Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Naruto woke up to the awful ringing of his alarm and sat up groggily. He turned it off, and put his feet on the cold hard ground. They screamed to be put back within the comfort of his blanket, but he forced himself off the bed.

He brushed his teeth, and did his best to style his hair; after all, maybe today was the day that Sakura would finally agree to a date with him. He made his way out of the bathroom and to his kitchen, where he made a cup of instant ramen, waiting those dreadful 3 minutes before being allowed to dig in.

He devoured it in 23 seconds, and threw away the cup into the special trash can he had for empty ramen cups. At the end of the month, he would take it to the Cloud Village to get a discount for being such a loyal customer. He was about to take a shower, but there was a knock at his front door.

He opened the door, and there stood the girl of his dreams, about to knock. His face lit up when he saw her, and asked her how she was doing.

"There's no time for that," She said quickly. "Hurry up and get dressed, we have a mission."

A mission? With Sakura? This day couldn't get any better! It couldn't get better, but that didn't mean it couldn't get worse. Unfortunately this thought didn't cross his mind. He went back to his room to change into his mission clothes, and ran back to the door.

"What's the mission?" He asked.

"Just escorting someone to Hidden Mist." She responded.

"Who else is assigned?"

"You, me, and Sasuke."

He figured Tsunade put them all on this mission so they can reminisce about old times, but he couldn't help it when his stomach dropped a little. He loved Sasuke. In fact, he spent most of his teenage years getting stronger so he could convince Sasuke to return to Konoha. Unfortunately, way back when, Sakura had a huge crush on Sasuke. Naruto tried to push that thought out of his mind. Maybe she was over it, and she'd pay attention to him more.

When they reached the gates, Sasuke was chatting with a middle-aged woman. It wasn't like Sasuke to be sociable, so if he had become more chatty during his trip, that could mean bad news for his plan to win Sakura over. But maybe he'd keep conversing with their client, and he'd have Sakura all to himself. When they reached the gates, his questions were answered.

"Hey Sakura. Naruto."

"Hey Sasuke," Sakura said happily. Naruto was pleasantly surprised by how he was addressed, and gave a slight nod in return. He hadn't spoken to Sasuke in 4 years, so he wasn't sure what type of greeting he was going to get. He was happy to see that his friend seemed to have found some clarity.

Naruto stuck his hand out the lady and introduced himself. She returned the gesture, and he learned that her name was Aika, and she had been visiting to meet with the Leaf branch of her department store.

They set out for their long journey, made even longer by their inability to tree hop like they normally would. Naruto planned to use this time to chat up Sakura, thinking of questions and topics to talk with her about. He thought of a good one, and turned to her, only to find a laughing Sakura with her hand in Sasuke's hair, moving it to get a better look at his new eye, which he kept hidden under that lock of hair.

Naruto's morale plummeted, and he fell back a little, waiting for them to stop talking to each other. Aika saw this interaction, and fell back as well to match Naruto's step. He looked at her, confused by the action until she spoke in a low voice.

"You like her don't you."

"Yeah." He said dejectedly.

"How long?"

"8 years."

"8 years?!" she said, a bit too loudly. Sakura and Sasuke turned around, wondering what the racket was about. He had to think quickly, and came up with an answer within a second.

"Yeah, she was asking me how long I've been a ninja."

"You've been a ninja for 6 years." She replied, with a little hint of annoyance.

"Oh." He replied lamely.

Aika continued again with a low voice. "From the way she spoke to you, it seemed as if she was speaking to her brother."

"How do you know?"

"I have 5 siblings. We all speak to each other with that same tone when one is being stupid." He seemed to deflate at this knowledge, but it was for the best if he knew it instead of deluding himself. "Does she care about you?"

He thought about what Gaara told him about when he died during the war. He said that she'd pumped his heart manually, refusing to let him die. "Yeah."

"Well, it seems to me that you're only her brother."

"How? She saved my life."

"I'm not saying she doesn't care about you. I'm saying she cares about you in a brotherly way. If she had feelings for you, she wouldn't have had that edge to her voice. Instead she would've said it with a little laugh."

He pondered that for a couple moments, and with each one, his stomach sank lower and lower. Aika deduced something like that within maybe 2 minutes of seeing them interact, and with only 1 line being spoken. Was it that obvious that she wasn't into him? He thought maybe she was playing hard to get, to make sure that he cared for her enough to keep asking her out. He thought she was working some psychological voodoo to ensure she wasn't wasting her time.

"Aika-san."

"Yes?"

He cringed as she laughed at something Sasuke said. Her laugh, her normally melodic laugh, sounded like nails on a chalkboard at that moment. He couldn't stand it, but he had to. He couldn't let her or anyone else around them know just how painful it was to watch that.

Aika waited as she saw what the dynamic of the two in front of them was doing to the young man. She frowned as she watched him cringe for a moment but straightened out after a moment. Her heart went out to him, especially when she heard the emotion threatening to escape in his next words.

"Actually, never mind."

And that was the last thing he said for the rest of the trip there.

—

Being on the same team as a genius is a blessing and a curse. Your team's reputation is boosted, but your own morale falls. Tenten had this issue with her teammate Neji. Being a Hyuuga, Neji was extremely talented to say the least, but was elite even by his clan's standards. He had every excuse to be cocky, and Tenten accepted that fact. Something she didn't know she wanted though, was relief from his arrogance. In fact, she had a crush on him, (she wouldn't admit that to anyone) but he was too arrogant to be any good as a boyfriend. He could've been quite the catch if he would stop letting other people know how highly he thought of himself. Thankfully, justice was served when Neji lost to the alleged "dead last" of the class below him. It was an upset that shocked the whole village, and definitely herself and her team.

Before, she could tolerate Neji's presence, and appreciated his fighting skill; but now that he knew how to converse without making everyone feel bad, he was a great person to be around. He was friendly, respectful, and even cracked a joke here and there. But what attracted Tenten the most was his encouragement of other people. It was a breath of fresh air from his previous self, and that drew her in further.

Now, she could safely say that she liked Neji and not be called shallow for only going for looks. Neji had the skill to hold his own against A-class ninja, the social skills to hold a conversation, and a learned ability to be a good friend.

She was visiting him to train. She made up the excuse of wanting to get better at taijutsu, something Neji was very proficient at. He asked her why she didn't ask Lee, and she quickly came up with a reason to avoid him, blaming it on his obsession with youth and extreme excess of energy. Neji understood.

She reached the training ground and pulled out her scrolls. She'd always been good with projectiles, so it gave her pleasure to see every single one of her weapons hit the three tree stumps. Unbeknownst to her, Neji was standing a couple yards behind her admiring her handiwork.

He always liked watching her fight with her scrolls. Everything hit its mark, and there was something so attractive about accuracy and precision. When she finished, he made his presence known by clapping.

She jumped a bit at his sudden appearance, and turned around. She couldn't help it, but her breath shortened and her heartbeat quickened. There he was, clapping at her performance.

"How's it going?" He asked.

"Great! What about you?" she replied, trying to keep her voice from going up in pitch.

"Doing well. Have you warmed up?"

"No not yet. Let's go."

And they started jogging around the training ground, sneaking glances at each other when the other wasn't looking.

—

Flashback:

In all honesty, Ino felt bad for Naruto. He'd made it so far in these exams, all the way to the final round, only to be put against arguably the best genin in the competition. He was sure to get his ass kicked, and everyone knew it. There were 15 minutes until his match started and word was going around that he wasn't in the competitor's room yet. She hoped he decided to just skip it and save himself the embarrassment, but everyone from his class knew that he would never back down from a fight.

They waited and waited, and eventually the other competitors walked out to the field. Everyone was there except the two finalists from Sakura's team. Naruto was up first, and it looked like he wasn't going to show, until he came flying through the entrance and landing at Shikamaru's feet. The other competitors walked off, except Naruto and Neji, who stood facing each other, sizing the other up.

She looked over at Sakura, whom she was sitting next to. She looked worried (most likely about the absence of her other teammate), and it annoyed her a bit. The bond she had with her teammates taught her a lot about friendship. Regardless of if they were capable of doing something or not, she felt the obligation to support her teammates. And she would never neglect one teammate for another.

"Hey Sakura, aren't you gonna cheer Naruto on? I know you're worried about Sasuke, but Naruto is about to fight."

She seemed to awaken from her stupor. "Yeah, I will," she said with newfound conviction.

The fight started, and it was a one-sided battle. Naruto would try to throw attacks from all directions, but Neji's Byakugan was too efficient. He sensed every attack and stopped it in its tracks. At one point Naruto almost landed a devastating punch, but Neji blocked it without even lifting his hands. Everyone knew the fight was over, but Naruto wouldn't leave the arena until he had to be dragged off. Neji wanted to hurry up the fight, and chose to block off all of Naruto's chakra points.

They talked a lot about how everyone's fate was predetermined, and how Naruto was destined to be a failure. For most of her life, that's what she saw Naruto as, and a part of her still did. But after his fight with Kiba, and the fact that he made it to the last round of these exams, she had no choice but to give him some respect. She never thought she'd say it, but she was rooting for him this time.

He was on the ground, and his entire body was shaking, presumably from the stress of getting back up. He straightened himself to his full height. He began to taunt Neji, showing him flaws in his own logic of destiny. Neji asked the proctor to end the match, as he would not be held responsible for what happened if Naruto was foolish enough to keep fighting. Ino and Sakura both felt that he should just stay down, but of course, he would never willingly forfeit to someone.

Naruto put his hands in the ram seal, and the ground began to shake. Rocks and dust were being carried by the wind that was starting to swirl around him. A red stream of chakra emerged from the ground and formed a cyclone around him, until nine tails of chakra formed behind him, swinging around haphazardly. And then everything vanished, and he was cloaked in the same red chakra. Ino's eyes widened at the power that she now felt from the field. She looked over at Sakura, who held the same expression on her face. It seemed even Naruto's teammate didn't know about this hidden weapon.

Neji squared up, but it was no use preparing, because in a flash Naruto vanished. It was as if he was a completely different ninja, and his skillset definitely did not belong to a genin. He and Neji threw weapons at each other, but none hit their mark. Naruto resolved to charge at him, utilizing his unprecedented speed (for a genin). Unfortunately, Neji reacted fast enough, starting his Rotation, which would turn the opponent's power against himself. When they clashed, a huge cloud of dust filled the arena, and the arena itself shook from the amount of power released with that one collision.

The cloud subsided, and it revealed two smoking holes in the ground.

"Which one's Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"Don't ask me, I don't even know what happened." Ino responded.

From one of the holes, Neji's hand emerged. He pulled himself out, staggering and coughing from the damage he still had to endure, despite his Byakugan technique. He went up to the other hole, where Naruto lay motionless. Ino's hopes dropped. She hoped Naruto would have been the one standing.

"Sorry, but this is reality. You're a failure. This match is ove-" Neji said, but before he could end his sentence, the ground in front of him cracked. A fist charged up at him, colliding with his jaw in with a resounding crack. Neji was sent flying, and the rest of Naruto came out from the hole.

The Naruto in the hole vanished, revealing that it was a shadow clone. Something so simple, that nobody had thought of it, nobody had considered watching out for it. Ino realized that this boy was seriously underestimated. Not only did he trick the rookie of the year from the year before, he managed to pretty much paralyze him with one punch. Ino knew now that maybe she couldn't figure him out. She couldn't think like him; he was too unpredictable. But she definitely admired that part of him.