The sun was just beginning to peek its head over the horizon. The birds had begun their dawn chorus. In the apartment of Uzumaki Naruto, the dawn chorus had a lead singer. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! However, Naruto did not like this particular singer. BEEP! BEEP! CRASH!
Ahh, the broken alarm clock chorus; it's not truly morning without it. Naruto rolled out of bed onto the floor with a 'thud.'
"Damn single bed..." he mumbled as he began to stretch. As he went to the bathroom the mirror caught his eye. He could see 2 red-orange fox ears poking out from the top of his blond mess of hair. There was also a long tail swaying carefree behind him.
"Genjutsu must'a gone off during the night," he said to himself as he yawned.
"Yeah, when you're sleeping you can't concentrate on it so it disappears. This could pose a problem if you want to hide the foxy accessories from your team on long missions," Kyuubi lectured. 'I'll just bring a one man tent'. "You also might want to get your pants on."
"Oh," Naruto said realizing his pajama bottoms were still down around his ankles. How he managed to walk so far without tripping he couldn't understand. Then again, he couldn't understand anything in the morning. Naruto was never a morning person; it usually took him about five to ten minutes to fully wake up.
He went to his closet and started searching through his clothing. With a loud "HA!" in triumph he held up a pair of black pants with an orange stripe down the sides of the legs. The Hokage had gotten them for him as a present. Why he hadn't worn them, he couldn't remember. He also pulled out a black t-shirt, then got dressed. He tied his signature orange jacket around his waist.
He made some toast to eat for his breakfast, replaced the genjutsu, and was out the door by seven. He quickly made his way to the academy with only one thing on his mind: Hinata. As he got to the academy he went past an arguing Ino and Sakura, who pretended to ignore him. He went straight to where Hinata was seated.
She noticed he was coming her way and her cheeks instantly turned crimson.
"H-hello n-Naruto I-I'm glad w-we both p-passed," she said so quietly Naruto could barely hear her.
"Yeah, me too!" he replied happily. Hinata realized he replied and turned a deeper shade of red.
"So Hinata, are you doing anything tonight?" She instantly froze upon the question.
"N-n-no" she said shakily.
"Well, maybe we can do something together tonight?" Naruto asked happily.
"L-like a d-d-date?" she asked, surprised. Sakura and Ino had stopped arguing and were watching the scene attentively.
"No, not like a date, a date. How about dinner? Pick you up at the academy at 8?" Naruto said. "If she gets any redder she's bound to pass out due o all the blood in her face," the resident demon commented.
"Y-yes!" Hinata screeched, then fell backwards, passing out. Naruto grabbed her and gently leaned her forward onto the desk. She was still bright red, but now it looked like she was sleeping on the desk.
"Oi, Naruto, what did you do to her?" Kiba asked as he came closer. Naruto then realized that everyone was looking at him. Even Sasuke turned to raise an eyebrow. Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"I just asked her out, and then she fainted. At least she said yes."
Kiba came over and slapped him on the back. "Good job on getting your first date!" Naruto grinned. Akamaru yipped to his master.
"Hey, you do smell different. Did you spend the night in a fox's den or something?" Kiba asked while patting the little dog on the head.
"Huh, why?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Well, normally you have a small fox sent on you, but today it smells stronger. You got a new pet?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Iruka stepped in and cleared his throat to get everybody's attention. "Well, then, take your seats. First off I'd like to say Mizuki won't be joining us due to an unfortunate accident…" his voice trailed off. 'Idiot must have gotten caught trying to steal the scroll,' Naruto thought."Anyway, I will announce your three man squad and the jounin instructor you'll be paired with."
Much the same happened as in the previous timeline. 'I can't believe I'm stuck with Naruto! Argh! Well, at least I'm with Sasuke.' "BOO NARUTO YAY SASUKE! CHA!" Sakura thought as they went down to the room they were assigned to meet their jounin instructor.
'They're both idiots; this three person team is two too many' Sasuke thought.
Naruto was, however, a bit sidetracked. 'No, that's too mild, I want something huge!' "How about a series of traps?" 'YEAH! All leading him from one prank to another; he'll never know what hit him! God I love being young again!' This led Naruto to laugh out loud evilly (along with the fox, but only Naruto heard him). Naruto's bout of evil laughter made his teammates give him a weird look. Not that he noticed, as he was laughing evilly at the ceiling.
'Great, I'm stuck with someone who should be in a padded room,' Sasuke thought as he rolled his eyes.
'Memo to self: help Naruto seek mental help,' Sakura thought.
As they waited in the room, time went by and the two became more and more interested in what Naruto was doing. Sakura was the first to cave in.
"Naruto, what is it you're doing, exactly?" she asked in an annoyed tone.
"Teaching the teacher a lesson on being late," Naruto replied, not even turning to look at Sakura.
"Umm right... so where are you taking Hinata tonight? Out for ramen?" Sakura asked going into girly mode.
"Don't know and no," Naruto replied as he continued working.
"You're not taking her for ramen?" she asked, surprised.
"No... But do you know a good place to get scented candles? Lavender and lilac?" Naruto asked, finally looking up from what he was doing. Hinata loved lilacs. He even used them when he proposed to her.
flashback
"Naruto, where are you taking me this time?" asked a giggling Hinata.
"Somewhere really special. No peeking, and that means not using byakugan, either," Naruto said, leading the blind-folded Hinata up to the top of the Hokage monument.
"Are we there yet?" Hinata asked impatiently.
"Hang on a sec!" Naruto yelled as he let go of her shoulders. He ran off about five meters, then came back.
"Ok, you can take off the blindfold now!" Naruto said happily as Hinata reached up to the blindfold.
She blinked, getting her eyes used to the light. A tree came into focus, then she began to look around, wondering where they were. She noticed a cliff to her right and began to approach it. She gasped out at what she saw. There down in the field were lilacs. But some were cut down, exposing the green stems among the purple.
The cut down flowers had a message, plain and simple. "Hinata will you marry me!" she almost screamed out from sheer delight of it as she read the message. She turned to see Naruto, a few feet away down on one knee, holding a ring with three diamonds on it up towards her in one hand, and a big bouquet of lilacs in the other. They were from the ones he cut down to spell the message.
He was smiling happily. She couldn't contain her joy and ran at Naruto with her arms open
"Yes! YES! OF COURSE I WILL!" she yelled so loud that almost all of the village could hear her. She could out-yell Naruto if she wanted to.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Wait!" Naruto yelled, stopping Hinata in mid-lunge. Hinata was confused at what he was doing, but then again, he was still the most surprising ninja. Naruto got up off his knee, walked over to his fiancée, took her hand, and slipped the ring on her finger.
He then walked back to where he was, put down the bouquet, then turned to face Hinata.
"Ok, continue!" he said happily. She then began her lunge anew, clamping her arms around his neck.
"I love you," she whispered happily through her tears of joy.
"I love you too, and will always, Hinata," he whispered back. They then kissed each other, knowing they would be together forever.
end flashback
"...store down town that sells all kinds of stuff like that," Sakura said.
"Ugh... thanks." Naruto smiled then went back to the paper he had.
Sakura went back to her seat to wait for the sensei to come. Naruto rolled up the scroll he was writing in, then got up and went to the back of the classroom. He came forward with a metal bucket and placed it atop the door carefully before going to sit back down beside his teammates.
"You idiot, if he's a jounin he's not going to fall for such a stupid trap," Sakura said, and raised her fist to hit Naruto on the head when someone came in. The man opened the door, causing the bucket to fall on his head with a clunk.
Naruto began laughing. Sakura gasped. "Chaa! Got 'im!" Inner Sakura yelled.Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The man turned towards them, bucket still on his head. "Well my first impression... I hate you all!" he said cheerfully.
"Feeling's mutual about your lateness!" Naruto said.
"Right, I'll meet you all on the roof," he said, trying to pull the bucket off only to find it firmly stuck.
"Naruto, did you put glue in there?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah... something like that." As Sasuke and Sakura turned to leave, Kakashi finally got the bucket off his head. He was glaring at Naruto. 'That brat used chakra to stick this thing to my head... if this is the dead last, then that Sasuke kid must be high chunin,' he thought.
"Come on, don't be late, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled as he ran off.
"I didn't tell him my name yet..." Kakashi said as he poofed up to the roof. His three students were already there.
"Ok, so tell me your likes, dislikes and hobbies, things like that," Kakashi stated.
"Well, how bout you go first to show us?" Sakura asked.
"Alright, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no interest in telling you my hobbies. I also have no ambitions to tell you my dreams. I like things and I also dislike things too! Ok, next," he said happily.
"Wow! Me too! We have so much in common!" Naruto said, causing everyone around him to do a face fault.
"Ok, ladies first." Kakashi said.
"Umm, alright, I am Haruno Sakura, I like," she turned to Sasuke, "I hope," turn to Sasuke again, "I hate," she miserably turned to Naruto, "umm…" Sakura fell silent and looked as if she was throwing a silent hissy fit.
"Ok, next you." He pointed to Naruto.
"Ok, well, following your example, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like a lot of things, I dislike mainly people who bully others and people who are late." He stressed the late part, making Kakashi cringe. "My ambition is to fulfill my dream, my dream everyone already knows, my hobbies are well known too."
"Great, ok, now you," he pointed at Sasuke.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted. 'If no one else is giving any personal information, neither will I,' Sasuke thought, going into brooding avenger mode.
"Ok! Good, I have team happy! So, we will meet at training ground 7 for survival training! Oh, and don't eat breakfast or you might throw up! Bye now!" With that he disappeared into a puff of smoke.
"I think he likes us," Naruto said before jumping off the roof. He landed silently and began to run off, only five minutes later realizing what he had done.
"He shouldn't be able to do that, should he?" Sakura asked Sasuke after recovering from her shock.
"Nope," Sasuke said, turning to face the girl.
"You're going to stalk him, aren't you?" Sakura said, more of a statement than a question.
"Yep," came the reply.
"Thought so."