Chapter 1: Rivals

After the massacre, Sasuke Uchiha just wanted to be left alone and refused to make any relationships. Sadly for him, Naruto refused his refusal.

Hokage Office 6 a.m

The Sandaime, an elderly man, sat in his chair and puffed a few clouds of smoke from his pipe.

He had just finished the current pile of paperwork this morning and was taking a break. Not a very long one, because the job of a Hokage was not exactly known for its breaks, so any change to cool down was highly appreciated.

Staring blankly ahead, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought about the recent events in his village.

The Uchiha massacre weighed heavily on his mind, Itachi's sacrifice at the forefront. To add salt to the wound, something had also happened to the village's jinchuriki.

Or, more importantly for him, something was happening to his surrogate grandson. Only yesterday Naruto had been taken to hospital in the middle of the night, and he blamed himself.

If he wasn't so easy-going, he would have spotted the signs that something was wrong with Naruto early on.

Headaches, coughing and a high temperature. All these symptoms led him to believe that he had a normal fever.

If only he had thought about it more and realized that with the Kyuubi it was almost impossible for Naruto to get sick.

"Some medicine and some sleep would do the trick." Oh, how wrong he was.

Naruto was now in hospital for the unforeseeable future. If he had acted sooner, the effects might not have been so severe.

One more thing to add to his list of regrets, he guessed.

Before he could continue his thoughts, his secretary arrived, bringing a new pile of paperwork. With an apologetic smile and a bow, she left the office and closed the door behind her.

Sighing and swearing softly to himself, he picked up his pen and resumed his duties as Hokage.

"You know, I can teach you a few things if you want."

"Really?!"

"Yeah! Just make sure you don't shower in the mud again."

"I didn't shower in it, I just tripped!"

A soft whimper filled the white room, a hospital room 243. A boy with spiky blond hair and whisker-like marks was clawing hard into the sheets of the mattress.

He took a deep breath each time he breathed and struggled in his endless sleep. The cloth on his forehead did little to cool his high fever.

It went on like this for many days, and the boy did not wake up.

Nurses, doctors and the Hokage himself visited the boy regularly during his comatose state, without his knowledge, of course.

High fever or some unknown illness was suspected as the cause of the boy's misery, but this theory was soon overthrown when certain changes occurred during his sleep.

His once golden hair slowly became darker, mixing with the previous hair color and ending up in a strange mixed state of rusty-looking gold.

Once, when he awoke for a short time and asked for water, one of the nurses and the Hokage saw his light blue, sky-blue eyes turn a deep, dark ocean blue.

Until now, none of the doctors knew anything about the illness that had caught Naruto, such a thing had never happened in the history of the hospital and therefore had never been documented. Every attempt to find a similar case was unsuccessful.

As it stands now, Naruto Uzumaki, a student of the Academy and for most known as the Kyubi's Jinchuriki, was discharged, with no permanent consequences apart from his altered eye and hair color.

Although the Hokage had misgivings about discharging Naruto so quickly without knowing anything about the illness, let alone whether it was contagious, he eventually let him go, seeing no reason to drive the hospital staff crazy with Naruto's whining and complaining about the hospital's boring white room, and the annoyed ANBU trying to catch Naruto when he sneaked out of the hospital.

Nonetheless, he ordered one last full medical check-up and an update of Naruto's medical records.

This was the file he was currently holding, given to him by the head doctor after he had found something rather interesting.

Looking through it, Sarutobi could not see any difference between the current file and the file before his illness.

"Tell me," he took a long puff from his pipe, "What exactly do you want me to look at?"

"Hokage-sama, as you requested, we have examined Uzumaki thoroughly, his health is fine after his illness and we could not find any traces of his strange illness in his body. Jirayia-sama also did not find any chakra of 'it'. What we have found is something that could give us an explanation for Uzumaki's transformation," the doctor explained and took a deep breath.

The Hokage instructed him to continue without looking up and once again searched for differences in the two files.

"If I could draw your attention to his DNA, it does not match our previous samples of him," the doctor said, pointing to the bottom of the new file where a red "No match" was written.

Sarutobi frowned. What did that mean?

"Do you have a theory as to why?" Asked the Hokage.

"No, so far we don't know why Uzumaki's DNA has changed, but it would explain the new characteristics he has because of his heritage."

"Heritage?" Asked the old man, putting the files aside.

"Sir, after we found out that the DNA didn't match, we tried to find other matches in our database and came across one that did match."

The Hokage's eyes widened in horror and he bit down on his pipe with more force than necessary.

That means they found out that his father...

"It seems above all that he has very close relations with Shisui Uchiha of the Body Flicker. The test we did confirms that Shisui must have been his sperm donor, his father." The doctor finished, wondering at the look the Hokage was giving him.

"...What?''

The boy in question, who had been in hospital for a fortnight for unknown reasons, was preparing a nice hot meal of instant ramen.

The boy had not had enough sleep, as could be seen from the slumped posture of his upper body, which had his head buried on the table.

Although he was discharged from hospital and was mostly fine, there were a few moments when he felt sleepy all of a sudden.

The timer he had placed next to him, set for 3 minutes, switched off and jolted him rudely awake before he threw it out of the room, probably breaking it in the process.

Damn, that was the third time this week. He sighed and stood up to pick it up.

Fortunately, the outer shell protected the inside, where the fine machinery was, from breaking.

With a sigh of relief, the boy walked back to his ramen, muttered a soft "Thank you for the food" and pounced on the hot noodles.

In his head he was cheering himself on to hurry up as he had overslept a little and might be late for the academy.

Not that he was overly concerned about being late. It would just suck to get a lecture from Iruka or Mizuki about his tardiness. Again.

It's been a few weeks since he's eaten ramen, thanks to this strange illness he caught. He still has no idea why or how, in any case it has nothing to do with his dumpster diving weekend. He had never gotten sick from it before, why would it now?

Whatever the case, he was still grumbling about his "bad hair color" hours later. He didn't know much about medicine, health or even hygiene, but he guessed that an illness that knocks you out, and someone as strong as him, permanently changing the color of your hair and eyes, was probably a very big warning sign.

But thanks to his great training and general awesomeness, he not only beat the disease, but overcame it and adapted to it, feeling as good as new.

He smiled broadly at his own thoughts, set the bowl aside, placed the chopstick neatly on top and headed for the door to start a new day at the academy.

That would have happened, too, if a sudden headache hadn't overcome him, knocking him to the floor in pain. And just when he thought he was getting better too.

He cried out softly and grabbed his rusty gold hair with all his might, almost tearing it out until the headache subsided and his breathing began to stabilize.

The sudden headaches were nothing new; two days before he was admitted to hospital, these attacks had been recurring.

At first it was just a mild annoyance, then it turned into a real pain in his butt before it felt like someone was going to split his skull.

Slowly, he got back up, propped himself against the wall, limped to his door, reached for the handle and took a deep breath. The seizures usually occurred only once a day, and since he had left the hospital they had become much less frequent. He just had to make a normal and nice impression, and everything would be fine.

As big brother used to say, "A smile doesn't ease the pain, but it can make others believe it."

A cheap trick, to be honest, but he was a ninja-to-be, a bit of credit that he could fool an entire village into thinking he was in perfect shape.

Not taking into account that he was ignored by almost everyone and that you shouldn't hide pain, emotional pain, when you have no way to vent them out.

Hey, Naruto was a retrospective kind-of-person.

The dark streets of Konoha were always a beautiful sight. In daylight, the streets themselves almost seemed to glow with a bright, sunny smile, keeping the positive energy emanating from the villagers solid and bright.

At night, however, they were nothing more than a pile of small stones scattered in a certain way to make it easier for eyes to see where they needed to go.

A little boy, no more than 6 years old, was running fast along such a path.

Panting and exhausted, the boy ran as fast as he could to get home.

He slowed down when he realized that the dark road he was running along was still not over.

Looking behind him, he saw the exact same lamppost that was in front of him, with the same placard and the same damage that it had.

Confused, the boy turned around once more, only to cry out in horror when he saw the bodies lying in the street in front of him.

Frozen with fright, the boy tried to run away, but happened to look up at the lamppost and caught sight of a lone shadow crouching on the top of the post.

A dark shadow in human form looked down at him, red eyes with black dots stared at him, cold, emotionless and full of hatred.

Sasuke Uchiha jolted violently out of bed, cursing and breathing rapidly.

For many seconds he stared straight ahead, not trying to move even an inch. Only after what felt like an eternity did he try to calm his breathing.

Slowly, he dropped back onto his bed and now stared at the plain white ceiling of the apartment he was currently in.

His alarm clock went off and was silenced not a moment later by Sasuke's right hand.

Waiting a few more moments to let the nightmare fade from his mind, he got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

After brushing his teeth and taking a quick cold shower, he set about preparing breakfast.

It was bland, quick and easy to digest.

He set the dishes aside for cleaning later, grabbed his keys and headed out.

"And make sure you always eat the fruits and vegetables I put in your lunch, young man."

Then he went back to the kitchen and grabbed an apple to take with him on his way to the academy.

Naruto ran as fast as he could to the academy. Thanks to the math lessons he had received at the academy, he knew that if he hurried he would make it just in time.

He could already see the academy next to the Hokage tower, down the street, before a slight throbbing in his head signaled that another headache was on the way.

Naruto gritted his teeth, this wasn't supposed to happen after he'd already had one not twenty minutes ago. In a split second he made a decision and ran into a nearby alley where no one would see him.

Before he could check to see if anyone had followed him, a pain shot through his head and he fell back to his knees. But with a pained gasp, he realized that it was less painful than in his apartment.

And a few seconds later he was gone again. Naruto took this as a sign that the sickness he had caught was slowly subsiding and he sighed in relief.

Leaving the alley, he continued his run towards the academy, not noticing that his completely obsidian black eyes had replaced his deep ocean blue ones.

Sasuke listened to Iruka-sensei's lectures with only one ear and looked outside where the clouds were passing by.

He didn't want to be disrespectful to his tutor, but every lecture of his so far was just boring.

Certainly informative, it was a quality lecture he got every day, but also very boring. Not even the finest art of speaking or the most exciting way of writing could make math more bearable.

If it was at least history, but they were almost done with that this year.

It was a waste of time, said a darker part of him, he could have trained more for when he would inevitably come face to face with this man.

Involuntarily, he gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists so that his knuckles turned white.

Then he suddenly jerked his head towards the door, where a fellow orange-haired student was gasping for breath.

"Naruto, please tell me why you're late this time! I thought you finally understood after last time!" Shouted Iruka angrily.

Naruto just smiled back sheepishly, "Sorry Iruka-sensei, my alarm didn't go off." He replied.

A disappointed sigh escaped Iruka's lips, "That means another detention for you, Naruto. Now go and find a seat."

Naruto. That was his name. He was the guy who claimed to be his rival. As if. The difference in power between them was so great that it wasn't even worth his time.

He didn't need a rival. He just wanted to be left alone. Is that so hard to understand?

He heard footsteps beside him and the chair moved back.

Oh great, so the loudmouth had decided to sit down next to him. Of course, he might have guessed.

Luckily there was a god up there, at least some kind of small deity, who was looking out for him at that moment, because the blonde - wait, was his color always that blonde?

Now that he looked closer... his normal, sun-kissed hair had a very, he thought, ugly brown mixture that made it look like his previous hair had been solid gold, but it was beginning to rust.

When he looked at the amber-haired kid again, he could see even more changes. Subtle but noticeable changes.

Wait, hadn't he been sick or something for the last four weeks? It wouldn't have been noticeable to Sasuke, since he himself had only been released from the hospital a few days ago, but he had heard from the other students that "it was so quiet without him".

Him meaning Naruto, and he had to admit that the few days without Naruto in the classroom were... were even more boring.

At least he could chuckle inwardly at his abysmal performance at almost anything that wasn't physical.

"Sasuke, can you show us your performance now?" their sensei said, robotically checking the last name on his list for the shuriken throwing exercise.

Blinking, he looked around. He and his class were in the nearby clearing that served as the academy's training ground. Weren't they in the classroom right now?

He shook off his confusion, walked silently to the stand and took five shuriken in his left hand. He narrowed his eyes at the five different mannequins scattered and hidden in the forest in front of him.

With one throw, he released all five deadly iron stars, and with a satisfying "thud" sound, each of them hit its mark.

Not a second later, to his chagrin, almost all the girls shrieked in amazement at his skill. In a somewhat dampened mood, he went back to his place and tried not to look at any of the girls who were swooning over him.

"What's so special about that, I can do it too!" yelled a voice behind him, Naruto very angrily. It just wasn't fair that the stuck up bastard was getting all the attention. Without even a hint of permission or shame, he went to the stand and took five shurikens as well.

"Naruto, let's not...", Iruka said, trying to calm the boy down before he did something stupid, but he didn't have time to finish his sentences before he made a substitution with a log hit by five shurikens.

'Did Naruto throw them behind him or something !?' asked Iruka, panicking on the branch above the tree he had been standing on earlier.

'W-wait'

"Stop imitating Sasuke-kun, Naruto!" shouted several of the fangirls, or similar phrases.

"Naruto actually did something much more impressive, albeit unintentionally." 'I hope so!' shouted Iruka, jumping back down.

"Can anyone tell me where he would have hit me if I hadn't dodged?"

Many of the kids were quiet now, including Naruto, after thinking he had made an unabashed fool of himself.

"Three of them were vital points," finally came the answer (read=yawn) from a pineapple head.

"Very good, yes Naruto would have hit me in the heart, liver and lungs, the other two were my two eyes. Anyway, the point is that while he didn't hit the right target(s), what he did hit, he hit with impressive accuracy."

Naruto slowly smiled at the compliment his teacher paid him.

"But that doesn't excuse the fact that not only did you miss the main target, but you also hit an ally and if you were unlucky, you might have even killed another leaf ninja. That's extra detention."

And as quickly as his smile formed, it wiped away, "Oh man..."

Later, when he was alone in the detention room, except for Iruka himself who was handling some papers, his thoughts drifted back to his blight, Sasuke.

Why did someone who was so rude, and a total douchebag to boot, have so much talent?

At the thought that he was actually weaker and less talented than Sasuke, he forcibly turned his head away from the window as if to escape that realization.

'Patience, soon I will surpass that damn bastard.'

Later, when he was going home, he was lucky enough to meet him on the way.

Well, meet is not the right word, rather he watched him standing in front of a small lake in the park like a total idiot.

He figured this was a good moment and ran up to him to announce his intentions and their future together.

For his part, Sasuke tried to sort out his emotions and feelings again. Although his long stay in the hospital had helped him to cope with... everything, he still had to deal with all the misfortune he had left behind.

Ranting at this thought, he turned to continue his way home, only to run into the loudmouth himself.

Pointing an accusing finger at him, the amber-haired boy all but shouted in his ear, "We're now officially rivals!"

Stunned by the shock of such a ridiculous statement, he blinked and tried to walk past the boy. If he really believed they were equals, he would not want to indulge his fantasy.

He had better things to do than lecture people about the reality of their situation.

"Hey you bastard, don't you dare ignore me!" Although this person was trying Sasuke's limited patience.

"Go. I don't see us as equals." The cold reply came from him. Great, now he was actually responding to the madman.

"I know you're probably thinking why I need a rival. It's pretty easy to understand, but since you're the weaker of the two of us-"

"Is that what you really think?" Sasuke turned and stared straight at Naruto.

Did he really think that the second to last in the class was stronger than him? Was his ego really so absurd that he imagined he was better than him, who had trained his ass off to become so strong in the first place?

"Isn't it obvious?" Came back the confused reply. It was as if he actually thought he was stronger than him.

"Tsk." Sasuke tried to ignore his headache and continued on his way home, he really didn't want this conversation. He just wanted to go home and rest up for the day.

"Alright then! I'll see you tomorrow, rival!"

"We're not rivals!"