Uzumaki Naruto; 1 Year Later

Age 13

-Explain-

I'm Uzumaki Naruto, a genin (but not for long!) Soon to be HOKAGE!!

I guess the first step to becoming the Hokage is passing the chuunin exam. Next time, I swear! It'll be next time!

I always wake up early these days. I was tired of everyone always calling me someone who's late for everything. Besides, I HAVE to wake up early because Kakashi schedules his training so early in the morning even though he doesn't show up on time!

I grabbed some extra cash on the way out. I usually stop at my favorite ramen place on my way to training to get some breakfast. A lot of people say that ramen isn't for breakfast, but if I had it MY way, everyone would eat ramen all day long!

"ONE ramen please!" I said, slamming the exact change down on the table.

"Coming right up." Said the man behind the counter.

It's strange, even though I've come here almost every day for as long as I can remember, I still don't know that guy's name.

As I ate, all I could think of was the chuunin exam. We made a bunch of really stupid mistakes that landed us unable to compete in the tournament. Me, Sakura and that stupid Sasuke all lost to someone in just the preliminaries. I was glad as long as Sasuke didn't make it. Because if he had made it and I hadn't, I'd never hear the end of it!

Stupid Sasuke had gotten even more fanatical lately. He'd kind of turned into a surrogate teacher and manages to bark orders at Sakura and I whenever Kakashi's back is turned. I'm learning to hate him even more!

As for Sakura…wow. She looks more like a model than a ninja! She becomes more and more beautiful every day! Unfortunately, I know it's all for that stupid Sasuke but I ALSO know that someday she'll realize that Sasuke doesn't give a flying cactus about her and then she'll see that I'VE liked her this entire time!

I finished up my ramen and said goodbye to the man whose name I did not know and then hurried off to the bridge. I was a little behind schedule, but I wasn't worried. I knew Kakashi wouldn't be there waiting.

I saw Sakura sitting on the bridge reading. She certainly read a lot lately, but every day her greeting was the same. I'd say hi to her and she'd throw some sort of insult at me for no good reason. Then, when I try to create small talk, she'd turn me away as if I was saying something COMPLETELY unreasonable!

She's just playing hard to get and that's why I like her so much!

She looked up from her book with a smile on her face but then it contorted into a frown.

"Good morning, Sakura!" I called.

"Naruto, I'm TRYING to read." she said. "But your loud and annoying voice is distracting me."

She had been reading that same book with the blue cover for a long time. I think it was about time I found out what it was about. If I found out what it was, I could read it too and then she and I could have some common knowledge about something and we'd be able to talk about stuff. "What are you reading?" I asked her.

"None of your business!" Sakura said as she spun around and slammed her book down on the bridge.

Oh beautiful Sakura, if you only knew home much I loved you!

Sigh.

I'm tired of her being so interested in that stupid Sasuke!

Sigh.

Speaking of that stupid Sasuke, I heard his footsteps. I turned around and sure enough, there he was.

Sakura got her hopes up as usual. "Good morning, Sasuke!"

As usual, Sasuke didn't say anything to her. I always felt so bad for Sakura, especially when she got depressed after Sasuke didn't notice her new haircut or new clothes.

I figured it was my place to do something for Sakura to get back at that stupid Sasuke.

"Sasuke, you are LATE!!" I said, pointing at him to make sure he understood the full extent of my anger. "I hope you're not going to make a habit of this!!"

Before stupid Sasuke could even say anything to that, Kakashi suddenly appeared with an excuse as usual.

"Don't bother!!" Sakura and I yelled.

"Well it's official." Kakashi went on. "Gai, Asuma AND Kurenai all have a chuunin on their team and I do not."

"That's not nice!" Sakura said.

"Next time," Kakashi continued. "I hope that at least one of you will make it to the tournament. I think it's imperative that we go over all the things that you need to improve on."

Kakashi explained things thoroughly, but it didn't look like either Sakura OR stupid Sasuke were paying attention. Which is too bad for them, because that just means that I'll become the best ninja in the group and go on to become the Hokage.

"We're going to do a lot of individual training today." Kakashi continued. "It will be strenuous work, but I feel as though you three will—"

He kind of just stopped.

I looked at Kakashi, then Sasuke, then Sakura and then Kakashi again. They all seemed to be captivated by Kakashi's sudden silence. I, for one, was not patient enough to stand there and wait for him to finally get around to finishing his sentence.

"Will…" I led.

"Can we get a rain check on this?" Kakashi said, almost as if he was waiting for us to say something so he could make up an absurd excuse.

"What?" the three of us said in unison.

"I have to go."

With that, he disappeared.

"WHAT was that?" Stupid Sasuke said in the most offended tone I have ever heard in my entire life.

"Obviously he was preoccupied by something!" said Sakura. "So let's all go out to lunch! It'll be fun!"

Wow! Sakura was asking me out to lunch?!

"Yeah!" I quickly agreed. There was no way I'd miss THAT opportunity!

"Um…Naruto." Said Sakura. "YOU'RE not invited."

"What?!" I demanded. "You said ALL!!"

"But when I say ALL, I actually mean just me and Sasuke."

"You implied that you were inviting me too!!"

"Well, then that was an accident. I didn't mean to imply that I was inviting you as well!"

Obviously Sakura was just shy about asking me out. She realized that it had sounded like she asked me out! And, when in reality, she just wanted me to ask HER out!

Just when I was about to ask her out in order to satisfy her complicated feminine needs, Sasuke butted in.

"Sure." He said.

Sure WHAT?

"Really?!" Sakura said, turning to stupid Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't reply to Sakura, but all seemed to be forgotten because the three of us started on our way to a restaurant. I wanted to go to the Ramen place, but Sakura insisted on going someplace where we could sit down at a table.

Oh well.

At least we went to a cool restaurant with a grill in the middle of the table so we could grill the food at the table. That place is AWESOME!!

Unfortunately, no matter where I sat, I had to sit next to stupid Sasuke. Fortunately, no matter where I sat, I got to sit next to Sakura.

"Sasuke, this is a DREAM!" Sakura said as she moved her chair over to where Sasuke was sitting. I found myself alone on one half the table…closer to Sasuke than to Sakura. So, in order to remedy the situation, I moved myself over to where Sakura was.

In response, Sasuke stood up and moved his chair to the other side of the table.

Sakura moved her chair again.

I didn't move.

And we stayed like that.

"Hey, Sakura!" I said. "What are you going to order?"

"I don't know." Sakura answered, but I could tell she was watching stupid Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. "Probably nothing. I'm on a diet, you know."

"You don't need to be on a diet, Sakura!" I said. "You look just fine."

"What would YOU know, Naruto?" sighed Sakura.

I figured now was the best time to compliment her. Women always respond to compliments!

"Sakura, did you do something different to your hair this morning?" I asked. "Because it looks REALLY nice today!"

"Naruto, that is not going to work on me."

"I'm just trying to be nice!" I said…even though it was kind of a lie.

"I can tell you're just trying to win me over with compliments!" Sakura said.

I sighed. She was kind of hypocritical.

"Sakura—" I started, but I was interrupted because Lee had suddenly slid over on his knees.

"Sakura!!" Lee yelled almost at the same time as me. Then he babbled for quite a while before Sakura could finally get a word or two in.

"Lee…please…" she said.

"Will you do me the honor of dining with my team and I?" Lee requested.

Before I could yell at him and tell him that she was dining with ME, Tenten did. "Lee! It's a TEAM thing! And THEY'RE obviously doing a team thing too!"

Lee looked at the two of us obliviously. Lee and the rest of his team took off to sit somewhere else.

"Sasuke, are you all right?" Sakura asked him.

I then looked over at Sasuke who looked like he was ready to kill anything if anyone said something to him. I wondered what brought that on. He was perfectly fine a minute ago.

Um…when I said 'perfectly fine', that term is completely relative. He's usually really really angsty and unhappy, but he was ready to go on a warpath just then.

Without saying anything, he folded his menu and stood up. I watched him walk towards the door and didn't do anything to stop him since I wanted him to leave anyway. "Sasuke, where are you going?" Sakura called and started chasing after him.

I didn't want to be a loser sitting there by myself so I chased after Sakura.

"Sakura, wait up!!" I yelled, rounding the corner only to crash into her. "Hey, where'd that stupid Sasuke go?" I asked her.

"I don't know!" she said, sounding whiny.

"Oh well!" I said. "He was annoying anyway!"

"Naruto, you don't know ANYTHING!" she yelled at me.

She started walking away.

I chased after her.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Explain it to me!"

"I don't owe you an explanation." Sakura said, pointing her nose up in the air.

"Sakura, you're acting like it's MY fault that Sasuke suddenly left for no reason!"

Sakura stopped walking.

"Naruto…you just don't get it." she said. "You are talking to the future Mrs. Uchiha Sasuke here! If I am going to be the one who marries Sasuke then I can't have him just getting up and leaving in the middle of dinner!"

"Technically, we hadn't started yet." I pointed out.

"You know what I mean!" Sakura yelled.

I didn't think Sakura was really at that point in her life in which she should be thinking about being the future Mrs. Anybody. I mean, I really liked Sakura but I never looked at her thinking that I was going to marry her. Maybe I was just clueless and everyone my age already knew who they were going to marry.

"I'm going to go and find Sasuke!" she said. "And don't bother trying to stop me or follow me!!" I didn't stop her as she stormed off.

Then, I looked to my right inside the flower shop to see Sasuke in there, looking around as Ino followed him around.

I looked back at Sakura to see she was still as angry as ever and getting further away.

"Hey Sakura!" I called after her.

"What?!" Sakura said angrily, turning around.

I looked back in the flower shop briefly.

"See you tomorrow!" I said.