A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter as well as adding this story to their favourites and follows.

Naruto curled her lips into a scowl and stared back at her smirking friend, who had his arms folded against his chest. Of course, he would be happy that she lost the bet. Instead of paying for her ramen for the rest of the day, he would be forcing her to study all the things she hated. She shouldn't have agreed to do the bet, not when she knew there was a chance of her being forced to study. Then again Naruto could never ever back down from a challenge even if the consequence was going to be painful.

"Y'know I could totally mastered the jutsu if you had given me more time," Naruto finally said as they walked out of the training grounds. Sasuke rolled his eyes and smirked even wider, which made her curl her lips into a pout. "C'mon bastard, I was nearly there! If you haven't told me that my time was up then I might just have been able to master it! It just isn't fair that you gave me such a short time limit!"

"The most you were able to do was getting the smoke to come out of your mouth," Sasuke looked up at the evening sky and continued on. "You didn't even get a small flame to form, Dobe. Besides you were the one that suggested the length of time that you will need to be able to master it. It isn't my fault that you didn't master it like you said you would."

She opened her mouth to tell him that she did not tell him that she would master it in under three hours but then remembered that she did tell him she would master it in three hours. It was not her fault. How the hell was she supposed to know that the jutsu wasn't easy to master? After all if Sasuke could master it then why shouldn't she do the same? No, she could still master the jutsu if she spent time practicing the jutsu. But how could she complete it when Sasuke was going to make her study her ass off? Honestly, why he couldn't given her an easier punishment? She would have complained if he tried to make her his maid but it would have been a lot better than studying for a whole week.

Anything was better than studying for a whole week.

"I really don't want to spend a whole week studying!" Naruto cried. "If I studied for a whole week then I will become as boring as you and I don't want that."

"If I am so boring then why do you hang out with me instead of Kiba and the others?" She opened her mouth to answer but the older boy continued on before she could answer him. "Do you know why no one takes you seriously when you say that you are going to become Hokage? It is because you don't have the grades that shows your dream. No one is going to think you can become Hokage if you continue to act like this."

"My grades aren't that bad!" Naruto yelled.

Her grades weren't like Sakura and Ino but Naruto was not a complete idiot. Out of all the girls in their year, Naruto had one of the highest scores when it came to taijutsu. The only girl who could beat her was Hinata but then again she didn't mind getting her hands dirty. Almost all of the girls in their year refused to put some effort into their taijutsu, which was weird if you asked her since taijutsu was fun. It felt good to punch someone since she could unleash her fury on them.

"There is a reason why people called you DeadLast," Sasuke retorted, rolling his eyes at her. "If you want people to stop calling you deadlast and to start taking you seriously then you need to start studying everything that they are teaching us. If you haven't lost then you would never get the chance to prove everyone wrong. You might be an idiot but you have a better chance of becoming a ninja then the rest of the girls in our year."

Naruto stared at Sasuke's dark eyes and wondered whether she should yell at him for calling her an idiot or to thank him for trying to help her. If she said the word 'thank you' to him then he might get the wrong idea about everything. Oh god, she might even make him more arrogant and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. However, she couldn't yell at him because he was the first kid to believe in her. He was one of the few people who thought there was a potential in her.

In the end, she decided to snap at him.

"If I am an idiot then why the hell do you want to waste your time? I don't need your help."

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke retorted. "You aren't a complete idiot Dobe after all you do try to become a good kunoichi. I can't say the same for the rest of the girls in our year. If they have time to stalk me then they have more then enough time to practice on their taijutsu."

The blonde couldn't stop herself from smiling at her best friend's words. There was a lot of things she could say about the bastard beside her but subtle was not one of them. What the hell were her classmates and senpais were thinking when they say Sasuke was just shy to tell her not to sit beside him? The only thing stopping the black-haired boy from telling them off was the fact he knew better than to do it.

"Their taijutsu really sucks doesn't it? The only person who is good is Hinata," Naruto said, oblivious to the flinch from the boy beside her. "Though they are really good when it comes to everything kunoichi related like flowers and stuff."

Why the hell must they learn the importance of flower arrangement? Naruto loved learning about the meaning of flowers but she couldn't figure out for the life of hers why they needed to learn how to put it together. Who cared about how it looked? As long as it looked nice to look at then it should be fine. She didn't need to learn why it was important to make sure the message was clear to everyone. The cooking was easy but she didn't know why there were specific recipes she had to learn.

Actually when she thought about it, she had one of the best grades when it came to home economics.

"Why are you guys learning about flowers?" Sasuke asked, making a face at her. "How is that going to help you become a good shinobi? Shouldn't you guys focus more on taijutsu and ninjutsu? "

"I knew it! I'm not the only one who thinks it is pointless!" She said, grinning at the older boy. "Y'know if you say that in front of your fangirls then I will bet you a 1000 ryo that they will focus more on those two areas then the feminine stuff. Hell, if you tell them that you like girls like me then they will definitely become better kunoichi."

"I'm not going to say it in front of them," Sasuke stated, earning a pout from the blond-haired girl. He rolled his eyes. "I'm not letting you use me to make a point. It is stupid if they become better because I told them so. They should use their heads."

And this is why I will always think those girls are crazy to think you are their prince charming, Naruto thought, crossing her arms against her chest. She had known this boy for the past two months and realized he was a blunt arrogant ass so why the hell didn't his fangirls understand it? Hmm, this might be a question the Hokage could answer. He was probably smart enough to explain to her how these people not notice her friend's dislike for them.

"Y'know they aren't that smart right?" Naru asked dryly and she smiled widely when the older boy's lips twitch at her words. "They think if they are weak then you will come and save their asses, giving them the chance to admire you. I remember Ami saying that it would be the perfect chance for you to fall in love with them."

"What gave them that stupid idea?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Naruto retorted, shrugging her shoulder. "I'm just telling you the things I hear in the bathroom when they think no one is listening. I even heard one of them betting what kind of underwear you wear."

Sasuke stopped walking once she finished saying those words. He turned and jerked his head at her, looking at her as if she was insane to tell him this. She scowled. Was she the one who made the bet? Hell she didn't even support their stupid idea. Seriously, why was it important for them to know what kind of underwear he wore? He wore underwear just like them so it wasn't anything special. No, Naruto corrected, it was important to them because they were weirdos.

Hmm, she might be able to profit from their desire to know about Sasuke's underwear.

"Whatever idea you have Dobe, get it out of your head."

"You don't even know what the hell I am thinking," Naruto protested as the two of them made their way to her apartment block.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her. "You're planning to use the fact that they want to know my underwear to get money aren't you? It is the kind of thing you would do."

How the hell did he know about her planning to steal his underwear and selling it to his fanclub? She tilted her head and stared at the black-haired boy, who had an ugly scowl on his face. Did he really believe it would be enough for him to tell her to not do this brilliant plan of getting more money? She might not even go through with the plan since it involved her getting his underwear and having the girl wondering how the hell she had been able to do it. The yelling from his fangirls weren't going to make her life easier.

Still, the temptation of having more money was enough for her to forget the terror, which was Sasuke's fangirls.

"I will give you forty percent of my profit."

"I'm not lending you my underwear just so you could get more money!"

"C'mon."

"No."

Even though her best friend was refusing to go through with her idea, Naruto couldn't help but grin as Sasuke argued with her about the importance of not exploiting his fangirls for her desires, whatever that meant. As long as he could argue and scowl at her for being like this then Naruto knew everything was going to be fine between them.

"Stick that leaf on your forehead," Sasuke said, handing the blonde one of the fallen leaves he had taken from the training ground. The two of them had came to Naruto's apartment as soon as school was over; the two of them had dashed off before any of his stupid fangirls came after him. His life would be a lot easier if they just left him alone. No, it would be easier if they get through their thick head he didn't like them at all.

"You're going to make me do that stupid leaf exercise!" Naruto stated as she placed the leaf on her forehead. He nodded his head, earning a scowl from the blonde. At least she wasn't complaining even more about it or trying to find an excuse not to do the chakra control exercise, Sasuke thought as he took a seat on the sofa. He flickered his eyes to their school books, wondering if he was over his head when he said they would spend a week of during schoolwork.

"Do you understand how embarrassing it is that you can't stick a leaf to your forehead with your chakra? A Hokage should be able to do that much," Sasuke stated as he picked up the blond-haired girl's science notebook. He flickered through the notebook, noticing the fact the blue-eyed girl had the dates written but no notes were written. A piece of writing caught his eyes and the black-haired boy knitted his eyebrows when he realized that the blonde had written notes along with the date.

Why did she wrote that time but not for the others? Naruto was a lot of things but he knew the blonde tried her hardest to take notes even if she didn't understand anything they were learning. He flickered to the next page, noticing there was a blank page, before going to the next page, which was filled with writing.

"Dobe, why do you have several notes missing?" Sasuke asked, breaking his friend's concentration.

Tilting her head to the right, Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and finally answered. "Well either I fell asleep during the teacher's boring lecture or they were being unfair and decided I needed to go out of the lesson even though I haven't done anything wrong."

The first one made sense but Sasuke couldn't understand the reasoning for the second. If he hadn't started paying attention to the way people treated the blonde beside him then he would say she was making things up. Yet, he could not deny there was something odd about the way the teachers treated the girl beside him. Cold. Hate. Fear. Those were the emotions he associated with their teachers whenever they were forced to look at Naruto. It was like they think his friend was dangerous when Naruto would never hurt anyone without reason.

Something wasn't making sense.

"Then how come you never asked for anyone for notes?" Sasuke asked as Naruto placed the fallen leaf back on her forehead. He also wanted to ask why they were treating her like this but this was not the time to ask her so many questions. Just like the blonde made sure not to ask any personal questions in one go, he made certain to not talk about the treatment of the adults in one shot. The blonde may act brave, may act like she didn't care but he knew it was a way for her to make sure no one attacked her weakness.

"I can't read Choji's handwriting while Kiba barely writes any notes," Naruto explained, scrunching her eyebrows together as she tried to keep the leaf on her forehead for a minute. "I could ask Shikamaru but knowing him, he would probably write the least amount of notes needed for him to pass. Sakura and Ino don't really like talking to me so I can't ask them; I don't know what I did to deserve them hating me. Hinata always seems to faint whenever I try to go near to her and I thought you were an asshole who would never help me, which is why I never asked you till now."

Sasuke would not deny the blonde was right when she thought he wouldn't help her. His father had always warned him to stay away from the girl while his mother had dreamt of him becoming friends with her. Until that day where Naruto approached him, he had planned to continue on with his father's desire. There had been a reason why his father wanted him to avoid the girl but the black-haired boy wondered if his father had been wrong in telling him this. Out of everyone in this village, it was Naruto that was helping him through the mess that man had caused him to go through.

"How long must I keep this stupid leaf on my forehead?"

"Three minutes," Sasuke answered without any hesitance. The blonde groaned, opened her mouth to argue with him but only to close it when he picked up one of the first test papers they done that year, where she had gotten one of the lowest grades in the year. Scowling, the girl smacked the leaf back on her forehead and continued on sticking the leaf to her forehead.

Why did his father tell him to avoid Naruto? Why were the teachers treating her differently from everyone else? She was a troublemaker but now the blue-eyed girl mentioned it, there had been times when it had been unfair for her to be sent out of the classroom. He stared at his best friend, who now had her eyes shut as she tried to make the leaf stick to her forehead for three minutes, and then to one of the letters that his crazy fangirls gave him. Now that he thought about it, there had been times when the teacher had taken the crazy fangirls side instead of Naruto.

Didn't today Iruka gave a lecture to Naruto about how she shouldn't say names to that annoying purple-haired girl? The blonde hadn't told him the reason for the lecture but Sasuke knew there was a reason for the girl name calling. If their classmate had done something which insulted his best friend then she wouldn't do the name calling. In fact, his fangirl had been calling his best friend's names and insulted her lack of parents so why hadn't their teacher talked to her about it.

In fact, why hadn't Naruto ever mention it to Iruka.

"Damn it! I lasted only a minute." Naruto grumbled, snapping him out of his thoughts. Sasuke blinked his eyes and watched carefully as his friend grabbed the leaf from the floor and placed it back on her forehead. Why treat her differently? What was the cause for this weird treatment? And why didn't she ever ask a teacher to deal with those fangirls? Sasuke couldn't deal with them without them thinking he was in love with the girl beside him, which wasn't true.

"Dobe, why didn't you tell Iruka that she started it? Why did you let him give you a lecture?" Sasuke asked, fixing his dark eyes on the girl.

"He would never believe me if I told him Ami threatened to make my life hell," Naruto answered, letting the leaf drop from her forehead. She had a small bitter smile and continued ont. "In the first year of school, I tried to tell him about my problems with the other kids but he just ignored them. He will just give me a weird look before saying I should handle my own problems. Also whenever I get into fights, he doesn't believe me when I say they started it. Sure I started a few of them but I will admit to those 'cause the Hokage told me it is bad to lie but most of the time I didn't start the fight. He never listen to my side of the story and from that day on. I know it isn't 'cause I am an orphan because I've seen him take the sides of my fellow orphans so it's another reason. Nah, it's because of that I know he hates me and I can't trust him because he would never take my side."

"Uzumaki is an idiot."

Those were the whispers the kids in their class would say about Naruto and at one point, Sasuke agreed with them but now he could not see it. The blonde was oblivious to a point it was not funny but she was not an idiot. Books weren't her thing but once she put her mind to it then she could be one of the best in their year; the only thing stopping her were their teachers. She wasn't ignorant about their teacher's dislike, which was why she didn't bother to defend herself.

If anything Sasuke believed the girl was trying her hardest to pretend those things didn't existed.

"If you make that leaf stick to your forehead for three minutes then we can go to the training ground so you can practice the fireball jutsu," Sasuke said, knowing that a change of topic would make the girl happy again. "Of course if you fail to last three minutes again then we are going to look over those science notes you missed before practicing the jutsu again."

"I will make it to three minutes, believe it!"

She better not because Sasuke doubt he could last a whole night making sure Naruto copied all the notes that she had missed in the past year.

Hiruzen could not help but smile as he stared down at the crystal ball in front of him, where he could see Naruto heading towards the training grounds with Sasuke. For the past couple of years, he had taken the time to look at the ball and see how his successor's daughter had been doing. He had seen her cry for her lack of parents, seen her plan pranks for all the kids that bullied her and even watched her as she slept peacefully at the night. However, it was just recently he had taken notice of young Sasuke friendship with Naruto.

In fact, he wouldn't have been none the wiser if he hadn't seen the boy in the young girl's apartment, forcing the girl to study for the lessons that she had missed or had been forced out of. Sasuke was doing something her teachers should have done for her. He was helping her to become the amazing kunoichi Naruto was very much capable of being; something the Third Hokage could not do without having the civilian council members causing a headache. If he did not know it was just another plot for Danzo to force his hand and give him the girl then he would tell them to shut the hell up and let him deal with the teachers.

Teachers were a problem when it came to Naruto, it was something Hiruzen could not deny. From the moment the blue-eyed girl came crying in his office about the unfairness of her teachers was the moment he knew the girl would always have a hard problem. If it hadn't been for the fact the girl had been determined for him not to interfere with her issues in school then he would have given those teachers a stern talking about how to treat the girl.

"If I am going to become Hokage then you shouldn't deal with my problems, old man! As the future Hokage, I should be able to show the teachers that it isn't right to treat me like this so don't do anything or else I will know, old man."

It might had been three years ago when the little girl told him those words but the fire in her eyes told Sarutobi just how much she would hate him for interfering with her problems. Just like her mother, the blonde did not like the idea of anyone helping her in dealing with her issues. Though, Sarutobi noted fondly, it was a different case when someone actually made a bet which would benefit her.

Sasuke had made a bet to ensure the girl was going to do something which would benefit her in the future, something the old man was grateful for. If it had been anyone else, they would have taken advantage of his surrogate granddaughter but the boy had done the opposite: he allowed Naruto to use him to further her goals. Of course he suspected there might be a selfish reason too but Hiruzen would ignore it unless he thought it would harm the girl.

"Then again I can't tear them apart even if it does hurt Naruto," Sarutobi mused to himself, stroking his beard as he watched closely at the young girl, who was now weaving her hands through the motion to make the fireball jutsu. "Just as he is letting her use him to become a splendid kunoichi, Naruto is helping him heal from the emotional trauma Itachi had caused."

He might not have watch them from the very beginning of their friendship but Hiruzen noticed the bubbling friendship those two had. The boy might not show his emotions like Naruto did but it was more open than the day he woke up from the hospital. The emptiness in Sasuke's eyes was slowly disappearing and while he doubt happiness would ever radiated from those eyes, he knew the boy was not going to become a cold man like he suspected him to become. Even now, Hiruzen could detect the subtle signs of desire of protecting the girl in the boy's eyes.

"It is a long time before those two can graduate but it is obvious that they can work well with each other," he muttered to himself, opening up his notebook to make a note to himself. Hiruzen eyed the two kids, noticing the smile on his female ward face, and nodded his head. "Naruto would need all the help she could get when she becomes a genin and young Sasuke will need someone who understand him. Tearing them apart would be a terrible idea; those two could become an unstoppable team at this rate."

Now he just needed to wait for the genin exams to figure out who would be the third member of their team.

So I was right to think it wasn't only the teachers and the grocery store owner who acted like this, Sasuke thought as Naruto and him walked through the crowded streets that would lead them back to his home. It had been hard for the boy to convince the blonde to wait for half of the class to go back home before going back to her place. Actually, he wouldn't have done it if he hadn't wanted the confirmation on his theory about everyone in the village disliking Naruto.

Even now as they bumped into a couple of people, they weren't glaring at him but at the girl beside him. If they even looked at him then the adults would give him looks of pity while giving such icy looks to his best friend. What was the difference between them? Was it because he lost his whole clan to his brother they treated him differently or was it something else entirely? No, it had to be something else entirely because they weren't the only orphans this village had. In fact all the other orphans were treated with indifference and none of them were given cold looks.

Only Naruto was ever given cold looks.

"Y'know our one week deal is going to be over soon so I might be going back to pranking Ami," Naruto said with a large smile on her face. Sasuke blinked his eyes, wondering what was causing the girl to suddenly talked about her revenge against their classmate, and stopped walking as he realized something for the first time. He felt like a complete idiot for not noticing it sooner. Had she started to talk about this because she wanted to ignore those cold looks? Were all those times when she spoke loudly in the streets a way for her to get passed through these adults without showing her fear?

He could go on with her wishes.

"If you do that then everyone will think you are nothing but a prankster," he warned her, flickering his eyes to the adults that were now whispering to each other. Sasuke licked his cracked lips. "You don't want people to underestimate you, Deadlast. If you want everyone to think you are going to become Hokage then you better show how serious you are to get it."

"She called me Ugly!" Naruto said, scowling at him as the two of them made a turn that would lead him to his apartment. "Now I don't give a shit about how I look but I ain't letting her get away with those words. I need to show her who is the boss."

"You can show it to her by showing her that you become Hokage while she become someone everyone will forget," Sasuke reminded her when the two of them stopped in front of his apartment complex. The blonde looked put down by his words and if he was like the other boys in their year then he might have apologized to her but he knew better. Talking the girl out of her crazy plan was better then having her gloating about the fact he couldn't deny her 'beautiful face' as the girl would proudly boast to her.

The girl might be proud to admit she loved she cared about becoming a kunoichi but it didn't change the fact she could be vain about her looks.

"You aren't ugly and everyone knows it," Sasuke said. He knew this was the only time in which honesty was the only thing that could prevent her from doing something dangerous. The girl blinked her eyes, earning a scowl from the older boy. "They talk about you being ugly because they know a lot of the boys in our year and above likes you."

"You are kidding right?" Naruto shook her head. "I would know if they think I'm pretty right? Besides, they are prettier girls in our school like Ino and Sakura."

What was so pretty about those two? Ino cared only about her looks and had hair that was too light while Sakura had pink-hair which was enough said. He knew a few of the boys liked the pink-haired girl's green eyes but Sasuke had never seen what was so nice about it. In fact even before the massacre, he had preferred Naruto's bright blue eyes and long golden hair. Till that day, he had never seen someone with her look. He remembered his cousin commenting how the girl looked like she could be a princess with her pretty hair and eyes.

His heart clenched as he remembered his dead cousin.

"You terrify them with the fact you don't act like a girly girl," Sasuke informed her.

"Then they are stupid."

"Not as stupid as the fangirls."

He felt his lips twitched when Naruto let out a boisterous laugh at his words. There was something about listening to his friend's laugh that just made him want to give her a smirk or smile. Was it because how different it was from the other girl's laughter? Or was it because how there was so much warmth in her laugh? For as long as Sasuke could remember, the girl had always radiated warmth and sincerity.

In the back of his mind, he wondered if it was okay for him to act like this. Shouldn't he be devoting his time and energy to kill his brother instead of making sure Naruto become one of the best kunoichi? He didn't want his clan to think he didn't care about them or he had forgiven Itachi for the crime he did. That was the last thing he wanted but Sasuke didn't want his mother to be upset with him for not continuing on his friendship with the girl beside him. No, he corrected himself, he didn't want to stop it.

From the moment she decided to become his friend, Sasuke began to feel the warmth he missed.

It was perhaps for this reason why he could not understand why the adults treated Naruto the way they did.

"Is it normal for everyone to give you those looks?" Sasuke asked Naruto as he opened the door to his apartment. The blonde froze at his question but he just ignored his friend's discomfort and continued on. "I wasn't going to ask you this until tomorrow but it has been bugging me how everyone seems to give you those cold looks."

The blonde stared at him for a good couple of seconds before slowly nodding her head. The pain and sadness in the girl's bright blue eyes told him just how long she had been forced to deal with those looks yet she had tried her hardest not to show them. For some reason, his friend could handle something he hated people doing. Not once did she boast to the other kids about how she could deal with the icy looks people gave them. Instead she boasted about things she shouldn't be proud of and for that Sasuke wondered why she wasn't proud to say she could handle it.

He didn't think he could handle it if people looked at him the way they looked at her.

"For as long as I could remember, people kept giving me weird looks," Naruto said, breaking him from his train of thought. The eight-year-old girl undid her hair tie, letting her long hair to tumble down to her waist, and smiled. "You think they only give me weird looks? They also like to give me names when they think I can't hear them."

"Why?"

"I don't know why," Naruto admitted, rubbing her arms. "I asked the Hokage about it but he just shook his head and told me that he will tell me the reason why when I was older or if I become a chunin."

Sasuke wasn't surprised by her answer but what he was surprised and curious about was how was the Hokage involved with the mystery of the adult's dislike for Naruto? He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if there were clues on the adults' strange behaviour. Maybe it had to do with her father because the boy could still remember talking about his friend's mother with fondness.

It had to do with something about her father.

"Did the Hokage ever mention your father to you?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto shook her head. "No, he told me he will tell me about my parents when I became a chunin or when I turn sixteen, whatever comes first."

"Do you think the way they treat you is because of your father? Maybe he did something which caused the villagers to take out their anger at you," Sasuke suggested, earning a thoughtful look from the blonde.

This was the only thing which made sense in his eyes. Traitors and children of traitors weren't spoken fondly about in the villagers and it would explain why the Third Hokage would avoid telling his friend about her family. He rubbed his chin. If the two of them found out who her father was and see what he did then it would explain everything. It would give his friend the answers that she clearly desired.

"But how the hell are we going to find out who my parents are?"

"Leave that to me."

He was going to find out why the adults were acting so strange when it came to Naruto.

Question and Answer:

Q: Will Naruto get stronger in her time in the Academy with Sasuke's help?

A: Yes because she is getting the help that she always needed. Due to their friendship, Sasuke had found a way to ensure Naruto keeps up with her study and is determined that she doesn't become weak.

Q: Is Sakura still going to be placed in Team Seven?

A: As of now, I'm considering the idea of her being placed in Team Seven but it might change later as I write the chapters.

Q: Is Sakura still going to be an annoying fangirl?

A: You just have to wait and see.

A/N: Please tell me what you think about this chapter and the friendship Sasuke and Naruto are developing.