AN: I don't own anything

Sasuke and Mikoto were up and had breakfast earlier than usual, confusing Itachi and Fugaku, Sasuke and Itachi's father, "The two of you are getting quite an early start this morning, any particular reason why?" Fugaku asked taking sips of the tea his wife had prepared. "Yeah, I'm gonna go get some extra training in with my friend in the village, when mother and I are done" Sasuke said a bit of excitement bleeding into his voice, "You seem happy Sasuke, I'm glad. " Itachi said with a smile, that just served to make Sasuke beam some more. "Who's this friend of yours?" Fugaku asked with a raised eyebrow, "His name is Naruto, he wants to be a ninja but he's terrible so I'm helping him get better." This made Itachi chuckle "Comrades are important Sasuke, you should continue to help him maybe he'll help you grow as well."

Fugaku had a strange look on his face, "Mikoto could we speak in the study." He got up and went to wait for her in the study. Mikoto turned to Itachi and gave him a smile, "Could you be a good big brother and get Sasuke started on his chakra control lessons, we're adding two leaves to the total today" with that she went and followed her husband.

"Come Sasuke, Shisui should also be here soon, let's get started before he arrives" with that Itachi and Sasuke went outside to get started.

When outside Sasuke prepared himself putting a leaf on his forehead, on each of his palms and the back of his hands, his shins and calves, applying chakra to each of the points he put leaves he did a lap around the yard to make sure they were held on by the chakra then he added a leaf to each ear lobe and concentrated for a while.

IN THE STUDY

"Mikoto we're in a bad position with the village as it is, they already blame us for the fox attack now if Sasuke gets close to that boy things will only grow worse, you must not encourage him. Discourage him instead." Fugaku was sounding so tired, all of this was taking a toll on him, how could they protect a village that didn't trust them, that drove them further and further away.

"That boy has a name and it's Naruto, he's the son of my best friend in case you've forgotten, Fugaku" She'd seen the boy a few times, he was always by himself, his existence seemed so lonely it broke her heart.

"I know that, Minato and I weren't as close as you and Kushina but we were still friends… Naruto, he's lonely yes but if they think we're interfering things could get worse for us and maybe for him too…" Fugaku went on stone faced "I think it's best for everyone for Sasuke to cut ties with him"

"No Fugaku, if you've seen him and you can see that he's lonely then don't take away his only friend, your sons first friend… please. Almost all the village acts like he doesn't exist and those that don't openly despise him, please let Kushina and Minato's son have some semblance of normalcy" she was almost in tears. "I know you've told some of the Uchiha police to watch for Naruto and make sure he doesn't get hurt but it's not enough Fugaku, he needs Sasuke please."

Fugaku sighed, he never wanted to see his wife cry, hurt like this so he agreed, "Very well, however I need you to encourage that Sasuke meets with him in private, wherever it is that they train"

OUTSIDE

Sasuke had finished his second lap and was now sparring with his brother, a frustrating affair, making even more difficult to keep his chakra on the leaves.

"You know you should let him hit you at least once, you know" called a voice from the other side of the back yard. "Shisui" Itachi greeted, "Shisui!" Sasuke shouted in excitement and stopped attacking Itachi and went towards his older cousin.

"You're getting pretty good twerp, you didn't drop a single leaf since I've been watching" Shisui grinned while placing a hand on Sasuke's hair and ruffling it. "I heard you got a mission Itachi, I thought I'd come and see you off as usual as well as spend time training little Sasuke when you go, I think I'll show him the clone jutsu." Shisui continued still grinning.

"I'm not little" Sasuke said with a pout. Itachi seemed a bit pensive "You think he's ready for that?" Shisui just laughed "You know he is"

At that moment Mikoto and Fugaku appeared from the house, "Sasuke let's get started the sooner we do the sooner you can leave, I'll get Shisui to take you to your friend, it is his day off maybe he can show you both that jutsu he's talking about." Mikoto smiled and pulled Sasuke to the side to continue his training as the other three headed towards the village. Mikoto smiled at Sasuke, "Come at me Sasuke, when I'm satisfied we'll add leaves to your forearms." Sasuke had a look of concentration on his face, "Yes ma'am"


Naruto got up before breakfast and did ten laps around the orphanage before stepping inside to eat, he ate breakfast at a more sedate pace than usual knowing he had to help with the clean up after everyone was done eating. He helped quickly and quietly with no complaint. He couldn't wait to get back to the clearing to carry on his training.

It was an hour and a half before he could leave and head to his and Sasuke's makeshift training ground. When he got there he practiced some shuriken throwing for an hour to make sure he retained the skills he'd built up last night. When he was satisfied he went on to do some pushups pull-ups and squats. He sparred invisible opponents throwing punches and kicks at the air.

After two hours of alternating these exercises Sasuke finally showed up with someone following behind him, he was a ninja judging by the headband. "Hey, took you long enough." Naruto waved with two fingers. "Hey, this is my cousin Shisui, he's pretty strong and mom is making him train us" Sasuke grinned.

"Yo you must be Naruto, Sasuke told me a lot about you, you know, mostly that you suck" Shisui said with a laugh as Naruto glared at Sasuke, who just looked at him expressionless.

Naruto then spun on his heel and threw the two shuriken at the target, they both hit dead center, he turned around with a satisfied smirk "How's that for sucking, huh?"

"Well I'm impressed, don't tell me you lied Sasuke, that's not a nice thing to do to a friend" Shisui said looking at Sasuke who just shrugged, "He was terrible yesterday, I guess he just improved quickly." Shisui believed him, he wouldn't lie about things like that. "Well then you're certainly impressive Naruto. I'd like to see you and Sasuke spar for a bit so I can see how far along you are"

Sasuke and Naruto got into stance after a bit, "You think you're ready to take on an Uchiha?" Sasuke asked good naturedly, "Ha! You ready to lose to the great Uzumaki Naruto, future hokage of the leaf?" Naruto said with some fire in his eyes. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that 'Big dreams huh' he thought but grinned and said." Let's do this then!"

They ran towards each other Naruto going for a left, right combo of punches which Sasuke smoothly ducked under countering with an upper cut that caught Naruto on the chin. Naruto moved with the blow propelling himself into a backflip kick which Sasuke barely dodged by leaping back. Naruto landed in a crouch with his left hand in front of him, he then launched himself at Sasuke his right fist pulled back for a heavy swing, Sasuke leaned back a bit and used his arms to push Naruto in the direction of his punch leaving his back exposed, Sasuke was surprised when Naruto once again went with the flow spinning on his right leg while lifting his left and using it to deliver a kick with his heel to Sasuke's ribs.

'Ouch' Naruto had hit him extremely hard, he had no time to think on it as he had to raise his arm to block a kick from the right leg this time, it seemed the blond used him as a foot hold. 'Ouch even when I block it hurts' Sasuke thought as he pushed Naruto who went back and was landed off balance, he had no time to block Sasuke's left right combo to the face and a punch to the chest he did catch a kick that was meant for the stomach, he pulled Sasuke in closer and went for a palm strike to the sternum that sent Sasuke back rolling. They charged at each other again Sasuke getting in more hits but Naruto doing a lot of damage with the few strikes he got in.

After about five minutes of this Shisui stopped them, "Enough, the two of you are certainly good' he told them truthfully, he was thoroughly impressed with them. "Rest for a bit, then I'll teach you an academy level jutsu."

Sasuke sat and meditated, "What are you doing?" Naruto asked his friend, "Meditating, it's a way to rest, regenerate chakra faster and improve chakra control" Sasuke answered. Naruto nodded and joined him, he knew chakra was the energy ninja used to do ninja things so being able to control the energy had to be important, he'd have to add meditation to his daily routine.

After 10 minutes Shisui called to them, "Alright listen up squirts, I'm going to teach you the clone jutsu." He waited to see that he truly had their attention before going on "This is a relatively simple jutsu, that makes a copy of yourself that's an illusion. I'll demonstrate the hands signs in a bit, what's important here is focusing on making a copy of yourself" he showed them the hand signs.

When they tried the jutsu Sasuke had an almost perfect replica of himself it was just a bit too pale, Naruto on the other hand was doing terrible, his clone looked dead and deflated. Shisui scratched the back of his head "Good work Sasuke you just need a little more practice and it'll be perfect, Naruto you need a lot more work and maybe a lot more chakra control training." They practiced a few more times in an hours time Sasuke could make a perfect clone and Naruto had made no progress which left him frustrated. "Naruto let me show you another jutsu, Sasuke will show you a chakra control exercise later to help you out, Sasuke keep practicing and increase the number of clones" Shisui said pulling Naruto aside. "That's not fair Shisui how come he gets to learn an extra jutsu?" Sasuke complained "Don't worry about it, it's all part of my master plan" Shisui called back.

In another thirty minutes they were all back together, "Now you both have a jutsu you can perform… Stop sulking Sasuke I just taught Naruto the replacement jutsu. I want you both to practice until you can perform the jutsu with a single hand sign and in the case of the substitution jutsu without a seal even. Sasuke when you can make ten perfect clones with one seal I'll consider you a master of the technique. Naruto if you can do five replacements in a row without any seals you'll be a master. Once you two have completed that task then I want you to teach each other your jutsu." Shisui finished with a satisfied smile, nodding to himself.

"I didn't know you could do that with jutsu, make the hand signs shorter I mean" Naruto said giving Shisui a look of admiration. "You can do more than that, you can even modify them once you've mastered them completely" Shisui said, even Sasuke perked up at that. "Anyway kids, I want you to do something for me, I want you to keep your meetings and training away from where people can see them." Sasuke looked confused at this "Why?" Sasuke asked, "It's quite simple… as shinobi our greatest strength besides our jutsu is our ability to hide things, keep things secret, being under estimated is often the easiest way to win. You should want to be underestimated that's why I want you guys to hide your strength and training, so that it becomes second nature." Shisui said seriously, "Isn't that cheating though? Finding the easiest way to win?" Naruto asked, the answer came from Sasuke, "It is but we're ninja we're supposed to cheat and lie and maybe even more for the sake of our village" 'At least that's what father once told me'

Shisui smiled, "Yeah exactly, sounds like something your father would say" Sasuke blushed at that comment. "Teach Naruto the leaf exercise then you guys can spar for longer, I'll be correcting you this time, and after we'll leave" Shisui said suddenly changing the topic.

Naruto it turned out like Sasuke had said was a quick study, but his chakra control was still bad enough that he had quite a difficult time learning. They would spar for seven to ten minutes then Shisui would step in correct them and let them rest for about fifteen minutes, Naruto spent this time trying to get a leaf to stick to his forehead with some difficulty.

By the time they were done for the day Naruto could make the leaf stay in place for about a minute in combat and about ten minutes when meditating or concentrating.

As they were finishing up for the day Sasuke asked Naruto something that had been on his kind for a while now "Naruto" He started "Yeah? " Was the answer he got back, "I heard you call yourself Uzumaki, I thought orphans didn't have a family name?" Naruto smiled bitterly "Well the hokage comes to the orphanage every now and again, I was also confused that I had one and no one else in the place did, so I asked him about it… He says that when I was found after the Ninetails attack, I was wrapped in a blanket that has the Uzumaki clan crest on it, that's why they think I'm an Uzumaki, I'm apparently one of the last though" Naruto finished sadly.

"I suppose the Uzumaki were tough then because you're pretty strong." Sasuke said trying to cheer his friend up, it seemed to work a little as Naruto smiled a bit more genuinely.

Sasuke and Shisui said their good byes and went home, Naruto decided to head to the orphanage, he'd meditate before he went to bed and when he woke up.


On the way to the Uchiha compound Shisui was thinking back on the day off he had, he supposed he had some fun with the two brats, 'Well I tried lady Mikoto I think it'll work out though'

Flashback

"Before you boys leave, Sasuke go and take some lunch I made for all three of you and I'd like to talk to you about something quickly Shisui." Mikoto called out from behind them. "Okay" Sasuke said, he walked back to the house as Mikoto and Shisui went to the other side of the garden to talk.

"Shisui I'm sure you're aware of the situation the clan faces and Naruto's… status?" she asked quietly. "Yeah I'm aware, I had a feeling that, that was who Sasuke was talking about after all I don't think there's anyone else in the village named Naruto" Shisui said surprisingly serious.

"It's for that reason I need you to encourage them to meet in secret, please so that it's safer for everyone" Mikoto pleaded. Shisui just nodded intent on not letting his aunt down.

"Let's go!" Sasuke shouted from the door.

Flashback End

"Shisui, you okay?" Sasuke asked giving his cousin a look, "Yeah just thinking back on today I enjoyed myself. I think you found a good friend in Naruto" Shisui said smiling softly. Sasuke gave him another look, "You're weird" and ran ahead leaving the older boy to chuckle before he swiftly caught up.


AN: I don't intend to keep updating at this pace, I was motivated by the response in future I'll update once a week. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter any feedback is appreciated.