Master of the Arts
Arc 1: Settling In Part 1
Chapter 2: First Day
Summary: After Naruto and Sakura lose their best friend, they go to extreme measures to get him back. Shikamaru tries too hard to reach into Neji's past and ends up uncovering secrets about himself along the way. Remember kids, everything is connected and it all leads back to the man who started it all. This is a journey for everyone to bring back the people they love.
These chapters will probably be anywhere from short to long and I'll probably update whenever I have a chance but don't worry. I won't leave ya hanging, kiddos.
Just a slight forewarning, there will be angst. And lots of it, probably. Not in this chapter but in the future, obviously. Just thought I'd let ya cuties know.
"Sakura-chan Sakura-chan!" an airy voice shouted.
Sakura sighed and looked over her shoulder and saw a blob of blonde bouncing up and down. Her best friend (at least that was what Naruto thought) was walking…? No. Practically dancing his way over.
"What, Naruto?" She asked, really not looking forward to whatever idiocy he had to say.
"Aren't cha excited for the first day of class? I know I am!" He said while putting his arm over her shoulder, holding her close. "Gee," she said after roughly pushing his arm off, "I had absolutely no idea that you were looking forward for the first day of uni! Definitely not after all of those times you've called me and talked on and on for hours-nonstop-about how excited you were! Really, I am shocked!" Sakura placed her hand over her chest feigning exasperation.
Naruto pouted and crossed his arms, and Sakura couldn't help the small giggle that left her lips. "Lighten up, Naruto," she laughed. She glanced around and saw a student walking their cat (are cats allowed on campus?). "I was just," she pointed to the cat, "kitten around!" She chuckled at her own joke as Naruto stared at her, completely embarrassed by the horrible pun she just made.. or attempted to make. "You know what, Sakura?"
"Hmn?"
"I'm just gonna go…"
Before Sakura could say anything, Naruto ran off, hoping to shake off the extreme embarrassment.
I'm sure you're all well aware, but it just needs to be stated again.
Naruto was 18 years old and frickin' excited about his first day of school. It was where his parents had gone to become two of the most amazing fighters of all time. Seriously, they were already in history books. It was Naruto's dream to follow in his parent's footsteps. And where better to start than the place where his parents had become famous? Naruto had been looking forward to going to this school since the day he could walk, literally. (Naruto sincerely believed that his first words where Konoha Academy.)
Konoha Academy was no doubt the most prestigious school of the Land of Fire. There was absolutely no way his day could go wrong.
So when Naruto walked into his huge dorm room, he was not expecting what awaited him there.
"Hey, dobe." It was at this moment that Naruto had lost his cool.
"S-Sasuke...?" Naruto was astonished. His eyes widened and mouth agape, Naruto could not believe what he was seeing. Naruto was about to contest when Sasuke said, "Don't even try going to the Headmaster on this one. I tried. She broke her desk and refuses to speak to me about this anymore."
Sasuke smirked, reveling in the myriad of emotions playing out on his new roommates face. The raven got up and stood side by side with the blondie. "I hope you're ready to have a great year, dobe, because I know I am."
Oh yes, Sasuke thought, I am ready for a whole year of tormenting my new roommate.
He chuckled and let himself out of the room.
Oh no, Naruto thought to himself, I am not ready for a whole year of tormenting from my worst rival.
Naruto was 18 years old and today was his first day of college.
He had expected it to go smoothly. But no of course not. Uzumaki Naruto? Have a great day?
That was practically unheard of.
His parents had died the day he was born so he really didn't know much about them.
They had left everything in their will to him so he basically had plenty of money to get by, a huge house, and servants at his disposal. Many people were jealous of him, in fact, so jealous that he had almost been killed more than once. Imagine what people could do with the amount of money he had? Even Naruto had a hard time thinking about it.
Yet, as well off as he was, Naruto was lonely. That was, until he met a certain teme. Naruto had heard that Sasuke experienced something strikingly similar, so Naruto decided to go out of his way to meet him.
It was rivalry at first sight.
Needless to say, though they practically grew up together since elementary school, they could not last a minute without starting an argument. Teachers, counselors, everyone tried to get them to put their differences aside (there really weren't many) but to no avail, the hatred grew.
Over the years, the hatred panned out more into more of a 'friendly rivalry', as some liked to say, but it wasn't as if they liked each other. That actually wasn't the case, at all. Sasuke enjoyed Naruto's suffering, especially if he himself was the cause. No matter how much he denied, though, Naruto was glad that he had someone to actually talk to. He was so lonely. Sakura became their friend at some point, too.
But somewhere, deep down in that rotting heart of his, Naruto knew that Sasuke somewhat cared about him. But of course, the minute Naruto mentioned this Sasuke put his defenses right back up.
"Jerk, it's not like I was confessing my love to you!" Naruto had said. Sasuke's face turned tomato colored (probably because he ate so many) and Naruto became a victim of his death glare. After that, Sasuke just left without saying a word and the two hadn't spoken to each other during the summer at all. Naruto really didn't think he had said anything wrong. Like, what was that asshole's issue?
That was on the last day of high school.
And now here they were, roommates, for a whole entire year, and possibly even longer. Naruto thought he wouldn't have to see this jerk this soon. He thought wrong.
Naruto just stood there, dumbfounded, as Sasuke lightly shoved him out of the way and walked out of… their room. Naruto shuddered at the thought of sharing a dorm room with none other than the infamous (in Naruto's eyes) Sasuke who outshone him in basically everything.
Yeah. This wasn't gonna work out.
But just as Sasuke had predicted, when Naruto went to get the approval to switch dorms, he had been kicked out.
"Damn it, Tsunade-obaa-chan," Naruto muttered under his breath as he walked out of the Headmaster's room. "What did you say, Naruto?" Tsunade practically growled. "U-Uh, nothing!" and with that, Naruto scurried out of the room with his tail between his legs.
Naruto sighed and looked at his schedule. Classes didn't really start today, they started in about a week. Starting today and continuing this week, every class had a lecture on how things worked, homework policies, etc. What Naruto had previously been excited for had been something that he did not really look forward to anymore. What if he saw Sasuke there?
Really, though, Sasuke had acted as if nothing happened between them. As if Sasuke didn't totally ignore his phone calls and voicemails. Did he purposely change his number?
Naruto shook his head and slapped both hands on his face, earning him some weird looks. He couldn't let the bastard ruin his first day. It was going to be amazing and nothing was going to get in the way!
So when the first class intro started for Martial Arts History, Naruto certainly did not expect to see his roommate there. Not this soon, damn it.
Naruto ignored Sasuke and scanned the room. He spotted his other friend, Kiba, talking to Hinata and Shino. "Yo, dog boy," Naruto snickered as he sat down next to his buddy. Kiba rolled his eyes and stuck his hand out to do their special handshake.
"What's up, Raw-man?(1)"
"Nothin' much, bro. Hey Hinata! Hey bug nerd." Hinata blushed and Shino coughed, mumbling something that sounded like, "I have a name, you know."
"H-Hi , Naruto-kun, it's n-n-nice t-to see you after s-such a long time!"
"Nice to see you two, too!" Naruto laughed at himself.
"Anyways guess what Kiba?!"
"What, dude?" Kiba raised a brow. "I'm roommates with Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. Kiba's eyes widened.
"What?! But after what happened before school ended…," Kiba trailed off not wanting to let his other two friends know too much. Kiba was one of Naruto's best friends. Hinata and Shino both got the message and decided to talk somewhere else.
"When I walked into the room he didn't mention it at all and acted as if it never happened. It was weird. And get this- Tsunade absolutely refuses to let me move out. Isn't that, like, illegal or something?"
"Woah, she wouldn't let you move out?" Kiba asked.
"Yeah, it was really weird."
"I wonder why," Kiba said while rubbing his chin.
"I guess I'll have to put up with him for the year. I'm gonna ask Tsunade about it again, though. Maybe she wasn't having a bad day." Naruto nodded to himself in conclusion.
"But even if you can't move out, think of the sick pranks you could pull on him."
Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement. "I could fart in his face while sleeping!"
"You could put stink bombs in his closet."
"Or I could mix up his laundry and give him pink underwear!"
"The possibilities are endless. You gotta let me in on this, too."
"Of course, dude!"
They fist bumped and talked for about 15 more minutes until the teacher finally walked in… porn book in hand.
"Hey, isn't that Jiraiya's porn book?" Kiba asked loudly to Naruto.
"Yeah, it looks like it. And why is the teacher so late to class? It's been like 25 minutes!" Naruto asked.
Kiba shrugged.
Kakashi looked over at the two kids talking about his…
It's not porn! It's classic literature!
Once his eyes found the blonde they widened with realization.
So that's Minato-sensei's kid, huh?
Kakashi made a mental note to find out which team the kid would be on and carried on with his teacherly duties.
Sasuke heard his name being yelled by the blonde idiot but paid no mind to it.
Sasuke had been feeling more than a little generous this morning when he talked to Naruto after what seemed like a century so he decided to shake Naruto up a bit before leaving the room. If it had been any other day Sasuke would've just ignored him but for some reason he just couldn't today.
Sasuke briefly tuned back into reality and noticed that the teacher had arrived about 15 minutes late.
He wasn't going to like this teacher.
Sasuke wasn't mad at Naruto, no, he was mad at himself for getting so riled up inside when Naruto suggested that they could just be friends. After over a decade of knowing each other they could finally be friends, no? Well obviously Sasuke had not been in the right mind that day when Naruto suggested this. Sasuke had actually been thinking of the same thing for a while by then. But why? Why couldn't he accept it that day? This thought bothered Sasuke way too much over the past few months.
That's when Sasuke came to the conclusion that he was jealous. He was always better than Naruto at basically everything. He was an Uchiha, he had better grades, his taijutsu was the best, and his techniques were on par. So why? Why was he getting jealous of his blonde rival?
Because Naruto was catching up to him. It came as a shock to everyone when it was revealed that Naruto had the 9 tailed beast sealed inside his… body. Everything went downhill from there. Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin, or as Naruto liked to call "Ero-Sennin", had begun teaching Naruto how to use his SP or sacred power.
Naruto got strong. He got unbelievably strong in an unbelievably short amount of time. Sasuke had always thought of Naruto as someone who followed him, who needed to catch up to him, who eventually would be as strong as him. So. Now that he was getting there, why was he jealous?
Sasuke heard something crack.
He looked down at the broken pencil in his hand. Oh, he thought, yeah. I'm in class.
The bell conveniently rang which signaled the end of class. Sasuke stood up and gathered his belongings only to be met with a couple of fangirls.
Ah. The joy.
"Sasuke-kun! It's so nice to finally meet you!"
"Sasuke-sama we're in the same class! Isn't that great?!"
"Sasuke, I love you!"
The teen rolled his eyes and briskly walked away with the fangirls on his trail until he finally entered the men's restroom and locked the door behind him.
Wiping an imaginary bead of sweat off his brow he calculated how much time he'd have to stay there until the fangirls finally gave up and left. He waited a total of 5 minutes until he unlocked the door and quietly peaked out. The girls were gone. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked to get some lunch. The day was almost over and he had forgotten to eat.
He grabbed a croissant and some coffee and decided to eat by the pond on campus. After eating his lunch he headed to his last class. It was a pretty uneventful day for him besides what had happened in the morning.
Sasuke took a deep breath after his last class finished. He had to face his biggest problem now, who also happened to be his roommate for whoever knows how long?
He walked up the steps to his dorm room, finally opened the door, ready to face his fear.
Shikamaru didn't want to go to college. He'd rather just get a well paying job that required minimal effort. His parents thought otherwise, of course. His mom, being the annoying woman she was, forced Shikamaru to listen to her blab on and on about how fulfilling college would be.
She also had to mention the fact that Shikamaru was a genius, and how the public would react if they found out that the genius son of Nara did not go to college. His dad just said that it was the only way Shikamaru would be prepared to head the Nara clan.
Shikamaru didn't want to head the Nara clan.
It was too troublesome.
And it just wasn't his type of thing.
But either way, he was forced to go to college anyway.
So here he was, sat in his dorm room, a lit cigarette in his a hand as he puffed out clouds of smoke. He was deeply interested in the shapes he made that he didn't notice his new roommate walk in. His peace was interrupted when his friend snatched the cigarette out of his hand and put it out.
On Shikamaru's hand.
"Fuck! Chouji! What the hell was that for?"
"Oi, Shikamaru," his old friend said, "the rules explicitly say no smoking in dorm rooms. Plus that stuff is basically killing you. Welcome back to reality, by the way."
Shikamaru ran his burned hand through his hair before getting up and making his way to the bathroom to run it under some cold water. "So we're roommates this year, huh?" he asked.
"Of course we're roommates! We're best friends, remember?" Chouji said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Uh-huh."
"What's that supposed to mean, Shika?"
"Well since you effectively burned off some of my skin just now, I'm starting to rethink our friendship. Especially after you called me that horrible nickname." Shikamaru dried his hands with a towel and walked outside onto the balcony attached to their room.
"Oh shut up, Shikamaru. I'm worried about your health is all," Chouji said joining Shikamaru outside.
"Well my health is just fine."
"Whatever you say, Shikamaru. Are you gonna come to class today?"
"No. It's not even really class."
"Okay well I'll see you l-"
"No you won't!" Shikamaru stiffened at the all too familiar voice. Shit. He slowly turned around to see his… lovely blonde friend looking slightly pissed. Nah, scratch that. She looked really pissed. Also, she wasn't lovely.
She looks like my mother.
"You are NOT skipping out on the first day of school." Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something but Ino silenced him with her hand.
"Shut it! I don't want to hear any excuses about how it's not an actual day of class," Ino mimicked Shikamaru's lazy voice.
"First, that doesn't sound anything like me at all. Second, I really don't care," Shikamaru drawled.
Ino raised her eyebrows and placed a hand on her hip.
This doesn't look good.
"You are not going to give your teachers a bad impression on the first day of school. Come, you're going to smile and be a nice, lovely, student that your mother would be proud of," Ino said as she dragged Shikamaru out of the dorm.
What a drag.
"Wait- How did you even find my dorm?" Shikamaru asked.
"Your mom told me the room number so I could make sure that you didn't skip your first day."
Of course. It was my mom's idea.
Long mocha hair, beautiful pale eyes, and a strong draw was what made all of the heads turn in his direction.
The young Hyūga walking into Strategics class ignored all of the stares pointed at him.
This would be his second year of college.
He looked around for a place to sit and decided to sit near a window. Unfortunately, the only available seat left near a window was next to a certain lazy shadow user.
"Nara Shikamaru," was all the noble Neji said in his deep, velvety voice as he sat down.
Shikamaru gave no sign that he heard Neji and that slightly infuriated the older man. Neji decided to let it go, after all the lazy teen next to him was most likely sleeping.
Neji took out his notebook and began writing out his schedule in neat cursive. It was then when he realized that sitting next to a sleeping student wouldn't be the best image on his first day of university, but when he looked around for another place to sit everything had already been taken. He was out of luck already and it had only been the first class of the day.
The teacher came in and introduced himself as Sarutobi Asuma-sensei. He started calling out names and students replied with "here" or "present". When he reached Shikamaru's name and the Nara stayed silent, he got a little annoyed.
"Nara Shikamaru!" he yelled. This seemed to have worked as Shikamaru slowly lifted his head up and stretched, yawning. "Here," he lazily said before lifting his elbow onto his desk and propping his chin down on his hand.
"Next time you should get better rest before the first day of school. Don't wanna give your teachers a bad impression. Good thing I'm a cool teacher, though!" said Asuma-sensei and some students chuckled.
The smell of smoke hit Neji's nose and he inwardly grimaced. He glanced at Shikamaru, slowly raising an elegant eyebrow. Shikamaru looked at the Hyūga from the corner of his eye but said nothing.
After the roll call, the teacher went on to explaining what they'd be learning about (as if the name of the class wasn't explanation enough).
As he did this, Neji sneaked another glance at Shikamaru and raised his eyebrows when he noticed the younger teen already looking at him. When the Nara said nothing Neji chose to ignore him for the rest of the class.
At the end of class, Neji picked up all of his stuff and neatly put it into his bag as Shikamaru sloppily shoved everything into his.
"Destroying your health with cigarettes, Nara?"
"Meddling in other people's business, Hyūga?"
"Hn. As if I care about your self-destructive habits."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"If you want to destroy your health, there are other ways to go about it. We are at Konoha Academy, after all."
Shikamaru stared at Neji's back as he elegantly strode away, pondering what that last comment meant.
Shikamaru shrugged after a few seconds and walked away. Hopefully he could find some place to nap and ditch all of his classes...
He didn't notice the Sarutobi watching him intently as he walked away.
Sasuke was tackled the moment his right foot was in the room.
"Teme! How come you didn't text or call me all summer?!" Sasuke cringed at his roommate's loud and obnoxious voice above him. He looked up and was met with vibrant blue eyes.
"Sasuke…," Naruto growled.
"What, dobe?"
"Answer my question!"
"My phone broke and I had to get a new one. I lost all of my contacts. Now, get. off. me."
Naruto stared at him for a long moment as if to determine whether or not he was lying.
"You liar!" he concluded.
"I'm not lying, dumbass."
He was lying.
Naruto stared at him for another moment before deciding to get off of Sasuke and stand up.
"Show me your phone, then," he said and held his hand out expectantly. Sasuke rolled his eyes and took his phone out of his back pocket to hand to Naruto. Naruto took it without delay and said, "This is the same phone, dude!"
"My old phone was the latest model so I just got a new one of the same model."
Naruto looked at him warily before unlocking Sasuke's phone and going through his contacts.
"Your contacts are all gone, Sasuke."
"Of course they are! I got a new phone, dobe. Now give it back." Sasuke snatched his phone back before waiting for a reply and stepped into his room.
Good thing Sasuke impulsively deleted all of his contacts before arriving at school this morning.
Naruto followed him into the room and asked, "Anyway, how did you know I was your roommate?"
"One of your boxes said your name on it."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." Sasuke scoffed.
Sasuke sat down on the couch and began organizing his school supplies.
Naruto just stared at him, waiting for something that he obviously wasn't going to get.
"Enjoying the view?"
Naruto made a choking sound before exclaiming, "Shut up, jerk! I just wanted to say that uh I was… uh, sorry for what I said to you a few months ago. I'm sorry if I made you mad and-"
"Apologizing to your rival? Doesn't sound like the rival I know. Don't worry, usuratonkachi, I'm not mad. I forgot all about it."
"Well then why did you walk away like that? I was not thankful for you Uchiha death stare! And I was not worried."
Sasuke shrugged.
Naruto looked at him, eyebrows raised and expecting a reply back but got nothing in return. Realizing he wasn't going to get any answers, Naruto sighed and walked into the bedroom.
The room was nice and big, for a dorm room. The front door led to the living room with a couch and big flat screen tv. The wall to the left of it had an arch that led into the small dining area with a table, sink, stove/oven, and fridge. The wall to the right of the living area had a door that led to the bedroom and a door in the bedroom that led to the bathroom. They were two full sized beds.
It was nothing compared to what Sasuke and Naruto were used to at their private estates, but it would do for college.
Naruto sat looked at the two beds carefully before choosing the one on the left as his.
Naruto lived quite the miles away from Kohacad(2) and would rather have the few extra minutes to sleep in. He also thought it would be cool to make new friends so he decided to room with someone else.
Of course, that plan backfired and here he was, stuck with his annoying rival. Since they were already registered as roommates, it would have taken a few days to move out but it wouldn't have been impossible.
Why is Tsunade-obaa-chan so adamant on me living together with Sasuke?
Naruto really didn't want to test what it'd be like if he got Tsunade angry, so he'd deal with this problem… for now at least.
Naruto knew Tsunade because Jiraiya, his mentor, had been teammates with her at this very school many, many, years ago.
Teammates are chosen for a certain worldwide competition called the Master of the Arts Competition, where college students go head to head using their sacred power(3) and taijutsu to earn fame, power, prestige, and more. No one truly knows what the grand prize of the competition will be since it changes every year and is always kept a secret until the very end.
Naruto's parents had been on the same team and won the competition together.
Naruto vaguely recalled Sasuke mentioning that his dad and his older brother had both won the competition, too.
He didn't know what prize they won but it must have been amazing and if his parents could win, he would do win, too. Naruto was sick of seeing everyone eye him with pity or even disappointment that he has not turned out as great at his father or mother.
This Kyuubi (who Naruto happened to get under partial control a year ago) and Naruto were totally gonna win this together! Along with the help of his new teammates.
Naruto looked over to his right and stared at the wall approximately where Sasuke should have been seated.
Sasuke? A teammate? Haha, no way!
Naruto yawned and felt a little sleepy.
A little nap won't hurt, right?
He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep and had sweet dreams.
Sometime in the future
Naruto always wished he could go back. He wished he could go back to the days when he and his teammates were happily training together and making fun of each other.
Naruto dislocated his thumbs to get out of the handcuffs and healed them back together with sacred power.
Was it really important? What Sasuke left for? Was it worth leaving his team?
And was it really worth leaving him?
Naruto thought he was important to Sasuke. And what they had together…
Naruto shook his head. He couldn't give up yet. His goal was about to be reached. Sasuke was so close.
He ran out into the bright sunlight and looked up.
There he is.
"Sasu- what?"
Naruto's eyes widened as he took in what was happening in front of him. It felt like slow motion.
He ran, reaching out his hand. "Wait!" he heard himself yell but didn't really feel it.
But it was too late.
Sasuke was already gone.
Again.
Naruto woke up with a start. His whole body was flushed and he was panting.
"You alright, adobe?"
Naruto rolled his eyes at the name.
"Yeah I'm fine. Why?"
He wasn't fine. He had a dream about his parents dying.
"You were shouting in your sleep."
"O-Oh." Naruto sheepishly scratched his head. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Sasuke snorted and turned around in his bed, facing the wall.
"Whatever."
He decided to make small talk to take whatever it was off the blonde's mind. 'Cause that's what rivals were for, right?
"Today's the first day of school," he whispered.
"Yeah."
"Ready to find out who your teammates are going to be?"
"Che, it's definitely not going to be you."
"Same to you, usuratonkachi."
Naruto chuckled slightly and slowly drifted off to sleep thinking that it was kind of nice to be talking to Sasuke like this.
"Alright kiddos, time to announce who your teammates for the MOA(4) competition will be," said Kakashi-sensei.
Naruto zoned out until he heard his name.
"Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura-"
"Yatta!" shouted Naruto as he pumped his fist in the air.
"-and Uchiha Sasuke."
What?
What?
Naruto looked over to where Sasuke was sitting and scowled when he saw the smirk on the jerk's face.
"Oh, looks like I'll also be the mentor of this team, too."
WHAT!
Sakura was fine but….
Naruto, teammates with his ultimate rival Sasuke?
And a shady looking teacher who had his face covered in a mask and a Kohacad forehead protector covering his eye. Not to mention he shows up late to class every day with one of Ero-sennin's perverted books and he doesn't even look that strong. Especially when he's giggling at the porn book in class when he's supposed to be teaching!
Little did Naruto know that this was only the beginning of his nightmare.
1. A play on the word Ramen
2. The shortened way the students say Konoha Academy. Students also call it Konocad. (I like both so I'll switch it up, haha.)
3. This will be further explained in a future chapter. Patience, my friends.
4. Master of the Arts