"Hey Naruto, How long are you gonna lay there sleeping? I thought we had something good planned today!" An eight year old Naruto opened his eyes. He had to blink several times to make out the figure standing in the sun. "Hn?" he muttered, still not completely awake. Then the face that belonged to the voice was right in front of him with both of her bright black eyes dead centered above his. "C'mon Naruto! I've waited all day for this! Hurry up and get moving or we'll get caught before we even get started!" Naruto rubbed his eyes and blinked twice. "Oh yeah."

He stared at his companion trying to finish waking up. She was a small, dainty girl the same age and rank as him. She had black hair and eyes, light skin, and her outfit consisted of black sweats with blue stripes that stopped right underneath her knees, a blue tank top, and a jacket that resembled the pants that she kept unzipped. She had an innocent appearance with her hair tugged back in a ponytail that reflected her bouncy nature. This, in a nutshell, was Lorienn Uchiha. Everyone called her Lori for short though. She happened to be the twin of his worst enemy, Sasuke Uchiha. Not like you could tell. She was the black sheep of her family, and her twin seemed to avoid her a lot because of it. She was also, coincidentally, Naruto's partner in crime. Today their crime was to get on the Kage Mountain and graffiti on the Kage's faces. Naruto got hyped up all over again.

"Alright!" he yelled. "Let's go! What time is it?"

"It's 2:30."

"What!" he exclaimed. "School will be out in 30 minutes! That's not enough time!"

"Well I tried to wake you up, but there's no hope of getting anything done now."

"So then…that means…"

The devious grins that lit up their faces said it all. They pumped their fists in the air, yelled double time, and ran toward Kage Mountain at full speed. They got there 20 minutes later.

"Darn it!" griped Naruto. "Only 10 minutes left to do anything to it!"

"Quit complaining then and start painting! Might as well put something there." snapped Lori.

"Hey what are you two doing!" a sentry yelled.

The kids whirled around. "Aw man one of them got here early!" exclaimed Naruto. Lori tugged his arm. "Let's get out of here," she said. "If I get caught I'll get in trouble with Dad again!" That got the little blonde to high tail it. If there was one thing Naruto knew about Lori's Dad, it was that if you valued your life you didn't get on his bad side. He already hated that Lori hung out with him. He didn't want to know what might happen to Lori, not to mention him, if they got caught doing another prank together. After a while the two finally lost the Sentry down a random ally, and stopped to catch their breath. "Wahoo!" Naruto exclaimed. "We didn't do much and still managed to not get caught!" Lori glared at him. "I don't see how it's anything to brag about, but ok your right. At least we didn't get…." The shrill yell that froze their blood came out of nowhere. "UZUMAKI NARUTO! LORIENN UCHIHA! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND SKIP MY CLASS AGAIN!"

And that was how they ended up getting detention together. Of course, being the lovely children they were, they couldn't sit still for that long and a chalk/eraser battle shortly ensued. "Geez!" ranted Iruka after they had successfully managed to cover themselves and him in chalk. "What in the world am I going to do with you two? One of you makes bad grades and skips class all the time to go do pranks," Naruto snorted at this. "And the other has perfect grades and still skips class all the time to do the same thing!" Lori suppressed a giggle. Iruka sighed. "Well considering things you didn't do much this time so I'll let you both go, and I won't call Lori's parents if you both show up to class tomorrow." "Thanks Iruka Sensei!" they yelled. Both were out the door in a flash. When they stopped Naruto turned to Lori.

"Well that was fun, but what should we do now?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Hmmm it's too early for Ichiraku ramen, and we can't pull any pranks cause the sentries are watching. Oh! How bout we go to the park. I bet Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba are there. Maybe they'll let us play!"

"Ok. That sounds good."

As they headed to the park they talked about numerous things. Training, jutsu, some of their classmates, weapons, books (not that Naruto bothered to read. That was Lori's department), water, sunsets. There wasn't anything they couldn't tell each other. It was the kind of friendship where you could just look at them and know right off the bat the pair was the best of friends. If no one knew better and it weren't for the difference in appearance the two could easily be mistaken for siblings.

They got to the park where Naruto usually went to try and join in a game while Lori sat underneath a lone tree reading or doodling. He often noticed that Lori didn't enjoy the games as he did. Or maybe it wasn't the games, but the people. He had met Lori a year ago, and as he had gotten to know her he began to notice different things in her manner (Not unlike most close friends do). She was a workaholic when it came to training. She loved books, drawing, writing, and singing, anything to do with fine arts really. She volunteered at the hospital frequently, which meant she was a familiar face to a lot of people. Any talk of her family was off limits. She was quiet and often kept to herself. You had to listen when she talked though. You just couldn't help it. He wasn't in love with her. Not at all. What the two children had could simply be called a bond of inspired respect between two people that was understood only by them.

Anyway, back to the park. Lori obviously didn't talk to a lot of people her own age. She was more used to talking to the nurses and teachers that took interest in her as well as her Mom and older brother. No she was quite fine just observing Naruto attempt to join the games that usually went on. Naruto didn't do that today though. In fact, Lori looked up at him in surprise when he sat next to her instead of rushing out to play. "Is there a game going on you want to join?" he asked carefully. Lori looked across the playground that was currently populated with the academy students since school had ended. She could've refused the games, but it was rare when he encouraged her to play with him on the playground with the other kids. Naruto watched her glance around till her eyes lingered on something. "Find something?" She gingerly lifted her finger and pointed. "What's that?" Naruto followed her gaze to some boys playing with a large ball. "That?" he asked. She nodded. "It's kickball. You want to try it?" A little annoyed by his questions she curtly nodded again. He grinned from ear to ear and bounced to his feet. "Ok, I'll go ask if we can join."

She watched him run over to the boys without moving. She knew what the outcome would probably be, but again he had asked her to join. This only meant one thing, her friend had been thinking. Since a thinking Naruto was normally a dangerous thing to reckon with, she just decided to let everything play out. Sure enough a few minutes later a dejected looking Naruto came back over and sat down next to her. There was a long silence for a moment. She finally broke it. "It looked like a really lame game anyway, especially the way they were playing it. They looked like they were stumbling all over themselves." Naruto gave a small smile. Before he knew it he was on his feet being dragged by his arm. "Lori what're you doing?" "We're gonna go train and let off some steam." A few minutes later they were throwing kunai at a small target on the tree in front of them. As usual they were having a random discussion.

"So what if the grass was blue and the sky were green?"

"We'd all be upside down. If a stone statue blinked, what would you do?"

"…Poke it. What about you?"

"I'd trip you, run, then tell you to hurry up and run."

"Hey!"

"You asked."

"How do babies get made?'

"Asked my Mom once, but she had a hard time saying anything. Itachi was cracking up the whole time she was trying to explain too."

"I heard it's really gross."

"Oh well, we don't have to worry about that."

"…Orange is a lot better than blue."

"Yeah and you'd stick out like a sore thumb in the woods."

"An expert ninja's appearance should be flashy."

"You don't need flashy, you have a mouth."

"…Lori, why do you hang out with me?"

Lori turned to look at him in surprise. "You're my friend," she said not exactly sure what he was fishing for or why he had change the discussion to a more serious note. "Why else would I?"

"That's not what I meant." Naruto looked uncomfortable. "You could have plenty of friends in school. It's not like anyone hates you for no reason. Plus you're an Uchiha, and you're obviously better than me at all the ninja stuff." He motioned to the target she hadn't missed yet. "And I know your Dad and your twin don't like me. I don't even think your mom and brother like me. So why did you choose me of all people for your best friend?"

Lori hopped off the log she had been reclining on and looked at him for a second before saying, "Anybody ever told you how dangerous it is when you actually think?"

Naruto cracked a grin. "Yep! You!"

She looked like she was deciding something and started playing with a leftover raindrop from that morning. He briefly admired the birthmark on her right hand that looked like two dragon wings unfolding with its tail disappearing up her arm and into her jacket. The tail twined around her arm and ended just below her elbow, but her jacket covered the tail so you could only see the wings at the moment. Naruto started when she spoke again. "Let's go back to that hill where we were this afternoon." It was rare for her to outright request a destination instead of dragging him there so he was more than willing.

By the time they got to the hill they had the perfect view of the sun painting the sky as it started to sink in the sky. They both sat there for a minute (They are 8 after all. We can't expect them to stop for more than 3 minutes at the maximum). "It's really pretty," Naruto piped up. "Yeah," Lori said. "It's because you're special." Naruto looked at her dumbfounded. "Huh?" She looked at the sky as she talked.

"You're really clumsy, you have the worst grades in class, you're hated by half this village for some unknown reason, and well…you're just you."

Naruto scowled. "That makes no sense at all."

Knowing her friend to well she tactfully changed the subject. "Hey Naruto you've never told me, but how come you want to be Hokage so badly?"

He got that spark in his eyes that he always seemed to have when he was passionate about something. "I'm gonna be the strongest ninja in the world! Then no one will look down on me anymore and I'll be recognized as a part of this village!"

Lori sniggered. Naruto glowered. "What?"

"You're not gonna get anywhere with your grades right now."

"Wha!" A grass fight ensued shortly after. It went on until the blonde had drenched her hair in it to satisfaction. As they started picking the green stuff off each other he suddenly remembered his point. "Hey you still didn't answer my question."

Lori looked at the sun. "Maybe tomorrow," she said. "I have to go home now or Mom will worry." She walked over to Naruto and they clasped their pointer and ring finger fingers together as their signature farewell. "See you tomorrow."