A/N: Thank you for everybody who has commented, favorited, reviewed, or put a story alert on my story. It really does mean a lot to me. If you want to, leave a review telling what you think of the story so far and if it's getting boring or if it's keeping your interest. If it is starting to get boring for you, tell me what you think should happen next. I'm open to ideas. By the way, an OC character will be introduced in this story- Stanton. You'll learn more about him later.

Okay, thanks everybody again! A huge thanks to my beta Jpanda92, an amazing writer and editor. Now read and I hope you enjoy. :)

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Really, I don't. Take my word for it. There's no way I could draw like Masashi Kishimoto, my hero, and the creator of the manga.

Uzumaki Naruto woke up to a dark, dreary day filled with mushy snow. Unlike his classmates who were probably hoping it would be a snow day, he got up in one swift gesture. And he laughed. He guffawed and chuckled and had some more laughs until he couldn't laugh anymore. The reason that he was having a spaz attack was because today was the day.

The day.

It was the basketball game against Pellerin High School; a boarding school much like Konoha High. The kids that went there were bad-mannered and eerie. Orochimaru, their Principal, had an odd fascination with little boys and his perfectly long, black hair was his trademark.

Naruto grimaced just thinking about the strange grin that Orochimaru had given to him when he had almost gotten into a fight with Deidara; a jock that liked to make fun of Naruto. It was supposed to have been a glare, but the experience had still left a deep mental scar.

The students at Pellerin High were widely disliked. They thought they were better than everybody else- they were constantly showing off their latest spoils such as a gold watch or yellow Porsche or the latest in their favorite designers newest line. They would only speak to each other, only forcing a conversation with someone else when absolutely necessary.

Whenever Pellerin High School kids went out to eat, photographers who were taking shots of exotic birds would stop and forget what they were doing and- gasp!- and take pictures of the haughty teens instead. It was just the way the World worked.

"There are winners and losers in this World." Deidara had told Naruto at last year's game. The Pellerin High kids- the Evil Ones, as Naruto put it- had creamed Konoha High School with an embarrassing score of 32-12. "Sadly," he said, mocking Naruto, "you are one of the losers."

Orochimaru had stepped in before the inevitable fight could break out. Naruto had wanted it to happen; he wanted to throw a few punches at Deidara: maybe break a nose or chip a tooth or tow.

"At least I don't have hair longer than a girl's!" Naruto had yelled while being pulled away by a pissed off Tsunade.

Deidara had chuckled, not fazed by Naruto's sad attempt at a comeback. "It's art. Your hair is just unkempt and gross." Orochimaru had dragged him off before he could say another word.

'We're definitely going to beat those losers today,' Naruto thought. 'It's either that or I'm going to fess up to Asuma about how I got my grade on my math test.' Now he had real determination; fueled by the knowledge that if they lost against the Pellerins, Jiraiya would kill him as a result of Asuma knowing the truth about his cheating ways.

No, there was no way that could happen. Sure, Naruto was down in the blues some days, but he was also happy. He liked living. He didn't want to die just yet. He still had to bug Sasuke more; it was his duty as Sasuke's loyal and irritating best friend. Speaking of Sasuke...

Naruto looked around at the bed that was a couple feet away from him. The bed in his best friend was sleeping on. Naruto catapulted on top of Sasuke, the other waking up with a shudder. "How can you be sleeping on the day of our epic basketball game? I mean, seriously. Basically the whole school is going to be there to see Sasuke Uchiha: star player. And what is Sasuke doing? Sleeping like Shikamaru!"

He gulped when he looked at the face of the raging Uchiha. 'If looks could kill...' ran through his head.

. . . .

By lunch the whole school was buzzing about the match that afternoon. Every player on the team had had many fans wishing him luck; they all hoped that their team would bring pride to Konoha High.

Sasuke had had many fans: teachers, girls, Akamaru, etc. Naruto could barely even find a moment to talk to his best friend. People just kept stopping by their lunch table, gabbing on about how great of a player Sasuke was.

Sasuke politely nodded and tried to feign interest in what they were saying, but Naruto knew that his mind was focused elsewhere; like how long it would take for him to finish his essay, what plays they should use in the game, and who on the other team would pose as the biggest challenge. He was thinking strategy while the girls were talking Sasuke.

While Naruto was thinking about what a big head Choji had, a certain Hyuuga was shaking her head at her friend's request.

"Come on, Hinata! I know you like Naruto! Show him that you care about the game!" Hinata shook her head wildly, knowing that Tenten couldn't possibly force her to wish the boy a good game. Well, she was wrong. Tenten pulled the girl to her feet and dragged her to the table of jocks where they were discussing the game.

"Hey!" Tenten said loudly, her voice booming across the table and stopping all chatter. "Hinata's got something to say!"

Hinata tried to glare at her friend, but found it useless. She could not glare at anybody- it was against her nature. "Yeah, what is it?" Naruto asked, noticing that this was the same girl he had run into before. "Oh, by the way, sorry for bumping into you before."

Hinata gaped a little; it was highly unlikely that he remembered, and yet, he did. Maybe the Uzumaki did have a little feelings for her. "O-Oh," She quietly said in a voice that was just barely above a whisper. "I j-just wanted to s-say good luck. For the g-game. I hope y-you guys w-win." Hinata gave a small smile, hoping to not have to repeat herself.

The enthusiasm that she got from the blonde haired boy was not expected. He jumped up from his place and took her hands, her smaller ones fitting right into his. "You bet we're going to win!" Naruto gently removed his hands from hers and gave a thumbs up, now facing the rest of the gang. "Are we going to WIN?" The last word he shouted; Sasuke was sure he would need a hearing aid.

"YEAH!" The rest of the team was now in good spirits and chattering among themselves. Tenten was glad that she'd forced Hinata to do this- the shy girl needed it. And besides, Naruto was nice to everybody unless you gave him a reason not to be.

A bell rang, signaling that they should get to their next class. 'Almost time,' Naruto thought. He couldn't wait- he had jitters all over. While Naruto was hyperventilating in a guy way, Sasuke glanced over at Hinata. "Hey, can I walk you to class?"

Hinata didn't know what to think of this gesture. She gave him a tiny smile and nodded, but she couldn't look him in the eyes. They walked off together; enough space between them for another person to walk through. The girls looked at Hinata, in fury and jealousy. When Naruto was done jumping up and down, he looked around to find that he was the only person left in the lunch room.

. . . .

"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"

"WE'RE GONNA WIN!"

The whole team was bouncing up and down together in order to get excited for the game.

"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"

"WE'RE GONNA WIN!"

The bleachers were full of mostly Konoha students, however, some Pellerin High kids were there, in order to show some team spirit for their school. But because the game was at Konoha High, there weren't too many Pellerin High students.

Gai smiled at his team. He knew that he would be satisfied with the results of the game, as long as they gave it their all. But he also knew that there was some bad blood between Konoha High and Pellerin High- for example, he knew Naruto despised Deidara.

"Okay. The people in the first quarter of the game are: Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, Neji, and Lee. You guys know what to do. We talked about this during practice yesterday. The rest of you will be put in the game eventually. Okay. Now let's do our team cheer." Gai looked each team member in the eyes, hoping to get some more energy from them. It happened.

Everybody in the bleachers were cheering so loudly that Gai's ears were screaming for them to shut up. But he knew they were just as excited as him.

Each teammate put his hand in the circle and shouted, "Konoha's the best!" Then they removed their hands from the circle and went to their respective positions; the ones that weren't going to play went to the team bench and the others that were playing got set up.

The Pellerin High kids went to their respective position after doing their cheer which was, "Nobody compares to Pellerin!"

Because Lee was the tallest, he would be a part of the jump ball. Last year, Deidara had won the jump ball. But it seemed there was a new addition to the team- a lanky teenager with baggy shorts stood across from Lee.

Lee gave him a big grin, as it was his nature to be friendly to everybody. "What are you staring at, big eyebrowed freak?" It seemed the Pellerin High kid wasn't as easy going as Lee was. Lee shrug it off, focusing on the game.

The referee looked at both teams. "Look, I want you guys to put aside your differences and play a good, solid, clean game." He'd witnessed last year's game and it was anything but pretty. Each player looked at him in annoyance, wanting to just start the game. Paul, the referee, grunted; it wasn't his business if they didn't like each other. He blew the whistle and the game took off- the cheerleaders for both teams had already started their cheering.

Lee jumped up high in the air and sent it over to Sasuke who caught it and started dribbling fast to their basket. Sasori tried to steal it from him, but Sasuke shot up into the air and scored before Sasori could even blink. It was a three pointer.

Every Konoha High Student burst into laughter at this. Leave it to Sasuke to score in the first ten seconds. Neji gave him a pat on the back as they ran back to their side of the court. "Nice work." Sasuke grunted at him.

As the game went on, Naruto realized something. These kids were good- maybe even better than last year. The one that had done the jump ball with Lee- Stanton, that's what Hidan had called him when giving him a high five- was phenomenal. He was maybe even as good as Sasuke, and that was pretty dang good. The other Pellerin kids were playing well, but Stanton stood out. He was probably the tallest one, maybe 6" 4' or something, and that gave him a really great edge. He was also pretty scary with his facial hair and big arms and legs. This was not a guy to mess with.

The whistle blew and movement stopped. The game was close; Konoha was leading: 12 to 9. But there were still three more quarters to be played. As Naruto was jogging over to where the water bottles were, he gave a pat on the back to Sasuke and Neji. "Nice work, guys!"

He chugged some water down, not caring that some had spilled on his clothes. His other teammates gave him highfives as well as to the other guys who had just been playing. Gai took of with his little speech that he always had prepared. He was so emotional; it was hilarious. Naruto predicted he might have even been crying.

"Wow, guys... you just blew me away right there. That's called teamwork! You guys have improved so much. Excuse me." He looked away from the team; Kiba could see that a few tears were coming out of his eye. The team members had to hide their snickers.

When Gai had fully composed himself he turned to the team. "Keep up the great work! Naruto and Neji, I'm going to take you out of the game if you don't mind." Naruto frowned, but he knew that he had already played long enough. "Konohamaru, you're going to take Naruto's place and Shikamaru, you're going to take Neji's place." Konohamaru jumped up in happiness. This was one of the few games that he got to actually play in.

Konohamaru was a Freshman, whereas the rest of the team were either Sophomores or Juniors. Seniors very rarely played a sport and if they did, it was usually skiing, because skiing was fun and placed less stress on them. Playing a sport like basketball which required you to be in a team was hard because if you did bad, your performance affected the rest of the team and the game. Seniors mostly spent their time hanging with their friends or studying for their choice college.

Naruto thought he was going to continue with sports throughout the full four years as his own Konoha experience, but he wasn't positive. Playing a sport required a tremendous amount of effort and time, but he thought it was fully worth it.

The team did their cheer and split up. He went over to Konohamaru and gave him a small slap on the back. "Good luck, Konohamaru! You can do it." Naruto smiled, knowing how worried Konohamaru must be about messing up.

Naruto sat down on bench. He stared intently at the game, where Sasuke was on a roll and kept getting basket after basket after basket. Stanton was doing just as well; Naruto wondered who he was and where he'd come from, he hadn't seen him in last year's game.

Sasuke was dribbling the ball past Deidara and Kisame when he saw somebody being put into the game for Sasori. It was Itachi.

Itachi was his brother but they both went to different schools. He gasped, because he hadn't realized that Itachi was a part of the basketball team. Sasuke and Itachi had always been close friends, but after last year... that had all changed.

"What are you lookin' at?" Kisame asked. "Your more successful brother?" Kisame stole the ball from Sasuke, who stood there, motionless. He caught his breath after a few seconds and realized that he was just wasting time.

When Sasuke had the ball again, Deidara and Kisame were ganging up on him. They weren't talking too loudly, so Sasuke wasn't sure if the referee heard their threats.

"Your dad hates you."

"You're such a loser, Sasuke."

"Your parents had the best relationhsip before... you know. Your mom decided too..." That was coming from Deidara. Sasuke was trying to do his best to ignore them, but it was hard.

Itachi didn't know what was going on. It seemed like his teammates were saying something to Sasuke, but he didn't know what. He hoped it wasn't too bad because he really did care about his brother.

Now the new guy, Stanton, glared at Sasuke. "Your mom. Is. Such. A."He didn't say the next word, but the raven haired basketball player could guess what he was going to say.

Sasuke had had enough.

He slammed the ball against Stanton. He couldn't stand having this wannabe basketball player badmouthing him and telling him which parent was in the right and which was in the wrong. Sasuke had a very positive relationship with his mother, and it was not up to anybody else to tell him that he'd made a mistake.

He attacked Stanton, throwing punches and kicks. Stanton didn't hesitate; he fought Sasuke with as much energy as Sasuke was, him. It took a few minutes before the audience realized what was going on.

The perfect, usually a gentleman, sports star- Sasuke Uchiha- was in a fight.

Tsunade and Orochimaru jogged over as fast as they could. They both roughly grabbed their student off of each other. When the fight had subsided Sasuke had a few bruises and Stanton had a bloody nose. Kurenai, the nurse as well as a teacher, treated their wounds.

The Konoha High principal walked over to where Sasuke was being treated. "What's gotten into you?" He didn't respond. His teammates were all crowding around him and everybody was looking at him and Stanton, hoping that they would be okay and the game could continue.

Tsunade knew what she had to do. She might be hated for this, but it was her job as a principal. She stepped into the center of the gym, and using her loudest possible voice, she said, "This game will not be continued any longer, as a result of this fight. I have intended for my students to stay as civil as possible, but they have disappointed me. Very much so. The game may- or may not- be rescheduled. So I would ask all of you to please go home." She finished her little speech, said a few words to Gai, and then walked out. She needed to take some aspirin.

Naruto stared at his best friend. He didn't know what had overcome Sasuke. But he had a feeling that it would not be a good idea to ask about it. Sasuke would talk when he felt ready- and if he never felt ready, Naruto would understand that. He'd have to.