Two boys stood at an old park. One was a blond who stood at about 5 foot 7 and the other was a dark-haired boy who was taller than the blond at 5 foot 10.
Naruto and Sasuke looked at the blacktop with the appropriate lines for a basketball court painted in a faded white.
The blond took the first step towards the center where a single ball lay. Bending down, he picked it up and waited for his brother in all but blood to walk over.
The two shed their hoodies leaving them each in shorts and a tank top. Their shoes, worn down from the constantly repeated game.
Naruto bounce passed the ball to Sasuke who passed back. "Check." Was all the raven-haired boy had time to say before Naruto shot off like a rocket, nearly leaving him behind.
To respond, Sasuke made a short hop backward, stopping the blond from progressing any further. His hand shot forward with incredible speed, aiming to knock the ball out of Naruto's hands, but failed when the boy responded with a behind-the-back crossover to his left hand.
Not willing to let his friend reach the rim, Sasuke tightened his defense, moving in closer and subsequently slowing down Naruto's movements.
Sharp crimson orbs met piercing cerulean as the blond continued to dribble with his left hand. The dribbling slowed down ever so slightly before Naruto shot off like a rocket once more. Crossing the ball back over to his right hand, he went for the near surefire dunk.
If it had been almost anyone else but Sasuke guarding Naruto, they would have fallen behind the blue-eyed wonder, but Sasuke was Sasuke.
Jumping up and blocking the dunk, Sasuke slammed the ball toward the backboard, making it bounce away from the two.
Naruto was the first to land. He shot off at the ball at near inhuman speeds and picked it up before it went out of bounds. The two friends deadlocked again.
Naruto went for an in-between the leg crossover, but Sasuke was able to poke it out of place and make it slip past Naruto. Before the blond could move to get the ball, Sasuke had it again. No words were shared as Sasuke began dribbling.
It wasn't as fast as Naruto's, but it looked much more controlled. It was a perfect contradiction to Naruto's erratic and instinctual handling.
Sasuke shot forward with handling skills matching some of the greats. The precision of his dribbles matching some of the greats. After a while, he was able to find a flaw in Naruto's seemingly perfect defense. He capitalized on the slight off-balance wobbling of Naruto's leg, something only he and a few other people would be able to see mid-dribble, and did a quick pivot with his left foot, spinning back before jumping.
A perfect fade-away jumper that didn't allow the defender to jump up to their normal max height to block. He had gotten quite proficient in the move seeing that Naruto could jump to seemingly impossible heights. The ball left his hand and Sasuke looked to where Naruto was before, only to see him jumping right in front of him, eyes set on at least bumping the ball off course.
But he was too late, his hand crossed the ball's path less than a second after it passed allowing the sweet sound of a ball hitting nothing but net to ring in their ears.
"Already Sasuke? Isn't the match just starting?" Naruto walked over to get the ball from under the hoop.
"Don't be so sour dobe, it doesn't fit you. Anyways, I've been trying to perfect that move for months so I'm gonna use it every chance I get."
Naruto looked puzzled. "Didn't you already finish that like a few weeks ago?"
Sasuke simply sighed. "You know that you're just saying that so I don't get any better than I already am and completely destroy you every game."
The blond thought about something for a second before nodding. "Fuck off teme." He seemed to ponder something else before speaking again. "Since we can't see him again, this is the best we can do, right Sasuke?"
A single nod came from the black-haired boy. "Don't forget about the school here though. That notice they sent to us was pretty concerning."
"I know I know. Something about us being put into some random school that those tests we did will allow us to attend." The blond boy waved his hand dismissively.
Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. "You really didn't listen when I read it to you, did you." It was more of a statement than a question, causing Naruto to swallow.
"I got the gist of it?"
"Sensei told us to live proper lives, not like the ones we had before. I don't think that how we've been living up until this point is a proper way of living."
Naruto was going to say something but stopped himself. He knew that Sasuke would have some way of refuting whatever he said with sensible logic.
"I don't care if you don't want to go. I'll drag your ass there if it's the last thing I do." Yep boys had promised, and Naruto never went back on his word.
"Shut up and play. It's getting tiring listening to you talk about stuff I don't care about."
A victorious smirk was already on Sasuke's face. The ball was bounced to said ravenette who in turn became serious again as he closed his left eye. "Check."
All the while, someone watched from the sidelines the two high schoolers battled on the court. He had only seen such high-level play from kids their age in one place. Teikō Junior High and the Generation of Miracles.
The man watching them was called Masaaki Nakatani. Coach of Shūtoku High School's basketball team. He had straight black hair and critical eyes as he observed.
He had been told by another teacher that there were a few people he might want to scout for his team at this park. So he made the drive to Kabukicho, one of the largest red-light districts in Tokyo.
Honestly, Masaaki wasn't expecting to see anything as remarkable as he was at the current moment, especially coming from a place as infamous as Kabukicho.
As he watched from afar, he took notice that in between points, the two friends chatted away, but the second they checked the ball and became opponents again, the only thing on their minds was basketball.
Now Masaaki didn't consider himself a selfish man, but when the opportunity came, he would strike. That's why even though he already had two first-year students he planned on putting on the starting lineup, he wanted these two as a backup. A contingency plan if you will.
The middle-aged coach watched silently as he saw something in each of the boys. At first, the black-haired boy had his attention more than the blond, but now it was the other way around.
The black-haired boy had perfect technique with every move he used and amazing dexterity that let him dribble the ball with multiple strategies in mind. Not to mention that fade away and the skill to break away from and lockdown defense. He was able to see everything his opponent did and react accordingly.
That and the fact that he could read every move the blond was going to make. Although it might have been because of how many times they had played each other at first, it was slowly showing that he had an ability similar to that of Akashi from the Generation of Miracles. He would react in surprise to new moves before they were ever executed but still stop them perfectly.
Somehow, in addition to all that, he had another level of foresight. What the coach didn't know was that Sasuke was personally limiting himself by blocking out the full picture before. He had one eye closed, stopping him from seeing a portion of Naruto's future moves. But he had unleashed the beast, allowing the full glory of his personally named Sharingan to watch over the blond boy and savoring every second of it.
But the blond was what had his attention now. Standing at 5'7", he was 3 inches shorter than the boy he was up against. And yet with his small size, he had been able to jump high enough to block and snatch most of the black-haired boy's perfectly targeted shots.
That meant that not only his vertical was huge, but he had explosive power that couldn't be denied. And for some reason, the blond always won struggles of strength. At first, he thought it was because the ravenette wasn't a physical player, but after looking more he could see that the blond just had abnormal strength.
The way he played was feral and animalistic. He dribbled masterfully with instinct alone, not allowing the ball to be stolen easily. His eyes looked starved for prey, and scoring was just that. With every point he made, his momentum increased, making him rise to extraordinary and unprecedented levels of physical prowess.
And the icing on the cake for his new potential secret weapon was his speed. The blond was fast, and with the acceleration to match it. If the ravenette went from 0 to 100, the blond went from 0 to 200 and never stopped until he slammed the ball into the hoop.
But the game didn't go on for much longer. Soon neither was able to score points on the other, eventually leading to stop their match at a tie.
The blond seemed less than happy while the ravenette had a smirk on his face. Caught up in their bickering, they didn't notice Masaaki approaching them.
"Hello, if I may have some of your time, I'd like to propose something to you two." He wasn't sure whether or not he was making the right decision in approaching them like this, but these two had unbelievable talent that he just had to have.
While the blond still looked less than happy, the ravenette responded to him promptly. "Why would someone like you want to talk to us?" Suspicion and caution lined the boy's voice. He panted and pulled the bottom of his tank top up to wipe the sweat off his face, revealing a toned and muscular body.
The aura he gave off was frightening as if he was ready to either run or fight at a moment's notice, regardless of how tired he was. The blond noticed and tensed up the same way, although he didn't look tired in the least, just sweaty.
"I'm Masaaki Nakatani, the coach of Shūtoku high. I want to offer you two a position on Shūtoku High's basketball team. After observing your skills, I believe you two are incredible players we would be lucky to have." Masaaki subconsciously swallowed from the pressure emitted by the two high school-aged kids in front of him.
The ravenette looked at the blond and the blond back at him. They seemed to be having a conversation through eye contact before the blond smiled.
"Would that mean we're going there on a scholarship?"
"Yes, it would. While you wouldn't need to test into the school, you'd need to keep your grades at a passable level if you want to play any games." The coach nodded to the two, knowing that they might have not been able to afford tuition based on where they were living.
The blond looked at the ravenette expectantly with the grin still plastered on his face.
Eventually, the older teen caved. "Fine, we still hadn't applied for any schools anyway. We'll join your Shūtoku High team if it means we don't pay tuition."
A smile made its way onto the middle-aged man's face. The same kind as when his team won a game. He pulled out some business cards and handed one to the young Uchiha.
"Contact the school whenever you have the time. Just tell them who you are and they'll let you move your things to the dorm building. I never got your names, who are you?"
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"Uzumaki Naruto 'ttebayo!"
The two watched as their soon-to-be coach walked to his car and drove off, going back to wherever he came from.
"You ready Naruto? We're going back to school."
"Don't worry about me. As long as I'm having fun playing basketball, I couldn't care less about the fact that I have to go back to school. I thought most schools wouldn't have a good basketball program and all. I'm glad this one does."
Over the next month, the two went through the very long process of being admitted into a school in Japan for the first time.
Having literally been unknown to the government until a month or so ago, the two had to get a multitude of papers and had extensive background checks done on them. All so that they could play basketball at Shūtoku.
Sasuke was the more patient out of the two of them, and even he was getting tired of going through the long interrogation-like interviews.
But because of the words a certain silver-haired man had said to them before he died, they persevered.
Because the two were scouted, they had to go through the long process of registering for a school for the first time in their lives.
And because there were no records of them anywhere, many precautions were taken to ensure the safety of the other students.
Eventually, the process finished, and they were allowed to enter the school. But during the time it took for them to get registered, Shūtoku had already lost to Serin during the Inter High, knocking them out of the tournament altogether. And today was their first day of practice with the team.
"Ne, Sasuke."
"What?"
"What's playing for a real team like?"
A tick mark appeared on the young Uchiha's forehead, but he was somehow able to keep his composure. "You think I know dobe? This is my first time playing for a team as well."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh yeah. Sorry, it's just that I'm excited about this. There's apparently a ton of challenging teams we'll have to go up against during the winter. Including Serin, the team that beat Shūtoku during their last practice match."
"You're pissing me off with your stupidity, so can you shut up for a bit?" Sasuke opened the door to his locker and started heading to the locker rooms, Naruto following closely behind.
The blond gasped with mock shock. "So mean Sasuke. I might just cry."
The young players reached the locker room quickly and changed just as fast. Now decked out in Shūtoku's orange practice jerseys, (which in Naruto's opinion were the coolest jerseys ever) they went to the large court that was the pride of Shūtoku.
Naruto being the energetic boy he is, jumped up and down a few times in front of the door to get rid of his jitters, prompting a slap on his back from Sasuke.
"Ow! What was that for teme!?"
"Stop doing that jumping thing. You saw it in some movies and now you're trying to look cool by doing it."
"You've always gotta ruin my fun like that?"
"Yes, now get a move on."
Naruto pushed open the large double doors and walked into the giant gym. Upon entering, a few heads turned to face the teens, or should I say teen because Naruto had already run off to check out the facilities before anyone could get a good look at him.
"Wow! It really is just as big as he said it was! Hey, Sasuke, you've gotta come and look at this!" Naruto had already made his way to the other side of the gym and was looking at the assortment of weights lining the walls.
Sasuke simply facepalmed at Naruto's antics.
Seeing that the two had arrived, Masaaki went to greet Sasuke at the door. "Looks like you two made it here okay. I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."
The ravenette nodded. "Oi, dobe! Get over here!"
The upperclassmen gathered and were deterred by how Sasuke talked to the energetic blond. Said blond was in front of them within seconds, having crossed the gym at top speed.
Soon, a green-haired boy and another ravenette were standing in assembly with the rest of the basketball players.
"These two are the newest addition to Shūtoku's basketball team." Masaaki turned to Naruto and Sasuke. "Introduce yourselves."
"Uchiha Sasuke, Point Guard."
"Uzumaki Naruto, Shooting Guard!"
"I brought them here to help us win the winter cup, so let's go and win it!" The normally mild-mannered coach was excited at the prospect of winning the winter cup for the first time and nearly jumped in joy because of Naruto and Sasuke agreeing to attend Shūtoku.
A hand went up in the middle of the crowd. "So they play the same positions as us?" The one who spoke was someone named Takao. He stood next to a tall green-haired boy.
"Yes, they do Takao. They are our second duo, just like you and Midorima." That statement shocked all of the members of the team. For another duo to be even the backup of Takao and Midorima, they would have to be especially.
"Excuse my rudeness, but I don't believe a second duo is needed. Takao and I are good enough as is." The green-haired boy spoke for the first time, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
A smirk appeared on Sasuke's face. "So you doubt our abilities? How about we do a little two on two and loosen up? If you still doubt us, we'll step down from our positions and pick new ones."
"Sounds like fun!" Takao stood in front of Midorima grinning widely.
"Hmph, if coach allows it, I'd like to see just how good you two are."
They turned to the middle-aged man who was looking at them with a ghost of a smile on his face. "Go ahead. It'll also help the upperclassmen know a bit about their new teammate's play styles."
The two duos walked onto the court, Naruto and Midorima each doing the tip-off for their respective duo.
"Start!"