As always, thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews! It makes me so happy to know that people actually like my story. *Wipes away tears*
Vital information for this chapter (In case you didn't notice the title of this chapter):
THIS IS AFTER A TWO YEAR TIMESKIP! THAT MEANS THAT NARUTO AND SASUKE ARE TEN YEARS OLD IN THIS CHAPTER!
With that out of the way- let's begin!
"Didn't you know? Women have to be strong in order to survive!" - Haruno Sakura
Naruto still isn't quite sure what happened on that night. One second Sasuke is trying to kill him, the sharp pain of betrayal far outweighing the press of the kunai against his neck. The next...
He can only recall flashes.
A terrifying haze of red over his vision, and beyond that...
Terrified screams, the sickening crunch of bones breaking... and blood. Lots and lots of blood.
(No! Please, no don't! Just kill me, please, don't harm my-!)
(CRUNCH!)
(Demon! I knew we should've killed you when-)
(SMASH!)
(P-please... I don't want to die!)
(BAM!)
It is by far the worst night of his life.
Naruo is powerless, unable to control even his own body... afterwards, they tell him that it is because the demon took over.
The Hokage grimly informs him that he is very lucky. Apparently some guy named Yamato had been nearby at the time, and that is the only reason they'd been able to restrain him.
If that guy hadn't been there... the Third never outright says it, but Naruto understands the implications. If they hadn't been able to restrain him... the Hokage would've killed Naruto himself.
The realization makes him numb.
Naruto doesn't remember much else that night.
The next morning, Sasuke is in his room. He is crying. Naruto remembers being faintly surprised- he'd never seen Sasuke cry before. Not even after that horrible nightmare.
(Naruto! I'm so sorry...)
(I was only trying to reach the Kyuubi... I had no idea-!)
(Naruto... You know I'd never betray you, right?)
(...)
(...Do you hate me?)
Despite the pain and guilt and horrible aching in his body, Naruto forgives the raven. Sasuke is his friend, after all. His first, best, and only friend. So even if Sasuke did betray him...
(I could never hate you, Sasuke.)
October tenth. Naruto's birthday. Or, as it was more commonly known, the day of the Kyuubi festival.
It was also one of Naruto's least favorite days of the year. When he was little, he used to get beaten on that day. Of course the ANBU would always save him, but never before he got some rather painful injuries. As he grew older, Naruto learned not to venture outside on that day. Even so, a few drunken villagers would always stumble to his home and, if he was lucky, smash a few windows.
The abuse on that day stopped after he moved in with Sasuke, but...
Naruto shook his head. He was being stupid. Well, the bastard claimed that he was always being stupid but- Argh! The bastard even managed to insult him in his thoughts!
Soft footsteps were approaching behind him. Naruto didn't turn, he knew that familiar gait very well. Speak of the devil, he thought in annoyance.
"Naruto."
"What do you want, bastard?" He snapped. Usually Sasuke knew to leave him alone when he was like this.
The Uchiha gracefully sat down beside him. "Happy birthday, dobe."
"Teme! I told you not to call me that! You're the one who came up with the genius plan for me to pose as dead last!"
His only response was a slightly raised brow. "Happy birthday, dobe."
"You-! Wait... did you just say...?"
The Uchiha avoided his gaze and roughly shoved something into Naruto's hands.
A present. Rather messily wrapped with plain white paper and- to Naruto's delight- a bright orange ribbon. "But..."
"I know it's not really a good day for you... but I wanted to give you a present."
Naruto stared. Sasuke hadn't given him a present last year, so why now?
Exhaling sharply, Naruto glared at his friend. "You don't have to feel guilty."
Blazing Sharingan eyes glared right back at him. "I'm not!"
Naruto was having none of it. "Look, even your Sharingan is on. Don't deny it."
The raven down, dark bangs hiding his eyes. "Fine. Maybe I do feel guilty. What are you going to do about it?"
"It doesn't matter anymore, okay?! It happened almost a year ago, so just forget about it!"
Enraged red eyes glared at him from the shadows, the two tomoe in each eye spinning wildly. "Forget? How can I forget what I did that day? I tried to kill my best friend, and ended up releasing a demon. Maybe you aren't sure what happened that night, but I saw everything. I awakened my Sharingan that night. Those images... I can never forget them.
"Do you have any idea how it feels? To see all the carnage, the screams, the death... and to know that you were the one who caused it? I was so foolish to think that I could control the Kyuubi itself! ...There were so many innocent people who died that night. And it was all my fault. How can you expect me not to feel anything?!"
Naruto stared, horrified, into spinning crimson eyes. He'd no idea Sasuke felt that way. After what had been deemed as the Kyuubi Massacre, he and Sasuke avoided talking about that night as much as possible. Naruto knew Sasuke still felt responsible for what happened but... he had no idea it affected his friend that badly.
He pushed himself to say something, anything, when-
Sasuke chuckled darkly. "I guess I really am just like my brother, huh?"
Blue eyes widened. "No, Sasuke! You are nothing like him!"
"Oh, really? Tell me, what was so different about what we did!"
"Itachi... he killed those people on purpose! He did it with his own hands, knowing that they would die! But you had no idea, Sasuke! Sure, you may have been the one to set me off, but you didn't know I'd lose control like that! You didn't know that so many people would die that night! What happened... it wasn't anybody's fault, got it?!"
The Uchiha blinked slowly, Sharingan fading into black. "I... thank you, Naruto."
Naruto knew his friend still wasn't entirely convinced, but at least it was a start. The blond grinned, trying to diffuse the solemn atmosphere. "No problem! Whenever you need help, just call on the great Uzumaki Naruto!"
The raven cracked a smile. "Well, dobe, what are you waiting for? Open it."
It took Naruto a while to figure out what the other boy was talking about. "Oh! Right, the present!"
He ripped it open, taking care not to harm the orange ribbon. A dark blue box was left, a single large Uchiha fan printed proudly on the top. Holding his breath, Naruto opened the box.
"Ehh?! Sasuke, you bastard! My first birthday gift ever, and you get me this?!"
The incredulous blond all but shoved the box in Sasuke's face.
Inside the box laid a pair of plain, elbow length fingerless black gloves. Sure, they were pretty cool, but Naruto had expected something flashier for his birthday.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Just put it on, dobe."
Said dobe growled. "It'd better be good, you bastard."
The gloves fit perfectly. Naruto was surprised. He was positive that the gloves had way been bigger just a few seconds ago. Glancing questioningly at the Uchiha, he was rewarded with a short, unsatisfying answer.
"They'll always fit."
The raven refused to further clarify on the subject. Probably because he doesn't know either, Naruto snickered to himself.
Sasuke scoffed. "Now, channel some chakra to your hands."
The blond blinked and did just that. "Woah!"
Three wicked blades immediately extended from the knuckle of the glove, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Naruto stopped the chakra flow, and the blades immediately withdrew, melting smoothly back into the black fabric of the gloves.
Retractable claws!
He experimented some more, and found that he could control the length of the claws as well, depending on how much chakra he put in his hands.
Unable to stop the wicked grin that appeared on his face, Naruto declared, "That is fucking cool."
"Hn."
He grinned at the other boy. "Thanks, Sasuke! I never should've doubted you! You're the best bastard ever!"
"How flattering," The raven smirked back nonetheless. "I heard those blades can channel chakra. You might want to experiment with that later."
And with that, the Uchiha left the room, screen door sliding shut behind him.
Naruto blinked. "Huh? Wait, Sasuke! I wanna try out these gloves on you!"
For some strange reason, Sasuke avoided him for the rest of the day.
"We're going to take the test in three months."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. You've been over it a million times already. I have to keep acting as dead last so they'll make me take the test in order to humiliate me 'when' I fail. You'll just have to ask, because you're the Last Uchiha and they'll do anything for you. The test has four parts, written, which I still have to study for; weapons, which is basically how well we can throw kunai and shuriken; taijutsu, where we have to land a hit on the instructor; and ninjutsu, where we have to perform the basic three jutsu: bunshin (clone), henge (transformation), and kawarmimi (replacement). I have to work on the clone jutsu. I'll have to get everything perfect so they'll have to pass me. Oh, and the test is harder than it would be if we took it when we're thirteen, for some reason."
"Because they want to make sure that only the really talented people graduate early. But, yes, that's the gist of it."
"Hah! So I got it all this time!"
"Hn. Make sure you practice your chakra control. We have to graduate this year."
"I know, teme. Don't worry, I'll get it down in no time!"
"Hn. Make sure you do."
"Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Three perfect clones of Haruno Sakura appeared, and Mizuki-sensei smiled in approval.
"Henge! Kawarmimi! "
One of the clones then turned into a perfect replica of the Third Hokage, and almost immediately switched places with the original Sakura.
Mizuki-sensei's eyes widened at the rather impressive display (for a ten-year-old civilian girl, at any rate), and he smiled down at the girl. "Congratulations, Sakura-chan, you pass!"
The pink-haired girl accepted the headband with a smile, tying it quickly around her head like a headband.
Naruto stared, wide-eyed, at the girl who walked innocently past him. He'd had no idea that Sakura was that good! Last he remembered, she was one of Sasuke's fangirls, right? But... now that he thought of it, Sakura's attitude had changed in the past few months. Her crush on Sasuke had seemingly faded overnight, and apparently her aggressiveness had vanished along with it. Now all that was left was a cheerful, nice, and seemingly average girl.
The blond glanced at Sasuke, who was looking back at the girl with narrowed eyes.
Huh. Now that he thought of it, Naruto remembered Sasuke talking quietly to the girl once before, about six months ago. She'd been crying, glaring at her crush with baleful eyes.
What in the world did he say to her? Naruto wondered to himself. To get her that sort of attitude change... it must've been pretty damn bad. Naruto was also curious as to why the raven even bothered to talk to her. Sasuke usually didn't bother insulting his fangirls. So why...?
Shaking his head, Naruto told himself to drop it. If Sasuke didn't tell him, then it was none of his business. All he needed to know was that Haruno Sakura was now no longer a shallow fangirl.
The blond watched as Sasuke passed the practical test without so much as a blink, and then it was his turn.
Naruto stepped up confidently. He'd managed to pass the written, weapons, and taijutsu test already, and Sasuke had forced him to do chakra control exercises until he could make three passable clones. The other two jutsu, he had no problem with.
The blond performed the jutsu without a hitch, and he grinned ecstatically as he received his own headband. Spinning around, he practically skipped back to his seat beside Sasuke. The raven rolled his eyes, but made no comment.
Mizuki-sensei smiled at the three of them. "Congratulations, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto! You three are now officially promoted to genin. As the three of you are the only graduates your age, you will be placed in the same team. Tomorrow, you'll meet your new jounin-sensei here at ten o'clock. Don't be late!"
And with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the three genin alone.
Sakura was the first to move. She turned to the boys and smiled politely. "Well, I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Uchiha-san, Naruto-san."
Naruto was once again shocked at the way she addressed them. Before, it was always "Sasuke-kun" and "Naruto-baka", but now she was being overly polite with them. Especially Sasuke, strangely enough.
He'd have to get used to the new Sakura. It was a nice new, of course, much better than being punched all the time for sitting next to Sasuke, or calling her "Sakura-chan". But still, the formality from his new teammate made him uneasy.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, you don't have to be so polite with me. After all, we're gonna be teammates, right?"
Green eyes flashed for a millisecond, and Naruto thought she was going to change back and hit him again, but then the smile returned to her face. "Really? Okay then... Naruto-kun."
Something about the way she said his name... it was weird. Maybe because that was what she used to call Sasuke.
The sound of the door closing made Naruto jump, and when he looked up, Sakura was gone and Sasuke was standing before him, an irritated expression on his face. "Well, dobe? Are you coming or not?"
"Ah! Yeah, I was just thinking, is all. About Sakura," he added quickly to clarify. "She's really different, isn't she?"
Sasuke frowned. "Naruto... don't trust her, okay?"
"What? Sakura-chan? Why?"
Sasuke just shook his head. "She... just listen to me, okay? Don't trust Sakura."
What did Sasuke know that he didn't? Sakura seemed pretty harmless, if a little strange, but since the one asking was Sasuke...
"Alright. I won't. Can we go now?"
Dark orbs met sky blue for a moment, and then Sasuke was gliding out of the classroom, leaving Naruto scrambling to catch up.
Two hours. The newly dubbed Team Seven's new sensei, a gray-haired jerk with most of his face covered, was two hours late.
As a matter of fact, so was Sakura. She only showed up about fifteen minutes before their sensei did, almost as if she knew that he would be late.
But that was impossible, right?
Naruto managed to swallow down his anger at the teacher and follow Sasuke and Sakura to the roof of the building, as instructed.
When they got there, the man was reading a little orange book, completely ignoring them.
Naruto cleared his throat, annoyed. This was the guy who was supposed to be training them?
The supposed jounin looked up, faintly surprised, before putting his book away. "So you're here already," He muttered offhandedly.
He gave what appeared to be a smile beneath the mask, and said cheerfully, "Well then, why don't we introduce ourselves? Let's start with your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future." His single eye focused on Naruto. "You first, Uzumaki."
Naruto was surprised he knew his name, until he realized, Of course he does. I'm the supposed instigator of the Kyuubi Massacre, after all.
He grinned with false excitement. "Alright! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, training, and that bastard," He stopped briefly to point at Sasuke. "I don't like traitors, and my dream is to protect Sasuke and help him kill a traitor!"
The sensei seemed unsurprised, bored even. "Well, since you mentioned him, let's have Sasuke-kun go next."
Said boy glared. "I am Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things, and I don't like much. I train. My goal is to restore my clan and kill a certain person."
"How delightful," the jounin remarked dryly. "Alright, now the pink brat for last."
Naruto noted with a frown that Sakura was the only one not addressed by name. And so rudely too. The old Sakura would've been furious at that, but what about the new one?
Sakura smiled sweetly at the man. She didn't seem angry at all- until she opened her mouth, voice toxically sweet. "I think you forgot to introduce yourself, sensei. But that's okay- I'll do it for you!"
She tapped her fingers, thinking. "Ah!" The girl grinned in fake delight. "Let's see... Your name is Hatake Kakashi. You are also known as Sharingan no Kakashi, the son of Konoha's suicidal White Fang. You liked your dead teammates and sensei, and you hate those who would abandon their teammates. Your enjoy imitating your old teammate. Your dream... you claim you don't have one, but I think you want to make your deceased team and family proud."
Naruto gaped. What in the world...? How did Sakura know all that? How did she even know Kakashi would be their teacher? And so much personal information...
He frowned as he realized that maybe Sasuke was right. This new Sakura was... dangerous. She knew so much- and as Mizuki-sensei often liked to say, information was power.
He glanced at Sasuke who had been glaring at Kakashi since Sakura uttered the word, "Sharingan". It made sense- that was probably why he covered his left eye. But it was weird, too. According to Sakura, he wasn't an Uchiha- and besides, they were all dead anyway. So how did Kakashi get one? There were several possibilities, and none of them seemed good.
Naruto didn't blame Sasuke for being being mad at the man.
But sensei had seemed pretty shocked by Sakura as well. Throughout the introduction Naruto could tell she'd hit several sore points for him, although he'd managed to shake it off pretty well.
But it was obvious Kakashi-sensei was still shaken.
Sakura's innocent sounding, cheerful voice sliced through Naruto's thoughts. "My turn!" She chirped. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I like being informed, I dislike monsters, and I enjoy reading and making new recipes."
There were lots of weird things about that.
She dislikes... monsters? What is that supposed to mean? And making recipes? Like in cooking? But it almost feels like she was talking about something else. The way she said "recipes"... It's really... weird.
Sakura turned, emerald green eyes staring into Naruto's sapphire blues.
"And my dream is to find out what really happened during the Kyuubi Massacre."
So, what do you think?
What happened to Sakura to make her change so much? Was it Sasuke? And her dream... Does she somehow know Naruto's secret?
And what do you think of my little twist? The Kyuubi Massacre... if you guys are confused, here's what basically happened:
Sasuke wanted to see the Kyuubi, so he tried to force it out of Naruto by trying to kill it's host. However, he underestimated the Kyuubi, and it managed to gain control of Naruto's body, going on a rampage and destroying everything in sight. It was only because of Naruto's total devotion that Sasuke wasn't killed. However, other people were (mostly civilians, a few dozen at most, but because of how they were killed, it was a big deal.) Sasuke awakened his Sharingan during that time, so he saw it all. Naruto doesn't actually know all that much about what happened. And the villagers only know about Naruto's part in the Massacre.
For Naruto's birthday- what do you think of his new weapon? I figured swords wouldn't really suit him, and chakra claws seem pretty good for a close-combat wind natured guy like him.
Oh, and the graduation. Sakura was smart enough to graduate early in canon, but she just didn't put in the effort. However, now she has a very good reason to train hard- that you'll find out next chapter! As for Sasuke and Naruto- I think that training together would've helped them far more than doing it alone.
Well, review and tell me what you think!