I'M REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello my fellow Naruto fanfiction readers! Now I realize that many of you are probely planning to kill me very slowly and painfully, but I ask you to please don't, or at least until after you read this chap. Believe it or not, but I really worked really hard on this pain in the ass chap. I must have had like seven different versions of this thing and I wasn't happy with any of them, but I am confident that you'll like this one. And I realize that this chap may seem to drag on a little bit, I know. You see this chap and the next chap (that hopefully won't take me too long to get up) were originally suppose to be one chap altogether, but since this I had such a hard time getting this chapter right, and for making you guys wait so long, I figured I would work even harder on the next chap.

Standard disclaimer applied.

Text means text

"Text" means speech

'Text'means personal thoughts

Textmeans text, speech, personal thoughts in a flashback or dream-like state

Again,I'M SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapter 2

A Typical Morning And Teammates

"Hey, Ketsunoana! What? You're still asleep? Wake up! Today is our first day of training! What are you still doing in bed? GET UP ALREADY!"

Jerking awake from the recurring nightmare of his mother, Yoshi shot into a sitting position, almost nailing Haruki in the head.

Yoshi glared squarely at his loud mouth best friend. "Haruki? What the hell?! It's almost 5:30 in the morning! How did you get in here?"

"I borrowed my dad's spare key."

"Why in the hell did you do that? Get out!"

"Hell no. Now come on, and get ready."

Haruki ignored the I'm-really-pissed-off-at-you glare Yoshi was giving him as he left his friends room and decided to gorge himself in Yoshi's supply of instant ramen. Satisfied that his friend was wake now and was not going to be going back to sleep anytime soon.

Sighing, Yoshi crawled out of bed and got ready for the day. 'Note to self: change all of the locks on the doors and windows.'

After changing into his usual training outfit, he was not surprised when he walked into his kitchen and found it in complete disarray. With Haruki sitting comfortably at the table, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of ramen, completely ignorant of the tornado-like mess that he had caused.

"Makeinu, next time you decide to break into my apartment and steal my food, don't wake me up or make a mess of my kitchen." Smacking Haruki on the back of his head as he passed, he grabbed a tomato from the fridge, sat down at the table and started eating.

Rubbing his now tender head, Haruki said, "Jeez. Why in the hell are you always so grouchy in the morning? All I did was wake you up. No wait. Why are you always grouchy all the time?"

Yoshi glared at him. "You woke me up at 5:30 in the morning, and look what you did to my kitchen! Of course I would be grouchy. And I'm not grouchy all the time, you just know how to piss me off really well."

Slurping up the remaining ramen in his bowl, Haruki placed it in the sink as Yoshi finished off his tomato.

"Whatever, and so what if I woke you up early? We have our first day of training today anyway so we should get up as early as we can. Remember, Kakashi-sensei said we should get there early. So now we are. Besides, what's the big deal? You would have had to wake up sooner or later."

"I would have preferred later, and your face is not the first thing I ever want to see when I get up." Yoshi said as he grabbed his kunai and shuriken pouch from the living room table and started to put on his shoes. "I don't even think your dad would be awake this early, and he is the Hokage."

Haruki chuckled as he walked out the door, Yoshi following him after locking it. "Yeah. My old man's usually still asleep by this time, but my mom will wake him up before it get too late. That, or Usagi will try to get him out of bed. I don't think she'll have much luck, though. That guy sure can sleep like a rock. In fact this one time-"

This is right about when Yoshi stopped listening. 'Even after all the years I've known him I still don't get how he never shuts up. You would think he would have run out of things to say a long time ago.'

The early morning streets of Konoha where the same as always with merchants and venders preparing their sales and merchandise for the morning shoppers who would be arriving in a few hours to buy whatever they were in need of. Some were out sweeping the sidewalk in front of their stores, or cleaning their front windows so customers would be able to get a good view of what they had to sell inside the store.

Occasionally a few ninja could be seen either returning or leaving from a mission, others would be going to the village entrance to switch shifts on guard duty.

Just the same typical morning to Yoshi.

Stepping to the side of a man unloading a crate of fruits, Yoshi accidently shouldered a elderly man walking past. The man's walking cane slipped out of his hand and he fell to the ground. Some fruits fell out of the grocery bag he had been carrying in his other hand onto the ground.

Reacting quickly Yoshi reached his hand down to help the old man up. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to."

Smiling cheerfully the old man replied, "Oh, think nothing of it dear boy. It's just this old crippled leg of mine. No worries, though. I'm per-..." The joyful expression on his face changed into one of great shock.

Haruki, slightly confused at the old man's rapid change in expression stopped picking up the fallen fruit to ask, "Hey are you ok, grandpa?"

A dark scowl quickly replaced the older man's wide smile as he slapped Yoshi's hand away, a look of pure hatred showed in his eyes as he glared at Yoshi. "Don't you dare touch me, you filthy cretin"

Picking up his fallen cane the old man stood up shaking. After he had regained his balance, the old man took a few steps back putting some distance between him and Yoshi.

After hearing the older man's sudden outburst, a few onlookers who had been passing by stopped to see what was going on. All watched with curious expressions on their faces.

Yoshi, however, just slowly lowered his hand, a look of indifference in his gaze. "Come on Haruki. We have training." Turning around, he started to walk away.

"Get back here you! I'm not done with you yet." Forcefully taking his bag of groceries from Haruki's arms the elderly man reached inside a pull an apple out. Despite his age he aimed carefully and threw the fruit at the back of Yoshi's head.

It would have hit him too, luckily Yoshi had turned around and caught the piece of fruit a few inches from his face. The apple had been thrown so hard that when he had caught it the slight breeze it had created caused Yoshi's bangs to blow slightly.

Greatly shocked by the tremendous showing of strength from someone so old, Haruki's jaw dropped. "Whoa! That was some throw! Hey, are you sure you're an old man?"

Angry that the boy had been able to avoid injury so easily the older man's glare intensified. "I may be old, but I use to be a great jounin. I was even supposed to be promoted to ANBU but thanks to him, I was critically injured on a mission. Because of himI had to give up on my career of being a ninja! He ruined me. I have walk on this damn crippled leg for the rest of my life now!"

The people in the quickly gathering crowd listened to the man as he spoke. Some whispering to others near them. Worried glances passed between friends and family members watching, all knowing of who the elderly man was talking about.

Clenching his jaw Yoshi tried to restrain himself from causing the older man any harm. He tossed the apple back to Haruki to put back into the bag. 'Him. Him. Him. Who in the hell isHIM?! What is it with everyone comparing me to someone I don't even know.'He buried both of his clenching fist deep into his pockets.

Noticing his friends rising anger Haruki decided it was best time to get going. He set aside that grocery bag, secretly sending a look to Yoshi, to calm him down.

Calmly stepping in-between the old men and Yoshi he said, "We're sorry to have caused you any problems grandpa, but we have training now so we're just going to split. Kay?"

Almost as if just realizing that Haruki was there, the older gentleman stared at him questionably. "Say, young man ... you're the Hokage's boy, aren't you?"

Haruki blushed slightly. No matter how many time he heard it, he still felt shy whenever people made a big deal about him being the son of the hokage. Scratching the back of his head he just nodded, unable to say anything in reply or look the older gentleman in the eye. 'Curse this shyness I got from my mom.'

Smiling greatly, he said, "I knew it. You're a spitting image of him." Managing to stand a little straighter in the presence of the son of the village leader, the man said, "Haruki-sama, what are you hanging are doing hanging around with this Yajuu(1)-"

"DON'T CALL HIM THAT!"

Startled by the sudden yelling everyone present immediately ceased speaking, all flinching at the immense anger that they heard in the tone of voice.

Haruki glared at the old man with a look almost close to hatred in his eyes, his knees shaking slightly as he tried to control himself.

Tightly clenched fist shook slightly at Yoshi's sides as he glared at the older man who had the nerve to call him that damn name. He took a small step forward, intending on leaving the old bastard and his rambling behind and forgetting all about what was happening right now.

But the older man had misunderstood, and he shouted, "What are you doing? Don't come near me! Someone stop him, he's going to attack me!" He almost tripped over is cane as he took another step backward.

"I'm not-"

The older man took another step back. "I said don't come near me." He sounded very hysterical. "You can't do anything to me anyways, not with all of these people here. If you try to pull anything, they'll all testify against you, and the Hokage will have you thrown in jail."

Quick mumbles and whispers were exchanged between the onlookers. Some saying Yoshi really had intended to attack the elderly man, others the old man was losing his marbles.

Haruki, knowing the situation could only go to bad to worse at this point, ran past Yoshi, grabbing the back of his shirt in the process, tugged on it and ran. Leaving the trouble making old man and crowd behind. Yoshi forced Haruki to release his shirt, not wanting to be dragged god knows where.

They both ran for a few more blocks, past stores and buildings, going through allies, crossing streets, just making sure to put as much distance between them and where the situation with the old man had occurred. When they were sure they had gone far enough, they paused to catch their breath. Leaning his back against the side of a building, Yoshi panted, trying to regain some of the oxygen he had lost from the long and fast paced run. Beside him Haruki sank to his knees, breathing deeply, head hung low.

"Jeez, Ketsunoana," he panted, "You sure know how to start the morning." He chuckled slightly.

Pushing off the wall Yoshi said nothing in reply. His eyes were overshadowed by his hair, shoulders drooped down. Putting his hands in his pockets he silently walked away.

"Hey! Wait for me you jerk!"

'Just another typical morning.'

The walk to the training grounds was strangely quiet for the both of them. Haruki wanted so much to blurt something out to end the heavy-tension-silence, but he had known Yoshi all his life and how his friend valued the silence when he was not in the mood. No one knew Yoshi like Haruki did; their friendship was deeper than most. The two of them had know each other since the day they were born and almost always together. To Haruki, Yoshi was the brother he never had, and to Yoshi it was the same.

Even when most of the villagers would shun Yoshi away, Haruki had always been there. Making sure that the depressing loneliness that was never far didn't effect Yoshi. He had realized early on, even at a young age, how the other villagers had turned away in scorn at the sight of his best friend, not really understanding why though. Still he did as much as he could for Yoshi; even when the two of them had been at each others throats he didn't want Yoshi to become downhearted.

He almost snorted at the thought. 'I've been hanging out with my mom to much. She's making me soft.'

When the two of them had arrived at the training field still neither had said a word, the silence still hanging over them like an ominous cloud. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other while he stood was all Haruki could do to keep himself occupied.

Glancing at his friend, who was sitting under a shady tree nearby, he noticed that Yoshi hadn't moved so much as an inch since they got there. Sitting as still as a statue with his knees bent upward, arms folded and resting on top of his knees, his eyes closed.

"Haruki...stop staring." Surprised that he wasn't the one breaking the silence this time, Haruki quickly looked away.

"I wasn't staring" He sighed. 'Just great. He's in his leave-me-the-fucking-hell-alone-moods again. On our first day of training too. I just hope that nothing else will happen that will get him even more pissed. That would be reaaally bad.'

"Haruki."

Still not looking at him Haruki replied, "What?"

Yoshi tensed. "Back there...with the old bastard..." He paused. With great difficulty he continued what he was trying to stay. "Thanks."

Grinning like a siamese cat Haruki placed his hands behind his head, a gesture he had picked up from his father. Knowing how much it pride cost Yoshi to say thanks to anyone for helping him when he was having problems with other people do to his anti-social personality.

"No problem Ketsunoana. After all, it only cost you some pride to ask for help, right." He chuckled.

"Hn."

Unknown to Haruki to Yoshi, what had cost him the greatest amount of his pride was the mere fact that he had to thank Haruki - Haruki, the idiot who couldn't go roof hopping without getting distracted and tripping over his own two feet! - for helping him with some crazy old bastard.

It wasn't like he couldn't take care of himself when it came to fights. After years of having to put up with assholes, who were total strangers that just seemed to hate his very existence, everyday he had learned to suck up and deal. But today was different.

Unlike the villagers who would just glare as he walked pass them, all whispering in hushed voices words that could only describe their hate for him, None of those cowards had ever said anything to his face. They just kept their hate and anger bottled up inside, all waiting for him to screw up so they could explode with their hatred.

'No.'He thought, 'They don't necessarily hate me. They hate the person they remember when they look at me.'

But today, the old man ... he had enough guts to yell at Yoshi in this face. Telling him of his hatred for Yoshi's biological father whom he didn't know, and venting his anger on him. He wasn't like the other village cowards, but even still ...

Yoshi scolded. 'It's not like it was my fault."He thought. "There's no way I could have stopped anything that happened before I was born. That stupid bastard was just looking for someone to blame. I bet he wasn't even a good ninja, all that 'promotion to ANBU' stuff was just bullshit anyway.'

"Oh shit."

Glancing at Haruki, Yoshi asked, "What is it now?" 'No sense in thinking about that guy anyway. It's not like it's my problem.'

Haruki grabbed a handful of his hair in frustration. "I just remembered, we weren't supposed to eat anything this morning. Yesterday Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat anything for breakfast or we might throw up, remember?"

Recalling yesterday's conversation, Yoshi did remember, now, that Kakashi had in fact told them not to eat anything for breakfast this morning.

He sighed. "Well there's nothing we can do about it now. I don't even think it's a big deal. We just won't tell him we ate anything for breakfast."

"You guys ate breakfast?"

Yoshi jumped up off the ground onto his feet and he and Haruki quickly turned, already armed with their own kunai, to the sound to the new voice. Both ready for a fight. Haruki instantly blushed, Yoshi relaxed at once, seeing who it was.

"Azumi-chan!"

Gracefully walking over to her two teammates Azumi smiled, clad in her training gear and her hair in a tight french braid down her back. She was a little late, but since Kakashi wasn't here yet that was fine.

"Good morning, Haruki-san, Yoshi-san."

Yoshi put his kunai away. "Morning Azumi-san."

Haruki grinned cheerfully. He practically skipped (not really) over to Azumi. "G-good morning, Azumi-chan." He said.

She smiled kindly before her expression turned into a questionable one. "So did you two really eat breakfast?"

Haruki looked down at the ground in quilt. "Yeah, but we didn't mean to do it on purpose. We just sort a ... forgot, ya know. That's all. It's not like it's a big deal, anyway."

Azumi shook her head in disagreement. "It is a big deal, Haruki-san. I mean even though I was hungry I still remembered not to eat anything. If you don't learn to follow orders now - even simple orders like not eating breakfast - then you won't be able to complete missions in the future. A ninja must follow all orders from higher ranked ninjas who have more experience. That is one of the basics that we were taught in the academy."

Haruki just looked down at the ground disheartening. 'It's only my first day of being a genin and I'm already screwing up.' He scratched the back of his head as Azumi continued to lecture him.

She sighed. "I think you should tell Kakashi-sensei about this. I mean, I know you didn't do it on purpose, but it is important that he knows that you forgot to obey his orders. As one of his stu-"

Yoshi had heard enough of Azumi's pestering lechers. Disregarding the fact that is was considered rude to interrupt a lady when she was talking he cut in. "Give it a rest Azumi-san. It's not really a big deal at he forgot. Even I forgot all about it. This just means that we have to pay more attention to what Kakashi says from now on."

Azumi's facial expressing quickly changed into an insulted one, "I understand that Yoshi-san, but the fact remains that-"

Haruki watched the mini argument between Yoshi and Azumi curiously. He could slowly feel the tension building in the air between his best friend and his crush. One thing was for sure, he was not going to get into the middle of this.

He knew that Yoshi could handle himself. He was quite surprised though. Even though he had never seen Azumi argue with anyone before, from what he could tell just by watching the disagreement between herself and Yoshi, she must have been use to arguments.

"So are you going to say anything to Kakashi?" Yoshi asked.

She didn't reply right away, obviously thinking it over. She sighed again. "No. I won't say anything to Kakashi-sensei."

"Or anyone else?"

Azumi looked like she wanted to say something, but must have decided against it. Crossing her arms across her chest while looking away, she said, "Fine. Or anyone else."

Satisfied with her answer, Yoshi left the two of them and went to sit under the large tree he had been previously sitting at. From his pouch he took out a dull kunai and began sharpening it, to pass the time.

Even though the two of them had stopped arguing, Haruki could still feel remains of the heavy tension in the air. Watching Yoshi sharpen his kunai he appeared to be calm, but as Haruki also noticed his friends shoulders were tense; he was still angry.

Taking a glance at Azumi he could easily tell by the apparent rigidness of her body, the slight tapping of her foot against the ground, and the displeasing scowl on her face that she was still seething as well.

Haruki sighed. 'Well this is turning out to be a real fucking fine day to start training.'

Out of boredom he picked up a small stone and threw it up into the air. Meaning to catch it when it began to fall, he looked up and was suddenly blinded by the bright sunlight.

"Ouch!"

The stone landed on his head, leaving a small bump, before falling back to the ground once more.

'I swear.' He sighed again. 'Someone must have pissed in Kami-sama's cheerios.'

"WHERE IN THE HELL IS THAT OLD MAN?!"

The trio had been waiting for their sensei since around seven earlier that morning. It was nine and there was still no sign of Kakashi. Now, two hours later, all three of them where at their wits end, their minds almost completely numb with boredom.

Azumi had eventually stopped seething, but had yet to say anything to either of the boys. She was reading one of the schools jutsu scrolls that she had borrowed and taken to training with her. Obviously more interested in learning a new technique rather than her sensei's no-show.

Yoshi had already finished sharpening all of the kunai and shuriken that he had in his kunai pouch and in all of the eight pockets on his pants. He had also counted all of the throwing needles and measured all of the meters of ninja wire he had. But when he had finished all of this, and Kakashi had still not showed up he decided to practice his throwing accuracy to pass the time.

Haruki, however, was not having much luck finding something to distract himself with. With either of his teammates speaking to each other, or him for that matter, he was only left with complaining about their missing sensei. He had tried to start a conversation with Azumi, but she had curtly asked that he not disturb her as she tried to study a new justsu.

Sadly, Haruki had been so desperate to end the silence at he had even tried to talk to Yoshi. But he had been forced to make a hasty retreat with his tale in-between his legs, when Yoshi had sent him a fierce warning glare, obviously not in a very talkative mood.

With a dishearten sigh, Haruki sat quietly pulling on the grass under his hand.

"Yo. What's up?"

Not bothering to look up at the over looming figure, Haruki meekly replied, "Nothin'. Just waiting for that lazy Kakashi-sensei."

Chuckling slightly, Kakashi gently hit Haruki on the head. "Well lucky you. I'm here, so are the three of you ready to start training?"

Azumi looked up from the scroll she was reading, surprised to see Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei! You're here? Where were you? You are most certainly not very punctual. We have been waiting for hours, yet you never showed up."

Haruki stood up, pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi. "Yeah, Kakashi-sensei, you sure do have a lot of nerve. Telling us the other day to show up on time for training, yet here you are, hours after you told us to be here acting as if nothing is wrong at all. What's with that?"

Getting up from his place under the tree Yoshi came over and stood with the rest of team. Crossing his arms across his chest in anger he glared at Kakashi and said, "They're right, Kakashi. Where have you been?"

"Ah well you see," Kakashi started, scratching his head in a nervous manner, "there was this little old lady whose cat got stuck in a tree, and-"

"LAIR!!"

Chuckling slightly, Kakashi reached into his back pouch and took out two bells. A slight breeze caused the bell's small musical note to be heard. Curiously the three genin stared at the small instruments.

Tilting his head to the side questionably, Haruki asked, "Hey Kakashi-sensei. What's with the bells?"

Jingling the bells once more, Kakashi explained. "These bells, Haruki, are going to be a part of an important test that the tree of you are going to take today."

Azumi's eyes widened. "A test? What kind of test, Kakashi-sensei?" They hadn't been informed about any test.

Kakashi tied the two bells on one of the belt loop on his ninja pants. "This is a ninja development test that is accentual for the three of you to continue as genin. This test will test the fundamentals the three of you were taught in the academy. However, in order for all three of you to remain genin, all three of you must pass this test. If one of you should fail, all of you will fail. And be sent back to the academy and have to learn everything all over again. But there's no reason to worry."

Unfortunately, even thought Kakashi had said no to worry, that could stop the slight worry the trio felt.

Yoshi gulped silently.'If one of us should fail...'

Azumi's fingers twitched nervously. 'Then all of us...will...'

Haruki was sweating bullets. 'FAIL!!'

Kakashi could have almost started laughing at the sight of their expressions. Even though he had known Yoshi and Haruki for all of their lives, he could never resist the chance to see the two of them rattled. After all, it was a rare sight to see Yoshi's normally indifferent expression become one of concern, or even Haruki's cheerfully smile to disappear in a look of worry. And even Azumi's expression was a sight to see.

Reaching into his back pouch once again, he pulled out a small clock. As he set the clock's alarm he explained, "This clock is set to go off at exactly 12 noon. At that time the test will be over and your time will be up. In order to pass this test, you must obtain one of these bell from me. You may use any means necessary in order to obtain the bell. If you don't get a bell before this clock goes off, then whoever does not have a bell fails."

"Um, Kakashi-sensei," Azumi interrupted. "Is this really fair? I mean there is only two bells, but there is three of us. How can we pass if there isn't enough bells for us to use?"

Setting the clock on the ground near his feet, he replied, "I don't think you should be worrying about what will happen if someone doesn't have a bell just yet Azumi. You still have to get one from me. Now tell me...'

Faster that any of the genin could see, he pulled a kunai from his side pouch. Startled at their sensei's sudden offence, the three genin all leap a safe distance away, each armed with their own weapons.

Placing his foot on the top of the clock, or more like on its alarm button. "...are the three of you ready to start?" Three stiff nods were his reply. "Good. Well then," He pushed his foot down.

"Begin!!"

(1) Yajuu - monster, demon, devil
There, that's it. I really hope you liked it, but I'm sorry if you didn't. Please leave me a review if you don't feel like killing me, and let me know what you think.

Oh and before I forget, I wanted to ask if you people would like to see Sai in this story. You see, I like the character Sai and wanted to put him in this story, but one of my friends said that I shouldn't since he's not really seen that much in the show. However, another of one of my friends said that it would be really cool to have him at like one of the main characters in this story, maybe even have him a like an uncle figure to Yoshi.

So remember to vote:

No to having Sai in the story, or Yes to having Sai in that story as a close uncle figure to Yoshi, or anything you might think of.

And one more thing, I recently had an idea for a another fanfiction story that I wanted to try. Basically it would be like a Naruto soap opera filled with lies, backstabbing, blackmail, emotions, and complete and total randomness. Pretty much all of the stuff that real soap operas are filled with.

But what would be different with this one, is instead of me knowing everything that would happen in the story, I figured that I you have you, the readers, vote on what would happen

in the next chapter and story line. That way no one would really know what is going to happen until that next chap.

You can tell me what you want to happen to a certain character, or characters in your reviews by a certain date. When that date comes, I will pick one review at random and base that next chap on that persons review. Now remember, I would prefer not to have any of the main character die, but I would be ok with one of the bad characters like Orochimaru or Kabuto die. But it is mostly up to you guys.

If more that 10 people say that they would like to read and vote on a story like that I'll write a chapter prologue for the story.

And so there is no confusion later, some of the pairings in the story will be, or might be, NejiTen, LeeTen, LeeSaku, SaiSaku, ItachiSaku, KibaHina, HinaNaru, NaruSaku, SasuSaku, SasuKarin, KarinSuigetsu, SasuOro (Ewwww), OroTsunade, TsunadeJiraiya, TemShika, ShikaIno, InoSasu, KakaAnko, and any others you may want to see.

So remember to vote!! Please and thank you.

Sirona of Arabia