Broken Youth
(Life of Konoha Academy Teens)
CH1.2:Remember

Also nine and a half years earlier:
In a playground that was once full of children was now almost completely abandoned. Earlier that day there were many kids there all playing tag, hide-and-go-seek, or simply running around until their legs could no longer move. All those kids were long gone and all that remained were three lonely boys. The boys were all isolated. One of the boys stood leaning by a big blooming cherry tree, another sat by the ladder of the slide painting, and last one sat on a swing slowing pushing himself back and forth. All three of the boys were off in their own little world.

_
The boy leaning by the tree was complaining to himself. His face carried a frown and his deep dark eyes anger and sorrow. The boy's eyes fit perfectly against his light skin. His hair was quite unique, it was spiked up in the back but only on one side and semi-parted bangs to accompany it. He was dressed in a fairly long sleeve black shirt with white shorts. The boy began talking to himself :"Stupid Itachi and his stupid friends," he whispered with his arms crossed in front of him and his shoulder blades pressing against the tree trunk.
"Tsk, He thinks he can just ditch me when ever he feels like it to hang out with his new friends...I hate his friends and I hate him for going with them. What makes me most angry is how he said was 'Sorry, Sasuke, but you can't come with us, it's strictly big kids besides you know what the guys will do if I bring you.' Then he just smiles like it's no big deal. Just as he's about to leave he stops and say's 'Wait, I forgot I promised to train with you didn't I Sasuke?' He then signaled me to come and as I stupidly run towards him he sticks out his fingers and strikes me on the forehead saying 'maybe next time' and he leaves," Sasuke said while touching where his brother had tapped his forehead and left a red mark. Sasuke continued talking to himself saying "And when I ask mom what to do, she tells me 'Itachi's a big boy now Sasuke and you know that. You also know that your brother wants to spend as much time with his friend as he does with you. Don't be sad Honey. Why don't you do the same by going to the park and making new friends,' and without even thinking about it I do what she says again..." He kept muttering to himself.
The boy on the swing set was full of energy, but was keeping it bottled up inside him. This boy had wild, spiky, blond hair. He had deep blue eye and his skin was a bit dark. On his both his cheeks ran lines which resembled whiskers. He wore a T-shirt with the red Uzumaki symbol in the center and beige colored pants. As he pushed himself he thought of the future, but mostly about his dream of becoming the great leader of the village just like his father or maybe even greater. 'I will become Hokage someday or my name isn't Naruto Uzumaki,' He thought in his head. One thing this boy seemed to have a lot of was hope both for himself and for humanity.
The boy sitting by the slide was a simple guy. He had extremely pale skin with dark eyes and hair. Their was nothing special about his hair, it just laid flat. His clothing was completely black. He sat there by the slide thinking of nothing yet everything. All of his thoughts were pouring out of his brain and with his hand he placed them on the paper in ink.

_
Naruto finally got bored of doing nothing, so he planned on getting the other boys' attention, but he knew it wasn't going to be easy since they were sheer strangers. Naruto looked around to see if he could find something that could catch their attention, he then spotted two stones right next to his feet. He picked up the stones from the sand and threw them at the boys. The stones ended up hitting both of them on the head.
"Ow! Why did you do that you dobe?" yelled Sasuke.
"Hey!" shouted the other boy.
Naruto smiled a dorky grin then said "I was only trying to get your attention. I guess it worked," he said chuckling while rubbing the the back of his head.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked irritated as he touched the spot were the stone had hit which happened to be the same spot his brother Itachi had hit earlier.
"Oh,Um...Well I was just wondering if you guys...well wanted to do something fun like play a game with me or just talk or something," he said will he looked down and kicked the ground with his right foot.
"Okay,"said the by the slide as he walked towards Naruto, the boy smiled yet it didn't look natural. Naruto then turned and looked towards Sasuke, who remained silent. Then after a brief pause he looked at Naruto and said "Tsk! After hitting me on the head with a rock, you want me to play with you?" he chuckled, "I don't even know why I bothered to come here in the first place. I'm leaving." He said as he started walking past the two boys. Naruto then spotted and immediately recognized the small emblem on the back of Sasuke's shirt. He thought for a second then said "Hey, Uchiha! I bet you can't beat me in a race."
Sasuke stopped in his footsteps. 'How does he know...' he thought. All Sasuke said was "What?"
"You heard me! I said I bet you can't bet me in a race," Naruto replied.
Sasuke chuckled "We'll see who beats who." he muttered under his breath as he walked back towards Naruto.
'I knew it would work,' thought Naruto and to celebrate his victory he smiled.
"Just tell me from where to where and I'll beat you. This will be a piece of cake." Sasuke said when he reached the boys.
"Wrong, it won't be easy because we won't be running in a straight line, but through an obstacle course," said Naruto "I had to make it difficult you know, to give you a chance."
"It won't be challenging and even if it is I'll still beat you." Sasuke said in a snobby tone.
"Okay, here is the plan then, you can join too if you want,"Naruto said to the other boy who began to feel left out. "The race will start at the edge of the swings, you will zig-zag through them then you will get across the monkey bars, after that you have to balance across the see-saw, then jump the sandbox, climb the jungle gym, run up the sliding part of the slide and finally run around the merry-go-round three times and who ever touches the cherry tree first wins," he said almost out of breath. "Any questions?"
"No,"said Sasuke.
"I think I got it, is it: swings, monkey bars, see-saw, sandbox, jungle gym, slide, merry-go-round, and tree. Right?" said the other boy.
"Yup," said nodding his head, surprised that he had remembered it all.
"Can we get on with it already?" said Sasuke.
"Okay, just get into place and we'll start," said Naruto as he drew a line in the sand with his foot. The boys stood with their toes on the line. Naruto gulped then said "On your marks..." the boys leaned forward. "Ready?" they nodded. "Set..." the sights were set straight ahead. He finally said "GO!" and they were off. To the surprise of Naruto and Sasuke the other boy had zoomed and taken the lead. They ran as fast as they could they would occasionally change position as the leader. On the last obstacle they all ran at full speed as they reached the tree.
"I won!" they all announced. The boy who stood in between Naruto and Sasuke collapsed of exhaustion and fell back on his butt, while Sasuke and Naruto still argued about who won even though they were out of breath. They both glared at each other and said "No, I won!"
"I clearly saw my hand was on the trunk first!" exclaimed Naruto.
"No way, my hand was there way before yours!" replied Sasuke.
After catching his breath the boy who was sitting down said "Guys, guys, stop arguing. I know who won!"
They both looked at him and said "Who!"
"Well, I hate to break it to you fellows, but it was a three way tie. Which means we all won," the boy said shrugging his shoulders.
"What! Really?"They both said as they both fell back.

All three boys laid on their backs with their feet on the tree trunk. They were breathing heavily as they were trying to regain there strength and their breath.
Sasuke spoke first "Well, you guys were a bit more challenging then I expected."
"So, we weren't the piece of cake you that you were expecting, huh?" said Naruto.
"I guess not," said Sasuke.
"I'll admit it was fun. I like the rush of competition," said the pale boy.
Naruto chuckled as he sat up and then said "Yeah," he looked at the two boys and said "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, or have we?" The other boys sat up and shook their heads."Well, then I'll go first. I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"
"I'll go next, I guess," said Sasuke. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha."
"Um...I'm Sai," said the other boy.
"What's your last name?" asked Sasuke.
"Yeah, we told you our last names now tell us yours," said Naruto butting in.
"Well, I would if I could but the thing is...I don't have one,"said Sai.
"What do you mean you don't have one?" asked Naruto.
"I have no parents..." he looked down. "And my uncle Danzo never told me it, to tell you the truth I don't even know if my name is really Sai,"
"Oh," said the other to boys growing silent.

They were all quiet until Naruto said "Hey, Sasuke can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," said Sasuke.
"Do you have natural duck butt hair or do you make it look that?" asked Naruto.
"It's natural. Huh?...What?...Wait...I...My...Duck butt!" was all that came out of Sasuke's mouth as he examined his hair with his hand. "I don't have duck butt hair! And well yours is worse, at least it doesn't look like I have a hedgehog on my head." Naruto's jaw dropped and he too started to examine his hair. Sai who was sitting between them just laughed to himself as they argued.
Sasuke and Naruto were to focused on fighting each other that they didn't notice that Sai had left and come back with his sketchbook. When he returned he had started drawing a picture of Naruto and Sasuke. His drawing was of Sasuke with a duck on his head instead of hair and a hedgehog on Naruto's head. When he finished he couldn't contain his laughter, he laughed so hard it startled the fighting boys.
Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at him and said "What are you laughing at?"
Sai didn't say a word he only turned the drawing over so they could see it. They only glanced at it for a moment and they too started laughing.
"Sorry, but I couldn't help myself," said Sai with a real smile on his face.
"Well, I guess I do have duck butt hair," admitted Sasuke still laughing.
"And mine does kinda look like a hedgehog,"said Naruto.
The boys continued laughing like friends. It may have been a little rough at first, but just then and there was the formation of a strong bond.

End of part 1.2