ARC 1: Sasuke and Nagato: A Friendship for the Ages. Part 1
It has been six years since the Kyuubi Attack has happened, and we find the now six-year-old Uzumaki Nagato standing in one of the public Training Grounds, exhausted from his taijutsu training.
Nagato has been training since he was four. Ever since he could remember, he has been glared at and ridiculed by the villagers, and after a while, he had decided that enough is enough. He wanted to prove to them that he was not a demon. So he started training.
First, he worked on his chakra control. The Sandaime had told him that he had very large chakra reserves for someone his age, which meant that techniques that use little chakra and normal chakra exercises would not work for him. As a solution, the old Hokage had shown him tree walking.
At first, it had been hard for him to reach the top, but after analyzing his chakra usage and the imprints on the bark, he finally figured it out and got to the top of the tree with relative ease and he still does it every morning.
Next, he had decided to adapt to a style of fighting. After much thought and some advice from the Hokage, he had decided upon incorporating both strength and speed, so he can be quick, but still deliver blows that deal good damage, and to do that he needed strength and speed training.
Every day, he ran ten laps around the village and every day was the same. The cold morning air, the birds chirping, the glares from the villagers as he ran past, but one day, he met someone new, someone alone like him.
During his run along the river, he noticed another boy sitting on the pier. The redhead stopped and stared at the curled up figure, taking in the high-collared black short-sleeved shirt emblazoned with the red and white Uchiwa fan and his black hair styled to look like a duck's backside, further proving his allegiance to the Uchiha clan. Even after the massacre, he never had a good opinion of the Uchiha, but something about him had stopped Nagato from continuing his run.
It was a familiarity in his chakra and looking at him that stopped Nagato in his tracks. He could feel the loneliness and hatred he was feeling in his chakra. Although the Uchiha had not suffered long periods of loneliness, isolation, and hatred as the redhead had, he couldn't help but empathize with him. He knew better than anyone how much it hurt to have no one to care about you, and that was why he decided to climb down the grassy hill and walk down the wooden planks, sitting next to the boy who was so different yet so similar to him. He never said a word, instead opting to look at the sunset.
The dark-haired boy glanced up above his knees where his face was previously buried, to find that the redhead he saw earlier had found his way next to him on the pier, looking at the sunset. A strange, undeniable warmth filled his chest at the silent understanding and companionship that the redhead emanated. Neither said a word as they watched the sun sink further below the horizon.
When Nagato walked into class the next morning, he immediately took notice of the pale skin and black hair of the Uchiha kid he sat next to at the pier sitting quietly at his desk, looking out the window.
Not wanting to get caught staring, he moved to his seat at the front of the class and pulled out his book entitled 'An Introduction to Seals' written by his hero and role model, Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and started reading where he left off.
He was so engrossed in the book, that he did not notice that two hours have already passed by and that the teacher, a chunin by the name of Umino Iruka, was standing in front of the class, in the middle of what seemed like his lecture on the Natures of Chakra.
Since Nagato already knew the information Iruka was going to teach, he mostly blocked him out by reading his book, only listening when he asked the class questions, so he wouldn't be provoked to ask him anything.
An hour into the lecture, the bell for lunch was rung and Iruka released them for recess. Instead of sitting on the swing at lunch, he walked up to Sasuke.
"Hey, is it ok if I sit with you?" Nagato asked. Sasuke just nodded and scooted over, allowing Nagato to sit next to him. It was a few moments in silence before Nagato spoke up again. "My name's Uzumaki Nagato. What's yours?"
Sasuke just looked to him apprehensively. To be honest with himself, he extremely enjoyed the redhead sitting next to him without saying anything. He was tired of all the sympathetic looks and people saying "I'm sorry for your loss." Nagato sitting next to him that evening meant that in some way, he understood what he was going through, and wanted to comfort someone else going through the same thing and that meant a lot more to him than Nagato thought, so he replied.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. Nice to properly meet you, Nagato."
"Nice to meet you too, Sasuke," he said smiling. "So you want to train with me tomorrow? I promise I won't hold you back Mr. I'm-Better-Than-Everybody."
Sasuke allowed the tiniest of smiles to slip onto his lips. "Why not?" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Where and when?"
"We're meeting at Training Ground Two straight after school. See you then," Nagato responded, getting up to go back to his seat when the bell rang.
The rest of the lesson was a blur for the two boys. They were both excited to see and train with the other to even pay attention to whatever Iruka was lecturing about, and when the last bell of the day rung and Iruka assigned homework and dismissed the class, the two practically bolted out of their seats, the door, the Academy, and to the Training Grounds.
"Where are we going to learn taijutsu from? 'Cuz, if you hadn't noticed, we're six-years-old," Nagato asked curiously.
"We can just ask a jonin to teach us, a strong jonin, at that," Sasuke responded with a smirk.
"What?! It's not like a jonin of that caliber would just agree to train two six-year-olds?!"
Ironically, that's exactly what happened. With a stroke of luck, they had met a jonin named Hatake Kakashi, who is an A-rank ninja, nicknamed 'The Copy-Cat Ninja.' And surprisingly, it worked.
And now here the masked jonin stood, helping two six-year-olds with taijutsu they really shouldn't be learning in the first place, but if they wanted to get strong, he wasn't in any place to judge them.
"Alright, kiddos. You said you wanted help on taijutsu training, right?" Kakashi asked, and they both nodded in response. "Based on your age, I would assume that you guys have no experience with taijutsu. Am I right?" Again, they nodded. Kakashi sighed. "Alright. I want you guys to do 20 push-ups, squats, sit-ups, and laps, starting right...NOW!"
Without complaint, the boys did as told, first starting with their push-ups. Getting in position, they started simultaneously. In unison, the boys inhaled as they lowered themselves until their chests almost touched the ground. Exhaling, the boy's arms started to shake as they pushed themselves back up. "One."
It was close to midnight now, and the two boys were completely exhausted, Sasuke more than Nagato.
"It's late now you two. How about you two go home? There's always tomorrow, after all," Kakashi said, looking down at the boys lying on the floor.
"Can't move," Nagato muttered. "Legs, sore."
"Chakra, depleted," Sasuke added in the same tone.
Kakashi sighed and walked over to the boys. Kneeling, he picked them both up and held them between his arms and his ribs and carried them both to their homes.
Going to Nagato's first, he opened the door to the spotless apartment and placed the redhead on his bed and tucked him in. He quickly wrote a note for him and left.
On his way out, he locked the door and made his way to his next stop of the night, Sasuke's apartment. He made his way inside through the window and placed the Uchiha on his bed and tucked him in. Also writing a note, he closed and locked the window and made his way towards his apartment for much-needed sleep. He had two boys to talk to the Hokage about tomorrow.
A/N: Finally finished with the second rewrite of this chapter! I would like to thank Novrier for answering all my questions and helping me with my writing. I hope I didn't badger you too much.
And to the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed it!
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