ALTERED CIRCUSTANCES

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters used save those I made up. No profit is earned. This is just for fun.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Like many Naruto fics, I just changed a couple of things from cannon to see where it would go. If you want to find out what I changed, read and find out.

CH. 7 Frienemies

"Uzumaki!" Naruto looked up at the call. "Over here." He had been about to settle down under his favorite tree at the academy to eat lunch when he heard the voice. When he saw it was Uchiha Sasuke calling him, he didn't know how to react. The Uchiha boy had been a thorn in his side for his entire time at the academy, always looking down on the people around him, Naruto especially. As usual, he was followed by several little girls who all seemed puzzled by his sudden interest in the class' dead last. Curious but wary, Naruto made his way over to where the young Uchiha was sitting. "Have a seat." His fan club looked shocked.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked bluntly. Hiro had been trying to improve his manners, but the lessons were slow to take.

"I heard a story last night that I find hard to believe. Itachi told us at dinner that Shisui the teleporter was defeated by the class dobe. I don't see how that could be true." Some of his would-be girlfriends giggled.

"I did use a Substitution jutsu to change places with him," Naruto said proudly. "I was tied up at the time, and he wound up tied instead." A pretty pink-haired girl snorted disdainfully.

"That's impossible. He's just making it up, Sasuke-kun. I'm sure no one could do that to an Uchiha."

"Let's find out," Sasuke said with a smirk. He knew the story was true. His brother wasn't one to make up silly lies. Still, he found it hard to accept, and he had his father's instructions to follow. Befriend the class dobe. He didn't know why, but his father had been clear in his orders. "Anyone got a rope?"

Naruto suddenly looked a bit nervous, and the girls noticed, obviously thinking he'd been caught in a lie. The pretty pink-haired girl began to tease him, and he started to get annoyed.

"L-let him t-try b-before you say that," a quiet voice spoke up near the back of the group. The other girls turned to see they'd attracted the attention of the normally quiet Hyuga heiress. "A-after all, y-you'll look silly for teasing him if he c-can do it." This seemed logical and the group started insisting on a demonstration. Naruto wouldn't back down at that point, and a few moments later, brand new instructor Umino Iruka came out of the academy to greet his new class only to find one of his students bound to a tree.

"What's going on here?" he demanded.

The students looked around to see Mizuki-sensei and a stranger in a chunin uniform watching the group.

"The class dobe is gonna show us a Substitution," the blonde girl Mizuke identified as a Yamanka Ino smirked.

"Like that could work," the pink-haired one jeered. Mizuki identified her as Haruno Sakura.

Iruka sighed. "Untie him. Class is about to begin."

"Hang on," Mizuke raised a hand. "I want to see this."

"He's just a student. He can't get out of that with a Substitution."

"Can too," the blonde boy was starting to get annoyed.

"Cannot!" Sakura shouted back, really starting to irritate him. A cloud of smoke enveloped her, much to the surprise of everyone and when it cleared, Naruto stood in her place. The group stared at him for a moment before turning to look at the tree where he had been tied. Sakura hung there in the ropes shocked silent by her sudden change in circumstances. This fact alone earned Naruto Sasuke's gratitude. Sakura was one of the most annoying of his hangers-on.

The two chunin could only stare in shock, not having expected a mere student to do that, especially one so young. Iruka wondered briefly if they had another prodigy on their hands and then took note of the boy's face and the whisker marks on his cheeks. The Kyuubi. Of course. He knew the boy wasn't really the demon and that the seal was the work of one of history's greatest seal masters, but that didn't mean he liked being around the reminder of his parents' deaths.

Shoving those thoughts aside he told the others, "untie her and get inside. We'll start class in five minutes." Mizuki drew a kunai as the students turned to trudge inside. "No need for that, sensei. It's a perfectly good rope." Naruto stepped around the tree and with a few quick twists and pulls, the ropes Sasuke had so carefully tied fell away as easily as slipknots. Sasuke and several others stared at him. "What?" he asked confused. "Those weren't even meant to hold ninja."

"How did you know to do that?" Mizuke asked.

"Hiro-sensei has been teaching me hojo-jutsu. He's really good at it."

"Well and good, we'll learn more about that later," Mizuki spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Now get inside all of you." Sasuke followed without a word, thinking that perhaps the blond prankster might be worth knowing after all.

He wasn't the only one to think so. Hinata smiled shyly at Naruto. "G-good work," she stammered, blushing when he turned and grinned at her.