Chapter 2

For a few hours now Naruto has been training his kunai technique that Itachi taught them with Sasuke. They've gotten to know each other in that time. And they have become good friends. Or at least training partners in Sasuke's eyes. Once it's dark a tired Naruto and Sasuke finally end their training for the day.

"See you tomorrow?" Naruto asks.

"Maybe, we'll see," Sasuke answers.

Naruto chuckles "I'll see you tomorrow" he wakes up with a completely sore body, but he's going to have to get up for school no matter what.

"Uhhh" he groans. "I'll just send a shadow clone," Naruto groans. He summons a shadow clone but it's as sore as Naruto. "Release" Naruto's clone disappears. He is at a non stop groan as he tries to get up. "Maybe I shouldn't haven't gone so hard yesterday" He suggests to himself. Naruto then takes the time to make a quick meal and heads to the academy. Walking to the school Naruto sees Sasuke walking to school ahead of him.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto calls out.

"Oh Naruto. How's it going?" Sasuke asks.

"Uh fine. Why?" Naruto answers.

"Well your pants are on backwards" Sasuke says pointing out Naruto's backwards shorts. Naruto's face turns red from embarrassment. He looks down to see indeed he put his pants on backwards. He dashes to the most discreet alley to change. After Naruto changes he returns to see Sasuke waiting for him.

"You waited for me?" Naruto asks.

"Yeah"

"Why?" Naruto asks.

"I thought we could be friends," Sasuke answers embarrassed. Naruto then smiles with a big grin.

"Yeah me to" They then walk to school side by side. "Oh Yeah that Fireball jutsu you shot at me yesterday. Have you improved it lately?" Naruto asks.

"A little" Sasuke answered confusedly.

"I know a jutsu similar to it. I could teach you a few things"

"Ok sounds like a plan" Sasuke accepts. They both make it to the academy and sit down in their original seats. The class was as rowdy as always. Until.

"Ok class, settle down!" Iruka sensei shouts entering the class room. "We're going to begin the lecture, turn to page 56 in your Ninja history notebook" Iruka commands. Naruto groans silently.

The classes start as normal. First is the indoor study. Then outdoor training. Then lunch. Then finishing up with more indoor studies.

The outdoor training today is a light kunai competition. Iruka wants to see what skill level they have in kunai throwing like yesterday with the hand to hand combat duels.

"Okay everyone! I will call 2 of you up to at a time. You'll throw 5 kunais at the target. Then you will return to your spot for the next contestants. Okay, to start us off will be Naruto Uzamaki and Sasuke Uchiha" Iruka explains. All the girls squeal at the sound of Sasuke's name.

"Go Sasuke!"

"Beat that Monster Sasuke!"

"Naruto you suck!"

Naruto whispers to Sasuke before stepping up, "Let's see the results of our training." They both walk up to the throwing range. They pick up the kunais and wait for Iruka's permission to throw them.

"Start"

They both throw their first one. Right in the middle.

They both throw the second one. Right in the middle.

Then the next. And the next one. All their kunais hit the target's center. Their classmates were shocked by Naruto's skills. Their classmates automatically begin to whisper.

"Naruto totally cheated"

"Oh yeah he definitely cheated"

"He was to dumb to even stand a chance against Sasuke, so he had to cheat" Naruto and Sasuke return to the crowd side by side and wait for everyone to take their turn. After a while a girl tucks on Naruto's shirt. He turns around to see the same girl he saved from bullies a few days ago.

"Oh hey" Naruto greets. Sasuke turns to see her.

"Hey Naruto, she's Hinata from the Hyūga clan. You can tell by her eyes" Sasuke says to Naruto.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me the other day," Hinata says nervously.

"Oh ok. Your welcome" Naruto says not being used to people being thankful to him.

"Okay everyone now has completed the test. And just to inform you that this wasn't a competition, it was just to see what level you were at" Iruka explains.

"So Naruto cheated for no reason!" A boy shouts, making everyone laugh.

"Nobody cheated," Iruka informs.

"What?" The boy says confused.

"This isn't really a test you can cheat on. It's not like a math test or anything". Iruka explains. At this point everyone's face was in pure shock.

"Hey Sasuke I got sushi for lunch! what you got?" Naruto says without a clue of what Iruka was saying.

"Um, some rice, gyudon, a bit of bread, and some milk," Sasuke answers, having to think back from this morning. They then grab their lunches and start eating their lunch outside. As same with everyone else eventually. They talk until it's time for class. After school they returned to the same training spot from before. And got straight to work. Naruto tried practicing with shadow clones to speed things up, but it only worked for a few minutes. So he had to do it with just himself. They would take turns practicing throwing. After they throw the kunais; Naruto's shadow clones would retrieve them.

"We'll get this down eventually," Naruto hopes.

"Maybe. It might take us the rest of our lives" Sasuke claims.

"Yeah. Can I take a look at your fire ball jutsu?" Naruto asks.

"Sure" Sasuke answers after taking another attempt. Sasuke then jumps down. He Does the hand signs slowly. Take a deep breath and breathe out an incomplete small fireball. Naruto observes while taking mental notes.

"Okay, so Fire jutsus takes a lot of chakra to summon. So it takes a while to find the sweat spot of completing a fireball while not using too much chakra. So try using more chakra with the next one" Naruto teaches. Sasuke then makes another fireball that is a bit bigger.

"It takes practice to complete any jutsu, and takes even longer to master it," Sasuke explains. Naruto nods and goes to jump up to take another attempt at the kunai technique, and was able to hit one of the kunai on the target. He cheers in celebration. "You just hit one, it isn't all of them," Sasuke says gruffly. Naruto's clones then fetch the kunai while Sasuke takes another attempt. And fails. Bad. He landed funny right on his ankle.

"Ouch…" Sasuke groans.

"Let me take a look at it," Naruto says while going to poke around Sasuke's ankle. "I think you twisted it," He declares. "Should I take you home?" Naruto asks.

"Sure." Sasuke says, defeated. Naruto picks him up with the help of his clone and puts him on his back. Naruto then speeds his way to the Uchiha part of the village. Sasuke tells Naruto where his house is, knowing that his mom can take care of his ankle for him. While walking in the Uchiha part of the village, Naruto felt the same kind of feeling in the Uchiha's residents eyes that weighed towards him like the same part of his village. Untrusting, fear, and anger.

"Don't worry Naruto, we're almost there," Sasuke states. Naruto makes it to Sasuke's house and opens the door. To see a surprised Itachi, mother, and father seeing a stranger holding their injured son.

"Um hi. Me and Sasuke were training and he twisted his ankle a little bit" Naruto explains.

"Ah yes. You can set him down on that chair there" Sasuke's mom insisted. Naruto does so with grace to not hurt his friend. Itachi grabs the first aid kit and hands it to his mother. She kneels down to tend to Sasuke's ankle.

"So what were you two doing that got you this injury?" She asks.

"Kunai practice" Sasuke answers.

"Now how do you hurt your ankle standing still throwing kunai?" She asks sarcastically. "Boys. Always somehow getting themselves hurt" she mutters. Naruto tries to leave, but Sasuke's mom stops him. "Where do you think you're going?!" She questions while not even looking at Naruto.

"Home" Naruto answered affirmatively.

"Nonsense! You're staying for dinner. It's about time Sasuke makes some friends" she says. Naruto smiles. "Sasuke. Stop being so reckless" she says while finishing up the bandages. They eat happily and Naruto returns home to call it for the night. The next school day nothing really special happened until after school when Naruto and Sasuke leave for taijutsu/jutsu training but they took it a little easy because of Sasuke's leg.

Two months Later.

Naruto had been following the same routine of going to school then going to the forest to train with Sasuke. Naruto has mastered the kunai technique Itachi showed them a while ago. Now he's practicing a new jutsu, a lightning kunai jutsu where he makes kunai's made of pure lightning.

"I can't believe you're so lucky to have three chakra natures" Sasuke groans.

"Eh I might have three chakra natures but it means nothing if I don't train them" Naruto replies. He has also been practicing a number of other advanced jutsus. Such as a jutsu where he can move himself faster with wind chakra and another one where he can summon and see in mist. Sasuke mastered his fireball jutsu and he is moving onto more powerful and useful techniques and jutsus.

"Are you guys still training?" Itachi asks them to check in.

"Yeah" Naruto answers

"Can I join?" Itachi asks humbly and confidently.

"Of course you can!" Sasuke accepts quickly. Itachi sets up and then begins his training. He made a shadow clone to duel with. He's practicing his sword skills with the clone. Naruto continues his jutsu practices and Sasuke practices his kunai throwing. A couple of hours later Naruto would head to Sasuke's for dinner. Then he returns to his house for the night. Tomorrow he would go to school, and after that he would go train with Sasuke.

The next day during outdoor training it was time for the next set of dueling. First off was Naruto vs Hinata. Hinata was especially surprised to face off against Naruto. Everyone else who is now used to Naruto's skills. Starts cheering softly.

"Go Naruto!"

"Do your best, you two!"

"Give it your all"

They both step up to the arena staring at each other with seriousness. Both of them knowing that they both shouldn't hold back. They both hold the unison battle sign.

"Okay. 3-2-1 Begin" Iruka says.

They both charge at each other. Naruto goes in for the kunai stab, but Hinata dodges it with a flip. And then she throws a kunai behind her at Naruto's feet. He reacts with a backflip and then handsprings off his hands. He lands on his feet and runs behind her as soon as she landed holding a kunai to her back signifying her defeat.

"Ok now connect the unison sign to signify the match as over" Iruka commands. They do as so, and return back to their spots. Naruto was a bit conflicted that he had to fight a girl, but glad that they didn't have to go too hard. Then he realized that she was going easy on him.

Meanwhile at the Kohage palace.

"Naruto is impressing all of his teachers" Hokage third tells Danzo. "And he is training almost everyday with Sasuke lately"

"Hokage sir. If I may, I think we should let Naruto graduate the academy early" Danzo states.

"Hmm" Hokage mumbles as he smokes from his pipe while thinking, "our village is at peace at this moment. We don't have a sudden great need for new ninjas. But Naruto is the ninetails jinchuriki. And it would be good to have a higher level ninja keep an eye on him" Hokage explains.

"All the more reason to have me train him" Danzo interrupts. Hokage raises his hand, cutting him so he could speak.

"If he passes his first year with flying colors, I see it so he becomes a genin, and then I'll assign him to one of our best jounin" Hokage explains. Danzo was pleased by what he said on the outside, but on the inside he wanted to use Naruto's ninetails as a weapon for the anbu.

Back at the academy

It's after school and Naruto and Sasuke are going for ramen. As they sit down they order their bowls. Then the two of them talk to each other while they eat. They talk about the jutsus they've been practicing, new work-out routines, and other things. They finish quickly to go training together.