Uchiha Sasuke since the young age of 2 has shown signs of being a genius almost as much as his older brother, Itachi, much to Mikoto's, Sasuke's mother, dismay. Seeing his genius his father decided that he should be trained, Mikoto seeing an opportunity to get closer to her son volunteered herself. From the young age of 3 she gave her son training in chakra control and taught him how to properly use kunai and throw shuriken. Being the genius he was this came somewhat easily to the young Uchiha, though he practiced until he was satisfied with his mastery.
When Sasuke was five he had a habit of escaping the Uchiha clan compound and wondering around the village on his own. During the first few excursions he came to meet a blond boy his age with the brightest blue eyes that he'd ever seen. When they made eye contact Sasuke saw something he thought he'd never see in anyone else his age, a deep intelligence. He was sitting alone just watching the other kids at the park play.
Sasuke made the decision to introduce himself to the boy so he walked up to him and simply said, "Hey". The boy looked at him seemingly confused but eventually also replied with, "Hey".
"I'm Sasuke" This was getting awkward how did you talk to other kids? "Naruto" the other kid said simply giving a little smile confusion slowly disappearing.
"Why aren't you playing with the others?" Sasuke was genuinely curious even though he didn't care much for playing ninja, he'd much rather train, genius' don't play they spend their time training at least that's what father says.
Naruto looked a little sad, "Their parents don't like me much, so they don't like me much... But that's fine, I like to train like a real ninja" Sasuke gave Naruto a look filled with wonder, which the other boy immediately classified as creepy, "What is it? You're being weird"
"You're a genius" Sasuke said like it was a fact. "What do you mean I'm a genius? The ladies at the orphanage never tell me that."Naruto retorted back suspiciously. Sasuke stored that bit of information for later, "Father says that a genius spends time training not playing, I know a place we can use let's go."
Naruto still suspicious, decided what the heck he might as well go it's not like the other children would ask him to play, "Sure."
'He's terrible' Sasuke thought as Naruto missed the target with the shuriken that Sasuke had brought with him for the fifth time. "You're doing it wrong."
"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you do better!" Naruto was fuming, he didn't lie when he said he liked to train, he'd just never stood this far from the target. "You're not standing right and you throw weird. You're supposed to do it like this" Sasuke demonstrated the proper stance and movement.
Naruto watched, amazed as the center of the target they'd painted on a tree was hit time after time, "Let me try again." Naruto tried over and over in an hour he was starting to hit the outer edge of the target, 'How is he not tired by now?' the blond showed no signs of slowing down so Sasuke decided to run back and forth to get the shuriken. This was to speed up the process as well as get some cardio in, he'd noticed that Naruto clearly had him beat when it came to stamina.
Naruto was close to hitting the center when Sasuke had to go home two hours later. Sasuke was feeling tired sprinting up and down for two hours even if it was just ten meters would do that to someone. "I gotta go now, you can keep two of those two shuriken, for today if you want to keep practicing... I'll see you tomorrow I guess?" Sasuke said as he collected four of the six shuriken he had with him. Naruto gave him a grin and a nod "Yeah, I'll be here... Thanks Sasuke you're the best" Sasuke fought down a blush grinned "Of course, I'm an Uchiha!" he semi-shouted as he was heading in the direction of the clan compound.
Naruto decided that he would train a bit longer, he had to catch up with Sasuke, after all he was Naruto's first friend, one of the only people that acknowledged him in this village, getting left behind wouldn't do, after all his friend did call him a genius and he would prove himself. With even more determination Naruto decided to get back to training.
Sasuke made it home before the sun fully went down, "And where have you been young man?" Mikoto asked while doing the dishes. "I was exploring a little bit" when Mikoto turned around to see her son and saw how run down but seemingly happy he looked she just raised a dark eyebrow, "You weren't training on your day off were you? Tomorrow we're supposed to take your chakra control lessons to the next level. And just where were you exploring?"
"The village a little bit, I made a new friend he's not very good at shuriken jutsu but he can practice for hours" Sasuke explained "Mmh what's his name?" She asked while fixing Sasuke a snack, while she didn't like the idea of Sasuke leaving the compound alone it was nice that her son had made a friend. "Naruto, he has weird markings on his cheeks so I thought he was part of a clan but he said he lives at the orphanage, he was terrible at throwing shuriken but he got better pretty quickly, it's like he doesn't get tired at all." Mikoto was quiet for while, "Naruto, you say? Sounds like an okay boy, are you going to keep meeting and helping him?" She finally asked. "Yeah, we're supposed to meet again tomorrow. Can I go after training?" He sounded so hopeful how could she say no to that? "Of course sweetie but that means we'll start training early tomorrow" she said smiling at Sasuke. He was so glad he barely even noticed the 'sweetie'.
"Go wash up now dinner will be ready soon" Sasuke was almost already gone by the time she finished. She was left smiling to herself 'I'm glad they found each other, kami knows Naruto needs a friend, and I couldn't interfere because of the situation the clan is in right now.'
After a few more hours with the sun completely set Naruto could hit the center of the target more or less half of the time but he was always hitting the target. The blond grinned to himself and decided it was time to head back to the orphanage, he'd have to hide the shuriken out here though. Even if the ladies that took care of things were mostly indifferent to him, he didn't want to start any trouble. Their attitude had already rubbed off on the kids and he didn't want to turn everyone's indifference to hate if one of the other kids hurt themselves.
Dashing home, he was a little out of breath when he got there, he liked to spend time at the park the furthest from the orphanage. 'I can't let Sasuke be a better ninja than me, I gotta catch up, the hokage is supposed to be the strongest... How else are people finally gonna start noticing me' Naruto decided as he opened the door. He'd seen the hokage around the village at the orphanage a few times giving the orphans some toy shuriken and kunai, the way everybody looked at and admired him was what caught Naruto's eye. He asked the Matron what was so special about the guy, apparently he was the village leader and the strongest in the village, Naruto was shocked an old guy like that? The strongest? No way. He confronted the old man about on one of his visits the old man just laughed and was amused the matron appalled, she apologized profusely, the hokage waved her off he instead took one of the wooden shuriken and threw it at a target it hit dead center but it didn't stop there it went through the tree. Naruto was shocked, star struck even. How does wood even cut wood? That doesn't make sense. He worshiped the old man ever since. He wanted to be hokage have that strength and have other kids look up to him and feel the way he does about the old man.
"You're late, your food is on the table, wash your plate after you're done. You're helping clean up after breakfast tomorrow as punishment" he heard the voice of the matron before he even saw her a non descript pale woman with black hair that was starting to gray and brown eyes behind glasses as usual. She was an okay looking if forgettable woman the only distinct thing about her was the beauty spot below the left nostril.
Naruto nodded and uttered a "Yes ma'am" and went to the dinner table all the others were done and were in their rooms sleeping or making a ruckus. Naruto quickly ate his super, washed his dish and went to his room there he did his nightly routine of push-ups, squats, lunges and pull-ups trying to build muscle. 'The old man had to have strong muscles in order to make the wooden shuriken do that…. Right?' I mean it didn't look like he even tried. When he was satisfied Naruto went to bed, after he cleaned the kitchen tomorrow he'd go back and practice some more and he'd try hit the target from further. With a small smile he went to bed.
AN: This is my first attempt at fanfiction of any kind and as such is more of a trial run than anything, the response I get from this will determine if I continue this. I'm hoping you'll enjoy it