Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 7: Academy Start!


Water droplets trickled down the glass of the window, often they would connect with other loose drops and continue the journey downwards together before dropping to impact the hard ground below, the blonde let out a sigh that seemed to fill the dark room with noise, it's navy blue walls allowing the darkness to take control which seemed to help give the room a gloomy feel. He sat on the large wooden window sill with his back against the cold wall, staring blankly at the large sheet of glass mesmerized by the dancing water.

Whenever he tried to look further out in to the distance -away from the raindrops that freefell down the glass, he found that his eyes would often lose focus and he would soon revert to watching the hypnotising water display. The night was dark – almost pitch black, the clouds were most likely to be blamed for this, as they hid the stars from view by forming a dark grey blanket across the night sky, the ambient sound of heavy rain flowing from the heavens was all that could be heard and each reoccurring noise seemed to pierce the ears of the seemingly depressed blonde.

"Oi…Sasuke…" He called out weakly to his counterpart who was in the dimly lit kitchen, the echo of socked feet slapping against wooden flooring indicated that he was getting closer to the blonde, soon he stood leaning against the wooden door frame.
"What is it Naruto?" he asked in a serious tone, which in a way matched the atmosphere the night was providing.

He pulled his dull blue eyes away from the glass and looked towards the raven haired boy who stood in the doorway, the dim light highlighting some of his features; he had changed, just like Naruto had – they had grown not only physically but mentally as well, holding a different outlook to what was around them, they were mature beyond question even in their young age of nine years old the two looked like they had seen hell, he glanced over Sasuke's form who was still standing there waiting for a response.

He no longer dressed in his dark navy blue t-shirt-instead he now wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt, and over the top of it was a loosely fitting, crimson vest-top which made the outfit look slightly more casual – like his previous t-shirt, it too had the Uchiha crest on its back but in a much smaller form.
His white shorts were also missing from his person and were replaced by a pair of fitted, full-length, black combat pants with a dark red trim along their sides, and to complete his outfit he wore standard black ninja sandals.

"Do you…Do you think they'll accept us?" he asked the boy standing in the doorway, who then let out a sigh and disappeared into the kitchen, sensing the importance of this conversation he had went to pour himself and Naruto some green tea hoping to calm the both of them. He carefully walked back into the living room, passing the cup of hot tea to the blonde, and sitting at the other end of the large windowsill.

Sasuke stole a glance at the window before answering Naruto; in all honesty though he couldn't answer, he felt the same as the blonde sitting before him, it took him a little while just to think where to start.
"I don't know what to think, I assume that people will act like they always have around me, they haven't been given a reason to change." The blonde only answered with a nod before the two gazed out of the window. "I was always excited about joining the academy until now." Naruto said before turning towards the dark haired boy.

Sasuke let out another sigh before he let his head bang against the wall softly as he stared up at the ceiling "there's no way around it, it's the only way we can become genin, besides it's too late now, we start tomorrow." he said sounding a little defeated.
"Such a waste of our time, I'll be surprised if we learn anything at all." He huffed towards the blonde.
"Well soon after we finish the academy I heard we get put into teams, that means we'll get to do missions!" he said a little excitement evident in his voice before fading as if it were never there at all.
"I just hope she isn't there." As the blonde said this Sasuke's eyes turned cold.
"If she is I'll deal with her." He stated, the blonde gave a sad smile and the two decided to change the subject.

After a while the two decided that it was time to call it a day, tomorrow after all would be their first day of the academy-they'd trained all their lives for this and soon they would be real ninja, even if only the low rank of a Genin.


By the next day the rain storm had passed completely, leaving puddles to decorate the empty early morning streets, Naruto let out a yawn even after getting dressed and completing his daily routine he still needed a little extra time to wake up, although Sasuke – who was now walking alongside him may put up a good act – Naruto could tell that he still wasn't exactly wide awake.

The two walked towards the academy with seemingly little to say, that happened between the two sometimes, however it never managed to feel awkward, as if the two welcomed the silence every now and again and at this point in time they were using said silence to collect their thoughts about their first day of the academy. The streets were empty even as they neared the centre, showing that it was in fact still early in the morning, and although the sun was shining brightly the morning air still had a slight chill to it.

"Hn." Sasuke let out after seeing a few other academy students on their way to the academy, and the blonde beside him used it as a conversation starter of sorts.
"What's wrong Sasuke?" Naruto asked, usually when Sasuke made that noise he was displeased about something or merely shrugging something off.
"It's nothing, I'm just glad we haven't been pestered like we usually are." He said with a smirk, Naruto just gave a nod; he too was getting sick of being confronted in the streets.

Finally the two arrived at the academy doors, and instead of waiting for an invitation – much to the surprise of the other students that had previously arrived the two walked straight inside and casually travelled down the corridor until they reached what they believed would be their classroom, soon after the crowd of students outside soon followed their lead and were all crowded round the door to the room.

Iruka opened the door expecting to go meet his new students by the front entrance but was shocked to see them all herded around the classroom but shone them a smile and passed it off as their motivation to learn and become ninja, after allowing them to enter the class he had them line up at the back of the room, and each student was made to introduce themselves, which finally ended with Iruka introducing himself to the class, before allowing them to choose their seats.

There was a shuffling of feet and the students began to sit down, Naruto sitting down next to Sasuke of course, with an empty seat to the left of him, Naruto looked around the room and saw that a few people were still deciding where to sit, the he saw her – and she looked angry to say the least.
She fumed over to the table in which he was sat and began tapping her foot as if waiting for something, Naruto tilted his head to the side in a confused gesture, questioning what the girl was waiting for – there was a seat spare after all.

"Will you move already?" she huffed in a tone he soon remembered – It was her. Sasuke's frown deepened, he knew it was Sakura who had done it to him as soon as Naruto had finished telling the story, well he didn't know anyone else their age who had pink hair, and being truthful to himself he decided it was probably something she would to vent her anger. He was going to deal with this just like he told Naruto he would, but apparently he was beaten to it.

"Ahh… I remember you now Sakura-chan…" he said to the girl politely, the girl just glared at him before he continued "I forgot to thank you…" he muttered to her, he had caught her interest and she decided to ask "T-Thank me for what? …" She said with her glare still fixed on the boy. 'If he would just move so I can sit next to Sasuke-kun then he wouldn't have to bring it up!' she raged to herself.

"Well carving the word 'Demon' into my chest with a kunai before stabbing me in the stomach of course." He said without even a stutter, a lot of the students in the room gasped at that and Iruka now wore a serious frown. "I'm sure you remember Sakura-chan! You know after I was pinned up against the wall with kunai stuck in my arms." He said in his normal cheery tone, hearing it made Hinata wince at the memory.

"Sakura. Outside now." Iruka stated in a no nonsense manner and the pink haired girl soon walked out of the room, head hung low – staring at the floor, Sasuke gave a satisfied smirk to the blonde – although he wasn't going to forgive her for what she had done.
"N-Naruto-k-kun you can sit over here next to me if you like…" said a timid voice from the far left corner of the room, Naruto looked at her with a smile, he hadn't seen Hinata in almost a year but couldn't take up her offer.
"Sorry Hinata-chan I can't do that…" he said before glancing at Sasuke and looking back up to Hinata with a smile.

"You can sit next to me if you like, after all you didn't even reply to my letter!" chirped a voice coming from the table behind him, he turned and smiled when he recognised the blonde from all that time ago, surprised that she actually remembered.
"Erm… Ino-chan… Your table doesn't have any empty seats…" Naruto said a little confused and he didn't want to embarrass the girl for her mistake.
"That's okay Naruto-kun, I'm sure someone will give up their seat." She said with a sweet smile before turning and glaring at the people next to her, Naruto scratched the back of his head a little embarrassed by the girls actions…it wasn't a mistake after all.

A frown now dressed Hinata's face as she decided she had to take control of the situation, so she marched over to where Naruto was sat and proceeded to sit next to him, after she had sat down she gave him her most innocent smile – hoping that he wouldn't make her leave the spot, fortunately for her though, he just gave her a foxy grin.

Iruka excused himself from the class with good reason, Sakura was waiting for him outside like she had been instructed, and attacking another member of the village whoever they were is to be considered a crime, after informing her that she would be punished for her actions, the two headed to the Hokage tower, where the Hokage would be the one to decide her punishment.


A few minutes later Iruka had returned to the classroom and the students again were waiting to learn, however the matter had not yet been dealt with.

"Naruto, the Hokage would like you to head over to the tower for an important meeting." Iruka said calmly – he had become quite good at masking his anger over the years, the blonde looked a little shocked but eventually he nodded and headed off towards the Hokage tower, hoping that he wasn't in trouble of any kind.

he arrived at the hokage tower in record time which caught the third a little by surprise, but he welcomed Naruto into the office nonetheless, however when seeing Sakura he wasn't sure what the meeting would be about although he didn't think he was the one in trouble anymore.
"Naruto, as the actions by were in fact against you, you are to be the one who decides the method of punishment."
"Also I believe she has something to say." The hokage said before taking a long puff of his pipe.

"G-Gomen." She said with sincerity, Naruto just let out a sigh, before nodding.
"Okay I've thought of her punishment." He said surprising the two; Sakura winced knowing that whatever it was wouldn't be nice. The hokage just nodded allowing Naruto to go ahead with whatever he had planned.
"Come with me Sakura." He stated before she followed him out of the room.

Sakura sighed as she walked down the stairs, she knew it was going to be something twisted and horrible, it had to be for what she had done to him, but to her surprise he turned and smiled weakly.
"So what are you going to do to me?" she said, his silence was practically killing her.
"For your punishment." He stated in a serious manner "I want you to get to know me… I don't want people to think of me as a demon… hopefully you won't think I'm so bad after you've gotten to know me…" he said in a hurt voice, even if he didn't usually show it, being called a demon wasn't exactly fun.

Sakura was now wide eyed and her jaw hung loose, 'that's his punishment?' She thought, wondering on what kind of punishment that was, not that she was complaining – she was getting off easy.
"Well let's go, First I'll show you my old apartment I guess." He said before leaving her behind to process what had happened, soon though she ran after him and caught up, who knew if ANBU were watching her.

After climbing the stairs to the apartment, Sakura looked at it – her first thoughts were that the building was run down, and people shouldn't have had to live there, she even noticed on the way up that his bedroom window seemed to be broken. She let out a sigh; it was still much better than any other form of punishment.

Naruto opened the door and slumped down onto the couch, he had left most of his things behind when moving into the Uchiha compound and unsurprisingly they still remained. He patted the seat next to him telling her to sit down, but before she did he stopped her.
"Oh, Why don't you put a movie on…It'll make this at least a little less awkward." She was again surprised, but nodded and chose a movie before putting it on and sitting next to the blonde – not to close to him, she didn't want to be here, but not too far, distance could really make the room stay silent or so she had been told.

"So this is it? My punishment is to watch a movie with you?" she said a little angry, it seemed to her that he was taking advantage of the situation. Naruto understood she had took it the wrong way.
"Well… you think of me as a 'demon' … this is my chance to show you that I'm just like everyone else." He said calmly, although she hated to admit it that did make sense and only added to her already overflowing guilt.

There was silence in the room for a while and the two just watched the movie until Naruto spoke up.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier… I could see guilt in your eyes but… well …" he said trying to think of a good way to word the next statement without causing her to get angry.
"Most of the girls kinda … like Sasuke-nii, I didn't know if you did too, and if I didn't say something he would have for sure. I thought it wouldn't be as bad if it came from me." He managed to say while scratching the back of his head – it was awkward alright.

'Even after all I did to him, he was still thinking of what would be best for me? What the hell is with this guy?' She thought to herself, confused about the whole matter, feeling even more guilt about what she had done.
"I-I'm sorry for what I did…" She muttered out sincerely 'Not like he will forgive me though, huh?' she questioned in her mind, for some reason she felt a lot more relaxed after she apologised.
"It's okay… in fact since you've apologised I guess I can forgive you." He said with a genuine smile, things were going better than he expected – not once did he think that she would apologise to him.

'What? Just like that he forgives me! … I'm so confused!' she thought to herself, although the guilt was seemingly gone from her actions after he had spoken, she found herself slumping against the couch and looked towards the blonde, was it possible to be this kind?
"What's with you anyway? Why are you doing all of this?" She asked hoping he'd explain in more detail.

"Why keep enemies when they could be friends?" he stated, it took a little while to settle in for the cherry blossom girl, before she sat up straight and looked at him like he was crazy.
"So… you want to be friends … with me?" she asked nervously, for a punishment this wasn't so bad.
"W-Well if you don't mind…" he said scratching the back of his head.
"I… um, well … okay?" She answered.

Naruto flashed her a happy grin before going to make himself a drink, of course he offered his guest one as well and soon carried the two glasses back to the couch, he could tell she still seemed pretty tense.
"Just relax would ya? You apologized so all that stuff doesn't matter to me anymore, like a fresh start…" he said with a smile "…but I doubt Sasuke-nii would think the same…" he muttered, which didn't go unnoticed judging by the horrified expression on Sakura's face.

Naruto noticed that the girl suddenly seemed depressed and the blonde let out a sigh before sitting next to her. "So…d-does he hate me…?" she said in a volume only just louder than a whisper. Naruto decided 'blunt is best' for this situation and decided to roll with it.
"Yes. He takes a very strong disliking to anyone that's harmed me or even insulted me, because of what is sealed inside me." He stated, it might have seemed cold but he thought it for the best.

The pink haired girl let out a sudden sniff "So you do like Sasuke-nii after all, huh?" he asked only to receive a slow nod, "W-What could I do… to make him forgive me? …" she asked shakily but Naruto just shook his head. "Just leave him alone." He stated and she was about to argue when he continued "Like people say, time heals all wounds … but unfortunately Sasuke and I have a lotof wounds…" She looked up at that a little confused.

"W-what do you mean…?" she asked curiously, Sasuke rarely spoke to her and when he did it wasn't for long, although the two had spoken in almost 2 years now.
"That's not my place to say, if Sasuke wanted you to know he would have told you…" Naruto said giving a slight smile which took away the sting from his words.
"The best chance you have of him forgiving you is to stay away from him, or every time he sees you it will just remind him of what you done." Again all she could do is nod when suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"C'mon, let's go back, this was meant to be my first day at the academy after all!" he said with his usual cheery tone, which managed to lift a sad smile to the girls face. The two headed back to the academy, Naruto was walking quickly as he didn't even want to leave in the first place, never mind spend roughly an hour in his old apartment, as soon as he arrived he pushed open the building's large double doors before walking hurriedly to his classroom.

He got a few strange looks from the class, most likely wanting to know why he was called to the Hokage tower, after him though –Sakura walked in the room and they suddenly understood, Naruto resumed his place in between Sasuke and Hinata, and Sakura found herself sitting in the corner out of the way. Yet even still she could feel glares from a few members of the class including Sasuke and Hinata.

"W-welcome back Naruto-kun, was everything okay with the H-Hokage?" Hinata said, doing her best not to stutter but felt like melting when Naruto gave her a warm smile.
"Thanks Hinata-chan, everything was fine! The old-man just needed to see me about something!" he said, his mood now returned to being his normal happy self.
"So what was it he wanted?" Sasuke asked before sending a glancing glare at Sakura.
"Nothing special, I'll tell you at home, let's just enjoy the rest of our first day" he said changing the subject.

"Ano, N-N-Naruto-k-kun?" Hinata asked blushing a deep red, the blonde turned to see what she needed which only made her more nervous "I-I was hoping … well … I-I mean…If you want … I guess…" he could see the poor girl was struggling and just by looking at her fierce blush he could understand what she was going to ask.
"Hey Hinata-chan, would you like to do something tonight if you're not busy? Sasuke-nii has a meeting with the council today and it gets pretty lonely…" He asked for her, the way she was going it would have taken her until the end of the day just to ask.

Hinata just nodded furiously before breathing and re-collecting herself "I'd love to Naruto-kun! … I mean… can we go straight from after class…?" she asked in her excitement only to gain a happy nod from Naruto. Then for the rest of the day Hinata watched the clock like a hawk, willing it into making time speed up so she could spend time alone with Naruto.

Then she heard Iruka wrapping up the last class of the day and couldn't have been more thankful, she nearly let out a squeal of excitement when he said the words 'Class dismissed.'
Sasuke sighed and said his goodbyes to Naruto before heading off to the council meeting but before he did, he had to chat with a certain someone.

He saw her walking down the corridor and started to speed up, she was slowly trudging along when he appeared in front of her, and he did not look happy to see her.
"Sakura." He said coldly making her heart feel like it was torn in two, and suddenly his expression turned into a deep frown.
"He may have forgiven you, but don't think I have. If you ever do anything against him again you'll be sorry." He said before leaving the building still seething with rage.

She felt like bursting into tears on the spot, just as Naruto and Hinata were walking down the hallway, she could feel the hatred coming from Hinata just from being glared at. Naruto frowned and turned to Hinata "Hinata, stop it … we're friends now." He muttered which made the girl deathly quiet as if she daren't do anything that would upset Naruto.

Naruto put his hand on her shoulder like he had at his apartment which caused her to look up at him, on his face she saw a wide smile which almost told her 'everything is going to be alright' she relaxed a little and sniffed back tears.
"I'll Cya tomorrow Sakura, take care." He said before the two left, even Hinata managed to nod a goodbye to the girl so that Naruto would be pleased with her.

Soon the two were walking through the forest, and although Hinata didn't know where they were going she didn't question it, she didn't care where she was going; as long as Naruto was there then it was perfect in her mind. Suddenly they came to a clearing, although it just looked like an average spot in the forest it felt cosy, and she was thankful that it was still surrounded by tree's so people wouldn't find them easily, which meant it really was going to be just the two of them.

Naruto let out a content sigh before falling onto his back, laying down with his hands behind his head as he looked towards the sky. He laid there peacefully watching the clouds stroll by, before he noticed that Hinata wasn't doing the same, in fact she sat formally on her knees which Naruto didn't really understand.
"Hinata-chan?" he said and she suddenly jumped out of her skin, as if she was panicking – truthfully she was hoping she wasn't doing anything wrong.
"Don't you like watching the clouds? Here, come lay down." He said innocently causing her to blush and slowly lay down next to him, when she was sure he was looking up she scooted as close to him as she could without the two of them touching.

Naruto seeing the subtle movements had a grin on his face, before he faced Hinata then gave her a look of shock; suddenly she started panicking again, just as he planned. He leaned in towards her face, squinting his eyes – almost like he was inspecting her. Doubts were flying around in her head at a million miles per hour before Naruto spoke.

"Hinata what is that all over your face? You look so silly!" he exclaimed and almost instantly Hinata was patting her face trying to remove whatever was making her look so silly, she felt the heat rise in her face and she almost felt like crying, everything she had done so far had just made Naruto disappointed. Then she heard an outburst of laughter.

"Ahhh…" he breathed "There's nothing really on your face!" he said with another chuckle
"But now you know that even if you thought things were going bad I'd still be here, so you don't have to be so uptight." He said giving her another one of his warm smiles. She let out a giggle unknowingly and she shuddered when she felt his touch.

His arm was now around her back so that she was laid on it, and his hand rested on the left side of her stomach, she looked down at his hand with a blush, before she felt herself get pulled towards him and she now found her head resting on his chest while she stared up at the sky. Although the sky didn't keep her attention long as she looked down from it and wrapped her arms around the blond before nuzzling against his chest in an attempt to get comfortable, but she immediately found that comfort when she felt his other arm wrap around her, softly holding her against his chest.

She knew that any moment she'd wake up and that it would just be another one of her dreams, and she let out a heavy sigh of defeat.
"What's wrong Hinata-chan? ..." he asked to get no reply "Hinata?" he asked again, upon receiving no answer again he gave her a squeeze which seemed to pull her back to reality.
"N-Naruto-kun?" she asked looking up at him confused, but he just gently rested her head against his chest and began stroking her now long hair which made her let out a content sigh and made her grip around him become a little tighter.
"N-Nothing's wrong…everything is perfect…" she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.


Author's Notes: Hope you enjoyed reading! Sorry if it took a while to get done, Thank you to all those that reviewed, added to Favorites and added to Alerts!

Next chapter will be a timeskip to end of the academy, just a warning!