A.N: I own nothing
Naruto woke up in his new apartment alone, he smiled to himself, he would enjoy the freedom that came with living on his own. Yesterday was the first time he saw the Hokage outside of the orphanage, everyone stopped and bowed in front of him, people moved out of his way when he walked and looked at him like he made the sun rise. One day he'd get that strong, he'd have that respect.
The Hokage gave him pocket money and said that, for a year he'd be having supper prepared for him, he would also be getting books on how to cook, after a year he would have to cook for himself. His groceries would always be done for him and he would receive pocket money to spend on whatever he liked until he was a genin.
He could live with that, he liked his new living arrangement, the Hokage had even bought some clothes for him and said he'd give him money for new ones every now and then. He was excited, it was going to be his first day at the academy today, he wanted to make a good impression so he'd decided he would be early. He couldn't sleep much anyway.
He took a shower, his arms were already healed from yesterday, Sasuke's jutsu had hurt him quite a bit, but by the time he met up with the Hokage they were only stinging. The blond wore a pale yellow short sleeved shirt with a red spiral on the right sleeve and he wore dark blue shorts and the common shinobi sandals
He went to his dining room/kitchen to eat breakfast, he decided he'd have cereal and pack instant ramen for lunch. He brushed his teeth before he left and he took a stroll to the school grounds, there was no rush after all, he was early.
Sasuke was up in the early hours of the morning, he decided to meditate, the spar he and Naruto had yesterday showed him just how far behind he was when it came to chakra. The blond had almost completely healed by the time they left too. He had to go to his mom to help him with the injuries he'd sustained.
In the first few months of sparing with Naruto his mom decided that she'd learn some medical ninjutsu because they always did a number on each other. Somehow Naruto would be completely okay by the next day. Sasuke thought maybe he should learn medical ninjutsu too, so he could heal himself during spars.
'The look on that idiot's face would be worth it' Annoying Naruto especially during spars brought Sasuke so much joy that he decided that he would really learn the technique his mom used to fix him yesterday. Thinking back on their spar the way Naruto used the normal clones as a distraction gave Sasuke an idea. It was time to shower he'd think up more ways to one up his rival later, he'd also ask his mom to start teaching him the technique after classes today.
He went to eat breakfast much to his disappointment Itachi wasn't there, 'He must have left on a mission already.' At least his dad had taken some time off of his busy schedule and would be there with him today. "Good morning mother, father" Sasuke said as he went to take a seat.
His mother smiled at him, "My little boy is growing up so fast." Sasuke pouted at that, "I'm not little anymore." His mother laughed, "You and Itachi will always be my little boys no matter how old you get." Sasuke blushed and looked away.
"Are you excited? This is the first true step to becoming a ninja, I expect nothing but the best from any Uchiha but that expectation is doubled when it comes to you and your brother." Fugaku said with closed eyes, taking another sip of his tea.
Sasuke as of late had noticed a few things were going on in the clan, they were holding a lot more meetings than usual and his father it seemed was a lot stricter on everyone. "Of course father, I will do my best." Sasuke meant that. Fugaku gave a nod, "We should get going soon, it wouldn't do to be late." Sasuke agreed with that and quickly finished the rest of his breakfast.
Sasuke and his family got there quite a bit ahead of time, there were already some people though, no doubt most parents were pulled there early by their children. There were seats neatly organized, one side was for parents and the other for the new students. There were already a few kids scattered among the seats, he saw a shock of blond hair in the row third from the front, he immediately recognized to be Naruto, no one was sitting next to him.
As Sasuke made his way to sit next to his friend he noticed that almost all the other kids sat in groups, they probably knew each other, the only exceptions were Naruto and a girl with very black almost blue hair who sat in the front.
Sasuke felt the eyes of the adults on him as he made his way to sit next to his friend. He looked back at them, most looked away immediately others just carried on staring as of in disbelief. Sasuke shrugged, he didn't know what their problem was but it had nothing to do with him.
"Hey, you got here early, couldn't sleep?"
The blond laughed as he heard what his friend said, he looked at his friend and grinned, "You're one to talk, you probably had it as bad as me by the looks of you."
Sasuke sat down, "So any idea when this is supposed to start?" he asked the blond. Naruto nodded, "They said the old man would speak in thirty minutes when I got here and that was about fifteen minutes ago."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence, making a few remarks about the people that stood out every now and again, there were a few that stood out, a boy that wore a coat even in the heat, he had cool sunglasses though. There were three kids that arrived together, a lazy looking boy, a chubby boy that was eating and a platinum blond girl who seemed to be yelling at the lazy black haired boy, they were a strange trio. A girl with pink hair also stood out because she had pink hair and there was also a wild looking boy that was almost late.
A minute later the Hokage stood in front of everyone, "I see all the seats are filled." He said with a grandfatherly smile. "It is good to see that there are so many of you, shinobi hopefuls this year. It goes to show that the Will of Fire still burns strong within the village. The path you have chosen is not an easy one, it is one that will require a lot from you. Hard work, determination, patience, perseverance and above all, sacrifice. Sacrifice for the village, sacrifice for your teammates and sacrifice for yourself. Ask yourselves what is a shinobi, ask why you have chosen this path and once you find your answer I promise you, you will be that much stronger. As hard as this road is, take the time to enjoy it, cherish every moment, celebrate your victories, take your losses in stride and move forward with the Will of Fire burning in your hearts.
"Sitting there I'm sure you all have different dreams, some may aspire to be heroes, others to make their families proud and some of you may even want to be Hokage. Follow your dreams but it is important to remember that all of you down there, you are now the newest growing branch of the great tree, so as you follow your dreams do not achieve them at the expense of your village or your friends and in turn they will help you achieve your goals. May the Will of Fire guide you all."
The Hokage's short speech had captured everyone, Sasuke now saw why Naruto idolized this man, he was old but commanding, powerful and dangerous, Sasuke could see it in the way the man stood. Yes, he very was deserving of his position in the village.
"Children you may follow the senseis to your class." The Hokage continued. At that the children followed two chunin in side. On the way to their classroom they were shown the facilities of the school, from indoor training arenas, to libraries and toilets. They had a decent idea of the school layout by the time they got to the classroom.
Everyone found a seat, Sasuke and Naruto sat in the third row by the window. The two chunin stood in front of the class, one of them was a normal looking tan guy with brown hair, styled in a top knot and dark eyes, the one thing that stood out about him was the diagonal scar he had on top of his nose under his eyes. The other was a silver haired man with gray calculating eyes.
"I'm Iruka and next to me is Mizuki." The brown haired one said, "We will be your senseis for these next years until, you're deemed ready to be ninja. Since it's the first day, we'll take it easy, we'll start with some introductions."
Sasuke and Naruto barely paid attention to the introductions they only paid attention to the ones that had caught their attention during the opening ceremony.
"My name is Hyuga Hinata, and I'll be the greatest clan head the Hyuga have ever had." So that was the dark haired girl they had seen sitting in the front, she seemed serious and a little bit intimidating if Sasuke was honest with himself. He'd heard of the Hyuga they were apparently rivals with the Uchiha and had their own bloodline limit, she would be very interesting to fight. Sasuke looked next to him, Naruto also seemed interested by her.
'Is she blind?' Naruto thought as he looked at the girl, Hinata she said her name was. It didn't matter if she was or wasn't. She must have some skill if she carried herself that way.
Others that stood out were, Shikamaru he was really lazy, Choji he liked to eat and Ino she seemed really bossy, they seemed close and were sitting next to each other. A pink haired girl, Sakura stood out because of her hair colour but her hair was the only interesting thing about her. A boy in shades, Shino seemed to be quiet but serious, he also liked bugs, he seemed strong. Then there was a wild boy Kiba, he seemed like a trouble maker.
Finally it was their turn, Sasuke went first, "I'm Uchiha Sasuke and I'll be the strongest Uchiha in the history of my clan." He said it like it was a fact, Iruka smiled at him, and gestured for Naruto to go. "The name is Uzumaki Naruto, I'll be the greatest Hokage the leaf has ever had." Many just looked at him analyzing him, some laughed and Kiba snorted, Naruto noted each and everyone of them, it was fine he would show them through actions.
School was boring, they wouldn't do anything practical for a week and they knew most of the introductory lessons. They would learn history, language and basic math, though it would quickly get more difficult according to Iruka.
They were having lunch, Naruto and Sasuke were on the roof of the building, watching the children that attended the academy mix and mingle. Some like Hinata and Shino kept to themselves. Shino seemed really into bugs and Hinata was observing everyone like them. She looked up and held Naruto's gaze, he looked away, unnerved, 'There's no way she's blind.'
"This is going to be very boring." Naruto said to Sasuke who was lying on his back eyes closed, kind of like that Shikamaru guy was.
"Yeah well, you need to know the boring things, all good Hokage and clan heads know boring things besides, we're going to start spars in a week according to Iruka sensei and we'll be sparring everyday regardless." Sasuke said, still relaxing.
"Yeah, but from how they carry themselves, I have a terrible feeling that the only real challenge we'll have during spars, besides each other, is the girl with the weird eyes." Naruto said sitting down. He couldn't wait for the day to end.
Before too long the day was over and they were sitting next to each other at their training grounds after having taught each other the basics of the Body Flicker and Earth Clones. Naruto was having a tough time with the Body Flicker and Sasuke an even tougher time with the Earth Clone jutsu.
"Remember Sasuke you promised you'd get Itachi or Shisui to teach me two jutsu... Is the Earth Clone jutsu worth that much to you?'
Sasuke laughed, "Nope, Father promised to teach me the Fireball jutsu, I'm sure I can get him to show me something else as well. I don't want you to fall too behind anyway." 'And I'm planning on learning that medical jutsu'
"I think you're forgetting who won the last fight." Naruto said grinning
Sasuke looked at Naruto deadpan, "And your forgetting who won the eight before that. You only ever win once every seven or eight fights."
Naruto crossed his arms and looked away, "Sheesh, would it kill you to let a guy enjoy his victory."
"As long as I'm around I won't let you" Sasuke said with a laugh.
Later on that day having practiced enough the boys split. Naruto stayed to practice some more since he could go home whenever he wanted now and Sasuke went home with a plan to ask his mother to teach him medical ninjutsu.
His father and Itachi weren't home when he got there so he did have the opportunity to get a little practice in before dinner. He had to try about ten times before he could get the dead fish moving he could tell his mother was proud of his progress. When his father taught him the fireball technique he'd have quite a few jutsu to master, then there was also what he wanted to ask Itachi to teach him. Maybe he was taking a lot on but still he couldn't take Naruto beating him in their first fight with jutsu lightly, especially since the blond never seemed to run out of chakra.
After dinner Fugaku took note of Sasuke's physical state. "What happened to you?" Fugaku asked with a raised eyebrow. "Training. They say we'll start properly next week at the academy but Naruto and I decided that we'll carry on pushing ourselves after classes." Sasuke said tiredly
"I see, get some sleep, tomorrow I want you to come home straight. I'll be waiting to teach you the Grand Fireball." Fugaku said.
"Itachi isn't coming home tonight?" Sasuke asked sleepily. "No, your brother will return in a few days, now go to bed." The answer came from his mother. Sasuke nodded and went to bed.
AN: updates might come a bit slower than usual, life is hectic
