow shinobi was up to."

Naruto blinked pointedly, "You're a shinobi?" Naruto was a bit suspicious of that: he had no Konoha headband. Did he forget it at home? And did kids become shinobi?

"Ha, well, not yet, you know? I've seen you in class. You've been there for a year, right?"

Naruto flushed, embarrassed. "Yeah…" It has actually been a year and a half. "…when did you start?"

The boy smiled with ease with his lips curving slightly up towards his eyes, the eyes of a young boy who had it all in life. "I started about four months ago, during the new season."

Naruto blinked again. "How old are you?"

"I just turned five after I entered the academy early in the summer."

Naruto nodded, "Right, right. I heard there were a few students who were coming in before August. Uh," He stepped toward the boy and bowed his head slightly, "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, huh. I can't say I've seen a lot of you… Oh! But now that I think about it, aren't you the one who can use a fireball jutsu?" Naruto asked eagerly.

The boy nodded with the same graceful smile, "Yes! I learned how to perform the jutsu from my father, actually."

Naruto smiled, though his brows furrowed. "Huh… that must be so cool." He didn't specify as to what, but a small tinge of jealousy fluttered about in the back of his head.

The dark haired boy also bowed his head, "This is rude of me, my name is Uchiha Sasuke by the way."

Naruto furrowed his brow. "Uchiha? Uh, isn't that a fan or something?"

Sasuke laughed, "Well, yes. But that would make you a spiral fishcake if we went along that route."

Naruto frowned, "I happen to like those in my ramen?"

Sasuke perked up, "Ramen? Do you make it yourself?"

"Hah! I wish… well, actually, not really. I really like Ichiraku's so I go there pretty often." Naruto suddenly felt a bit apprehensive. He just met this Uchiha Sasuke, and here he was just giving up details of his life like this. Maybe this was some kind of enemy of his father's? Err… I mean, the Yondaime's.

"That sounds good. I will have to go find this place and try their ramen. Is it nearby?"

Naruto hated giving directions. "It's uh… by the big red tent where there're a lot of those paper lanterns and that one really small sakura tree that hasn't really grown in a long time but it's too hard or too much of a hassle to pull out and no one has done it yet… oh, and near that big four story apartment complex where they have the clothes shop on the first floor."

Sasuke looked at him for a second, then flashed another great smile and nodded. "Ok! I know where now. I'll let you get back to your training, but maybe we can spar or practice together? Let me know at the academy if you feel like it."

Naruto nodded, a happy grin animating his usually stiff jaw. "Nice meeting you, Fan-man."

Sasuke laughed. "You too, spiral fishcake."

They grinned, and then Naruto turned back around after he saw Sasuke walking back up onto the road. Maybe the Uchiha district is nearby? He thought to himself, smiling since he had just made a friend.

Shaking his head, Naruto went back to his seals.

Try thinking of each seal as a different funnel for your chakra. Naruto looked at his hands which had taken the shape of the ram seal. "Always helps him, huh?"

Closing his eyes, Naruto began concentrating as the idea formed in his mind.

The next couple of weeks, Sasuke and Naruto practiced taijutsu together, sparred, and worked on chakra control, which was something that Naruto lacked quite a bit.

That didn't matter though. They worked well as a team, even finding out that there were cool taijutsu moves that they could learn that would complement each other. Naruto finally became efficient in making each of the seals, even doing them backwards and quickly as they were called out by either Sasuke or one of his teachers.

They even got to learn more about one another. Sasuke finally found out why Naruto thought it was so cool to have someone like a father to ask for help with jutsu: because he had no parents to turn to for help. Naruto quickly brushed that off, saying he had Iruka-sensei if he ever really needed some guidance, plus the Hokage would often give him a tip or a word of advice from time to time whenever he had the time in his busy schedule.

Naruto also learned a bit about the rest of Sasuke's family, including his strong brother who had graduated from the academy only a year or two older than him. "So, Itachi's real powerful now, huh?"

Sasuke nodded. "He's actually a jonin, though he hasn't taken any pupils yet."

Naruto nodded, surprised. "Wow… Maybe he'd take us and one more other person as his three-man cell? You did hear about that, right? How we're going to split up into teams of three among the classrooms?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yes. I was hoping we'd be teammates."

Naruto grinned. "Hell yeah. We'd kick ninja butts, hard!"

Sasuke laughed.

They talked about lighter topics too. During one training session after Naruto finally mastered the fireball jutsu, although his was incredibly weak compared to Sasuke's.

"You know, that Hyuga girl has got it for you."

Naruto blinked, "Wha?"

Sasuke tried not to laugh. Oh, how oblivious he is to the world.

"You know, she's fallen for you…"

"…eh… she's, you know, really interested in you."

"Did I do something wrong?"

Sasuke smacked his face. "Oi, baka. I mean, she wants you."

"Wants me for what?"

And it kept going on like that for a while until Sasuke started getting suspicious that Naruto was being like that intentionally, just to mess with his head.

"So, do you like that pink-haired girl?" Naruto asked Sasuke as he chowed down on his bowl of ramen.

Sasuke watched bemusedly as the blond stuffed his face full with his chopsticks. "I don't know. She's nice when she's not yelling out to try and get my attention."

Naruto grinned. "I think that's pretty cute, actually."

Sasuke immediately wrote that tidbit into the back of his brain so that he could pass along a hint to the Hyuga girl later on that week. Probably after their next test.

"But I'm actually interested in Yamanaka Ino…" Naruto said matter-of-factly.

Sasuke smirked. "Really? You like them loud, huh?" He asked, minus tact.

"I like passionate girls." He said, grinning.

"Oh, did you study your kunai throwing trajectory assignment for this next test? Also, you have to remember to memorize the different types of throwing weapons and how to best utilize each of them."

Naruto groaned. "No more memorization… I can't even remember my birthday sometimes."

Sasuke bit back his frown. After all of the time that he spent with Naruto, he knew that wasn't just a joke. He was sure that sometimes the boy forgot the day he was born, just because it was never really celebrated.

Sasuke finished his bowl and stood up. "Just go home tonight and memorize them. I'll help you tomorrow if you get to class early enough."

Naruto smirked. Sasuke always had some of the best grades when it came to some of this stuff, but what he was really good at was application of all of the knowledge they were accumulating… in other words, Sasuke was a hands-on, give-me-a-target-and-I'll-blow-it-up kind of guy. The note taking… well, he got by enough where it mattered.

Naruto though? Naruto hated taking notes. Hated reading them. Hated sorting them out afterwards… hell, he hated listening to anything any of the teachers were saying when he was in the classroom. Sasuke just couldn't understand how he could just take a complete 180 when they were out training together.

When they were away from the class, suddenly he was an avid listener. Suddenly he could quickly recall certain events for the history section of the class, and he could perform taijutsu sparring at a different level. It was like the classroom had boggled him down.

"Alright Sasuke. See you tomorrow."

Sasuke grinned, nodding. "Later."

Naruto returned the grin, his eyes narrowing to give him a fox-like look on his grubby face from the lack of table manners.

Sasuke left his payment for his ramen and left Naruto alone after bidding the stand owner, Mr. Teuchi, goodbye.

Naruto looked forward to tomorrow, even though there was a pretty big test coming up, because he knew that somehow he had come along a lot further than he could have on his own. Heck, maybe it was even about time for him to open up the scroll and try and look through it to see what he could learn!

Naruto paid the stand owner and waved goodbye at his young daughter who smiled fondly at him. He then stood upright and took off running in the direction of his apartment, eager to learn a new jutsu to show to the Uchiha the next morning before the test.

What Naruto didn't know, was that by the time he got to his apartment, pulled the scroll out, and began going over the first technique listed in the scroll, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, everyone in the Uchiha compound was dead except Uchiha Sasuke, and his Jonin brother Itachi.

Tbc

Note: Anyone want to take a guess as to why these two hit it off so well? (Besides that they're probably in to each other in canon, but I ain't going there in this story, lol) Also, I know they're "too young" to be thinking about girls, but just go with it. :p I don't have to explain why I'm so weird, do I?

Thanks for reading.