Chapter One – Classroom Encounters

-'The blood of the covenant runs thicker than the waters of the womb'.

Naruto sat in the hospital sitting area, picking red out of his fingernails as he waited for any news on Iruka Sensei's condition; the forehead protector he'd been given sitting uselessly beside him as he glared at the chips of blood flacking on the ground beneath him. The medics had been working on Iruka for hours and there was still no word. Naruto hoped that meant things were okay. 'Iruka-Sensei had been talking before they took him to surgery, so that has to be a good sign… right? He thought optimistically, determined to think the best about the current situation. After all, his teacher had always been there for him. He wouldn't leave him now.

It was another hour later when the Third Hokage came to speak to him about the events for the night, inquiring about everything that happened with the scroll and Mizuki, Naruto monotony relayed all he could about the incident. He'd still yet to completely process the events himself… and he was sure he had gone into shock right after he realised he'd killed Mizuki. Just as the Third was about to ask Naruto if he wanted him to walk him home, a medic came out of O.R and started walking towards them , a sombre look upon his face. The young, newly made Ninja watched him approach with a sinking feeling slowly forming in his gut, knowing that such a grim expression couldn't be good.

"I'm so very sorry," he began, and Naruto's whole world just stopped. The boy stood still, unable to move as the horror of the medic's words imprinted themselves in his mind. "We did everything we could to save him, but the wound the patient sustained to his spine was too deep, and the damage irreversible. He'd lost too much blood before we could stabilise him...I'm so sorry, but Umino Iruka passed away a few moments ago…"

Naruto didn't hear anymore. Falling to the floor, he struggled for breathe and clutched at his former sensei's headband. This can't be happening... he couldn't be dead! There's no way… he was talking to me just before, it has to be a lie… Iruka-sensei!'

As the blonde boys panic attack continued to escalate, he was completely oblivious to the people rushing around him and the Third's attempts to calm him down. Nobody could get through to him now, and nothing else mattered. Iruka-sensei was gone.

In the end, the medics wound up having to sedate Naruto to make him quiet down. He woke up the next morning in his apartment, his clothes still smelling of blood and death. Pushing his covers aside, he rushed to change, wanting to be as far away from the scent as possible. He couldn't stand it.

After showering and getting dressed into his spare jumpsuit, Naruto numbly picked up his old one and threw it into a trash bag. There was no point in cleaning it; the blood stains would never totally go away. Not to mention he wanted as few reminders of the previous night as possible. The memories were enough. Putting on his goggles and slipping the headband Iruka-sensei gave him into his pocket Naruto headed out of his apartment, throwing the bag with his old clothes into a nearby trash can. Time to go to the Academy.

XxX

When Naruto reached the classroom, most of the students had already arrived. The only empty seats he spotted were next to Sasuke and Shikamaru, and since Ino and Choji always sat with Shikamaru, Naruto decided to just take the spot next to the emo. Better not cause a fight when he was in a bad mood.

Sasuke glanced up when he sensed someone next to him quietly, doing a slight double-take when he saw that it Naruto. It was quite odd- usually Naruto would barge into the room, making enough noise to draw everyone's attention to him. But before Sasuke could ponder the subject of Naruto's silence any further, Shikamaru leaned over his desk and tapped said boy on the shoulder.

"Hey Naruto, I thought you failed the graduation test... How'd you get that forehead protector?" He asked, pointing to the blue fabric peeking out of his pocket.

"You want the long version or the short?" Naruto replied curtly, turning to face the other Genin with an impassive glare. "I'll take the easy one" was all Shikamaru said, re-adjusting himself so that he was leaning more comfortably on his desk.

"Well, after the exam I stole a sacred forbidden scroll, learned a new Jutsu, killed Misuki-Sensei after he stabbed Iruka-Sensei and then Iruka-Sensei gave me his forehead protector and told me I graduated before he died," he explained casually, the words all tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could really think about what he was saying. He knew that he probably shouldn't be telling Shikamaru everything about the other night, but in that moment, he just didn't care.

The other boy just sat there for a moment, looking at Naruto like he'd grown a second head "Okay, I now want the long version..." He said intently, sitting up in his seat. Naruto just rolled his eyes and turned back to face the front of the room.

The rest of the morning went relatively normally once Sakura and Ino loudly barged into the room, bickering as usual. Before long, a Chunnin representative came to the class and split them into their three man squads. Unbeknown to Naruto, Sasuke had spent the whole time staring at him out of the corner of his eye, after overhearing his brief conversation with Shikamaru.

XXX

Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura now made up Team 7.

The three Gennin all quietly and impatiently sat in the classroom, awaiting for their Jounin Sensei for over an hour after everyone else had already left with theirs. There were several loud huffs, and pointed looks towards the clock before Sakura finally spoke up.

"Were the hell is this guy? Shouldn't he have been here by now?" She complained loudly, giving an exasperated sigh, "Do you thing he maybe got the date wrong or something?" she added as an afterthought.

"I doubt an elite Jounin wouldn't be able to tell the date," Sasuke replied, casting his gaze away from the classroom door to look at the pink haired girl disdainfully. Misinterpreting his expression, she just looked back at him in adoration, secretly thrilled he was paying attention to her.

"Well apparently an 'Elite' Jounin can't tell the time, he's over an hour late!" Naruto moaned. He kicked his legs in frustration, then crossed his arms, scowling deeply. At the interruption, Sakura broke off gazing at Sasuke and glared at the blond boy, her detest for him written clearly in her eyes,

"What do you know, maybe something came up!" she said scathingly.

"If something came up and he couldn't make it, I'm sure that someone would have told us! Face it Sakura-chan- we got a dud teacher!" Naruto shot back.

They were so distracted by their argument they didn't notice the door to the classroom open, "Hmm, my first impression of you three is… You're all idiots." All three turned instantly to see a tall man with silver-white hair and his headband and a mask covering half his face. After introducing himself as Kakashi, their Jounin instructor, he ordered the three of them to follow him up to the academy building's roof top. It was time to see what their new team was truly like.

"Alright, why don't you all introduce yourselves and tell everyone a bit about you."

With those words, Sakura cast a quick glance at both of her new teammates before turning back to Kakashi. "What do you mean, introduce ourselves?" she asked awkwardly.

"You know likes, dislikes, hobby's, dreams for the future… things like that." He told them.

"Why don't you go first and show us how it's done." Naruto challenged, casting an almost bored look towards their teacher. Kakashi gazed at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Hmm, alright. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes... Well, I don't really feel like telling you that. My hobby's… I have lots of hobbies. As for dreams for the future, I haven't really thought about it," he finished.

Sakura stared, a little dumbfounded for a moment.

"The only thing he really told us was his name. I'm beginning to agree with Naruto; maybe we got the dud," she whispered to her two teammates, not getting much more than a vague grunt from Sasuke and a slight incline of the head that could have been a nod from Naruto as response.

"Alright, you on the left. Go first," Kakashi allotted, nodding towards Sasuke.

"Tch... I'm Uchiha Sasuke. There aren't many thinks I like, and a lot of this I don't like. I don't really have any hobbies outside of training, and… I wouldn't call it a dream, more like an ambition, because I will make it a reality- I'm going to find out the truth about what happened to my clan five years ago, and then I'm going to kill a certain person." He said gravely, his already prominent glare darkening further as he spoke.

'I expected as much from him, Kakashi mused, 'poor kid's been through a lot, and he's not making his future any easier for himself'. Next, he turned to look at the pink haired girl in front of him. "You next" he said, gesturing towards her vaguely.

"I'm Haruno Sakura! I like… kyah! I mean, the person I like… My dream for the future… tehehe, things I don't like- Naruto!" Sakura giggled, blushing madly and sighing like an immature child.

'Not really surprising. Girls her age are more interested in boys than ninja training. "And lastly, you on the right."

Naruto sat up a little straighter and looked Kakashi straight in the eye.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen in a cup, and the ramen Iruka-sensei used to buy me at Ichiuraku. My hobbies are to try different types of ramen and compare them, but I really hate the three minutes you have to wait after pouring in the hot water. If you'd asked me what my dream for the future was a few days ago I would have said I wanted to become the next Hokage... so that people would stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm a nobody… but now… I'm not really sure- I just don't think the things I used to value are considered important to me anymore."

Kakashi, too, sat up a little and gave Naruto a thoughtful look. This wasn't the boy who used to pull pranks on the village for attention. He had changed, and most likely Iruka had caused it.

Iruka had been a good friend of Kakashi's, and he remembered him bringing up Naruto's antics on multiple occasions, so he knew the boy mattered to Iruka more then he liked to let on. But if you were as good as Kakashi at reading people, you could see it in his smile, hear it in his voice when he complained… and it seemed that Naruto had felt exactly the same about the recently deceased Shinobi. He was completely lost without him around anymore.

'Heeh, I guess I have my work cut out for me with these three' "Right, now that we've all gotten to know each other a little, I'll let you know that we'll be having our first mission tomorrow." At this, the three Gennin all looked up at the Sensei with rapt attention, excited that their first real mission as ninja's was right around the corner.

"Meet me at training ground 7 at dawn. Oh, and don't eat breakfast, or you'll puke." With that final warning. Kakashi vanished into a cloud of smoke, leaving his three very confused students to decipher his cryptic warning.

Chapter one! Yay! Sorry it took longer than we'd hoped to get it done! Anyway, to those confused about the different time settings between the prologue and chapter one- the prologue was to give you all a test of what is to come later on.

Also there is a small quote at the beginning of this chapter, I'm sure everyone's heard the phrase 'Blood is thicker than water' Well that quote at the top is the full quote, and it refers to the bonds forged through choice can hold a deeper meaning then mere biology, I felt the quote fit Naruto quite well, and it also fits the theme we want to set for the story.

ALSO! This will not be a SasuSaku story, EVER! They will build a strong friendship later on but there will be no Romance between the two. A bit of budding NaruSaku after the land of waves and during the Chunnin exam but that's it.

I wanted to make this clear from the beginning, I also wanted to make it clear that romance will not be a main part of the plot, it will have very little significants until p2 and even then it will not be a main focuses point.

(the end of the whole 2- maybe 3 part story collection, Baba and I are working on has already been plotted and discussed to death, so pairings/deaths and everything else have already been decided- not all of us like what we've come up with- but we know what we are doing with this story and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.)

Written by: Yami*

Edited/co-written by: BabaBeautiful

Next Chapter: Pass or Fail – Kakashi's Test

(And a quick side note! HAPPY AUTHERS DAY EVERYONE!)