Naruto was strange, Sasuke decided. But in a good way. He's obviously smart, brilliant really. Like Nii-san, a genius amongst a crowd of normal people. But unlike Nii-san Naruto wasn't…so…drear, so depressed. That day was just a glimpse into Uzumaki Naruto. Over time, he got to see more.

Naruto was fast; he could run for seemingly forever. Thirty laps around the academy was nothing to him, while the rest of the kids were passing out on the ground, gasping for breath. Naruto was quick; he could run through the academy training course in less than a minute and a half, while it took him five.

Naruto was smart; he could follow the lesson without really paying attention to it at all.

It didn't make sense, Sasuke thought. Why would one so talented have so little friends? Sure, Sasuke wouldn't call everyone who talked to him his friends, but Naruto seemed to only talk to three people, himself, the Nara heir, and the Akimichi Heir. 'Ah. He's close with the hyuuga heir as well. I wonder how he pulled that off.' Sasuke mused.

Naruto looked over at Sasuke. "You have a question in your eyes."

He nodded to Naruto's question and asked, "why are you always alone?"

Naruto smiled sadly. "This village hates me for something that I cannot control. And until the day I show them that I mean them no harm, they will continue to shun and hate me."

Sasuke didn't know how to respond to that.

"Ne, Sasuke, can you promise me that you won't do the same?"

"Of course." Sasuke said immediately. Naruto was his friend, and his tou-san always said that the people of the village were stupid anyway.

Unbeknownst to them however, their conversation was overheard by one Yamanaka Ino who was sitting the next table over.

"The village hates Naruto for something he can't control? Whats he talking about? I'll need to ask daddy later." She thought.

"Does it get lonely?" Sasuke asked.

"I suppose." Naruto looked back up at the blue sky, wisps of clouds moving lazily across the sky.

Naruto sighed, "Loneliness is more complicated than simply being alone. Humans need to be connected in some shape or form. It's a basic need to be filled, to be connected, to care. Perhaps even more basic then food, water, or shelter. While those help your body stay alive, care keeps your spirit alive and healthy. Some don't get that care and lose themselves, they die inside. A person can be surrounded by people, they can be the most popular person in the world, but if they aren't cared for, they are no better off being isolated."

'Yeah.' Thought Sasuke, 'Naruto's not normal.' They promptly finished their lunch, moving on to practising their taijutsu for the rest of the break.

His father looked down at him, his dark brown eyes and jet black hair gleaming in the glow of the candle light. He read over the form, cast a look at Sasuke and then read the form once more. Sasuke stood firmly, unmoving as he waited for his father's judgment. He seemed pleased, though it was hard to tell with his father. The man's face seemed to be a stone monument; an unmoving, hardened structure that remained unchanged no matter the circumstance.

"Sasuke….you've done rather well."

So he was pleased. That was good, Sasuke decided. He'd heard his parents' arguments over his friends. His father at first had seemed opposed to Sasuke spending time with Uzumaki Naruto, but as the months wore on, and it became obvious Naruto was another class of genius, his father's complaints had stopped.

"Hai, Tou-san."

His father was quiet once more. His face unchanging.

"I would like to meet your friend, Naruto. Let him know he is invited to dinner."

And that was that. Sasuke was allowed to go to his room. The oppressive fear he'd held in his chest lifted and he sighed. As he walked to his room, he spotted his mother in the hallway. She cast a small smile towards him, and he knew she had some involvement in this…whatever it was.

"Kaa-san."

"Sasuke-kun." Her voice was kind. He looked at her and smiled. She smiled in return and that was enough. She meant no ill will and so he continued on to his room. When he entered he sighed in frustration. Naruto seemed to be good at that. Bringing frustration and needless complication to things. Now he had to worry about how the idiotic genius would act in a formal event. He doubted Naruto would know the subtle nuances of a proper dinner. This meant he'd have to teach him, lest it reflect badly on him for not at least attempting to teach the orphan boy.

He sat down and pulled a scroll off of his desk. It was orange, an obnoxious potent color that appalled him, and the scroll was covered in the neat, flowing script that was Naruto's hand writing. Hand copied scrolls of chakra exercises. He smirked.

Naruto was good at getting his hands on pieces of information he shouldn't have had. Water walking…Sasuke was glad he'd listened to his mother and tried to befriend the blond. It had paid off, and already Sasuke could tell he'd benefited from it. They'd all benefited from their strange friendship. His father's willingness to want to meet Naruto just proved that.

He read through the scroll for the last time, reassured himself that he had memorized it, then set it away to be burned later.

A realization dawned on him. He'd have to teach Naruto proper etiquette. Naruto was an orphan, so knowing proper etiquette wouldn't be expected of him. But he wasn't and so Naruto's lack of proper etiquette would reflect on him. He sighed as he jumped onto his bed. He looked up at the ceiling, then without even realizing it, fell into a deep, long sleep.

The next day came easy. He got up, got ready, and went to Naruto's house to meet the blond haired boy. When he told him about to invitation to dinner Naruto laughed, with that knowing smile of his. He'd scowled in anger, then sighed.

"You knew this was going to happen."

"Eventually." He looked at Naruto, raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Do you have proper etiquette? Do you know the rituals?"

Naruto laughed again. Then nodded. "Come on, Sasuke," he was smirking like a fool. "Of course I do."

Sasuke snorted. "Alright then, if you say so. I'll still drop by again later to bring you to my house. See you!"

"See ya!"

"See Kurama? My plan is working perfectly."

"You didn't plan a single thing brat."

Naruto cried inwardly while one of his eyes was twitching as he stared with barely restrained horror down at a bento full of….mysterious substances sitting on his dining table.

He swore he saw something alive twitching in the dark and murky fluid and the smell was simply too much for his sensitive nose. He had to subtly breathe through his mouth, which wasn't much better as he could almost taste the odor anyway. He had to make some effort to move his eyes away from this dangerous box to the one person who brought it here, the familiar indigo-haired girl named Hyuuga Hinata.

She was sitting by his side, poking her two index fingers together nervously.

"If it's ok with you, please t-try it. I-it's my first time cooking anything." she said softly with a blush. Naruto gulped and wondered where he went wrong in becoming friends with the young Hyuuga.

Naruto had grown close to the hyuuga clan, specifically Hinata and her family. They had been friends for years now, spending at least a few hours a week playing together and hanging out, mostly with Hanabi tagging along as well too.

"H-hinata-chan, not that I don't appreciate this, but I'm wondering why your dad didn't get to be your first test su- I mean- taster." Naruto carefully asked of his would-be murderer as he kept an alert eye on the gurgling bento box for any possible attack. Hinata allowed a surprised expression before looking thoughtful.

"I-I did actually ask F-father to try this first, but he said that he had eaten and felt you would appreciate it. He then suggested that I bring it over here." she explained with an expectant smile, her lavender-tinted eyes shining with innocence.

Naruto inwardly sighed in annoyance at the fact that Hiashi just blatantly passed the buck on to him.

Hiashi, I'm going to reiterate that you are a vicious, evil, and sadistic bastard, and I'm going to find a way to get you back for this some day! He vowed. Kurama just chuckled amusedly.

"You might as well tell her no. Better to hurt her feelings a little and offer suggestions of improvement than to actually die of poisoning from this." Kurama suggested. Naruto tried to look into Hinata's innocent eyes and promptly lost his resolve to refuse this meal.

I can't do it! I learned it's important for a guy to appreciate a girl's cooking, no matter how bad it is. he promised in his head before picking up a pair of chopsticks and dunked them into the foreign substance. He shivered in revulsion when the chopsticks encountered resistance going in, as if it was actually more of a slimy substance than liquid. He pulled a piece of… something out of the bento with a horrible slurping sound as it had to be literally tugged out of the brown slime's rather strong grip.

"Oi…you're seriously not going to do this, are you? Don't believe the crappy mangas you read in the library about having to eat a female's cooking no matter what! There's no guarantee I could keep you alive with this one!" Kurama raised his voice in alarm, actually afraid for his container's wellbeing. He didn't get a chance to say any more when Naruto chomped down on whatever it was on the chopsticks.

The effects were immediate.

With a loud gurgle, his eyes rolled up into his head as he fell backward in his chair, crashing onto the floor like a rag doll. He went into a brief seizure before becoming very still, his eyes still completely white with froth coming out of his open mouth. Hinata, having watched all of this up close, sat in silence for a moment before she finally realized what just happened.

"NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata cried as she rushed to his side.

Hyuuga Residence

Hiashi's stomach growled as he read some reports at his desk. He had elected to skip lunch for the sake of his own safety. As soon as he saw the result of his daughter's cooking, he immediately went into full retreat and, with his best possible Hyuuga composure, lied through his damn teeth that he wasn't hungry and suggested a poor victim in Naruto.

He felt his nose twitching.

'Uzumaki-san must be thinking about how to get back at me.' He mused inwardly and smirked.