A/N: Oh my goodness, thank you all so much for the reviews! I was debating
about continuing this story, but now I definitely will! I would also just
like to share that I am listening to music from Naruto while writing this.
Geez I am obsessed and it's wonderful! I am sorry there wasn't more written
today, but I had a huge homework assignment hanging over my head... Boo to
homework. Just so you know, since so many people reviewed (and since I'm a
dork and replied to them all), reviews are now at the END of the sections.
That way, mean people who don't leave me reviews don't have to scroll
through all my replies *grin*
Disclaimer: As I'm sure you could have all guessed, Naruto's not mine, nor are any of the characters found therein.
............
Five in the morning came much, much too soon. As a ninja, Naruto knew that he would have to become accustomed to odd hours and little sleep, but five o'clock still seemed absurdly early to be trudging onto the training grounds. It seemed even earlier when his sensei remained conspicuously absent, even after both of Naruto's teammates had arrived.
Feigning grumpy sleepiness of the sort that would best fit the expectations of his two teammates, Naruto yawned obnoxiously and stretched his arms over his head. "Ohayou," he mumbled to his teammates. Sakura, yawning and rubbing her eyes, groggily returned the greeting while Sasuke ignored them both. By an unspoken agreement, the trio formed a circle with their backs, allowing one of them to watch in each direction. Thoughtfully, Naruto positioned himself so that he could watch both of his teammates out of the corners of his eyes before slumping on the ground to wait for Kakashi- sensei.
Soon, Sakura collapsed next to her teammate, and was asleep sitting up within moments. Although Naruto would have liked to follow Sakura's example, he remained awake, eyes closed to mere slits, watching Sasuke.
The silence stretched as the sky slowly pinked with sunrise before melting into a brilliant blue. To Naruto's left, Sakura twitched in her sleep, resting her head more comfortably on her knees. Sasuke had not so much as flinched since his arrival. Not a word had been exchanged between the two boys. Naruto wondered whether the other boy assumed he was asleep. He hoped that was the case; the Naruto that everyone else knew would not be this quiet for this long, but he truly WAS tired. Displaying the hyperactive boy for Sasuke's benefit alone seemed like too much if he could pretend to be asleep instead...
As though on cue, Sasuke turned to regard him solemnly, his face blank as usual. "I know you're awake, dobe."
Mindful of his sleeping teammate, Naruto opted to open his eyes and turn slightly to scowl at Sasuke rather than give one of his patented loudmouthed responses. "So?"
"It's not like you to be this quiet," Sasuke observed quietly, narrowing his eyes a bit at Naruto.
So his teammate had noticed. Naruto really was going to have to be on his guard all the time or else risk revealing his hidden nature. The boy felt his stomach tighten and stayed silent for a moment or two, wondering how he was going to undo the damage he had already caused. The easy answer still seemed like the best: "I was sleeping."
"No you weren't," the other boy shot back immediately.
"Leave me alone, Sasuke. I was tired," Naruto whined, raking his mind for something more plausible. Shit. He had caused even more damage with his lie. Mentally, he could have slapped himself. Of course Sasuke would know if he went to sleep. Just as he could tell that Sakura-chan was sleeping by the pattern of her breathing, so could Sasuke tell that his teammate was awake by HIS pattern of breathing. He forced himself to meet the other boy's eye, knowing that he would be professing his guilt if he broke eye contact. How much did Sasuke know? Once again, he felt his blood beginning to boil. Although he logically knew that he really had no reason to be angry with the other boy, it was just so... Easy! to let Sasuke get under his skin.
He had to calm down. When he was angry, he made mistakes. Everyone slipped when they were angry.
"Kitsune." Sasuke spoke the word quietly; indeed, it was almost inaudible. Fox... He was watching Naruto passively, but almost curiously, waiting for his reaction.
He was not disappointed; Naruto looked away immediately. The boy knew that his action revealed the truth in that word, but... Sasuke... The ignorance of his peers was supposed to be his one true redemption. It was supposed to be the only chance he had... How did Sasuke know? And why did he choose to reveal his knowledge now?
Well, the timing seemed obvious enough. Naruto was rendered helpless to react. Even if he would risk waking Sakura-chan from her sleep, Kakashi- sensei might arrive at any moment. Attacking Sasuke was out of the question, as was one of Naruto's typical outbursts. Clever... But Sasuke was still underestimating him. One hurt deserved another, and he spoke almost reflexively.
"Orphan." The word, a direct result of his hurt and anger, was spoken before Naruto thought. Stiffening, Naruto felt his eyes widen as the full force of what he had just done dawned upon him. He had just completely, irrevocably destroyed his disguise. If any question at all had remained in Sasuke's mind about Naruto's true nature, he had just effectively dispelled it.
But Sasuke had started it, damn it! The dark-haired boy had been the instigator from the beginning this morning. What did he want?
Slightly unnerved at the lack of response from his teammate, Naruto slowly looked up. Sasuke stood, head down, fists clenched. "How did you know..." Sasuke growled, avoiding the other boy's eye.
So Naruto had hit a nerve. The brutal murder of Sasuke's parents was not common knowledge in the village - but neither was the seal on Naruto's belly which imprisoned the demon fox! Apparently, Sasuke had seen through Naruto's guise for much, much longer than Naruto was aware, and surely the boy was now realizing the same about his blonde teammate. Like it or not, they were in a very similar situation.
The silence stretched uncomfortably. His secret revealed, Naruto watched Sasuke openly now. The other boy seemed to be visibly shaken, wrestling with himself, and Naruto was suddenly grateful that he at least had none of the nightmarish memories which must haunt his teammate. An unprecedented surge of sympathy flooded through the blonde boy as he realized anew just how much pain Sasuke must still be carrying deep within himself.
Finally, reluctantly, Naruto pushed himself to his feet and repositioned himself so that he stood directly in front of Sasuke. Absently rubbing the back of his head, the blonde boy tried to find a sincere smile. "Sasuke-" He paused as the other boy glared down at him, but stubbornly pushed forward. "Look, umm... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." The apology was genuine. He had no reason to hurt Sasuke and every reason to at least try to befriend him.
With a small shiver, Sasuke seemed to regain his composure. "How did you know?" he repeated, catching and holding Naruto's eye.
The boy swallowed, his mind racing. He was taking a leap of faith in trusting Sasuke, yet he had no other options now. Instincts which Naruto had refined over the last twelve years to prepare himself for any situation had failed him; he had been well and truly caught in his act by a boy that he did not even know if he could trust. He knew that his best course of action at this point was to just cooperate. The situation was beyond salvage. His anger at the other boy had once again prompted him to act carelessly, but perhaps he could mend the damage with a little honesty. Well, a lot of honesty. Sasuke was cold and calculating, but he was still human. Without a family he must be lonely, and Naruto hoped to use that to his advantage. They had wildly different pasts and vastly different hopes for the future, but... They were still two very similar creatures.
His mind made up, Naruto dropped all pretences at stupidity and sighed, regarding Sasuke as openly and non-threateningly as he could. "I know a lot about you, Sasuke. I know about your family and why you want to kill your brother. I know how hard you have worked towards this ambition." He had the small satisfaction of watching the other boy's jaw drop as he spoke. Perhaps Sasuke had not figured Naruto out quite as well as he had initially assumed. "I know a lot about everybody. It's pretty easy to watch other people when they can't hear me and therefore assume that I am elsewhere." At this, Sasuke smirked, but remained silent. "I have never breathed a word of your past to anyone. It is not my secret to tell, and I respect that. I can only hope that you have respected mine in the same manner." A sharp nod followed this, and Naruto plunged ahead, trying not to let his relief color his voice. "I do not expect you to be my friend. You and I have both lived lives of sadness and loneliness, but if you are content in your solitude I will respect that. We obviously have different ways of coping with our losses and working towards our future ambitions. We ARE, however, teammates, and we will be for the foreseeable future. Although I do not know that I can consider you a friend, I would not like to consider you an enemy either. I have led others to believe in my stupidity for my own reasons. You are the first who has been let in on this secret, and I would appreciate your cooperation in helping me maintain this front as well." With that, Naruto lapsed into silence, holding his breath and hoping that his teammate would be amenable to these conditions.
"Naruto..." Sasuke began after a moment's pause. "Your secrets are safe. You've kept mine. As to the rest... Again, you've kept my secrets. That is more than many would have done. I can respect that, and I can respect you. Around others, I will continue to treat you as I have if you will do the same for me. Perhaps, in private... We can be friends. But you and I will both be better off discussing this at a later time." The blonde-haired boy could have sworn he saw a ghost of a smile on Sasuke's lips as he spoke.
With one of his patented grins, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he allowed himself to slump down into his former lounging position. "Later is fine. And, Sasuke... Thank you."
"You're welcome, dobe."
Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto shared the first smile he had genuinely felt in ages with Sasuke.
He had just made a powerful ally.
But what was more... He had just made a friend.
.....................
As promised, here are my replies:
Bishiehuggler: Can never have enough SasuNaru, hehe. I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to get to your review before I posted the last chapter, so I'll answer in here. I don't honestly know what I am going to do with this story. I kind of like the way it's going, generally following the manga/anime and introducing new "scenes" with the twist being Naruto's intelligence. And some feelings. I am pretty sure there will be a plot twist in here somewhere if you stick with me. That's the way I write.
Myth720: Yeah, I know it's unoriginal, but I read a lot of fanfics, before I wrote this and rewatched the beginning of the series. I actually had some pretty interesting insights, and that's where this fanfic is coming from. Hopefully, this will turn out to be interesting. I'm not expecting the first few chapters to be too exciting since I'm trying to establish a bit of a background with this new view of Naruto, but afterwards things should get interesting, hehe.
Ayako: Well, thank you very much!
Silver Dragonfly: I'm glad you like it. I was hoping that other people would find this interesting!
:D: I think that I will!
Kurai: I've actually been contemplating whether Naruto's behavior is a front since the beginning of the Chuunin exams. I'm spending all of my time in class writing this fanfic, and I STILL have no idea where it's going to go, but it's the weekend soon... I'm sure there will be an awful lot more written by Monday. Keep an eye and I promise there will be more soon!
Evafreak: Hehe, I've thought about being a shrink someday! I donno though. I'm still undeclared and everything, so I guess it could happen! I think really deeply about an awful lot of things, I guess this is no exception. Naruto does seem to have a lot of depth to him, I'm just writing it! And yeah, I think Naruto and Sasuke will be giving each other hugs hehe!!
The Seer: Yeah, I tried to do something different. I read a bunch of the published fanfics before I started, and while I thought the SasuNaru was really neat, I didn't usually like how they got there... And I do think it's kind of inconsistent in the series how Naruto is an idiot most of the time but can suddenly come up with these great ideas. So I started wondering whether it might be like this, and off the idea went!
Esaure: Hah, you started page 2 in my word processor of just replies. You guys all rock! I like the story, too, and I'm probably going to be proving it by writing more of it during class today. Whee!
Angelic Hooligan: Glad you like it. I'm writing as fast as my classes can bore me!
Iceheart19: Yeah, I like to think that Naruto is smarter than we all think he is. I kind of like this Naruto!
Kkoganei: Why thank you. I'm glad there are people who appreciate my writing! It really does make me want to write more!
Silver-blossom: Why thank you!
CrazyAce: Maybe I should watch that sometime if it resembles what I am writing. I'm glad you approve!!
Thank you all for reading! Chapter 4 should be up tonight (I write fast when I get into it) or tomorrow!
Disclaimer: As I'm sure you could have all guessed, Naruto's not mine, nor are any of the characters found therein.
............
Five in the morning came much, much too soon. As a ninja, Naruto knew that he would have to become accustomed to odd hours and little sleep, but five o'clock still seemed absurdly early to be trudging onto the training grounds. It seemed even earlier when his sensei remained conspicuously absent, even after both of Naruto's teammates had arrived.
Feigning grumpy sleepiness of the sort that would best fit the expectations of his two teammates, Naruto yawned obnoxiously and stretched his arms over his head. "Ohayou," he mumbled to his teammates. Sakura, yawning and rubbing her eyes, groggily returned the greeting while Sasuke ignored them both. By an unspoken agreement, the trio formed a circle with their backs, allowing one of them to watch in each direction. Thoughtfully, Naruto positioned himself so that he could watch both of his teammates out of the corners of his eyes before slumping on the ground to wait for Kakashi- sensei.
Soon, Sakura collapsed next to her teammate, and was asleep sitting up within moments. Although Naruto would have liked to follow Sakura's example, he remained awake, eyes closed to mere slits, watching Sasuke.
The silence stretched as the sky slowly pinked with sunrise before melting into a brilliant blue. To Naruto's left, Sakura twitched in her sleep, resting her head more comfortably on her knees. Sasuke had not so much as flinched since his arrival. Not a word had been exchanged between the two boys. Naruto wondered whether the other boy assumed he was asleep. He hoped that was the case; the Naruto that everyone else knew would not be this quiet for this long, but he truly WAS tired. Displaying the hyperactive boy for Sasuke's benefit alone seemed like too much if he could pretend to be asleep instead...
As though on cue, Sasuke turned to regard him solemnly, his face blank as usual. "I know you're awake, dobe."
Mindful of his sleeping teammate, Naruto opted to open his eyes and turn slightly to scowl at Sasuke rather than give one of his patented loudmouthed responses. "So?"
"It's not like you to be this quiet," Sasuke observed quietly, narrowing his eyes a bit at Naruto.
So his teammate had noticed. Naruto really was going to have to be on his guard all the time or else risk revealing his hidden nature. The boy felt his stomach tighten and stayed silent for a moment or two, wondering how he was going to undo the damage he had already caused. The easy answer still seemed like the best: "I was sleeping."
"No you weren't," the other boy shot back immediately.
"Leave me alone, Sasuke. I was tired," Naruto whined, raking his mind for something more plausible. Shit. He had caused even more damage with his lie. Mentally, he could have slapped himself. Of course Sasuke would know if he went to sleep. Just as he could tell that Sakura-chan was sleeping by the pattern of her breathing, so could Sasuke tell that his teammate was awake by HIS pattern of breathing. He forced himself to meet the other boy's eye, knowing that he would be professing his guilt if he broke eye contact. How much did Sasuke know? Once again, he felt his blood beginning to boil. Although he logically knew that he really had no reason to be angry with the other boy, it was just so... Easy! to let Sasuke get under his skin.
He had to calm down. When he was angry, he made mistakes. Everyone slipped when they were angry.
"Kitsune." Sasuke spoke the word quietly; indeed, it was almost inaudible. Fox... He was watching Naruto passively, but almost curiously, waiting for his reaction.
He was not disappointed; Naruto looked away immediately. The boy knew that his action revealed the truth in that word, but... Sasuke... The ignorance of his peers was supposed to be his one true redemption. It was supposed to be the only chance he had... How did Sasuke know? And why did he choose to reveal his knowledge now?
Well, the timing seemed obvious enough. Naruto was rendered helpless to react. Even if he would risk waking Sakura-chan from her sleep, Kakashi- sensei might arrive at any moment. Attacking Sasuke was out of the question, as was one of Naruto's typical outbursts. Clever... But Sasuke was still underestimating him. One hurt deserved another, and he spoke almost reflexively.
"Orphan." The word, a direct result of his hurt and anger, was spoken before Naruto thought. Stiffening, Naruto felt his eyes widen as the full force of what he had just done dawned upon him. He had just completely, irrevocably destroyed his disguise. If any question at all had remained in Sasuke's mind about Naruto's true nature, he had just effectively dispelled it.
But Sasuke had started it, damn it! The dark-haired boy had been the instigator from the beginning this morning. What did he want?
Slightly unnerved at the lack of response from his teammate, Naruto slowly looked up. Sasuke stood, head down, fists clenched. "How did you know..." Sasuke growled, avoiding the other boy's eye.
So Naruto had hit a nerve. The brutal murder of Sasuke's parents was not common knowledge in the village - but neither was the seal on Naruto's belly which imprisoned the demon fox! Apparently, Sasuke had seen through Naruto's guise for much, much longer than Naruto was aware, and surely the boy was now realizing the same about his blonde teammate. Like it or not, they were in a very similar situation.
The silence stretched uncomfortably. His secret revealed, Naruto watched Sasuke openly now. The other boy seemed to be visibly shaken, wrestling with himself, and Naruto was suddenly grateful that he at least had none of the nightmarish memories which must haunt his teammate. An unprecedented surge of sympathy flooded through the blonde boy as he realized anew just how much pain Sasuke must still be carrying deep within himself.
Finally, reluctantly, Naruto pushed himself to his feet and repositioned himself so that he stood directly in front of Sasuke. Absently rubbing the back of his head, the blonde boy tried to find a sincere smile. "Sasuke-" He paused as the other boy glared down at him, but stubbornly pushed forward. "Look, umm... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." The apology was genuine. He had no reason to hurt Sasuke and every reason to at least try to befriend him.
With a small shiver, Sasuke seemed to regain his composure. "How did you know?" he repeated, catching and holding Naruto's eye.
The boy swallowed, his mind racing. He was taking a leap of faith in trusting Sasuke, yet he had no other options now. Instincts which Naruto had refined over the last twelve years to prepare himself for any situation had failed him; he had been well and truly caught in his act by a boy that he did not even know if he could trust. He knew that his best course of action at this point was to just cooperate. The situation was beyond salvage. His anger at the other boy had once again prompted him to act carelessly, but perhaps he could mend the damage with a little honesty. Well, a lot of honesty. Sasuke was cold and calculating, but he was still human. Without a family he must be lonely, and Naruto hoped to use that to his advantage. They had wildly different pasts and vastly different hopes for the future, but... They were still two very similar creatures.
His mind made up, Naruto dropped all pretences at stupidity and sighed, regarding Sasuke as openly and non-threateningly as he could. "I know a lot about you, Sasuke. I know about your family and why you want to kill your brother. I know how hard you have worked towards this ambition." He had the small satisfaction of watching the other boy's jaw drop as he spoke. Perhaps Sasuke had not figured Naruto out quite as well as he had initially assumed. "I know a lot about everybody. It's pretty easy to watch other people when they can't hear me and therefore assume that I am elsewhere." At this, Sasuke smirked, but remained silent. "I have never breathed a word of your past to anyone. It is not my secret to tell, and I respect that. I can only hope that you have respected mine in the same manner." A sharp nod followed this, and Naruto plunged ahead, trying not to let his relief color his voice. "I do not expect you to be my friend. You and I have both lived lives of sadness and loneliness, but if you are content in your solitude I will respect that. We obviously have different ways of coping with our losses and working towards our future ambitions. We ARE, however, teammates, and we will be for the foreseeable future. Although I do not know that I can consider you a friend, I would not like to consider you an enemy either. I have led others to believe in my stupidity for my own reasons. You are the first who has been let in on this secret, and I would appreciate your cooperation in helping me maintain this front as well." With that, Naruto lapsed into silence, holding his breath and hoping that his teammate would be amenable to these conditions.
"Naruto..." Sasuke began after a moment's pause. "Your secrets are safe. You've kept mine. As to the rest... Again, you've kept my secrets. That is more than many would have done. I can respect that, and I can respect you. Around others, I will continue to treat you as I have if you will do the same for me. Perhaps, in private... We can be friends. But you and I will both be better off discussing this at a later time." The blonde-haired boy could have sworn he saw a ghost of a smile on Sasuke's lips as he spoke.
With one of his patented grins, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he allowed himself to slump down into his former lounging position. "Later is fine. And, Sasuke... Thank you."
"You're welcome, dobe."
Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto shared the first smile he had genuinely felt in ages with Sasuke.
He had just made a powerful ally.
But what was more... He had just made a friend.
.....................
As promised, here are my replies:
Bishiehuggler: Can never have enough SasuNaru, hehe. I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to get to your review before I posted the last chapter, so I'll answer in here. I don't honestly know what I am going to do with this story. I kind of like the way it's going, generally following the manga/anime and introducing new "scenes" with the twist being Naruto's intelligence. And some feelings. I am pretty sure there will be a plot twist in here somewhere if you stick with me. That's the way I write.
Myth720: Yeah, I know it's unoriginal, but I read a lot of fanfics, before I wrote this and rewatched the beginning of the series. I actually had some pretty interesting insights, and that's where this fanfic is coming from. Hopefully, this will turn out to be interesting. I'm not expecting the first few chapters to be too exciting since I'm trying to establish a bit of a background with this new view of Naruto, but afterwards things should get interesting, hehe.
Ayako: Well, thank you very much!
Silver Dragonfly: I'm glad you like it. I was hoping that other people would find this interesting!
:D: I think that I will!
Kurai: I've actually been contemplating whether Naruto's behavior is a front since the beginning of the Chuunin exams. I'm spending all of my time in class writing this fanfic, and I STILL have no idea where it's going to go, but it's the weekend soon... I'm sure there will be an awful lot more written by Monday. Keep an eye and I promise there will be more soon!
Evafreak: Hehe, I've thought about being a shrink someday! I donno though. I'm still undeclared and everything, so I guess it could happen! I think really deeply about an awful lot of things, I guess this is no exception. Naruto does seem to have a lot of depth to him, I'm just writing it! And yeah, I think Naruto and Sasuke will be giving each other hugs hehe!!
The Seer: Yeah, I tried to do something different. I read a bunch of the published fanfics before I started, and while I thought the SasuNaru was really neat, I didn't usually like how they got there... And I do think it's kind of inconsistent in the series how Naruto is an idiot most of the time but can suddenly come up with these great ideas. So I started wondering whether it might be like this, and off the idea went!
Esaure: Hah, you started page 2 in my word processor of just replies. You guys all rock! I like the story, too, and I'm probably going to be proving it by writing more of it during class today. Whee!
Angelic Hooligan: Glad you like it. I'm writing as fast as my classes can bore me!
Iceheart19: Yeah, I like to think that Naruto is smarter than we all think he is. I kind of like this Naruto!
Kkoganei: Why thank you. I'm glad there are people who appreciate my writing! It really does make me want to write more!
Silver-blossom: Why thank you!
CrazyAce: Maybe I should watch that sometime if it resembles what I am writing. I'm glad you approve!!
Thank you all for reading! Chapter 4 should be up tonight (I write fast when I get into it) or tomorrow!