Summary: What if Naruto met Sasuke at age 4? What if both of them liked kenjutsu? What if they became best friends regardless of what others say? What if they became masters of Kenjutsu?

Naruto Notes: Kenjutsu!Naruto and Sasuke, Good!Kyuubi, Good!Sasuke, Fuinjutsu!Naruto and Sasuke. No Akatsuki. Obito, Madara, and the Rain orphans died. More Naruto politics.

Rurouni Kenshin Notes: Gatotsu!Sasuke, Hiten Mitsurugi!Naruto, maybe others if they decide to teach it to others.

Notes: REALLY slow burn. You won't see the crossover until chapter three roles around.

Chapter 1: Early Days

Naruto watched with a sad face as the other kids pointed fingers at him and called him names. All he did was ask to play kickball with them. He looked at the red kickball in his hands and threw it off to the side, not caring if it hit someone. Naruto started walking in no particular direction, not caring where his feet took him. He just wanted to get away from the hateful glares and mean words. 'Why do they hate me?'

Naruto was too lost in his thoughts to realize he was on Uchiha Clan property until it was too late but he got lucky this time because there was no one around but a small child about his age sitting at the edge of a lake looking sad. Naruto knew that look. The kid was lonely. Naruto decided that this was his last attempt at making a friend and if it failed, he would give up forever and accept his fate of being alone.

Naruto slowly approached him. "Hey…" No response. "Mind if I join you?" The Uchiha boy shrugged and nodded. "My name's Naruto. What's yours?"

They sat in silence for a while but the boy came around eventually. "Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha. You wouldn't happen to be that boy, would you?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Replied Naruto, bitterly.

"Nothing. My father always tells me to stay away from you for some odd reason. Something about being a bad kid. I guess he lied to me…again."

"I'm sorry. But you know what they say, misery loves company."

Sasuke chuckled bitterly. "Can't argue with that." They sat in silence until a few minutes before sundown. "Wanna do this again?"

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Yes. Same place?"

"Yeah. It's getting late. See you tomorrow!"

Both boys went their separate ways with the same thought in their minds. 'His eyes...they have the same loneliness as me.'

24 hours later

Naruto and Sasuke met at the same spot again in equally sour moods but for different reasons. Sasuke looked pissed and sad while Naruto was just sad.

They sat in comfortable silence but Naruto knew they needed to talk about what happened at some point but Naruto wants Sasuke to go first out of the kindness of his heart. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No, but I probably should." Naruto didn't interrupt him. "It's my brother and father. My brother is a prodigy on his way to becoming jonin and my father looks at me with disappointment or tells me, why can't you be like Itachi. Well fuck you too, asshole. And my mother does nothing to stop it. That's my boy or much better than Sasuke! Some mother you are." Sasuke was openly crying by the end of his rant.

Naruto pulled Sasuke into a one arm hug. "I'm sorry but I don't know what to tell you. Now, I don't know a lot about having parents but that can't be right." A lightbulb went off in Naruto's head. "Get stronger without their help. If they don't need you, then you don't need them. The Uchiha Clan must have scrolls somewhere that you can use."

The look in Sasuke's eyes changed from sad to determined. He decided that he would surpass Itachi and his parents even if it killed him. After all, you either do something or die trying. Sasuke looked at Naruto. "And what's buggin you?"

Naruto sighed. "The villagers. All of them hate me and the children always hit me and tell me to go away." There was a long pause. "You're my first friend, ya know? If you shot me down, I would have given up for good. The Hokage takes me out for Ramen sometimes but he's not available 24/7. He wants me to become a ninja for whatever reason."

Sasuke snorted. "Figures they would. I won't give some bullshit answer and tell you that it'll get better but I will tell you what you told me. If they don't like you, then that's their problem, not yours. As a ninja, you're loyal to the Hokage, not a man you met on the street."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Sasuke had to go home. No one came to get him but he didn't want anyone to. Sasuke wondered what Naruto did after their talks but never got the chance to find out. Sasuke shrugged and went back to his cold, bitter house.

One month later

Naruto and Sasuke had only grown closer over the last month. They even started to train together after Sasuke stole some scrolls from the Uchiha library. It's not his fault the guards can't do their jobs right. It was all taijutsu and fitness training methods because they didn't have the chakra for ninjutsu. They would train for an hour and then talk about their day.

Naruto sat down on the grass and looked up at the sky "What'd you do today?"

Sasuke kicked the grass under him. "Not much. But I've got some interesting news. Itachi and my parents are fighting like cats and dogs late last night and it's been driving the entire clan crazy. They almost came to blows but Mikoto came between them."

"What in the Name of the Fire Godess could have caused that?"

"No clue. Something about a bad idea and the hokage will know about this. So much for acting like adults."

Naruto snorted but said nothing else.

One year later, Naruto and Sasuke: Age: 5

It had been a little over a year since they met and things only got better. They started with fitness and taijutsu but now they were working on low rank fire jutsu even if they had a heck of a time with the basic fireball. They couldn't figure it out for the life of them but accepted it and kept working. Sasuke also learned more about what his parents were so mad about. The Uchiha were planning something big. He didn't know what it was but clearly Itachi didn't like it. Something about a revolution and that worried Sasuke. If the Uchiha were to revolt, it wouldn't end well.

Naruto and Sasuke finished their training for the day and sat on the grass. Naruto looked at Sasuke. "Is it just me, or have you gotten a lot stronger?'

"Yeah. I have. My family had another falling out and now they're doting on me and saying don't be like Itachi for Lady Fire knows what reason and I'm getting extra training." Answered Sasuke.

"Can I have some background?"

"Itachi kept calling Fugaku and Mikoto fools and then he slammed the door in their faces. He hasn't come home yet but he is in the ANBU so I'm not surprised."

"I see. Keep an eye on them and tell me if you find anything important, even at four AM. I usually hang around the slums because it's the least populated."

"Thanks."

"Do you think...Itachi would train us if we asked?"

Sasuke thought about it for a moment. "Not without a good argument."

"Tell him it's to spite your parents."

Sasuke snorted. "Can't say it'll work but it'll certainly get his attention." Sasuke looked at the setting sun. "I have to go now. See ya."

Little did they know, it was just the beginning.

One year later, Naruto and Sasuke: Age: 6

Much to their surprise, Itachi agreed to it and for the same reason as Sasuke. To spite the Uchiha Clan. The ANBU Captain fixed a lot of their holes in taijutsu and told them why they couldn't do fire jutsu. It was because Sasuke had affinities for lightning and water. Odd for an Uchiha but powerful nonetheless. Naruto had a Wind and Earth affinity. Itachi applauded both of them for having two afininties at such a young age and sent them off to do the basic elemental manipulation exercises.

Sasuke had to make the leaf shrivel up and Naruto had to turn a leaf to dust. It took them two months but they finally got it. At this point, Naruto and Sasuke began their late night escapades into the Uchiha library to find jutsu for their primary element. No one caught them. Not even Itachi.

Eat, act normal, train, eat, and repeat. That's all they did until both of them turned seven, where they moved on to chakra control. Something that helped immensely with their jutsu even though they only knew two each; two lightning and two earth.

The sun started to set so the brothers in all but blood fell backwards on the grass, satisfied with their day's was always smiling during training. It allowed him to forget about his family issues and focus on the moment. Unless Naruto punched him in the face. That just hurt.

Sasuke turned serious. "Itachi came back and the moment Fugaku tried to talk to him, he snapped."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Shit! What happened!?"

"No clue. All I know is that Itachi now hates the Uchiha clan more than the villagers hate you and his best friend is committed suicide but his eyes were taken out so I don't believe that."

"Think it was Itachi?"

"No idea but I do not want to be anywhere near this place for a while." Sasuke looked at the lake in front of him. "Our stealth could use some work anyways…"

"Yeah..."

Both Seven year olds enjoyed the peace that nature granted them for a few more moments. They still had one more thing to talk about but wanted some peace and quiet that nature could give. Sasuke broke it. "I'm starting the academy on Monday. You should ask the hokage to do the same for you."

"He already did."

After a few moments of silence, Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Now that I think about it, why is the Hokage spending so much time with you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes as well. "Yeah, why does he? Clearly doesn't have time for every orphan and spending time with the village pariah isn't a good idea so why...the hell..is he so close to me? I'll admit, it was nice to have someone before I met you but now I feel manipulated."

"Fair enough. The only way to really know is to look in the public records but that's restricted and guarded."

"Yes, but it's guarded by bored chunin who don't pay attention to anything but what's in front of them and both of us are okay at stealth. I'm not saying we try it now but I think we should do it sooner or later."

"What about the academy records?"

Naruto thought about it. "That's...not a bad idea. It's poorly guarded and in a semi-public building. But on the other hand, we're likely to find what we already know. Naruto Uzumaki. Born on October 10, 270 SE and other medical stuff that's useless to us."

"Yes, but we both know it's worth a shot. We'll do it whenever we get the chance."

Little did they know, that chance would come very soon.

Monday

There was a big celebration at the academy for all the kids who got accepted. The Hokage even gave a welcome speech that no one listened to. Naruto and Sasuke always hid in a corner away from everyone else.

"Can you believe that boy entered?"

"If he becomes a ninja, we're so dead."

"He's a-"

"Sh! We can't talk about it."

Naruto scoffed. "Worthless."

Sasuke nodded. "A lot of them have kids in the academy and they'll go out of their way to pick on you."

"Wouldn't be surprised. Dead last or Rookie of the Year?"

"You should be dead last and I'll be Rookie of the Year. No one will be suspicious if the village pariah doesn't do well.."

"Yeah." Naruto started walking towards the crowd of kids. "Come on, show's about to start."

And that's chapter 1. Sorry it's so short but I'm going to use a full page to describe Sasuke. Tell me what you think. Please leave a review. They help a lot. I already have the next chapter ready to go but I want to read the reviews so I won't post two at once.