To start off with, I'll address some reviews.

Someone had mentioned that the premise that Naruto would be hated for having a bloodline is stupid. While it's true that Konoha generally covets bloodlines, that does not apply to everybody in the village nor every bloodline. Even the Uchiha had a large amount of people who distrusted them for the sharingan after the Kyuubi attack; hence the attempted coup and resulting massacre. Another example of ostracized clans in Konoha would be the Kurama clan. You also have to take into consideration the fact that the shikotsumyaku was feared by even the Kaguya themselves.

As for the issue concerning Narumi not being hated as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, keep in mind that Minato is alive in this story to reveal the truth of that night and make her out to be the hero Naruto was meant to be in canon.

Also, in regards to the review about the Minato bashing. It's kinda necessary to a certain degree given the circumstances; it won't be excessive though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Together Alone

[Flashback Start]

Sitting alone on the edge of a dock with his feet dangling over the edge, we find a certain white-haired seven-year-old gazing across the water with a blank expression on his face. So lost in his internal musings was he that he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him until they stopped right behind him.

"What are you doing here?" a young voice questioned drawing the white-haired boy's attention. Turning his head, he saw a boy his age with raven locks and onyx eyes staring at him. He could feel a sense of familiarity when he noticed the seemingly-dead emptiness in the other boy's eyes. He had thought he was the only one their age who could feel such emptiness and if he was honest with himself, he was happy to be proven wrong. To know that there was someone even remotely similar to himself filled him with a strange sense of relief.

"I was just thinking…" the white-haired boy finally answered as he turned back to stare blankly across the calm water again. The other boy continued to look at him for a moment before he too looked out to the water. The two remained in silent contemplation for several minutes before either said anything more.

"Naruto Kaguya," the white-haired boy broke the silence as he introduced himself without tearing his eyes away from the serene pool of liquid before them.

"Sasuke Uchiha," the other boy similarly introduced.

After their initial meeting, the two young clan heirs would occasionally meet. The first several weeks they did little more than spend time near that same lake they had first met eachother with the occasional spar tossed in to keep themselves sharp. As time went on, the two gradually seemed to warm up to eachother to the point where they started to have regular conversations and even play together like normal children on rare occasions.

For Naruto, he felt connected to Sasuke through their similar feelings of being without family; even if for very different reasons. They had a bond that normal children wouldn't be able to understand; one born of pain and suffering. They often times saw several of the clan children of the village happily playing together as their families watched over them with smiling faces.

"I'm not sure whether to envy their innocence, or pity them for it." Naruto calmly stated to his friend as they watched a blonde girl yelling at a boy with a strange, pineapple-like hairstyle while a fat boy watched in amusement as he munched on a bag of chips.

"Hn, it's not worth envying. That innocence is what makes them so weak." Sasuke responded earning a nod from Naruto.

Sasuke had been skeptical about getting close to his white-haired companion, initially thinking the boy was like everyone else. But after their first spar, Sasuke held a bit of respect for him. Naruto had beaten him and proven that he was not like the rest of the children Sasuke had met during their short time since beginning the academy. Ever since the two had met, they continued to push eachother to their limits with their friendly rivalry and had grown far stronger than Sasuke had been before. Like himself, Naruto was very driven by his goals and had no interest in the insignificant things the other children seemed to focus so hard on.

Eventually, Sasuke had invited Naruto to stay in the Uchiha compound with him. He claimed that it would benefit him to have more opportunities to train with his rival and keep tabs on his growth; he vehemently refused to admit he didn't want his friend to have to live on the street anymore.

When they were at the academy or within the village, the two would maintain a sense of indifference toward eachother; having agreed to keep their relationship and full abilities secret until they graduated; deception was a very powerful tool of a shinobi's arsenal and they intended to use it. As far as the others knew, Sasuke was a brooding elitist who hadn't awakened his bloodline and Naruto was an emotionless freak with no significant talent; the truth being vastly different of course.

Naruto was very adept at taijutsu along with having decent control of his bloodline. Sasuke also had unlocked his sharingan without anyone besides Naruto being any the wiser. Naruto was still superior in taijutsu, but Sasuke had proven that, even with only 2 tomoe unlocked so far, he was very adept at genjutsu.

They were fairly even in terms of their proficiency with ninjutsu, but Sasuke held the clear advantage considering he possessed the sharingan. Naruto however, had incredible reserves of chakra for someone his age. By the time they entered their third year of the academy, Naruto already had larger reserves than their 2 chuunin instructors…combined. Naruto exploited those chakra reserves heavily once he learned his new favorite jutsu; shadow clones. He actually learned the technique from Sasuke who had managed to copy it one day with his sharingan. Having average reserves, Sasuke found the technique too chakra-consuming for his liking and taught it to Naruto instead.

From that day forward, Sasuke and Naruto rarely attended classes, instead opting to have Naruto create 2 shadow clones and use the transformation technique to make a clone of Sasuke. The two had agreed that the subjects taught in the academy were incredibly insignificant in matters of becoming a shinobi and thus decided they had no reason to attend. Honestly, what was the point of learning history and theory instead of actually training?

[Flashback end]

"Before we start with team announcements, I'd like to congratulate you all again on becoming genin. I'm proud of all of you and I'm sure you'll all become splendid shinobi someday," Iruka addressed his students from the front of the room with a wide smile on his face. "Now then, I will read off the names of the teams you have each been placed into along with your senseis. Team 1 under-"

[Skipping past the pointless teams]

"Team 7 under Kakashi Hatake; Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Kaguya-" there were several groans of disapproval from Sasuke's fangirls while the two friends turned teammates smirked at eachother, "and Sakura Haruno." Sasuke and Naruto's heads immediately collided with their desks while their pink-haired teammate gave a loud cheer and stuck her tongue out at the other girls.

"This has to be somebody's idea of a cruel joke," Naruto muttered earning a groan and a nod from Sasuke; he certainly didn't approve of their other teammate any more than Naruto did.

"Team 8 under Kurenai Yuuhi; Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Team 9 is currently still in rotation so moving along, team 10 under Asuma Sarutobi; Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi." Ino groaned and mumbled under her breath about life not being fair and not ending up with her Sasuke.

"Team 11 under Anko Mitarashi; Narumi Namikaze, Ryohei Hyuuga and Izumi Inuzuka," Iruka announced the final team and informed them their senseis would be there shortly to pick them up. Sasuke raised an eyebrow when Naruto started laughing quietly to himself. Seeing the gesture, Naruto decided to enlighten his friend on what he found so humorous.

"These teams are ridiculous. Aside from us, every other team is comprised of civilian-born and clan-born children specifically. There's no point in even letting the civilians pass the exam if they're just gonna toss them together in ragtag groups that would just die on their first real mission. My guess is we only got stuck with her for the sake of balancing numbers," Naruto explained as he motioned to their teammate at the end of his explanation.

"Makes sense; we had the top scores so if they were gonna stick a civilian with anybody it makes the most sense to put her with us. She did at least have the highest scores of any of the civilian-born students so if any of them have a chance of being a real shinobi it's most likely her," Sasuke agreed with a nod, but groaned before continuing. "If we can snap her out of her little fangirl fantasy-world." Naruto suppressed his laughter with a snort of amusement as he agreed. If nothing else, they could just tell her to stay out of the way.

A short time later, jounins started showing up to retrieve their teams one-by-one until team 7 were the only ones left. Most of the jounins they had seen seemed normal enough…except for Anko Mitarashi. Those who were left in the room all sweatdropped when she had come bursting in through the window and pinned up a banner with kunai that said, "The sexy sensei of team 11, Anko Mitarashi." Naruto had felt a measure of pity for his sister then, but at least her sensei had showed up on time; whether it was in a rather odd fashion or not. Team 7 had been waiting for close to 2 hours already and there was still no sign of their sensei.

Sakura paced back-and-forth across the room while Sasuke's eye twitched occasionally to show his irritation with the situation. Naruto kept a bored expression as he stared at the door, but his slight body language showed he was not happy with being kept waiting for so long. Just when it seemed Sakura was about to start screaming her frustrations the door slid open.

Sasuke smirked in amusement when, as soon as their jounin sensei was revealed, a small projectile launched in his direction before a tear appeared in the mask covering the lower portion of his face. Sakura immediately spun around in confusion only to see a smirking Sasuke and Naruto with a single outstretched finger pointed in the direction of the masked jounin. The unspoken question was answered when a small bone began protruding from the outstretched finger before receding once again.

"…I don't like you," Kakashi finally said with an exaggerated frown earning a shrug from Naruto. "Trust me, you're not the only one. Besides, it's your own fault for being so late." Kakashi's face hardened for an instant before it was replaced with a sheepish expression.

"Putting that matter aside for now, meet me on the roof so we can have our first team meeting." With that said, Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke as Naruto and Sasuke stood to leave, ignoring the somewhat awed look on Sakura's face.

"So, let's start with introductions. Why don't you all tell me a bit about yourselves," Kakashi said from behind his book as his potential students sat in front of him. Sasuke and Naruto just shrugged before Sakura raised her hand.

"Um, can you go first sensei?" Kakashi gave a shrug of his own before beginning his own introduction without taking his eyes from his book.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake; I have several things I like and a few dislikes. My hobbies are none of your business and my dreams for the future…I've never really thought about it." The 3 genin-hopefuls sweatdropped as Kakashi turned the page. "You're up, Pinkie." Ignoring the somewhat-derogatory nickname, Sakura did as instructed.

"My name is Sakura Haruno; my likes are..-blushes and looks At Sasuke-. My dislikes are Ino-pig and Naruto!" she said with a glare at aforementioned Kaguya. "And my dream is…" she trailed off as she looked at Sasuke with a blush again and giggled. Naruto rolled his eyes while Sasuke fought the urge to gag.

"You're up sir broods-a-lot." Kakashi said with a glance to the raven-haired boy. Sasuke huffed at the name while shooting a glare at a smirking Naruto.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha; my likes are training and I suppose the white-haired idiot next to me isn't so bad," "You're too kind" Naruto commented dryly. Ignoring the comment, Sasuke continued his introduction. "I have a lot of dislikes and my dreams are none of your business." Kakashi finished with a slight glare at the cycloptic jounin.

'Hmm, I half expected him to say something about killing Itachi,' Kakashi internally mused as he turned to Naruto and motioned for him to follow suit.

"Naruto Kaguya; I like training and the broody prick next to me," Naruto said as he nudged Sasuke with his elbow and the two shared a smirk. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the strange bond the two seemed to share, but other than that showed no particular interest. "I dislike pretty much everything else and don't really have any dreams, just goals."

"Now that that's out of the way, you're all free to go. We'll have our first meeting at training ground 33 at 7 a.m. where we'll do a bit of survival training." Kakashi said as he put his book away.

"Survival training? Didn't we do enough of that in the academy?" Sakura asked with a frown. Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance before looking at their masked sensei with a disapproving look.

"This is a bit different from what you did in the academy; this will determine if you truly have what it takes to be a shinobi or if you're just a group of brats playing ninja." Kakashi said with an uncharacteristically serious tone.

"But…aren't we already shinobi? We passed our genin exam already," Sakura asked with a confused expression. All three of them were somewhat alarmed when Kakashi suddenly started laughing as if that were the funniest joke he had ever heard.

"Bahaha, y-you..pfft..you seriously think answering a few questions and performing some E-rank jutsu makes you a shinobi?!" Kakashi asked between fits of laughter. "That test was just to sort out the trash from the ones that have the potential to be genin. Tomorrow will be your real test to see whether you deserve that headband or not."

Sakura looked pale at that, but Naruto and Sasuke seemed to brighten at the idea; they were in full agreement that if that test was all it took to be a ninja of Konoha then their village's standards were pathetic. It also showed them that, despite his quirks, Kakashi had a serious side to him and may prove to be more than he let on initially; they couldn't wait to get started.

"You noticed it too, right?" Naruto asked. After meeting their potential sensei, the two had decided to get something to eat before heading home and were now sitting across from eachother at their favorite dango bar, drinking tea after their meal.

"Yeah, that guy wasn't normal; even by jounin standards. Have you seen him before?" Sasuke responded as he set his tea down and frowned slightly when Naruto shook his head.

"No, but I've sensed his chakra plenty of times. He's former ANBU; and one of his personal guards at that." The venom in his voice was clear when Naruto indirectly mentioned his father.

"Do you think he chose him on purpose to keep an eye on you?" Naruto shrugged as he finished his tea and set the cup to the side.

"Whether he did or not, it makes no difference; we'll pass that test tomorrow and figure things out as we go. The only thing we need to worry about at this point is that damn banshee." They both frowned at the thought of their fangirl of a teammate before deciding it was time to go home and get some rest.

They had a test to pass in the morning after all.

"Why did we show up on time?" Naruto groaned as he continued to lay at the base of a tree at the training grounds where Kakashi had instructed them to meet. Sasuke merely grunted his agreement with a scowl on his face as he sat on a branch in the tree above Naruto with his legs swaying back and forth lazily. He was annoyed with the masked jounin's tardiness as well, but was more focused on the present annoyance; namely a certain pink-haired stalker who was staring at him from across the field.

"Can't you do something about her staring at me like that? It's seriously creeping me out," Sasuke asked in what Naruto would deem as Sasuke's version of a 'pleading' tone. The white-haired boy couldn't help smirking in amusement at his friend's plight.

"And risk her disturbing my peace with that screeching of hers? Not a chance," Sasuke glared at Naruto as he made a silent promise to get revenge for this at the first possible opportunity. "Besides, Cyclops is hiding in that tree over there." Naruto stated as he stood and dusted himself off.

"Well then," Sasuke said as he dropped from his perch in the tree to land next to his white-haired companion. "Shall we show him a little of what we can do?" he finished with a smirk, which was quickly mirrored by the one on Naruto's face.

"Just try not to show off too much; gotta keep some secrets." Naruto whispered as they made their way to the middle of the field. Sasuke just gave a mumbled "yeah yeah" in response before the masked jounin appeared before them in a puff of smoke.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted with a lazy wave before being assaulted with a loud cry of "YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto shook his head while Sasuke groaned at their loud-mouthed teammate.

"He wasn't late, Haruno; he's been watching us the entire time." Naruto said before Kakashi could make any excuses. Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly in surprise while Sakura scoffed.

"How the hell would you know that, moron?" she said with a superior tone.

"He knows because he's a sensor," Sasuke answered making the pinkette smile happily at being addressed by her crush. "And you should really watch your tongue, Haruno; he may not be book-smart, but he's a genius when it comes to combat and could kill you faster than you could draw a kunai." Sakura was gaping like a fish and looked like someone had just kicked her puppy; Naruto was having a hard time holding back his laughter.

"Well then," Kakashi interjected. "As enlightening as this has been, I believe it's time we got started." With that said, the masked jounin tied a pair of bells to his waist and pulled out a timer.

"Let the training begin."

A/N: I'm not too happy with how this chapter turned out, but it's been sitting here half-finished for months now and I don't really have the motivation to or time to put into it so I figured something is better than nothing. Anyway, thanks for reading.