CH 1

Friendships

DISC I don't own any of Naruto

Three years later:

Naruto tried to let the day go away as very few of the kids in the park had played with him and not have their parents tell them not to go near him. He hated it that no one would play with him except a few kids that looked like outcast themselves. He decided to forget about it and took his frustration out on the coloring book he had. It was then that his grandpa and mom came home.

"Mom, gram'pa your home!" Little Naruto yelled in happiness as he hugged their legs.

"Hey Naruto how was today?" Jiraiya smiled

"It was…okay." Naruto said saddened a bit.

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade flinched under the hidden meaning behind that. They knew most of the village still resented him, though since he was considered under their protection, no one threw anything at him or called him demon out loud, but they saw the looks the people gave Naruto.

Naruto quickly bounced back and smiled up at his family. "Look what I drew mom." Naruto led her to the book he colored while also making sure it wasn't one of Jiraiya's Icha Icha Paradise books like last time. What she saw was that Naruto drew a ninja in orange color. She smiled at Naruto while Jiraiya smiled too.

"Very nice picture boy." Jiraiya smiled

"Yeah…I want to be a great ninja one day." Naruto simple stated.

Both grown ups eyes widened a bit, but they both smiled. "That's a great dream Naruto I know you can become a great ninja." Jiraiya smiled at the boy.

"Really?" Naruto smiled happily as Tsunade smiled and nodded as well. "Well I wanna to be more than that, I wanna be Hokage someday and protect everyone!" Naruto smiled as he said this. Both adults flinched at what he said. When he saw his family act this way he looked worried. "Is that a good dream?" He asked timidly.

Jiraiya took a minute to smile and ruffle Naruto's hair. "Yes kid that's a great dream." He said sincerely.

"Really do you think that's great too mom?"

Tsunade flinched at the cuteness until she smiled weakly at him. "Yes…Naruto that is a wonderful dream." She then hugged him. Soon both started dinner and ate. After Tsunade said she was going out for a 'drink'. Seeing the way she was barely controlling her emotions Jiraiya called a chunin a little later and asked if Rin could baby-sit for a few hours he then left when Rin came in order to find Tsunade. He found her at Naruto's favorite place and the best place for sake and ramen in all of Konoha, the Ichiraku Shack. When he saw her, she was already gulping down her third bottle.

"Hey Jiraiya where's Naruto?" She asked, though she was drunk she was still able to sense her fellow shinobi friend.

"I asked Rin to take care of him for a few hours. Mind if I join you?" She simply flicked finger to the stool next to her. He orders several sake bottles while Tsunade decided to explain herself.

"Sorry I left so suddenly like that. I just had to clear my head of what I saw in Naruto when he was talking about being Hokage. I saw my brother when he said that, then I pictured him bleeding and dead right next to me. I tell you friend I can't deal with that again!" She explained as she smash the stand she was leaning on. "Then I saw the same look the fourth had when he looked up at me. I couldn't say no to him, he looks so much like him Jiraiya both my brother and Arashi are all in him. I'm just trying to calm down." With this she took another swig. Jiraiya nodded in understanding, as he gulps some of his sake.

1 Hour Later:

Tsunade was worried as she looked at her friend. Normally Jiraiya would be finishing his seventh bottle of sake but he was still working on his second. This meant he was thinking very hard on something. "Penny for your thoughts?" She slurred feeling very tipsy from the drink.

"It's the kid Tsunade; you have no idea how good I felt at his desire to be a ninja. I feel the amazing potential that all his family has within the boy. Even when he's just a little kid I can feel it. That boy will make his dreams come true. All of his clan had an amazing potential and chakra reserves. That's what makes them so unique and Naruto is no different. His chakra is immense, and it's not because of the Kyuubi." Jiraiya said in a very serious tone.

Tsunade nodded at his assessment, he was always able to sense these types of things in people. "So he has more potential than Arashi huh? By numbers how strong could he become?"

"In comparison to his father's potential, he's 10 times greater."

This got Tsunade's attention as she nearly dropped her sake bottle from shock. As she got a full hold on the bottle he dropped the bomb. "I have a feeling that the fourth knew this before he sealed Kyuubi in Naruto. He knew his son had the power to hold such a powerful entity within himself. Also if I'm not mistaken he may have also known something else. Remember that old story Arashi told about the legend in his clan? I have a feeling Naruto might be the one to achieve it."

(CRASH) Sake bottle hits the floor.

Tsunade couldn't speak at what Jiraiya said just now, when she finally was able to talk she could only talk in an intense whisper. "You serious about that? I mean all of Naruto's clan were all incredible ninjas but…" Tsunade couldn't finish partially from the drink and part from the serious look Jiraiya gave her. She decided not to press the issue until she was a bit more sober. "So when should we start training him?" She asked as she paid the sake bill.

"I say we train him when he turns five." Jiraiya said in excitement.

"I have to admit I'm excited about teaching him too." Tsunade grinned, at the corner of her eye, she caught Jiraiya starring southward on her body, more precisely her chest. Acting like she didn't notice, she raised her finger behind his head and flicked him. Tsunade's super strength made it a force of a sledge hammer, making him smash his forehead into the stand. He clutched his head in pain.

She sighed at her friend. "You know Jiraiya, when you got all serious and acted very intelligent in our youth, I respected you enough to almost ask you out on a date. But then you always had to go and ruin the mood with your perverted tendencies and my respect drops back down." She calmly said as she sipped her sake.

2 Years Later:

Naruto has been training in the ninja arts with Jiraiya and Tsunade for about a month now. He has started learning the basics of what it means to be a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. The two Senin couldn't be prouder of him as he was an excellent student and when he turned six they would start him in the Ninja Academy. Right now Naruto is running back home from his finished training for the day.

He then comes across the training area for the academy, there he sees the kid he had seen for the last month doing push ups. He had seen him exercising for the past month all the time. Deciding now would be a good time to ask why, Naruto goes down to the area just as the kid started hitting the training log. As he gets closer Naruto sees that the boy had big eyebrows and shoulder length black hair.

"Hey what are you training so hard for?"

"I'm training hard so people can acknowledge me as a ninja…" After he said this he fell back gasping air from his exhaustion. Naruto immediately went to his side and started checking him, like Tsunade taught him. He winced as he saw the terribly bruising on his legs. He got out water and splashed some on the boy's feverish face. After a while the boy cooled down enough to get up on his own.

"Thank you."

"Heh no problem man, so tell me why you need to prove so much to people." Naruto asked.

The boy was silent for a second until he believed he could trust this kid and answered. "Well you see I want to be a ninja, but the academy told me I have no ability for Genjutsu or Ninjutsu. This made me a laughing stock as people called me weak. I want to prove them all wrong about that." He took on a look of determination. "If I can't do those jutsu's then I'll just work hard at taijutsu. That is my dream to be treated as a great ninja even if I have no other skill a ninja has. That's why I'm training so hard, to prove that ninjas can be made by hard work." He got up and raised his fist into the air.

Naruto could only smile at the boy next to him. If he was willing to hurt himself to go the distance, then he could too. "Your right I too want people to notice me and I will work hard to do it. I won't stop training for anything until people respect me and I become a Legendary Senin." Naruto stated as he stood next to the boy.

"That's a cool dream of becoming a Senin." The boy smiled.

"I'm gonna train hard for when if we ever fight, I can beat you." Naruto smirked.

The boy smirked as well. "Your welcome to try…um…oh yeah we never said our names, I'm Rock Lee." He put his hand out.

Naruto smiled as he grasped it. "The names Uzumaki Naruto, someday I'll be a Senin." With this said a friendship was made.

Both boys had trained harder than ever. Both Senin were surprised at the desire to become greater had sent Naruto into an incredible training regimens and they couldn't be prouder at how their student was working so hard to become better. Jiraiya and Tsunade became even happier that Naruto had gained a friend that was a hard working rival.

It is now six months since they started training and both kids were doing their best to one up the other in training exercises. As they trained they laughed and enjoyed the time they had.

The two were considered either an outcast or a loser to people and were both lonely. They formed a bond with each and became stronger together. It was during the middle of the training time they heard a sound coming from behind a tree near where they trained. It suspiciously sounded like crying. Curious both went to see what was going on. When they found the noise they found a little girl Naruto's age scrunched in a ball crying.

"Hey are you okay?" Lee asked as he nudged her shoulder causing her to look up.

"Hey Lee she's a Hyuuga." 'A really cute Hyuuga too' Naruto blushed as he recognized the eyes all Hyuuga's had. "Why are you crying…um…" Naruto left off for her to answer.

"M-My n-name is Hinata H-Hyuuga. W-What's y-your names?" She asked timidly to the cute blonde in front of her.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and this is my good friend Rock Lee."

"Yo!" Lee saluted.

"So tell us why were crying?" Naruto asked sympathetically.

Hinata started to tear up as she thought of what happened today. "I-I was crying be-because m-my father said I was weak." She said while trying not to cry again.

"Why are you weak?" Lee asked getting saddened for the girl.

The girl buried her head in her knee's making her voice muffled a bit. "B-Because my s-skills aren't as g-good as t-the rest of my families. I-I'm considered to be the weakest in my f-family and I get ridiculed and punished b-by my father for being so weak. He calls me u-useless and a s-screw up. And he's right! I am weak; I don't deserve to be part of the Hyuuga clan." Hinata started crying more as she finished.

Naruto and Lee looked at the girl as she cried out her pain to the two. Lee was hit the hardest by what she said, as he too was ridiculed for his inabilities. Naruto just had a straight face. True he listened and was sad, but he knew what to say to her now. Standing up from when he was crouching he looked down at her.

"Get up Hinata!" Naruto yelled.

"H-huh?"

"Naruto what are you doing?" Lee asked perplexed.

"You heard me get up! If you're willing to waste energy making tears then you have the power to get up and train, so get up!" Naruto demanded.

"Why should I? I'm weak." Hinata mumbled.

She squeaked in surprise as Naruto grabbed her shoulders and lifted her on her feet and forced her to meet his gaze, electric blue to silver. "What kind of talk is that? I thought the Hyuuga's were the strongest clan in Konoha! If you think you're a weakling then that's all you'll ever be for the rest of your life! You think you can't get better just because you're different than your family. Then do the best you can! You can't let people make you think that way Hinata! Cause when you do, you let them win and have power over you for the rest of your life!" He let go of the shocked little girl and let her stand.

"You say you're different? Well welcome to the club!" He pointed to himself. "People look at me like I'm a monster and if it wasn't for my friend Lee and my family I would be alone. I work hard just to show people that I am worthwhile and for the people who care to make them proud of me!"

Naruto points to Lee. "Lee has almost no talent for anything that can be used for a shinobi except taijutsu, yet he trains hard everyday so that he could prove hard work can make a great ninja."

He stopped yelling and gave her a serious look. "What I guess I'm sayin if you wanna get stronger and prove to people that you are great then make your own destiny. Stop listening to people who call you weak, because you're only weak if you let yourself be." Naruto said as he and Lee left to start their training again leaving Hinata with a lot to think about.

When she heard sparring and hits being made on posts she got curious at the boys activities. Looking at the two boys made her wonder; both of them were training as hard as they could so that they could get their dreams met. 'Am I really gonna let people affect me so much by calling me weak?' Was all Hinata could think about as she watched the two work. If what Naruto said was true then they too had serious opposition against them yet they still kept going.

After watching them train nearly nonstop for the past three hours, all Hinata could do was be amazed at their determination. They were working themselves to exhaustion for what they wanted and she started feeling bad that she was being useless by crying over what she went through. She started hearing Naruto in her head 'If you're willing to waste energy to make tears then you have the power to get up and train, so get up!' He was right, she had wasted energy feeling sorry for herself when she should have been training like these two were. Her small fists clenched in anger at her own weakness. When she saw both boys collapse from exhaustion, she immediately ran up to them to make sure they were all right.

After helping them cool off from the heat exhaustion, her face took on a look of determination 'No more!' she thought, 'I will not cry again about my problems. These two have been working so hard to accomplish their dreams, if they can get past their limits than so can I!' Getting up she looked at the two, who were looking at her in curious expressions.

"Guys, you're right about me. Naruto I thank you for helping get over my problems, I realize now after watching how hard you two have trained that I can't be weak anymore by crying. I'm gonna train and to heck with all the people who ever called me weak or not worthy. My dream is to become the Hyuuga clan head and I'll prove to all the Hyuuga's that I am not weak despite what they think of me." She started looking down and poking her fingers in shyness, "That is if, you two will let me train with you."

Naruto and Lee looked at her for a while. Naruto stood up and smiled at her and had his hand out. "Welcome to our team." Hinata was so happy that instead of shaking it, she glomped onto Naruto in joy causing both to fall back and Lee to laugh.

In a tree, Jiraiya was using his invisible peeping technique to watch over the kids and couldn't help but be proud of how Naruto had now gained a new friend in the little Hyuuga girl.

AN: Sorry I haven't updated any of my stories for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggg time! A mixture of laziness, reading too much fanfiction and College has kept me unmotivated. So that is my excuse. Sorry is all I can say